November 8, 2018 Minister sees no safety issue in child care centre breach Shadow Minister for Communities Alyssa Hayden says a statement by Minister for Child Protection Simone McGurk that she had no concerns for the safety of children at an after-school care centre in West Leederville while it was operating at more than 30 per cent above its licenced capacity, is deeply concerning. Mrs Hayden said she could not understand why the Minister had so little regard for regulations put in place to ensure the safety of children. “These regulations are in place to ensure the safety of children and if they are being breached its certain that optimum safety is not being achieved,” Mrs Hayden said. “What’s even more concerning is that this statement was in response to a question about childcare provider Camp Australia, which has a string of other licence breaches, including inadequate staff supervision and another child leaving the school and wandering the streets unsupervised. “This company was fined $210,000 for keeping two sets of books to cover up the fact it had more children at a centre than its licence allowed. “This was not a situation where one or two children more than expected turned up at a centre on a given day, this was a business decision to wilfully circumvent the regulations and the Minister does not seem to believe this is serious problem.” “It appears that Camp Australia, which operates more than 600 after-school centres, views a $210,000 penalty as a mere cost of doing business.” Ms Hayden called again for Minister McGurk to strengthen the powers of the Department of Community Services with a strict safety compliance policy that has a breach limit beyond which a provider’s licence will be revoked. “The Minister could only say in Parliament that Department of Communities regulatory unit visited most long-day care centres at least once a year and gave no details about how often after-school care centres were visited,” Ms Hayden said. “I’m confident most parents would expect that there should be a limit to the number of times a centre can breach the regulations before it is shut down. “For some reason, Minister McGurk seems to have no political will to pursue this important issue.” Ends |
