Family day-care chain closes 56 services in Victoria after baby’s death

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A family day-care chain where a baby died earlier this year has shut all 56 of its services across Victoria.

Bambini Family Day Care was issued an emergency action notice about safe sleeping in February after a baby died in Skye, in Melbourne’s south-east.

A neighbour of the Bambini Family Day Care service on Balinga Drive in Skye reportedly heard a loud scream just before emergency services arrived in February.

While police said at the time that the circumstances were not suspicious, it prompted three separate and ongoing investigations by the regulator, the Coroner and WorkSafe.

After the death, all Bambini-affiliated family day-care services temporarily closed while sleep and rest risk assessments were completed by the regulator to ensure they were compliant.

Most reopened, but Bambini Family Day Care has now surrendered its licence, meaning all 56 of its services in Victoria have closed, or would need to apply for approval independently or through another provider.

It’s unclear why Bambini Family Day Care surrendered its licence, and it did not respond to requests for comment. Police have not taken any action against Bambini in relation to the incident.

The Skye day-care service where the baby died had remained permanently closed since February.

On February 19, a neighbour of the Sky service reportedly heard a loud scream just before emergency services arrived.

The early childhood regulator issued an emergency notice to Bambini on February 25, covering all 56 Bambini-affiliated residences in Victoria.

WorkSafe, the Coroners’ Court and the early childhood regulator continue to investigate the death.

Family day-care residences are approved and administered as a group through a family day-care operator, with qualified educators caring for a small number of children in their own homes.

It comes after The Age reported an unrelated case in which a 15-week-old baby had died at an illegal day-care centre in the northern Victorian town of Robinvale in January 2022, after she was put to sleep in a rocker, against safe sleeping recommendations.

In her report into the 2022 death, Coroner Sarah Gebert said there had been 10 cases across Australia where infants or toddlers were in a baby rocker at the time of their death between January 1, 2000, and May 31, 2023.

The Bambini Family Day Care service on Balinga Drive in Skye where a baby died in February.

“I cannot be satisfied that unsafe sleeping directly caused or contributed to [the baby’s] death. The circumstances in which she died once again highlight the vulnerability of infants sleeping in an unsafe environment,” Gebert said.

The 2022 death was just one case included in a tranche of Freedom of Information documents – which took nine months for The Age to obtain – revealing childcare breaches across Victoria in 2024.

The documents show a number of operators were issued breaches after children had been slapped, were left at a train station, were left unattended for 30 minutes or were cared for by people with expired working with children’s checks or without first aid training.

Bambini was not named in the list of breaches. The February 2025 death happened outside the scope of the documents.

The 2024 breaches, prosecuted by the childcare regulator, show some family day-care operators had little oversight of educators, exposing children to dangerous backyard environments which included paint tins, barbecues, gas bottles and accessible heaters that were inside and hot to touch.

The most recent Productivity Commission report on government services found an increase in the number of serious incidents at approved childcare services under the National Quality Framework.

In Victoria, from 2023 to 2024, there were 4647 instances of injury, trauma or illness, up from 3950 the previous year. Emergency services attended childcare services 834 times in the same period, up from 755 the previous year.

An Education Department spokesperson said the investigation into Bambini Family Day Care was ongoing, and the death of any child was a tragedy.

“Our thoughts are with their family and community in this difficult time,” she said.

Bambini Family Day Care did not respond to requests for comment.

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