Inspectors from the NSW Early Childhood Regulator will be on the ground today to reinforce new transparency laws, with families urged to request the compliance and quality ratings history of their child's early learning service.
With nation-leading legislation in place in NSW the Regulator is launching a statewide compliance blitz to ensure that the more than 6,000 early learning services are prominently displaying compliance and quality history.
Since November 6 there has been approximately 8,000 downloads of the compliance and quality history. More than 3,500 downloads occurred in the first 48 hours after services were required to make it available.
The Regulator is conducting unannounced checks to ensure all services comply with the new requirements, and it will act if services are not displaying this information for families.
In the most serious cases, providers who do not comply face prosecution where the maximum penalty a court could impose would be $51,600 or $154,800 in the case of a large provider.
The changes come after the Minns Labor Government passed nation-leading legislation to improve transparency for families, better protect children, and increase penalties for poor quality providers.
Under the amended Children (Education and Care Services National Law Application) Act 2010, services and staff are now legally required to prioritise children's safety and wellbeing above all other considerations.
Since November 6 there has also been a ban on personal devices, including mobile phones, in early learning services.
The regulator will take immediate compliance action for any serious or inappropriate use of personal digital devices involving children.
Other actions under the new laws, include:
- Making it an offence for people providing or working in early childhood education and care to subject a child to inappropriate conduct.
- Increasing maximum penalties for large providers by up to 900 per cent, and up to 300 per cent for all other providers.
- Allowing the Regulator to suspend or revoke quality ratings during or after investigations.
- Allowing the Regulator to suspend or impose supervision orders on individual educators.
- Strengthening whistleblower protections.
- Extending the prosecution period for offences - NSW will now measure the limitation period from when the regulator is notified, rather than the date of the offence.
Services and families can learn more about displaying the compliance and quality history on theNSW Department of Education website.
Acting Minister for Education and Early Learning Courtney Houssos said:
"It's important that the Regulator is visiting more services, more often, as we work to keep children safe.
"Transparency is a key component of the Minns Labor Government's nation-leading reforms and families have the right to know what is happening at their child's service.
"Our government delivered the biggest early learning safety reforms in 15 years, after a review commissioned by Deputy Premier Prue Car, and it is continuing to work with the sector to rebuild parent's confidence."
