Peter Carnley Anglican School OSHC fined $14,000 after child leaves care unsupervised

A Wellard childcare provider has been fined $14,000 after a four-year-old child left the service undetected and was unsupervised for more than 20 minutes. The State Administrative Tribunal found Extend (Australia) Pty Ltd, trading as Peter Carnley Anglican School OSHC, to be in breach of the Education and Care Service National Law (WA) Act after a four-year-old boy left the childcare service and began to walk home along Wellard Road in December 2021. The outside school hours care provider did not notice the child was missing until another child in care alerted the service. Upon calling police, the service was told the child had been taken to Kwinana police station and their parents contacted. The Department of Communities’ Education and Care Regulation Unit (ECRU) referred the matter to the SAT, which fined the service $12,000 plus $2000 in costs. ECRU found there was no system in place to make sure the door to the service was locked or monitored by an educator to ensure no child could leave unsupervised. Department of Communities’ acting executive director regulation and quality Phil Payne said this was the fifth time this year alone that the SAT had been forced to take action against an approved service provider after a child had left the service unsupervised. He said “inadequate supervision” was found to be a factor in all five cases. “Childcare services need to provide appropriate levels of supervision and conduct and record regular and accurate headcounts,” Mr Payne said. “The investigation revealed that the child had indicated he wanted to go home after an incident at the service. The staff tried to reassure him but he still left. Educators should not ignore early warning signs from children.” This latest fine comes after Busy Bees Wellard was fined $22,000 by the SAT over an incident in August 2021 in which a child left the centre unnoticed by staff, ran down the street and ran through the nearby train station carpark. “Childcare services, regardless of whether they are out of school hours or long day care services, need to have adequate facilities and measures in place to prevent children from leaving the service,” Mr Payne said.