Childcare in CRISIS

Days after the NSW government announced reforms to protect children in childcare, a crisis erupted in Victoria. The Weekly looks at what has gone wrong and what is being done to protect the littlest Australians.

- GENEVIEVE GANNON

When parents pack a change of clothes and water bottle for their toddler to take to childcare, they hope and trust their little one is going somewhere safe to play and learn under the watchful eyes of caring adults. But a spate of police investigations, allegations and a snap NSW inquiry have laid bare a deeply broken system that has left some children exposed to neglect and abuse.

In March, the NSW government asked former Deputy Ombudsman Chris Wheeler to examine the state's 6053 childcare centres, and the systems that govern them, following a rise in safety breaches in 2024.

The review found that 407 centres did not meet expectations, seven required significant improvement and 5 per cent had no quality rating at all. The bulk (73 per cent) met expectations, but only 10 in the whole state achieved an excellent quality rating. All up, the Wheeler report made 12 recommendations to make our children safer.

There's frustration in her voice. She worked on Queensland's 1999 Forde Inquiry which examined abuse of children in institutions and discussed measures that are still being talked about today, 26 years later.

On June 27, the Wheeler report was presented at the National Education Ministers Meeting in Adelaide. Four days later, the crisis boiled over in Victoria as 1200 parents received a devastating message.

Jennifer Lay was at work on July 1 when the brief notification came through. is a hotline, and that is the extent of what it said," Jennifer says.

The alert had come from the state Health Department and Victoria Police. Jennifer phoned the number and confirmed that her two-year-old son had previously been enrolled at Papilio Early Learning in Essendon. "They said you need to have your son tested for gonorrhoea and chlamydia.