SA’s Education Standards Board issues emergency action notice to Little Shining Stars early learning centre at Virginia
Alarming safety breaches have forced an Adelaide childcare centre to temporarily shut its doors. Find out what they were.
A northern suburbs childcare centre was forced to close temporarily and undergo a deep clean after the sector watchdog discovered a raft of alarming hygiene and safety issues.
Staff at the Little Shining Stars early learning centre at Virginia were told to stop fill-in
g baby bottles with water from handwash basins, to replace cots and mattresses that do not meet safety standards and to remove or enclose vermin control bait boxes “to ensure they are not accessible to children”.
Staff were also required to address issues including a loose screw in the kindergarten yard, replacing fencing and conducting risk mitigation for “climbing points” such as stair rails and garden beds.
On Friday the Education Standards Board (ESB) issued the centre with an emergency action notice, forcing it to close for up to a week and address the concerns.
It is understood the centre will reopen on Wednesday, after a follow-up inspection was conducted by the ESB on Tuesday.
Details of the notice are published on the ESB website.
The watchdog directed the centre to hire an outside company to “perform a deep clean of the service”.
Centre management were also asked to remind “staff that they are to cease the practice of filling baby bottles at handwash basins and that all bottles must be prepared using appropriate kitchen facilities in line with safe hygiene and food handling practices”.
So far this financial year the ESB has issued 12 emergency action notices.
A spokesperson from Little Shining Stars Virginia said the health, safety, and wellbeing of the children in our care are always our highest priority.
“We confirm that all issues raised by the Education Standards Board have been rectified,” the spokesperson said.
“We have worked closely with the Board to ensure that all compliance requirements have been fully addressed.
“We want to reassure families that their children’s safety and wellbeing are paramount, and our educators remain committed to providing a safe, nurturing, and supportive environment.”
The state government recently announced an extra $21.8m for the ESB to conduct more checks on centres over the next five years.
That included an immediate allocation of $900,000 and a promise of more unannounced inspections.
It comes in the wake of issues uncovered at a separate Little Shining Stars centre in Klemzig.
In early May, a parent reported staff there for tapping children on the head in an attempt to calm them down before sleep.
The ESB investigated and three female workers were fired.
A ESB investigation also discovered workers at the Klemzig centre were taking and storing images of children on service devices for the purpose of documenting minor injuries.
Some of the devices contained what the ESB considered inappropriate images of children.
The devices were seized by the ESB and the matter was referred to SA Police.
Detectives from the sexual crime investigation section determined the images were a misguided attempt to show pre-existing rashes and injuries.
They believed there was no evidence to support criminal charges.
Four more emergency action notices were then issued to Little Shining Stars centres in Pooraka, Virginia, Wayville and Evanston due to the practice of taking and storing images documenting minor scrapes or bumps.
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Originally published as SA’s Education Standards Board issues emergency action notice to Little Shining Stars early learning centre at Virginia
