Editorial
Parents need complete confidence in childcare screening checks
The revelation that a childcare worker has been charged with abusing 91 young girls across NSW and Queensland is deeply disturbing. The alleged victims attended 10 childcare centres in Brisbane between 2007 and 2013, and from 2018 to 2022, and a centre in Sydney between 2014 and 2017.
A 45-year-old Gold Coast man was charged on Tuesday with 1623 child abuse offences, including 136 counts of rape and 604 counts of indecent treatment of a child after a prolonged and painstaking investigation by the Australian Federal Police.
AFP Assistant Commissioner Justine Gough, with the unenviable task of overseeing the investigation, summed it up well enough. “This is chilling news,” she said.
The case has sparked discussion about how to prevent something like this from ever happening again.Credit: Louie Douvis
The effect of the offences will reach far and wide, not just for the victims and their families, but for the broader community. It has, quite rightly, sparked discussion about how to prevent something like this from ever happening again.
Working families in Australia turn to childcare centres to provide a safe, supervised environment for young children away from the family home while parents participate in paid employment. As the cost of living continues to rise and the pressure to work remains high, the need for safe care will continue to be of paramount importance.
Most families have positive experiences with the early childhood sector, which is staffed by dedicated professionals who take on demanding work for notoriously low pay. But the charges last week have reinforced how tragic the outcome is when there is a failure in the sector.
Police say that the individual had all the required documentation for working with children. In our story today, Mary Ward reports that a review of the nation’s child safety rules is already under way, ordered by Federal Education Minister Jason Clare.
The brief includes an analysis of the child protection safeguards nationally and within states and territories “including Working with Children Check processes, mandatory reporting and teacher registration processes”.
Other suggestions include ensuring childcare centres are open plan and that the practice of taking photos of children during the day to send to parents is also reviewed to prevent opportunities for image-based abuse.
The review will also “consider the effectiveness and adequacy of record-keeping and information
sharing arrangements between jurisdictions”.
Nationalising the state-based Working with Children Check (WWCC), required when working with children in a number of volunteer or paid roles, would streamline the existing inconsistency across the states.
For now, some states only consider previous criminal charges and offences when issuing a WWCC, while others consider disciplinary action by a professional body, such as a medical practitioners board, or if they are subject to family violence intervention orders.
Co-operation and collaboration between jurisdictions to combat any abuse of children by creating a more robust and far-reaching screening procedure is to be welcomed.
But that is not the only measure that can be considered to improve the safety of children in environments where they are in supervised care away from their parents.
A draft report is to be provided by the end of October. In the wake of last week’s events, it would be appropriate to carefully consider the results of the review and take concrete steps as soon as possible to ensure this never happens again.
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