Perth father Anthony Shipp blasts Mulberry Tree Childcare centre after son trapped on hot bus for 30 minutes

The father of a four-year-old boy who was trapped and alone on a childcare centre bus in sweltering heat for half-an-hour fears his son would be dead if he hadn’t, purely by chance, picked him up early. The West Australian can reveal the Department of Communities has launched an investigation into the Mulberry Tree Childcare centre in Mount Hawthorn following the incident yesterday. Anthony Shipp decided to collect his son Tom from the centre early that day for the boy’s first cricket lesson, but when he arrived staff could not find him. “Purely by chance I went to the centre at 3.30pm. We normally pick him up at 5pm,” he said. “I couldn’t see him. They thought he might be in the toilets but he wasn’t there.” When Mr Shipp approached his son’s best friend and heard he hadn’t seen Tom, alarm bells started ringing. The childcare provider offers transport from local primary schools but when the mini bus arrived at the centre just after 3pm, the young boy did not get off. Mr Shipp said after a frantic search the centre’s carer eventually returned with Tom, who is understood to have spent about half an hour on the bus. “He was left on the bus all alone in 32-degree heat,” he said. “He was very quiet, pale and drenched in sweat. “Later on I asked him, I said ‘Tom how come you stayed on the bus?’ and he said ‘I couldn’t get my seat belt off’. “I was fuming — how could you leave a child on the bus who is stuck in a seatbelt?” The manager of the centre told Mr Shipp the carer had failed to walk through the bus after the children had got off, instead doing a countdown and manual check in. According to Mr Shipp the carer had since been stood down, but it has not brought him comfort after the traumatic ordeal. “You’ve got 100 kids here, that could’ve taken you half an hour — by the time you’d realise he wasn’t even there and start searching he could’ve been dead by now,” he said. “I woke up at two o’clock this morning and just kept replaying it in my mind — what could have happened.” The Mt Hawthorn Primary School, which Tom attends, sent a letter to parents earlier today to “I’m writing to let you know that there was an incident involving an after-school care provider which provides a service to some of our families,” the school’s principal Dale Mackesey said. “At this stage we understand the child was left unattended for approximately 30 minutes on the bus and was found by parents unharmed, but distressed. “We have been in touch with the family and support has been offered to the student.” Mulberry Tree Childcare — which refused to comment when contacted by The West — says on its website it is committed to providing high quality care”. However, this is not the first time the provider, which operates 36 centres across WA, has been in hot water. In 2018, a two-year-old boy managed to slip away from a North Perth centre while two educators were supervising a group of 10 children. The boy ran across the road in front of a car, which was forced to slow down. Two passengers got out to help him. According to the State Administrative Tribunal ruling, the boundary fence consisted of a small piece of unsecured “pool-type” fencing, which led to a long gap between the building and a roadside fence. The centre's owner Cachet Holdings was fined $10,000 for the breach and ordered to pay $2000 towards the Department of Local Government and Communities’ legal costs. In 2016, the provider was slapped with another fine after an 11-year-old child with hearing difficulties from the Wembley Downs centre was left at a public toilet alone and unsupervised on an excursion without the service noticing. The same year, at the Broome centre, a four-year-old child left the service alone and walked home without the staff noticing the child's absence. A Department of Communities spokesperson said it was aware of the incident and is taking it “very seriously”. “This investigation will assess whether the approved provider has complied with its obligations under the legislation, and whether remedial action is required to prevent similar occurrences in future,” the spokesperson said. “As this investigation is currently under way, it is not appropriate to provide further comment at this time.”