{"id":72137,"date":"2025-10-29T14:47:53","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T03:47:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/?p=72137"},"modified":"2025-10-29T15:35:20","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T04:35:20","slug":"statement-in-response-to-four-corners-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/media-release\/statement-in-response-to-four-corners-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement in response to Four Corners episode"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"72137\" class=\"elementor elementor-72137\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3015281f e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"3015281f\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-e-type=\"container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6d37e35f sc_fly_static elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"6d37e35f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Attributable\u00a0to\u00a0United Workers Union Early Education Director Carolyn Smith:<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Early educators nationwide will be shocked by the criminal targeting and abuse of children in care revealed in today\u2019s media reporting. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Educators dedicate\u202ftheir\u202fworking\u00a0lives\u00a0to ensuring\u00a0children\u00a0have the best start in life, and\u00a0it is deeply upsetting to them when the trust of children and parents is broken.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The fact that\u00a0children\u00a0in\u00a0Early Childhood Education and Care are\u00a0targeted\u00a0and\u00a0abused\u00a0by\u00a0organised,\u00a0predatory\u00a0criminals\u00a0makes\u00a0it even more important that\u00a0providers are in the best possible position to\u00a0protect\u00a0against these attacks.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In our view the central protection we have consistently raised is addressing understaffing, which\u00a0impacts\u00a0on children\u2019s safety and wellbeing. \u202f<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As raised in the Four Corners report,\u00a0in a major\u00a0United Workers Union\u00a0survey released in July,\u00a077 per cent of educators said\u00a0their rooms\u00a0were understaffed at least weekly.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Unfortunately,\u00a0profit-making providers\u00a0are\u00a0the leading examples of\u00a0providers\u00a0regularly\u00a0falling short in providing\u00a0safe levels of staffing.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">An end to loopholes that allow understaffing (known as under-the-roof ratios), more training to support educators\u00a0in recognising and reporting\u00a0issues,\u00a0inclusion support for children requiring additional support\u00a0and better wages to encourage long-term, experienced workers in stay in the sector \u2013 these are\u00a0all\u00a0essential to children\u2019s safety.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">On behalf of all educators,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0also worth\u00a0stating\u00a0these confronting and devastating crimes are committed by\u00a0bad actors who have no place in early childhood\u00a0education and care, and these people\u00a0are reviled by early educators\u00a0who dedicate their working life to children.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attributable\u00a0to\u00a0United Workers Union Early Education Director Carolyn Smith:\u00a0 Early educators nationwide will be shocked by the criminal targeting and abuse of children in care revealed in today\u2019s media reporting. \u00a0 Educators dedicate\u202ftheir\u202fworking\u00a0lives\u00a0to ensuring\u00a0children\u00a0have&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":64749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-72137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media-release","tag-early-childhood-education"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72137"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72159,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72137\/revisions\/72159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/development.uwu.org.au\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}