In the worst cases, 71 centres had their registration cancelled since the start of 2020 due to the unacceptable risk they posed to children, and there were 13 occasions in which emergency action powers were called on, allowing the regulator to urgently step in.
Minister for Children Lizzie Blandthorn revealed on Friday that the Education Department had been asked to examine the merits of a new independent regulator to replace the existing department-based watchdog.
Her confirmation came despite the Allan government on Thursday ruling its new rapid child safety review would not have the scope to scrutinise the performance or governance of the early childcare sector regulator.
Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown has been charged with more than 70 offences.
The review was ordered in response to allegations of sexual abuse by Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Brown, which have rocked the sector and the families relying on it, and prompted calls for a new independent childcare regulator.
“The review is not looking at the regulator, but questions around the regulator are something that we had already asked of our department some time ago,” Blandthorn said.
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“We are looking at what are the options in terms of what is the best way in Victoria to do regulation.
“The accused [Brown] was found through good policing work that went to the matters that are involved in that case – it wasn’t through a regulatory report.
“QARD is now doing its own investigation, authorised by and now working with police.
“We want them concentrating on that at this point in time, and we will continue to ask ourselves our own questions in terms of the regulator, in terms of the questions we had already asked and had already looked at the options, including whether or not the regulator should be independent.”
Serious issues uncovered by the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division over the past five years include 23 instances where centres were closed after managers were found to be “not a fit and proper person to be involved in the provision of an education and care service”, and four centres with employees whose working-with-children-check status had not been properly examined.
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Two sources, who have worked with and alongside the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division but cannot be identified because they are not authorised to discuss departmental matters, raised doubts about the capabilities of the regulator and the rigour of its compliance inspections.
One described it as “a very small regulator buried inside a very big department”.
“If there was ever a time to make this regulator independent, this is it,” they said.
Reporting to a deputy secretary of the Department of Education, the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division oversees almost 5000 early childcare services caring for about 330,000 children, including long-daycare centres, standalone kindergartens, outside-school-hours care and family daycare operators.
The Victorian Coalition has called for the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division to be spun out of the department and replaced with a statutory independent regulator.
Opposition education spokesperson Jess Wilson said the government should recall parliament and pass urgent legislation setting up an independent watchdog for childcare in Victoria.
“After years of increasing complaints, yet fewer enforcement actions taken, it’s clear Labor’s internal childcare regulator isn’t up to the job of keeping children safe,” she said.
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“With hundreds of thousands of children in childcare settings on any given day, it is essential Victoria has a strong independent watchdog to ensure rigorous oversight of this sector.
“When parents drop their children off at childcare they deserve to have confidence they are in the best possible care. Under Labor and the QARD, that confidence has been shattered.”
An Education Department spokesperson said looking at the ratio of enforcement actions compared with regulated services was not a meaningful way to measure or judge the regulator’s performance.
“The Victorian regulatory authority completed 4729 inspections of early childhood services in 2024 – against a target of 4000 – to ensure compliance with the national law, regulations and Child Safe Standards,” the spokesperson said.
“At the end of 2024, 97 per cent of Victorian services had been visited by the regulatory authority within the past two years, with services found to need additional monitoring based on compliance history or other risk factors visited more often.”
When asked by The Age whether the Quality Assessment and Regulation Division was able to effectively uncover safety issues in the childcare system, Blandthorn defended the regulator’s performance, saying it had surpassed its target for compliance visits.
“QARD is effectively doing its job,” Blandthorn said. “Ninety-six per cent of Victorian services are meeting, or are above, their rating as a service.
“QARD is conducting more inspections than the target, it is conducting more unannounced inspections, and it has found that compliance by and large meets expectations.”
Some of the most common risks prompting lesser action by the regulator include centres failing to protect children from hazards, inappropriate menus or learning programs, unclean furniture and facilities, and centres not having appropriate areas for children to sleep.
However, the regulator also uncovered multiple cases of inadequate supervision, childcare workers meting out inappropriate discipline to children, failing to ensure dignity and rights of children were maintained, and failing to maintain visitor logs.
The Quality Assessment and Regulation Division also pursued prosecutions against several operators between 2020 and 2022 for serious issues, including Team Holiday GESAC in Bentleigh East, which was fined $5000 by a magistrate in 2020 for failing to adequately supervise children after one was found unattended in a pool and needing help from a member of the public.
Werribee West Family Centre managers were placed on a good behaviour bond after two children escaped and were later returned by a member of the public in 2020.
Camp Australia was convicted of one charge and fined $10,000 after being caught using a separate room to circumvent rules limiting the number of children it was approved to care for in 2021.
Ballarat Road Early Learning and Kinder was found guilty without conviction, placed on a good behaviour bond, and fined $12,000 after failing to protect children from harm and hazards in 2022.
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