Attributable to United Workers Union Early Education Director Carolyn Smith:
Early educators nationwide will be shocked by the criminal targeting and abuse of children in care revealed in today’s media reporting.
Educators dedicate their working lives to ensuring children have the best start in life, and it is deeply upsetting to them when the trust of children and parents is broken.
The fact that children in Early Childhood Education and Care are targeted and abused by organised, predatory criminals makes it even more important that providers are in the best possible position to protect against these attacks.
In our view the central protection we have consistently raised is addressing understaffing, which impacts on children’s safety and wellbeing.
As raised in the Four Corners report, in a major United Workers Union survey released in July, 77 per cent of educators said their rooms were understaffed at least weekly.
Unfortunately, profit-making providers are the leading examples of providers regularly falling short in providing safe levels of staffing.
An end to loopholes that allow understaffing (known as under-the-roof ratios), more training to support educators in recognising and reporting issues, inclusion support for children requiring additional support and better wages to encourage long-term, experienced workers in stay in the sector – these are all essential to children’s safety.
On behalf of all educators, it’s also worth stating these confronting and devastating crimes are committed by bad actors who have no place in early childhood education and care, and these people are reviled by early educators who dedicate their working life to children.