Revealed: The changes coming for NSW’s scandal-ridden childcare sector

High-risk childcare centres will be forced to publicly display compliance breaches in an area parents can see, while penalties for offences will increase by 900 per cent, under sweeping childcare reforms to be introduced into parliament on Wednesday.

The NSW government has announced major changes to childcare legislation after a series of scandals raised concerns about the sector’s lack of transparency, including high-profile safety incidents that happened without parents’ knowledge.

The regulator will be required to publish more information about high-risk services, after the Herald revealed one in six NSW childcare services hold a “secret” rating of high risk or very high risk – but families at these centres would have no idea.

While parents will not be able to see the regulator’s internal risk rating, under the new legislation the regulatory authority can publish “show cause” and prohibition notices, in an effort to make parents aware and hold providers accountable.

The NSW government on Wednesday announced urgent legislation for 30 proposed changes to “prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our youngest learners and restore parents’ trust in early childhood education and care”.

Acting Minister for Education and Early Learning Courtney Houssos said “children, not profit, must come first”, acknowledging the law has “failed to protect children, and it is no longer fit for purpose”.

“While many providers do the right thing, recent cases show goodwill alone is not enough. Until now, the regulator has lacked the powers needed to enforce safety and accountability,” Houssos said.

The sector has come under fire after a string of cases including a toddler going missing after being handed to the wrong grandparent, revelations children’s mouths were taped shut in a “breathing exercise”, and a three-year-old who ran onto a busy road while in care.

Under the legislation, the sector and regulator will for the first time have a legal obligation to put the rights and best interests of children above all else. Other changes include the creation of an independent regulatory authority, $55 million to boost frontline staff, and increased publication of regulatory data.

An independent review into early childhood education and care regulation in NSW found the regulator was significantly constrained by the national laws with parents kept in the dark about breaches in childcare centres, only finding about incidents months after they occur – if they are disclosed at all.

“This bill also allows for far greater transparency for families,” Houssos said. “Parents and carers will have access to a service provider’s history so they can make an informed choice about the care of their children.”

Houssos said not only would the bill expand the range of offences that could attract fines, but also triple the maximum financial penalties that could be imposed on small providers. In the case of providers operating 25 services or more, those fines could be tripled again.

Greens MLC Abigail Boyd, who chairs the upper house inquiry into the early childhood education sector, was pleased by the changes but said the reforms are the “bare minimum transparency of the most dangerous of services”.

“All that is good, but I think the average person would be excused for wondering why these things weren’t in place already.”

She said the changes need to be used as a “building block for more significant reforms”.

“What I would like even more is services having to email families [when issues happen] and the regulator taking breaches far more seriously. If there has been a compliance notice or direction I would hope we also get told what the response was to that direction and whether or not the regulator was satisfied with the direction.

“It’s a welcome step forward but let’s not get too excited, this is still bare minimum expectations,” Boyd said, flagging the need for “training for staff”, staff ratios, and the use of waivers.

In July, this masthead revealed childcare centres are operating on years-old quality assessments, with widespread use of waivers allowing centres to continue despite not meeting standards for staffing and facilities.

For now, there is no public database of incidents at childcare centres. Under existing rules, parents can only know if their child’s centre has experienced a compliance issue if they ask to view their records or if their child is directly involved.

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