Top bosses of scandal-ridden childcare giant step down

The top two executives at one of Australia’s biggest childcare chains, Affinity, which employed accused Melbourne paedophile Joshua Brown, have stood down from their roles as the federal education minister lashes the company’s handling of the case.

Affinity Education staff were informed on Tuesday morning in a memo seen by this masthead that embattled chief executive Tim Hickey and chief operating officer Nishad Alani had stepped down from their positions, effective immediately, following months of child safety scandals.

Hickey ran the private equity-owned company for more than a decade but has faced scrutiny over his handling of the ongoing childcare crisis. Alani, who was recently forced to apologise to parents over insensitive comments, was appointed chief operating officer in June last year.

In the wake of the resignations, federal Education Minister Jason Clare told this masthead that “the allegations of what happened at Affinity centres have sickened Australians”.

“There are serious questions about how Affinity responded and the assistance they provided police,” he said.

A source with knowledge of the decision, who requested anonymity to discuss internal matters, said the reporting by this masthead – including that the childcare giant withheld crucial information from sex crime detectives investigating Brown – was a major factor in the pair’s departure.

The source said the Affinity board was unaware of the company withholding information from police and Alani’s apology to parents until this masthead’s inquiries.

“Tim Hickey, CEO, and Nishad Alani, COO, have stepped down from their roles and will leave the organisation,” the company’s internal memo said on Tuesday.

Senior compliance and quality adviser Glen Hurley, who appeared alongside Hickey during a NSW parliamentary inquiry last month, has been appointed chief executive.

The memo said Hurley’s “deep experience and strong operational insight” would ensure a smooth transition, given his close work with Affinity and 25 years’ experience in the aged care sector.

An Affinity spokesperson on Tuesday confirmed Hickey and Alani’s departures, and said the company remained “deeply committed” to the safety of children in its care.

The revelation earlier this year that police had charged 26-year-old childcare worker Brown with sexually abusing babies and toddlers in his care plunged Australia’s childcare sector, long dominated by for-profit providers, into crisis.

Both Affinity and the other childcare chain at the centre of the Brown case – G8 – have some of the country’s poorest safety records.

An Affinity centre in Essendon where detectives believe Brown offended had been on a government watch list months before he was arrested, this masthead revealed, but Affinity initially led police on a wild goose chase by inadvertently handing over incorrect employment records – despite tracking its workers with a sophisticated GPS.

Weeks later, Alani repeatedly told parents whose children attended a centre where Brown worked to stop being emotional.

Under Hickey’s leadership, Affinity has been on an expansion tear since it was bought by private equity firm Quadrant in 2021, buying up centres and pushing staff to grow enrolment numbers, though employees have long complained of understaffing.

Last month, internal documents leaked to this masthead revealed Affinity knew that children were being left alone unsupervised at its centres, even as it pushed staff to use high-pressure marketing tactics on parents – including infiltrating online mothers’ groups and running prize competitions for families leaving positive reviews.

Affinity’s policies for handling child safety allegations instruct staff to first “crisis manage” if a situation will attract media interest before notifying police – part of what staff have called a “culture of cover-ups”.

Clare said: “Executives of large child care groups like Affinity are on notice. They must act when issues are raised and their number-one priority must be keeping children safe.”

At the NSW inquiry, Hickey dodged questions about this masthead’s reporting on the Brown scandal, but admitted his salary had risen over the past three years, despite repeated safety breaches at Affinity centres.

Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who led the grilling at the inquiry, told this masthead it was right for Hickey and Alani to go. The executives at Affinity “had presided over a dramatic and precipitous decline in quality and safety across nearly all [its] services”.

But she stressed that real institutional reform was still needed sector-wide. “It’s true that fish rots from the head but ... changes to the C-suite are just window dressing while the true drivers of low standards and horrific child abuse lay untouched,” she said.

Affinity’s human relations chief, Rolanda Mitchell, has also left the company recently.

Nicola Page has been appointed to the executive as chief risk and compliance officer.

Know more? Contact s.groch@nine.com.au and carla.jaeger@theage.com.au

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