Wellard childcare service fined after 4yo boy walks out

Wednesday, 2 November 2022 09:00

By Monique Welhan

A Wellard childcare service has been fined $14,000 after a four-year-old boy walked out and went unsupervised for over 20 minutes.

It happened at Peter Carnley Anglican School Wellard OSHC in December 2021.

The child left the service and began walking home along Wellard Road before being found by members of the public who took him to Kwinana Police Station where his parents were contacted.

The service only realised the child was missing when another child alerted them.

They then contacted police who advised them the boy was at the local police station.

An investigation by the Department of Communities’ Education and Care Regulation Unit (ECRU) found there was no dedicated system in place to ensure the door to the service was either locked or monitored by an educator.

“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," Phil Payne from the Department of Communities said.

The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) found that Extend (Australia) Pty Ltd, trading as Peter Carnley Anglican School Wellard OSHC, breached the Education and Care Service National Law (WA) Act for an offence involving inadequate supervision and imposed a penalty of $12,000 and
$2,000 costs.

“This is the fifth occasion this year where the Department has sought disciplinary action in the SAT against an approved service provider, where children have left a service unsupervised," Mr Payne said.

“Inadequate supervision has been found to be a factor in all of them.

“Childcare services need to provide appropriate levels of supervision and conduct and record regular and accurate headcounts."