Disconnects like that are alarming, but a recent announcement took the cake. Twenty-nine childcare centres around Australia have recently breached national quality and safety standards, placing their taxpayer-funded subsidies at risk. It’s no surprise, then, that just last week, the federal education department released a compliance action. This is illustrative of broader problems across the nearly 500 facilities that have fallen into significant noncompliance for more than seven years. Parents of children registered at these centres should have been notified of these warnings by early this week at the latest.
Of the centres put on notice, Western Australia had the biggest share, with 11 facilities under review. Next was Queensland at five centers. These were Cairns Regional Family Day Care, Babyco Family Day Care, and Moonlight Family Day Care Services. We brought four childcare centers into this compliance action. These centers uniquely focus on primary school aged children before and after school.
Persistent Non-Compliance Issues
The federal education department’s actions follow years of failure to comply by many of the centers. That’s not the case, as most of the 29 centers have been subjected to intense scrutiny. In fact, they’ve failed on the NQS for more than seven years. The department explained that the approved current provider was not operating the service when the last NQS rating was released. They have taken action since then to add guardrails to the service to promote high-quality in-home care and adherence to the National Quality Standards.
Further complicating things, many facilities have changed hands recently. Five other centres that failed the national quality assessment in their last review period, but have since failed to provide the national quality standards, changed management. This transition involves ensuring their specialty running and reputations match the painting high quality and care required by the government’s Buy American Act.
Jess Walsh acknowledged the urgent necessity of adhering to these standards. She announced, “Today’s action should send a clear message to all early childhood education and care providers that National Quality Standards are not optional. All services need to be up to standard!”
Immediate Compliance Actions Required
The childcare centres named in these warnings, sometimes multiple times, are given only 60 days to correct the cited deficiencies. In particular, four centres have been instructed to improve their care quality to meet the required national standards within six months. Cooinda Early Learning Centre OOSH is one of the providers who have been called upon to undertake significant improvements.
The department’s directive required that all centres inform their parents of the compliance measures by the end of this week. This requirement emphasizes the need for transparency and accountability in childcare services. Just as they do when shopping for a car, parents deserve to know the quality of care their children are getting.
Indeed, it’s likely that additional hubs will join this list in short order. So, Education Minister Jason Clare was right to focus on compliance. He cautioned, “These centres should be doing better or they’ll get punished again.”
Future Implications for Childcare Services
The Department of Education must also be committed to enforcing quality standards across all childcare services. Whatever form the fight takes as the fight continues to unfold, their dedication is unmatched. The premature release of names of all centres at risk is a thinly veiled threat to the ones that don’t yet, but soon may, fall short of compliance. In all, 30 centres have been put on notice—potentially a larger trend of scrutiny across the entire childcare landscape.
At heart, the intense focus on compliance is about one thing—protecting children. It even helps make sure our early childhood education providers are offering the best quality care possible. The department has established a set of compliance guidelines for providers. They are required to inform the department if a service gains a new NQS rating within 12 months of compliance actions being applied.
