Lost trust prompts swift overhaul for childcare checks
Callum Godde |
Childcare workers will no longer be able to retain their clearance when authorities move to cancel it after a snap review laid out gaps exploited by predators.
The six-week review of Victoria’s childcare sector was triggered by Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown being charged over the alleged sexual abuse of eight children at a centre in Point Cook.
Brown held a working with children check and worked at 24 childcare sites across the city before his arrest in May.
Parents’ trust in the system has been “horribly broken” since police lifted the lid on the alleged abuse in early-July, Premier Jacinta Allan said.
“To every family who has been hurt by these most horrific of allegations, I am truly sorry,” she told reporters after the review’s release on Wednesday.
The rapid review made 22 recommendations, including a major overhaul of the state’s working with children check regime.
The Victorian government has vowed to introduce legislation to state parliament next week to immediately suspend clearances while reassessments are finalised.
Under the change, workers who have their clearance refused, revoked or suspended will lose their review rights at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said some workers were currently entitled to retain their check for 28 days when appealing the decision.
“It doesn’t happen in all situations but in some it does,” she said.
People under investigation for serious offences can still hold a permit to work with children in Victoria.
The rapid review suggested checks be suspended or refused when there are “credible allegations or patterns of behaviour” with children.
The trail of information that can identify a predator’s behaviour sits in too many places, with “breadcrumbs” and “red flags” missed.
A 2022 Victorian ombudsman report exposed serious flaws in the scheme after former Melbourne City Mission worker Alexander Jones was convicted of sexually assaulting a child in 2018.
Ms Allan deflected responsibility over the state government’s failure to act on that report, pointing out she wasn’t premier at the time.
“I wasn’t involved in those previous decisions,” she said.
Victoria’s working with children check regime, along with the reportable conduct scheme, will be brought together under the same roof of the social services regulator.
The shift will be accompanied by a doubling of unannounced compliance visits under a standalone childcare sector regulator and harsher penalties for breaches.
“No matter how hard we try to keep predators out, some will get through,” said the review, led by former South Australian premier Jay Weatherill and veteran public servant Pamela White.
The review, however, stopped short of calling for mandatory CCTV in all childcare state facilities, suggesting a national trial instead.
It also didn’t recommend Victoria go it alone on staff to child ratios, calling for a national review to consider introducing a “four eyes” rule of two adults visible to each other.
All recommendations were accepted by the state government, with Ms Allan committing to roll out the reforms within the next 12 months and a $42 million sector funding boost.
But many were directed squarely at the federal government as part of national reforms with states and territories.
The sector has undergone rapid growth over the past decade without a “coherent plan” and removing “bad actors” cannot wait for longer-term work, the review said.
Victoria was urged to share the review with the Commonwealth and other jurisdictions ahead of education ministers meeting on Friday.
Attorneys-general have already agreed people banned from holding a working with children check in one jurisdiction will be banned in all under reforms to be in place by the end of 2025.
OTHER KEY RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE RAPID REVIEW:
* Create a national early childhood reform commission
* Accelerate a national early childhood worker register
* Establish a process for high-quality providers to take over a cancelled service
* Trial CCTV in early childhood education and care settings across the nation
* Improve lines of sight in centres through a federally funded program
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
AAP
