A Victorian family day care provider has been ordered to shut down its 65 residences for 90 days after allegations of unsafe practices.<\/p>\n
Ignite Minds Pty Ltd, which operates family day care residences in Melbourne, Bendigo and Shepparton, has been ordered by the Victorian Early Childhood Regulatory Authority (VECRA) to close immediately after an inspection blitz.<\/p>\n
Family day care is a registered service where educators care for children in the educator’s private home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Four day care educators have also been suspended following allegations they pose a risk to the safety of children.<\/p>\n
Some of the alleged breaches include unsafe sleep practices, inadequate supervision, inadequate fencing and unsafe environments, including the presence of hazards such as poisons, chemicals and beehives.<\/p>\n
The regulator also allegedly found instances of inadequate care of children with medical conditions, including required health plans and medications not being on hand.<\/p>\n
The closures will be in effect as of 5pm on Friday.<\/p>\n
‘Serious breaches’<\/p>\n
VECRA said its officers witnessed “serious breaches” of the National Law and National Regulations in relation to child safety.<\/p>\n
The body, together with the federal Department of Education, conducted a targeted compliance blitz called Operation Flint over three days, which saw officers inspect 30 premises.<\/p>\n
As part of the operation, an emergency action notice was issued over unsafe sleep practices when a five-month-old child was found sleeping in a cot with items that were an immediate safety risk, VECRA said.<\/p>\n
The provider was ordered to immediately cease education and care until steps were taken to ensure child safety.<\/p>\n
In addition to unsafe sleep practices, the inspection also uncovered other alleged breaches, including a child exiting a property unsupervised and a child falling from a highchair.<\/p>\n
Victorian Early Childhood Regulator Wendy Steendam said the decision to close the centres was not taken lightly.<\/p>\n
“It was clear to VECRA that this provider has failed the children and families who rely on its services, as well as the educators who worked for it,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Family daycare providers are on notice.<\/p>\n
“You must ensure your educators and their residences are compliant and you must provide appropriate governance and leadership to your staff. If you don’t, we will act.”<\/p>\n
In a statement, a Victorian government spokesperson said “every parent deserves to know that when they drop their child off at an early childhood service, they are safe”.<\/p>\n
“When VECRA conducted unannounced visits and found evidence of harms and hazards, they took action to shut down the services \u2014 which is exactly what they were set up to do,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“Labor has delivered a stronger, independent watchdog with the powers and resources to find these risks and act fast \u2014 because no family should ever have to worry about their child’s safety at childcare.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Australian Government Department of Education said the department was referred the case by VECRA as part of the Joint Compliance and Monitoring Program.<\/p>\n
“The department provided staff to support VECRA in the blitz of visits of educators,” the department said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“The Australian Government Department of Education has an ongoing investigation into this provider.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Victorian family day care provider has been ordered to shut down its 65 residences for 90 days…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,6310,113690,113691,57814,113689,29276,35242,35241],"class_list":["post-76630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-child-safety","tag-daycare-provider","tag-early-childhood-education","tag-educators","tag-ignite-minds-pty-ltd","tag-vecra","tag-victorian-early-childhood-regulatory-authority","tag-wendy-steendam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}