Thousands of children across Australia may be at risk after a loophole for dodgy childcare centre operators to buy businesses without a safety audit.
It is estimated that a thousand childcare centres and after-school care services have been audited following a change of ownership.
A loophole involving public schools where dodgy operators are operating without a new safety audit, then going on to win tenders at public schools.
Camp Australia was blacklisted by the NSW Government in 2016 after a number of serious incidents and a couple months later they were operating 2 childcare centres in Public Schools.
The Education Minister Simon Birmingham will pursue this issue and work with his state and territory counterparts as some of the blame for this loophole does lay with them.
It's so important to keep children safe who are in our care and safety audits are necessary to make sure that a service is compliant with workplace health and safety responsibilities. It includes auditing of the roads and carpark, the perimeter of the property, external building, kitchen, laundry, all rooms, storage areas etc. It enables services to assess each risk and consider the likelihood of consequences of an incident occurring in each area. When a safety audit is complete services can improve their work practices by making necessary changes to keep all children safe within the centre.
Reference:
9 News, February 6th, 2018
