Baker Street Childcare Education to pay more than $20k after two toddlers escaped Ballarat Road Early Learning & Kinder

Operators of a Sunshine childcare centre were warned kids were at risk of escaping, but a lack of action led to a horror incident.

A childcare provider will pay more than $20,000 after two unsupervised toddlers ­escaped and walked to the edge of a busy road in Melbourne’s west. Picture: iStock

A childcare provider will pay more than $20,000 after two unsupervised toddlers ­escaped and walked to the edge of a busy road in Melbourne’s west.

In March 2019, two children both aged two, escaped Ballarat Road Early Learning & Kinder in Sunshine before they were spotted on the footpath of Ballarat Rd by passer-bys who stopped and returned them to the centre.

At Sunshine Magistrates Court on Thursday, the centre’s Queensland operator Baker Street Childcare Education was ordered to pay $12,000 to a court fund and $10,000 in legal costs after pleading guilty to two charges.

The children escaped through an outside gate that was secured by a chain loosely wrapped around it but that left a gap big enough for the toddlers to squeeze through.

It was only after the children were returned to the centre that staff became aware they had been missing.

The court heard children had previously tried sliding under the gate and that staff members had complained to management about the exit.

Following the incident the centre, which has since closed, notified the Department of Education, which opened an investigation.

The company pleaded guilty to one charge each of failing to comply with conditions of its service and not ­ensuring reasonable precautions were taken to protect children in its care.

Company director Mathew Edwards made full admissions to investigators that the toddlers were not properly supervised and the company had failed to take steps to protect them from potential harm.

In handing down her sentence, magistrate Kay Robertson said she accepted the company had co-operated with investigators and entered a guilty plea, but a message needed to be sent to other services that they had “serious ­obligations” to children in their care.

“The rules and indeed the protocols is to ensure that children are safe,” she said.

“It’s absolutely fundamental that child care is properly regulated and childcare providers are properly approved.”