The NSW Government has passed legislation requiring early learning services to display a quality rating.
Staff will now face new penalties for using their personal phones or devices on the job.
The reforms are part of increased national and state legislation in the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, following child sexual abuse allegations in NSW and Victoria.
Background
In July, Victoria Police charged a Melbourne man with more than 70 offences including child rape, attempted child rape and producing child abuse material.
The Victorian Health Department recommended around 2,000 children get tested for sexually transmitted infections. All were negative.
These allegations sparked national outrage, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese telling ABC “every Australian... was completely horrified.”
Also in July, the AFP charged a Sydney man with 13 offences relating to the production and possession of child abuse material while working at out-of-school hours (OOSH) care centres.
The Government passed a law on 31 July enabling it to cut federal funding to centres that don’t meet safety standards or put children at risk.
In September, the Victorian Government passed a law to automatically refuse Working with Children Checks to people who had also been refused by other states or territories.
New laws
Last week, the NSW Government amended the law governing ECEC services.
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All services will be required to disclose their current and previous quality ratings, any compliance breaches in the past two years, and any prosecutions with guilty pleas or findings, or convictions.
Fines for non-compliance have increased, with large providers facing a 900% increase.
The law also expands a ban on personal devices, such as phones, tablets, cameras, smartwatches, and camera glasses, to include family day care services.
Penalties for breaching this ban have increased from a blanket $1,100 fine to $3,420 for individuals, $17,200 for services, and $51,600 for large providers.
The legislation will also allow the Early Learning Minister to direct a service to complete child protection training, install CCTV, or even close down.
Response
NSW Acting Early Learning Minister Courtney Houssos said the law delivers “stronger protections and more transparency in childcare”.
Houssos also praised the “hard work and dedication... of educators who do the right thing”.
In a joint statement last week, five NSW not-for-profit ECEC providers called the nation-wide reforms “signficant action,” but said a “system that knits together” is needed.
The providers also called for a national childhood education commission.
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