Shock at childcare failings
CHILDREN have been left unsupervised, exposed to potential hazards and not given food and drink at Victorian childcare services.
Three childcare services have been issued with enforcement notices, with one emergency action notice warning of immediate risk to children.
Another provider has been suspended after being charged with fraud in connection with a million-dollar childcare rort.
Since 2018, more than one Victorian childcare provider a week has been shut down or censured by the state government for serious failings in their care of children.
Children have escaped from childcare, been disciplined inappropriately, denied their dignity, cared for by unapproved adults, housed in unsafe premises and exposed to harm.
The latest services include Nile Family Day Care in Truganina, which was issued with a compliance notice in January for failing to have enough registered educators, properly supervising children, ensuring all adults have a Working with Children Check and potential hazards in six of its residences.
The second is Prime Family Day Care and Consulting Services, which was suspended in January. Operator Ola Ouda and her partner, Amjad Shehada, were named by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) last November in connection with a $15m family day care rort.
The service was accused of receiving funds for children that didn’t exist.
The third is Heatherton Christian College’s outside school hours program, issued with an emergency notice for not keeping track of the children attending, not providing an educational program, not offering food regularly and not having qualified educators looking after children.
Heatherton Christian College executive principal Peter Cliffe said the service was “informed of some minor safety issues at the beginning of the year which were promptly resolved to the satisfaction of the department”.
Family Day Care Australia chief executive Andrew Paterson said breaches brought against any service were “testament to the fact that the regulatory authority is fulfilling its function and that the system is robust and effective”.
More than 500 of Victoria’s 4300 childcare centres and kinders are not meeting federal standards regulating child safety, staffing, supervision and management of emergencies.
A decade after a new ratings system was brought in, preschools and outside school hours centres are still struggling to care for children properly.
More than 80 Victorian centres are “working towards” standards on at least five of seven key quality indicators, including the all-important criteria of ensuring the health and safety of children.