3 months ago
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The charging of a worker accused of filming the abuse of 10 children at six Sydney centres is another alarm bell on the booming but under-regulated Australian childcare industry.
David James’ alleged paedophilia was reported to police and the regulator last year after he had been hired through recruitment agency Randstad and worked at 58 different outside school hours care (OSHC) services across Sydney. The 26-year-old was suspended after a colleague reported witnessing him inappropriately touching a child under 10 at a Primary OSHCare, a service owned by Junior Adventures Group.
Incredibly, James remained on the agency’s books and was employed by other providers on a casual basis.
The Sydney case has thrust private equity firm Quadrant into the centre of another childcare scandal. The ABC has also reported in October a different man was arrested and charged in regional NSW with nine counts of intentionally sexually touching a child under 10 at a Quadrant-owned centre.
A leading provider of after-school care in Australia, Quadrant has a majority stake in Junior Adventures Group, prompting industry heads to voice concerns about the OSHC sector, which is becoming increasingly privatised and reliant on an unqualified, young and casualised workforce.
Nearly 600,000 children attend OSHC centres. The sector is growing, with an additional 426 services added in the past year, nationally topping 5000 services with large for-profit providers operating 40 per cent of all services. According to Department of Education data, OSHC centres employ 30,500 people. More than half had no qualifications in a relevant field and less than a quarter were studying towards any kind of qualification.
Serious questions have loomed over the nation’s childcare industry since the arrest of Joshua Dale Brown in Melbourne on allegations he abused eight children and the screening of 1200 preschool-aged children for STDs was made known last month.
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Despite the risks, private equity and pension firms have piled into childcare, partly because the Albanese government’s election platform promised high levels of government support. The result is a sector increasingly dominated by commercial interests in which concerns about quality are mounting. The recent spate of child abuse allegations highlights the serious flaws in childcare regulation.
In NSW, some staff hold a Certificate III in Outside School Hours Care or Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care; however, NSW is the only jurisdiction in the country where qualifications to work in OSHC are not required.
Such a gap, on one view, may help explain the serious shortcomings that appear to have been present in some Sydney centres and raise questions about the adequacy of training of so many young people, especially when it comes to spotting sexual abuse.
Clearly, there is a crying need for reform. Governments must act to introduce sensible regulations, not least because they have a duty of care with so many OSCH centres on their premises.
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