Childcare giant at centre of Joshua Brown investigation ignored inappropriate touching complaint

Childcare giant Affinity Education withheld for weeks crucial information about the safety of two children from sex crime detectives investigating accused paedophile Joshua Brown.

The Essendon daycare centre, where police suspect the childcare worker committed further abuse, ignored a report of inappropriate touching that was made just weeks after Brown was first charged.

On June 12, parents raised the alarm over the safety of their child and another toddler being cared for at Papilio Early Learning in Essendon after their two-year-old daughter disclosed another child had inappropriately touched them.

Private equity-owned Affinity, one of the largest childcare chains in Australia, repeatedly blocked the family’s months-long fight for answers, including their in-house counsel refusing to say whether they had ever informed the police or the childcare regulator of the complaint.

The family, who called the centre and recorded the complaint in writing, had already given notice they were pulling their child from the centre after a series of escalating safety concerns and supervision failures. Driven by these worries, they insisted the complaint be investigated, fearing there was more to their child’s disclosure.

But the child’s parents allege that Affinity management at the centre dismissed the complaint, telling them their daughter was safe because “no one saw anything”.

‘The biggest image I’ve got stuck in my head is literally handing my daughter over to [Joshua Brown] at drop-offs.’

Parent of child at centre of complaint

The family would not learn until July 1, when a suppression order on Brown’s case was lifted, that Brown – who had cared for both children – had been arrested on May 12. Police allege he abused eight toddlers and babies, and contaminated children’s food with bodily fluids, at another centre in Point Cook between 2022 and 2023.

At the time of the complaint, sex crime detectives had already issued search warrants to the Essendon centre, suspecting Brown committed further abuse at the daycare. The investigation into the centre is ongoing.

The centre, where Brown worked from August 2024 until his arrest, was assisting police with their investigation – but failed to pass on information about the complaint to detectives. Affinity’s own policies, and the state’s mandatory reporting requirements, require all incidents to be officially recorded within 12 hours.

It wasn’t until July 3, when the family escalated their complaint to head office and Affinity found itself in the midst of a PR crisis, that the childcare provider finally reported the incident to the regulator and police.

The family only learnt their complaint had been referred to the regulator after Affinity responded to this masthead’s inquiries last week. The childcare giant is now launching a review into the handling of the information, despite the family’s months of emails, requests from their lawyers and escalating the issue to a company executive.

An Affinity spokesperson said: “In this instance, we acknowledge that we let down this family. They deserved to feel supported, listened to and reassured at every step. We recognise that did not happen, and we are deeply sorry for the distress this caused.”

The spokesperson said Affinity was committed to child safety. “Where processes or practices fall short, we act quickly and take these matters extremely seriously,” the spokesperson said.

The parents told this masthead they lived in constant fear that they might one day get a call that their child was one of Brown’s alleged victims. Their daughter was one of the thousands of Victorian children who had to undergo testing for sexually transmitted infections.

“The biggest image I’ve got stuck in my head is literally handing my daughter over to [Joshua Brown] at drop-offs,” the mother said.

Victorian Greens leader Ellen Sandell condemned Affinity’s handling of the complaint. “Our childcare system should never have been allowed to be dominated by big for-profit corporations,” she said.

A week after Affinity’s chief executive, Tim Hickey, conceded during a NSW parliamentary hearing that insufficient staff increased the risk of harm to children, this masthead can reveal that the Essendon centre suffered from chronic understaffing issues and breaches of mandatory child-to-staff ratios in the months leading up to Brown’s arrest.

The state’s childcare watchdog, the Quality and Assessment Regulatory Division, cleared the centre from a department watch list after years of breaching staff ratios in May 2024. The regulator told this masthead no breaches had been reported since then.

But according to parents and staff, the experience on the ground was very different. The parents say their child was moved into the older classroom as the centre was struggling to cope with mandated ratios.

It took weeks of chasing for the centre to explain to the parents in this case why their daughter’s hair had been hacked off. They were eventually told their daughter had been left unsupervised for an unknown amount of time with sharp scissors.

An incident report was filed nearly two weeks later; Affinity’s policy instructs educators to file reports within 12 hours of an incident.

The parents say educators on the ground confided in the family, telling them they had raised problems of chronic understaffing with management.

“When I came to pick up [my daughter], there were kids running everywhere,” the mother said. “Sometimes there were kids in the room by themselves while everyone else is outside. Sometimes my daughter was on the toilet by herself in the bathrooms and there were no teachers around.”

This masthead has separately seen internal documents that detail supervision breaches and confirmed staff had pleaded to management for more support.

‘The risk [our daughter] was exposed to is deeply distressing. I feel immense guilt as a parent believing she would be safe in your care.’

Parents to Affinity

Affinity denies this, saying no supervision or ratio breaches have been recorded at the location this year.

However, the childcare watchdog has made just one visit to the centre this year – a spot check in late September. No significant non-compliance issues were identified.

It is unknown if any complaints about the centre have been made to the regulator since May 2024.

Affinity also said it had no record of complaints from staff regarding staffing levels.

Opposition education spokesperson Jess Wilson criticised the watchdog for taking months to inspect the centre at the heart of the child abuse investigation.

“Despite the demonstrable failings of the system under their watch, the Allan Labor government continues to demonstrate that child safety is not their priority,” she said.

The family, who have launched legal action against Affinity via Carbone Lawyers, are shocked that it took media attention for the childcare giant to finally respond to their pleas.

They also believe that what they said to the centre’s management the day their complaint was dismissed still holds true: “My child is not safe in your care. You’re not really showing any kind of inclination to actually take anything seriously. We’ve heard a lot of talk – but not anything real.”

National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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