Childcare centres with ‘perfect’ records are a red flag, report finds
Parents should be very worried about any childcare centre claiming no staff concerns have ever been raised, Queensland’s child death review boss warns after a damning report.
Parents should be worried if their childcare centre claims no concerns about a staff member’s behaviour have ever been raised, the boss of Queensland Child Death Review Board says.
The harrowing claim comes as Queensland’s landmark review into system responses to child sexual abuse found one in four Australians reported child sexual abuse occurred before they turned 18.
Board chair Luke Twyford was shaken by the vile incidents uncovered in preparation of his 506-page In Plain Sight report.
It found siloed information, fragmented responsibilities and insufficient thresholds for action meant risks of child sexual abuse were routinely identified, but weren’t acted upon.
Mr Twyford demands a whole-of-society response to disrupt predatory behaviour of pedophiles, who “move like water across the landscape”.
“They will go to the place where they have the most trust from the adults around them and a place where they have the easiest access to children,” he said.
His report found the most profound exploitation of children happened within the protective space of a childcare centre or school.
Mr Twyford said parents needed to probe operators before leaving children in their care.
“Go and understand who is working with your children,” he said.
“I want you to ask them, has there ever been a concern raised?
“We need to build a system that is transparent. Concerns happen, they are natural, they are normal.
“I want you to be very worried about any centre that says there’s never been a concern raised here.”
The report exposed how Australia’s most prolific pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith would have been caught on five occasions if Queensland had a reportable conduct scheme, and another 18 opportunities where concerns should have been flagged and could have led authorities to detect his crimes earlier.
“There is something wrong with our system when so many victims and colleagues and witnesses speak up, and yet there is no effective outcome,” Mr Twyford said.
“Police thresholds for action inhibited earlier detection.
“There are too many concerns that didn’t reach the criminal threshold that clearly showed that something was not right.”
Key to information sharing should be, Mr Twyford said, a Child Safeguarding Intelligence Hub – which would be a one-stop place for parents and the community to raise concerns about behaviour.
It would be a centralised intelligence unit to collect, consider and act on sub‑threshold indicators of concern about individuals working with or near children.
“Parents need a clearer pathway to take concerns about people who might be a threat to children,” he said.
“Fundamentally, we must stop thinking about incidents.
“This is all about building the jigsaw puzzle so that we see the big picture.”
Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, in response to the report, reiterated the government would bring forward the reportable conduct scheme one year to July 2026.
The scheme forces organisations to report and investigate allegations or convictions of child abuse or child-related misconduct made about their workers and volunteers.
However, Ms Frecklington said the government would not rush its response to Mr Twyford’s 28 recommendations.
“We’re going to consider each and every recommendation the Premier and I will be talking to our Cabinet colleagues in relation to each and every recommendation, and will be taken seriously some of the recommendations that you ask about (intelligence hub),” she said.
“Make no mistake, we’re going to put everything possible we can into ensuring that a very good response to this is forthcoming.”
Ms Frecklington targeted the conduct of the former Labor government for failing to implement the reportable conduct scheme despite Annastacia Palaszczuk in 2018 declaring it a “priority”.
“In fact, for eight years the former Labor government sat on their hands and let this monster, this pedophile, run rampant through our child care centres in Queensland and they should be held accountable for that,” she said.
Opposition child safety spokeswoman Corrine McMillan accused the government of playing politics.
“The Premier should not stoop so low to use the victims of this disgusting man for political point scoring knowing full well Labor introduced Reportable Conduct Scheme and Child Safe Standards along with hundreds of other recommendations from the Royal Commission,” she said.
Originally published as Childcare centres with ‘perfect’ records are a red flag, report finds
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