KindiCare ratings: Yirrkala Preschool ranked one of the best in Australia

An NT childcare centre has ranked best in the country but more than a dozen territory centres have never been inspected. FIND OUT WHICH ONES.

Exclusive: More than 1500 childcare centres are operating across Australia without ever being checked by a government authority, the latest data reveals.

Of those, 213 have been open for two years or more.

The figures from KindiCare, an app and website that helps parents find a good childcare centre, released its half-yearly figures exclusively to News Corp.

The 1505 centres listed as “not rated” were those which had not had been audited or checked by state or territory government inspectors since opening.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk. Picture: Supplied

Founder Benjamin Balk said the high number could be explained in part by Covid, which had resulted in fewer inspections over the past two years.

However, more than 213 had been operating for more than two years.

He said while some of the big providers would have a set structure and practices in place for its new centres to follow, it was the small sole-owner services that were more of a concern.

“These operators may never have run a childcare centre before,” Mr Balk said.

“They should be checked.”

Parenthood director Georgie Dent said Covid had been a disrupter, but any service that involves a vulnerable population, such as childcare or aged care, should be checked.

“Parents want to have every confidence that their children are being taken care of,” she said.

However, Ms Dent also added that even some audited centres were currently operating with waivers, due to staff shortages.

Parenthood director Georgie Dent.

Nationally, KindiCare found that the quality ratings for childcare centres had dropped slightly since the last figures were released in November, down to an average mark of 8.37, compared to 8.41.

Childcare centres in the ACT were rated the best.

NSW’s centres had improved slightly in the last six months, nudging Victoria into third place. Queensland was rated fourth best state or territory, with Tasmania remaining at the bottom of the pack.

For the first time KindiCare provided data comparing childcare services by region, which showed that the best centres were in the major cities, and ratings got worse the more remote the location.

One service to buck the trend was Yirrkala Preschool in the East Arnhem region of the NT, which is a 29 hour drive from Darwin.

It is just one of 38 centres out of more than 16,800 across the country to receive an excellent rating by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).

“It shows even if you are from a remote area you can still offer the highest level of early learning,” Mr Balk said.

The data also showed that while not-for-profit Goodstart was regularly in the top 10 for each state, some of the big for-profit centres such as G8, Guardian and Affinity were continuing to improve and overall rated higher than not-for-profit centres.

Yirrkala Preschool in the Northern Territory scored well in the national KindiCare rankings. Picture: Supplied

Independent schools scored the highest average mark, followed by private for profit; private not-for-profit; state and territory schools; Catholic schools; private not-for-profit community managed; and state, territory and government managed coming last.

Mr Balk said any childcare centre rated excellent or very good was above the benchmark.

He said KindiCare’s ratings were the most comprehensive in Australia and were based on the ACECQA ratings, plus community and parent reviews on Google and his website.

The algorithm took into account how old the audits were and penalised them according to how old they were.

“If a centre was last audited eight years ago, it could have had three centre managers since then,” Mr Balk said.

“So how relevant is that audit for parents wanting to find out how well it was performing?”