More than 700 allegations of child abuse in childcare sector last year

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There have been more than 700 reports of alleged child abuse in Victoria’s childcare sector over the last financial year, including claims of physical and sexual abuse and neglect.

A new report by the state’s children commissioner shows the number of abuse cases referred to the agency from early childhood services – which covers daycare, kindergarten, family daycare and outside school hours care – has soared by 32 per cent since 2023-24.

Unregulated childcare centres pose a risk to families.

These were made under the reportable conduct scheme, which requires organisations to inform the commissioner when serious allegations, such as physical or sexual abuse, involving a child are made, which can prompt an independent investigation.

In the 2024-25 financial year, there were 2232 reports of child abuse referred to the commissioner, with early childhood services representing almost a third of these cases.

Multiple allegations can be made when each incident is reported to the commissioner. There were 967 allegations of abuse made across 705 incident reports. The allegations included 627 claims of physical violence, 83 of emotional or psychological harm to a child, 152 of significant neglect, 78 of sexual misconduct and 27 sexual offences.

The Commission for Children and Young People’s annual report for 2024-25, tabled in parliament on Wednesday, said four out of five reports were made against early childhood educators who weren’t registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching. Another 143 reports were made against registered teachers.

Out of the 705 cases, 567 were in long day care, 71 in preschool or kindergarten, 54 in outside school hours care and 11 in family daycare.

The childcare sector was plunged into crisis after it was revealed Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Brown allegedly abused eight children and babies in his care.

The commission would not confirm whether the report included allegations involving Brown, but his charges were revealed on July 2, just outside the scope of the report.

The report highlights alleged abuse across a number of sectors, including out-of-home care and education – which had the highest number of cases, at 950 reports, of which 43 per cent were substantiated.

Childcare worker Joshua Brown has been charged with 70 offences related to child sexual abuse.

In the early childhood sector, the number of reports has more than doubled since 2019-20, from 265 to 705. Almost 30 per cent were substantiated.

A Melbourne mother, who did not want to be identified, said an educator at a childcare centre in the city’s north-west dragged her four-year-old daughter across the room when the child wet her pants in February 2025.

She said she was only made aware of the incident when her child told her she was afraid of the educator and the mother questioned the centre director about what happened.

“My daughter is OK, though she suffers from night terrors, which began around the same time as the incident,” she said.

The mum said the centre director told her the educator would return to work at the centre because the internal report found the accusations “unsubstantiated”.

However, a letter from the Education Department to the mother, seen by The Age, said it determined there was an “interaction which did not maintain [the] child’s dignity and rights when supporting your child across the room”.

The letter confirmed the provider undertook an internal investigation and notified “relevant external agencies” and reviewed its practices.

The mother wants to see improvements in reporting and reviewing processes.

Meena Singh is Acting Commissioner for Children.

Meena Singh, Acting Principal Commissioner for Children and Young People, said: “There is a great deal more work for all of us to do to stamp out child abuse in Victorian organisations.”

She said there had been a significant increase in the number of sexual offences and sexual misconduct allegations substantiated across all sectors, rising 51 per cent and 48 per cent respectively, compared to an averaged substantiation rate of 30 per cent.

“Further improvement is needed in organisations to ensure that grooming and sexual misconduct is properly recognised and investigated, but these figures show that’s improving – perpetrators are increasingly being held to account and organisations are taking steps to improve.”

In the child protection system, there were 97 incidents of suspected sexual exploitation reported to the commission in 2024-25. This was the first time this measure was used.

In youth justice centres, the report found there had been a significant increase in the past year, including a 114 per cent increase in client-on-client physical assaults (from 7 to 15), an increase from 15 to 30 physical assaults against staff, an increase from 9 to 28 dangerous incidents and 15 poor quality-of-care incidents.

The report also indicated that youth justice practices that contain children and young people in their rooms for long periods of time had detrimental impacts on their mental health and wellbeing, with some saying they felt like a “caged animal”.

The commission completed 27 child death inquiries and made 10 new recommendations to the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing and four new recommendations to other government agencies and community services organisations.

Out of the 2232 child abuse reports made to the commission in the past year, 968 were referred to police and 484 people had their working with children check certificate reassessed.

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