Shocking rate of serious incidents at childcare centres exposed

The screams in the background were unmistakably from her son.

WARNING: This story contains graphic footage and imagery of injuries to a child.

An educator from the childcare centre had called to say there had been an incident and could someone come and collect him. From the sound of her child, she knew something was very wrong.

"His screams, I will never forget them," she said.

Fifteen minutes later her husband arrived at the Green Leaves Early Learning centre in Port Macquarie and saw his son's badly burned hand.

Graphic photos taken of the blistered hand and a video provided to 7.30 by the child's mother show her young son crying in intense pain, while given oxygen during medical treatment in hospital.

The raw and confronting vision shows the severity of the injury. Despite the obvious trauma, the centre did not call an ambulance.

Green Leaves told 7.30 first aid had been applied and "based on the initial assessment, the injury did not appear to be severe".

The incident occurred in a bottle warming area, a space children are not normally allowed for safety reasons, but the child had been crying and the educator decided to bring him in.

The child's mother, who asked not to be named for privacy reasons, and who we will call Kate, said the burns were so deep they drove to Sydney overnight and their son was admitted to Westmead Children's Hospital amid fears he might lose his middle finger.

An ABC investigation earlier revealed a Snapchat video of a baby girl being slapped four times by an educator for entertainment, along with many other disturbing incidents including CCTV footage of children being abused, at a series of centres in one of the country's biggest privately owned childcare companies, Affinity Education, which runs 250 centres and is owned by private equity operator Quadrant.

The footage sparked national outrage with parents, educators and experts as the calls grow louder for a national parliamentary inquiry or royal commission and urgent reform of a system in crisis. 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has declared childcare a central part of his political legacy. 

However the government has so far focused almost entirely on affordability — pouring billions into subsidies — while doing little to confront the systemic failures in safety, staffing, and care standards that affect children every day. 

Verbal abuse and threats

For the last eight months ABC Investigations has exposed deep, structural problems in the $20 billion childcare industry, including a rising number of serious incidents at some of the country's large for-profit providers, which now represent three quarters of long day care centres.

Among them is Green Leaves, which operates 67 centres nationally and is half-owned by private equity firm Crescent Capital. It has opened 14 centres since the beginning of 2023.

In its Albury centre, educators were documented using inappropriate and harmful discipline in 2021. In one incident, a child was forcefully placed on a chair and told, "You are dumb as a dog."

On another occasion, an educator was heard threatening a child: "If you wake the other children today, I'm going to backhand you."

According to regulatory documents, the NSW regulator issued a breach letter and took no further action.

Thousands of pages of regulatory documents obtained in a parliamentary order in NSW, initiated by NSW Greens MP Abigail Boyd, reveal a troubling pattern of non-compliance across childcare centres, including at two Green Leaves centres.

At its Port Macquarie centre, regulatory inspectors in 2024 found staffing shortfalls, supervision failures, inadequate record-keeping and missing child protection policies. Despite repeated regulatory visits, the regulator responded with warnings.

The revelations — across the sector — have sparked a parliamentary inquiry in NSW, chaired by Ms Boyd, and prompted widespread calls for reform including the creation of a national early childhood commission to oversee standards and enforcement in the sector.

Compensation and NDA refused

Kate said the burn to her son's hand changed her family's lives. 

They had moved to Port Macquarie in early 2018, but after the incident later that year and the numerous medical appointments that followed, they made the decision to relocate back to Sydney, to be closer to specialist care.

She said Green Leaves offered compensation on the condition the family sign a non-disclosure agreement — an offer they refused.

She said she told them they needed to do better, so that no other child would go through the same trauma.

"My children attended the same childcare centre from January to November 2018, during which we witnessed a high turnover of staff, some staying just for a few weeks, including the centre manager," she said.

In a statement, Green Leaves said the educator involved in Kate's son's case was stood down while an investigation was conducted and their employment was subsequently terminated.

"Green Leaves Early Learning's managing director travelled to visit the family in person shortly after the incident, and also to support the educators at the centre, who were understandably distressed," the statement read.

"This remains the only incident of its kind to have occurred in one of our centres in our 10 years of operation."

Ms Boyd said one of the most shocking things in the many reports of compliance breaches across various childcare operators was how common it was for centres not to have accurate records including whether ratios are being met. 

"We just continue to see these centres not doing the very basic things that they're supposed to do," she told 7.30.

"Time after time we are seeing this sort of weak response from the regulator in the face of horrible incidents.

"Children deal with the consequences of this sort of behaviour their whole lives, but those responsible get away with just a slap on the wrist. 

"In such a low regulatory risk environment, is it any surprise we see these private companies cutting corners and doing what they can get away with?"

Failure after failure at Port Macquarie centre

In August 2023 the NSW regulator issued a warning letter to Green Leaves' Port Macquarie centre following an anonymous tip about staffing, ratios, and supervision concerns. 

Inspectors had visited the centre twice — in June and again in August 2023 — and uncovered significant lapses: inaccurate attendance and staffing records which it said meant that mandatory child-to-staff ratios could not be verified.

