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Melbourne childcare crisis

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Experts say there needs to be more training for early learning educators and outside school hours carers about child-on-child abuse.

‘It is one of the worst nightmares’: Hundreds of children abused in childcare – by other kids

When Rose* arrived to pick up her six-year-old daughter from after-school care, she was confronted with gut-wrenching news.

  • Nicole Precel

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The crisis has not receded for the commercial childcare operators at the core of the sex abuse scandal.

Commercial childcare operators fight to survive as parents head for exits after scandal

Major financial backers including superannuation giants are also cutting their exposure to the sector.

  • Colin Kruger
Childcare worker Joshua Brown has been charged with sex offences in Victoria.

Childcare giant says Joshua Brown ticked company’s hiring boxes

Executives from some of Australia’s largest for-profit childcare providers faced a grilling at a parliamentary inquiry probing the early childhood education and care sector.

  • Nicole Precel
Alleged paedophile Joshua Brown.

Shocking new charges in case of accused childcare paedophile Joshua Brown

Joshua Brown’s lawyer had been fighting in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week to stop the release of the full 156 charges now facing the accused paedophile.

  • Sherryn Groch, Erin Pearson and Carla Jaeger
There’s been an increase in serious incidents in childcare centres.

Serious incidents in Victorian childcare jump as staff qualifications slide

Almost 5050 children were injured, became ill or experienced trauma in early learning centres in Victoria last year, according to new data.

  • Nicole Precel
Commissioner for Children Tracy Beaton is stepping into the role months after the Joshua Brown child sex abuse scandal last year.

‘The outcome for families is terrible’: New children’s commissioner promises reset after tumultuous year

Tracy Beaton vows to chart a new course at the Commission for Children and Young People after it failed to act on red flags about an accused child rapist.

  • Caroline Schelle
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National child safety reforms have not allayed concerns about risks of children’s exposure.

Loopholes in national child safety reforms raise red flags about sex abuse risks

Gaps in screening people who work with children will still exist despite wide-ranging national child safety reforms, which experts say could leave vulnerable kids exposed to predators.

  • Nicole Precel and Bridie Smith
Childcare giant G8 Education has repeatedly failed to protect Victorian children, with more than a dozen of it’s centres penalised by state authorities for posing serious safety risks to kids under their care.

Childcare watchdog had one inspector for every 66 Victorian services

The troubling picture of children left at risk shows the slim resourcing of the state regulator at a time when reports of sex offences had tripled in five years.

  • Sherryn Groch and Carla Jaeger
Joshua Dale Brown

The red flags childcare regulators may have missed in the Joshua Brown case

The rise of for-profit chains means the government now has to hunt “bad faith” providers through a complicated chain of company names, an inquiry has heard.

  • Sherryn Groch
Childcare worker Joshua Brown has been charged with another 83 offences.

Accused childcare paedophile charged with abusing more kids at more centres

Joshua Brown is now accused of abusing children from his very first job in childcare, as the police case against the 27-year-old widens to four centres.

  • Sherryn Groch, Carla Jaeger and Cassandra Morgan