For-profit operators defend ‘high regulated’ system amid reform calls

“Affinity has a zero-tolerance approach to any form of child harm and will dismiss employees found to be in breach of this safeguard, as well as engage with external agencies, up to and including police, where required,” a spokesperson said.

However, in response to questions about whether background screening of staff or requirements that no workers could be left alone with children should be explored, the company pointed to the strength of existing laws.

“We note that staff-to-child ratios are highly regulated across the sector which Affinity complies with,” the spokesperson said.

“At Affinity, we are committed to delivering exceptional early education, which includes consistently meeting – and often exceeding – the government’s educator-to-child ratio requirements across all our centres.”

G8 did not respond directly to questions about strengthening regulations, instead releasing a statement noting that Brown passed legally mandated screening processes.

“During the former employee’s employment, all required employment and background checks, including Working with Children Checks (WWCC), were current in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements,” the G8 statement said.

However, calls to strengthen regulations nationally were mounting on Wednesday.

The Front Project, an early childhood think tank, said there were “urgent questions” about systems in place and that swift action was needed “to keep children safe”.

The recommended measures include introduction of a national registration system for all childcare educators that allows for Working With Children Check information to be shared across states and territories, a review of staff-to-child ratios and defining what constitutes adequate supervision.

“The community is rightly asking – why can’t the government prevent abuse and neglect of this magnitude in early childhood education and care,” The Front Project CEO Dr Caroline Croser-Barlow said.

Abigail Boyd, a NSW Greens MP and chair of a state upper house inquiry into the early childhood education sector, was among those calling for a national register of educators, so that anyone with an offence to their name was marked accordingly in systems when future employers, even in other jurisdictions, considered hiring them.

She is calling for more stringent and exhaustive training courses for anyone looking to enter the workforce caring for children.

“People are doing six months’ training and then they’re put into a centre. These courses aren’t weeding out the people who don’t care what the job is, and it can be one way you get paedophiles in the industry, because it’s so easy,” Boyd said.

Boyd is also scathing of what she says are federal regulations that are poorly enforced by states and territories, suggesting that lax punishment for non-compliance had led to governance issues at for-profit centres, below legally mandated staffing ratios and other safety incidents.

“There’s a pattern of these companies cutting corners as part of their business model, waiting to get caught, because they know the response will be so lax that it makes good business sense to just continue in their ways.”

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