Mandatory child safety training and a national register of carers will be on the agenda when Australia’s education ministers gather for a crucial meeting.
The federal government is set to table $189 million worth of funding over four years to tackle problems in the under-fire sector, describing it as the biggest child safety package early learning has ever seen.
Backing up recently made tweaks to working-with-children checks which made bans nationally applicable, federal minister Jason Clare wants an education register designed to let regulators see who is working in childcare centres and where.
Along with mandatory training, Friday’s meeting is set to tackle a national CCTV assessment, more centre spot checks, a mobile phone ban and harsher penalties for breaches of standards.
It will also consider how parents can be given more information about the condition of childcare centres.
Mr Clare said no parent should have to wonder if their kids are safe in childcare.
“We need a national register to ensure we know who is caring for our children, and their work history,” he said.
“We also need mandatory child safety training … the overwhelming majority of childcare workers are awesome at what they do caring for and educating our children, they are just as angry as everyone else.”
The meeting comes about a month after Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with dozens of sex offences, including allegedly sexually abusing eight children.
Brown is known to have worked at 24 facilities between 2017 and the time of his arrest.
The government has initiated compliance action against 30 early childhood centres under laws passed by federal parliament in July.
Under the changes, funding will be stripped from centres not meeting safety standards.
The working-with-children check changes will mean anyone prevented from holding a check in one state or territory will be automatically banned across the nation.
But a national check is not on the cards, with jurisdictions to continue managing their systems.
Early Childhood Education Minister Jess Walsh said state and federal governments would act “shoulder-to-shoulder” to make the sector safer.
“Our investment of up to $189 million is the biggest child safety package the early learning sector has ever seen,” she said.
Federal opposition education spokesman Jonno Duniam called for state and federal ministers to commit to measures “that will truly shift the dial in improving child safety”.
“The Albanese government must take up a leadership role in pushing the states and territories to implement reforms, and there must be no delay in their uptake,” he said.
“Bureaucratic hurdles are no excuses for parents who expect safer childcare centres immediately, not by the end of the year or after.”
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