Major childcare company exits Sydney centres after repeated breaches

A dozen NSW childcare centres run by one of Australia’s largest providers have been sold to new owners following almost 500 confirmed breaches, including a child locked in a storeroom and babies sleeping on the ground.

Twelve of the 15 Jenny’s Kindergarten early learning services in NSW have now changed hands after the state’s new Early Learning Commissioner found they consistently failed to meet national quality standards.

Services under new management include those in Leichhardt, Mortlake, Lane Cove North, Campsie, Oatley, Hurstville, Mount Annan, Gregory Hills, Narellan Vale, Riverwood, Emerald Hills and Gosford CBD.

Breaches included an educator showing inappropriate discipline to children, services not being “safe, clean and in good repair”, and operators failing to protect children from harm and hazard, resulting in serious incidents.

The centre at Emerald Hills, near Leppington, recorded 88 confirmed breaches and had a rating of “significant improvement required”, the lowest rating a service can hold.

Also in outer south-western Sydney, the Gregory Hills centre held the same rating and reported 59 confirmed breaches. In August, the centre was suspended after a child followed an educator inside a storeroom and was accidentally locked inside when the adult left. The child was discovered after four minutes when another educator heard noises and conducted a head count.

In another incident at Jenny’s Kindergarten Lane Cove North, the centre was involuntarily suspended after CCTV showed babies sleeping on the floor.

The 12 services were approved to provide care for a maximum of more than 900 children and were operated by four separate approved provider entities, all of which were owned by members of the same family.

New Early Learning Commissioner Daryl Currie has vowed to crack down on services that pose an “unacceptable risk through sustained poor performance”. In January, the commission shut down a centre that failed to meet national standards for more than 12 years.

The childcare sector is facing a reckoning after a slew of scandals, including child sexual abuse at centres, a child being used as a mop, and a centre sending a toddler home with the wrong grandparent.

There were 9430 serious incidents at early childhood education and care services in NSW in 2024-25, a rate of 154 incidents reported per 100 centres.

The NSW Early Learning Commission said it had supported the transfer of the 12 Jenny’s Kindergarten services to other providers, allowing the services to continue operating.

It said it was satisfied there was “no immediate risk to children’s health, safety and wellbeing” at the three remaining Jenny’s Kindergarten services, which are located at Padstow, Stanmore and Bathurst.

Currie said the decision of the 12 services to exit the sector demonstrated that new child safety reforms were forcing operators to “lift their game or get out of the sector”.

“Providers who can’t deliver the high quality and safe services our kids deserve are stepping aside to make way for those who can,” he said.

A spokesperson for Jenny’s Kindergarten said it had “worked closely with the department to ensure any concerns over services were addressed, and in the transfer of ownership of centres which continue to provide a vital service to their local communities”.

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