On multiple occasions, it noted that educators were either not signed in, signed in twice, or absent from records despite children still being present.

The regulator issued regulatory guidance and directed the centre to review its record-keeping processes.

In May 2024 there were still issues at the centre. A regulatory officer found further non-compliance, including evidence that the centre was not meeting the required staff-to-child ratios and was operating with expired staffing waivers. 

A staffing waiver allows less qualified staff to work at the centre. Centres are required to have qualified educators or early childhood teachers.

The regulator told the centre to fix the issues and "where possible, attach evidence to support your actions and show that you are now complying with the National Law and Regulations."

In January 2025, another inspection uncovered at the Port Macquarie centre revealed compliance issues including missing records of staff qualifications, understaffing that failed to meet mandatory ratios, lack of approved waivers for staff in training, and a missing key child protection policy.

The NSW regulator issued a fresh compliance notice, asking the centre to address the issues and where possible attach evidence to show they had been addressed.

Green Leaves told the ABC that in 2023 and early 2024, there were "some instances where internal documentation and record-keeping did not meet the high standards that we set for ourselves." It said the issues outlined were identified and addressed.

It said at no point was the centre operating below the required staff ratios. "However, on the day of one inspection, the documentation of ratios was incomplete. The matter was closed by the Department."

'Unreasonable' discipline, no action

NSW regulatory documents also show issues relating to inappropriate discipline at its Albury centre.

For instance in August 2021 an educator used excessive negative language and shouted at children, saying "stop" repeatedly and saying, "Alright everyone in-f***ing-side now." The educator was given a warning.

In December 2022, an educator grabbed a child by the wrist, pulled them to the ground, dragged them into a classroom, and blocked their return by pressing a hand against the child's chest. 

Just weeks later, in January 2023, the same educator was seen yelling at a child, yanking their wrist, and forcefully pushing them away from a door until another staff member intervened.

The regulator noted the educator had also been the subject of earlier misconduct reports at Goodstart Early Learning Albury between May and October 2022. Despite the pattern of behaviour, the regulator chose to issue only a formal caution.

In November 2022 at the same centre an educator used discipline that was "unreasonable" when a child was chased and picked up and placed in a bear hug. 

"You tried to grab [child's name redacted] arm and held onto the back of the jumper and the child fell to the ground," the regulatory report said.

The regulator issued a notice saying it would not take any further action.

Green Leaves said in December 2022, an incident was reported by the company to the NSW Department of Education. 

It told the ABC the allegations were investigated and not substantiated, but the educator's employment ended during probation. 

No breach was recorded against Green Leaves.

It told the ABC a September 2021 incident was reported by Green Leaves to the NSW Department of Education and the educator was formally warned and left the organisation. 

The matter was investigated by the Department and closed. No breach was recorded against Green Leaves.

Childcare centres are meant to have a quality rating. Ten per cent don't and another 10 per cent don't meet the national quality standards. Even for those that are rated, assessments occur on average once every four years.

Among Green Leaves' 67 centres, eleven have never been rated and six are currently rated as "working towards" the standard, meaning they are failing to meet the standards. Of the rest, 47 are meeting the standards and just three are rated "exceeding".

'Why let them continue?'

The crisis in childcare has prompted warnings from experts, politicians and parents, who want pro-active enforcement, an independent early learning commission and better enforcement of the quality standards.

Dr Caroline Croser-Barlow, who served as executive director of the South Australian Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care and is now CEO of The Front Project — a think tank focused on improving outcomes in the childcare sector — said the alarming incidents revealed by the ABC's investigation show how important it is that Commonwealth and states exercise leadership and pull the levers available to them to ensure children are safe.

"A jointly funded national Early Learning Commission would help solve this," Dr Croser-Barlow said.

"Governments need to stop pointing the finger at each other and instead come to the table to develop solutions. 

"The system isn't broken, it just reflects the current funding and policy settings."

Public policy expert on early education and care Lisa Bryant said the growing influence of private equity and corporate providers had shifted priorities and they were in it for one reason: profit.

"The things that keep children safe — experienced, well-trained educators and adequate staffing — eat into those profits," she said.

"We need a decision to push the providers the ABC have exposed out now. We know who they are. Why let them continue?"

Green Leaves said: "We are constantly improving and innovating our centres through extensive policies and procedures, training, centre design and the way we build teams, so that all children are safe, supported and thriving in our care."

In 2024, there were six breaches at Green Leaves Early Learning services.

A spokesman for the NSW Regulator said: "The action we take is proportionate to the breach."

NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning Prue Car said these incidents are deeply distressing.

"Our government fully acknowledges that more must be done to crack down on this kind of behaviour — and to ensure the public is better informed when regulatory action is taken," Ms Car said in a statement.

Ms Car said she had commissioned a review of the regulator and an interim report would be released soon.

"We will not hesitate to act on any recommendations that help ensure childcare in NSW is safe and of the highest quality."

"The interim report is due to me shortly, and we will not hesitate to act on any recommendations that help ensure childcare in NSW is safe and of the highest quality."

Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV