Mother blames Sydney daycare centre after grandfather takes wrong child home

A “traumatised” Sydney mother is blaming her toddler’s day-care centre for “losing him” for two hours after a grandfather was allowed to mistakenly take home the wrong child.

The woman, who asked not to be identified to protect her children’s privacy, told this masthead she panicked when she arrived at Bangor’s First Steps Learning Academy on Monday afternoon to discover her little boy, who has just turned one, was not there.

First Steps childcare centre in Bangor.Credit: Sam Mooy

This masthead can reveal staff at the centre were forced to review CCTV and call other parents. It led to the discovery that a grandfather who had come to collect their grandson had been given the wrong child and didn’t realise.

“I can’t explain the feeling,” the woman said of discovering that her son had left the premises with an unknown man.

“They couldn’t tell me his name, they couldn’t tell me who he was, they couldn’t tell me who he was meant to pick up. They couldn’t tell me what he looked like, apart from that he was wearing shorts and he was an older gentleman.”

First Steps in Bangor says it “provides childcare in a safe inclusive, welcoming, fun and nurturing environment”.Credit: First Steps Bangor

An investigation by the regulator is now under way. The mother wants the public to know she does not blame the grandfather.

“We don’t blame him. We are not angry with him. We are not upset at him – we blame the day care,” she said.

The distraught wife of the man said her husband is “devastated” and has “owned the mistake”, with childcare advocates saying the error was a result of wider issues in the childcare sector.

“We feel devastated, particularly for the mother. It shouldn’t have happened,” she said.

“When he realised he raced that child back so fast.

“I am cranky at my husband but in saying that my heart is broken for him. He is a man who loves children, he loves his grandchildren, he is absolutely beside himself. He can’t sleep, he can’t eat. I am just so glad the little boy was OK, and his parents are OK.”

She said her husband arrived when the children were sleeping and the room was dark.

“When he got him home, he just snuggled into him and went to sleep, and he didn’t realise.”

The NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority said it would conduct a “thorough investigation” into what it called a “deeply concerning and serious incident”.

NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who is chair of an upper house inquiry into the early childhood education sector, said the case was “far from an isolated incident”.

“I’ve seen plenty of similar cases occurring in services across the state. Unfortunately issues like this are to be expected in under-resourced services staffed with a transient and casualised workforce – circumstances that are rife across the sector,” Boyd said.

First Steps Learning Academy’s Trisha Hastie said that it was a “case of human error” and that the centre’s protocols were not followed to the requisite standard.

“For this, we unreservedly apologise to both families involved. The educator involved has been stood down pending investigation,” she said.

Inside the Bangor childcare centre

The centre, which she said has never had a similar incident, has changed its procedures so “unfamiliar individuals” are met at the door, a staff member will verify before children leave, and each child will have a verification card with parents’ photos, and authorised contacts.

“In light of this incident, we are conducting refresher training for all staff across our centres, incorporating the new procedures to ensure they are followed to the highest standard,” Hastie said.

First Steps Learning Academy, which is licensed for up to 40 children daily, claims to “provide childcare in a safe, inclusive, welcoming, fun and nurturing environment for children 0 to 6 years” on its website.

On its last inspection in March last year, day-care watchdog the NSW Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority rated the centre as meeting its criteria.

However, the accuracy of ratings has come into question after this masthead revealed one in six NSW childcare services hold a “secret” rating of high risk or very high risk – but families at these centres would have no idea.

A former employee at the centre, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their current employment, said First Steps “relies heavily on casual and agency staff, with a high turnover of workers”.

“I’ve never worked at more of a chaotic, disastrous and emotionally draining service. I was constantly working with casual staff and no one knew the children as I was new to the business,” they said.

It comes at a time of scrutiny on the besieged early education sector, and revelations centres are continuing to operate despite having extensive compliance issues and breaches.

Last month, Australia’s education ministers met to discuss child safety in early education and care.

They agreed to an $189 million childcare funding package, trialling CCTV cameras in up to 300 childcare centres to guard against abuse, and banning workers from using their phones on the job.

Acting Minister for Education and Early Learning Courtney Houssos said the incident was “extremely concerning” and “completely unacceptable”.

The minister confirmed “the Early Learning Regulator has taken immediate action to notify NSW Police and commence an investigation into the operations of the centre”.

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