Brisbane mum Tara Mainwaring loves her current daycare, but some of her experiences at previous centres left her feeling less than satisfied.
In the wake of toddler Nevaeh Austin being left on a bus at Gracemere's Le Smileys Early Learning Centre and the death of a boy in 2020 after he was left on a bus outside a Goodstart Early Learning Centre in Cairns, many parents have concerns about the strictness of procedures at daycare facilities.
Last week Carindale childcare centre Citipointe Childcare was fined $18,000 after a toddler went missing in bushland on an excursion in Brisbane.
Ms Mainwaring said she has had some concerns in the past.
"We were worried about our old daycare centre taking kids out during the day in the minibus for excursions or to swimming lessons," she said.
"I know they did a head count when leaving the pool for example but I don't think there were any protocols for signing them back in to their rooms or double checking they did actually get off the bus.
Ms Mainwaring said a friend of hers at the same centre had a scare when her child could not be located for a number of minutes.
"It was only a few minutes until they found him in a different room where he wasn't supposed to be but those long minutes were terrifying for her and her son.
"You have to wonder how those things happen."
Parents feel schools have better systems in place than daycares
Since Ms Mainwaring's oldest son started primary school, she said she has realised there are stricter protocols in place to track students' movements.
"We have a son in grade one this year and he attends after school care," she said.
"Both of us parents get a notification on our phones as soon as he is signed in by a staff member and then when the other parent collects him.
"If we forget to tell them he's not attending for some reason, we get a text message within minutes and then they follow up with a phone call.
Ms Mainwaring said as parents they are much more aware of their son's movements during the day now that he is in the school system.
Her four-year-old twins are currently in a daycare centre where she feels they are well monitored, using iPads for sign-ins and good communication between reception and playground staff.
"As the centre is small, we thankfully know all the teachers by name and they know our boys but I always make a point of saying hi to the staff so that they know when we arrive," she said.
"I think there's risk when there's a change to the routine, like kids attending an extra day when they're not usually there, for example. But it can be managed well and these systems and procedures really need to be consistent across the industry."
Another Brisbane mum, who wishes to remain anonymous, said there is a "significant" difference between daycare centres and community kindergartens.
"As the drop-off and pick-up times are consistent in a community kindy and the days for the families are set, educators get to know the families better and the families also start to know each other, she said.
"This is what is the drawcard for working parents having longer hours and flexible drop-off and pick-up times but it does make building the relationship with the carers and other families difficult.
She also said the pick-ups and drop-off were more consistent when children reached school.
"In the school system, at least with prep children anyway, students need to have an adult come and collect the child from the classroom teacher — who is the same every day, so this makes that exchange more familiar."
She thinks better conditions and pay for childcare workers would help.
"They do have a lot of security at the doors with pin codes and digital passwords for checking in and out," she said.
"More consistent carers would make it easier to build relationships and know who was actually taking the child home. This would mean better conditions and pay for the carers to encourage them to stay.
"And potentially a 'joint' sign-in and out, almost 'approved' by a carer would help, rather than the parent doing this solo and the carer not knowing if it has been done or who by."
What are the laws around signing children in and out of daycare centres?
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said the Education and Care Services National Law and Regulations set out the minimum standards that all services must meet.
"As the Regulatory Authority (RA) for early childhood education and care services in Queensland, the department places the highest priority on the health, safety and wellbeing of children attending these services," the spokesperson said.
Under the national law, early childhood services must:
- Keep an attendance record that records the full name of children attending and the date and time each child arrives and departs
- This record must be signed by the person who delivers or collects the child, or the nominated supervisor or educator
- Services must also have policies and procedures in place for the delivery and collection of children
"In addition, all early childhood education and care services must meet a range of important regulatory requirements, including providing adequate supervision and protecting children from harm and hazards, as well as having a specific written transport policy and procedure in place if they provide transport."
Changes to the legislation aimed at improving children's safety during transportation were made in October 2020 in response to the death of Maliq Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo in February of that year.
These included requirements for risk assessments and written authorisations, and are laid out in a fact sheet put out by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA).
After the incident involving Nevaeh Austin, Education Minister Grace Grace said instances of children being left on buses had "reduced quite significantly".
Figures provided by the Education Department back that up, with a spokesperson saying "for majority of these cases the child was left for a very brief period".
Number of reported incidents of children left on service buses in Queensland
Year |
Number of reported incidents |
|---|---|
2018 |
12 |
2019 |
17 |
2020 |
6 |
2021 |
3 |
2022 |
3 (as of May 2022) |
What are the consequences for daycare centres if standards aren't met?
ACECQA, an independent national authority which works with governments to provide guidance, resources and services to support the sector, said attendance records must be kept in a safe and secure place for at least three years after the child last attended the service.
"The regulations allow for a $2,000 penalty if these records are not accurate," ACECQA said in a statement.
"The Education and Care Services National Law allows for a $4,000 penalty in the case of an individual, and a $20,000 penalty in any other case if these records are not made available on request."
An approved provider and nominated supervisor at the service must ensure the child does not leave the centre unless they are handed over to a parent or a person authorised to pick them up.
If that regulation is breached they are liable for a $2,000 fine.
Individual services have some leeway in implementing the guidelines, ACECQA said.
"ACECQA has published guidelines to support the development of this policy and procedure, but services must consider how their unique locations, circumstances and communities affect their policies and procedures."
When asked if daycare procedures were not as strict as schools, ACECQA said: "There are robust requirements in place to ensure that the attendance of children is accurately recorded when they are delivered to and collected from an education and care service.
"The National Regulations list limited circumstances under which a child can leave the service premises. There are penalties in place if either of these requirements are not met."
No requirement to let centres know if child isn't attending
So what happens when a child is due to attend daycare but isn't dropped off?
In most cases, no protocols are triggered, even if parents fail to let the centre know.
"The Guide to the National Quality Framework (NQF) is published by ACECQA to support education and care service providers, authorised officers and other regulatory authority staff to understand and practically apply the NQF. It advises that services should develop a combination of systems that show when each child is absent, is in attendance or has left for the day."
"There are other obligations outside of the NQF tied to federal and state/territory childcare subsidy/funding arrangements which may require parents/carers to contact a childcare service to advise if their child is not attending on a scheduled day."
Improved procedures that exceed requirements
Some daycare providers choose to exceed the regulatory requirements when it comes to transport safety.
Goodstart Early Learning CEO Julia Davison said: "Goodstart continuously reviews its policies and further strengthened our bus transport policy in 2020 which go well beyond what is required by government regulations."
Australia's largest early-learning provider has new measures in place, since the death of Maliq Nicholas Floyd Namok-Malamoo at one of its centres, designed to prevent any children being unaccounted for:
- There are now three clearly designated roles in the new bus procedure: driver, supervisor and checker. Each will have specific roles and responsibilities
- The staff member who has the supervisor role on the bus is now required to sit at the back of the bus for the whole journey and check the bus is empty as they move towards the door
- A centre-based checker will inspect the bus upon its return to the centre, double-check the roll and check off the children and observe adherence to procedure by the driver and supervisor. Once the children are returned to the centre the checker will take photographs to show the bus is now empty and then upload them to iAuditor (which allows for remote auditing in real-time)
- New easy-to-follow guides and role-specific lanyards were sent to all relevant centres and mandatory refresher training introduced
"Goodstart is committed to continuous improvement and heavily invests in ensuring teams have the training they need to do the very best job they can," Ms Davison said.
