Thousands of Victorian kids injured, suffering trauma at childcare centres

Thousands of children are suffering trauma and illness in daycare as the rate of serious incidents soars. See full list of centres.

A little boy who died on a daycare bus was among more than 16,000 Australian children seriously harmed or sick in childcare last year.

A record 13,077 babies, toddlers and preschoolers suffered a serious injury, trauma or illness – including broken bones, burns, cuts, concussions, anaphylaxis reactions and severe asthma attacks – requiring urgent medical attention in 2019/20.

Ambulances were called to daycare emergencies 2145 times and 1409 children went missing, or were “mistakenly locked in or out of’’ services or taken away without approval.

The Victorian Education Department found evidence that adults living in the homes used for family daycare had not been identified on the register of carers.

A total of 16,632 “serious incidents’’ were reported to state and territory childcare authorities, a new Productivity Commission report reveals today.

Just a handful of centres have been prosecuted for breaking the rules – with none in NSW, Tasmania or the Northern Territory last year, compared to 41 compliance actions in Victoria, seven in Queensland, and four in South Australia.

In Victoria, 2712 children suffered a serious injury, trauma or illness, with ambulances called 559 times and 407 children missing or locked in or out of centres.

Victoria’s Education Department has cracked down hardest on rule-breakers, listing actions against 41 childcare centres and family daycare operators during 2020.

It prosecuted the Werribee West Family Centre in Werribee, owned by Early Childhood Management Services, in October 2020 for “inadequate supervision and a failure to ensure the safety, health and wellbeing of children’’.

The Werribee West Family Centre in Werribee.

“Two children exited the service without the knowledge of the service and were returned … by a member of the public,’’ the compliance register states. 

It states that the “Magistrate’s Court proved charges and ordered good behaviour bond’’.

“Emergency Action Notices’’ were slapped on two family day care centres – Mother’s Choice Family Day Care in Tarneit and Lovely Kids Family Day Care in Albanvale – in September.

The Victorian Education Department found evidence that adults living in the homes used for family daycare had not been identified on the register of carers, and it was “unclear if any of these people held current working with children checks’’.

Two children escaped from the Werribee West Family Centre onto a busy road.

Murrindindi Family Day Care in Alexandra was given a compliance notice last September after the Education Department found it had failed to “adequately supervise children at all times (and) protect children from harm and hazards’’.

Most “serious incidents’’ happened in NSW, with 5013 cases of injury trauma or illness, ambulances called 560 times and 346 kids reported missing or locked in or out of centres.

Murrindindi Family Day Care in Alexandra was given a compliance notice last September.

But NSW Education’s website does not list any “significant enforcement actions’’ against operators since Sydney City Council was fined $10,000 in 2019 for inadequate supervision, after a child with Down syndrome “absconded’’ and ran into the street.

In Queensland, one child died – three-year-old Malik Namok-Malamoo, who was found dead on a Goodstart Early Learning Centre minibus in Edmonton, south of Cairns, in February last year.

Former Goodstart carer Dionne Batrice Grills, 34, had a charge of manslaughter dropped last month.

The former director of the centre, Michael Glenn Lewis, 45, was charged with manslaughter and has been committed to stand trial in Queensland’s Supreme Court at a date to be set.

The Productivity Commission report reveals 25,141 breaches of childcare regulations last year – with 13,673 in NSW, 6141 in Victoria, 3135 in Queensland, 410 in South Australia, 834 in Western Australia, 165 in Tasmania, 349 in the ACT and 434 in the Northern Territory.

Originally published as Thousands of Victorian kids injured, suffering trauma at childcare centres