Childcare centres are not checking whether their staff are allowed to work with children before hiring, a NSW inquiry has been told.
The revelations of major breakdowns in the safety of 500,000 infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers were aired on Thursday as working with children’s checks were put under the microscope.
A facility of childcare giant G8 Education.Credit: The Age
Banned workers were allowed to continue working for years without oversight, the NSW parliamentary inquiry into childcare was told.
Inquiry chair Abigail Boyd said internal government documents showed dozens of workers were banned each year, but few children’s checks were cancelled.
In one case, an educator banned in 2019 was approved for a new check in 2021 and continued working up to 2023 before being stopped.
Nearly half of the banned staff reported to the Office of the Children’s Guardian over three years did not even have a check to cancel, Boyd said.
Acting Children’s Guardian Rachael Ward said the childcare regulator was not required to report which staff it has banned, to allow for checks to be cancelled.
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“They haven’t broken any law by not sharing that information,” Ward said.
Ward, in the role for five months, was unaware her office had only cancelled 21 checks of the 235 prohibited workers reported between 2021 and 2024.
The inquiry comes amid nationwide scrutiny on the regulation and safety of childcare after shocking reports of children allegedly being sexually abused, left restrained in high chairs for hours and receiving substandard meals.
G8 Education, the operator of a centre where Melbourne man Joshua Dale Brown allegedly abused children in his care, said in a submission that its staff were struggling emotionally while working through the fallout of the abuse revelations.
AAP