Territory Childcare Group Director Sarah Lloyd welcomes a string of Federal reforms being rolled out in childcare centres, including a ban on personal devices and vaping and 24-hour mandatory reporting after a spate of alleged assaults on kids in care across the country

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
New rules designed to keep kids safe from the complex
issues facing territory childcare centers are soon going to come
into effect. The Federal Education Minister Jason Clair announcing reforms
last week, saying Australians was shocked and sickened by a
series of revelations of alleged sexual and physical abuse of
children in childcare over the past few months. Now, as

(00:23):
a result well and in response, those leaders have agreed
to a number of safety reforms, including a ban on
mobile phones from September, a national trial of CCTV in
centers and more unannounced spot checks, and a national education register.
Now joining us on the line to talk more about
this is Territory child Care Group Director Sarah Lloyd. Good morning, Sarah,

(00:49):
Good morning, Sarah. Great to have you on the show.
What was your reaction to this suite of reforms that
were announced by the federal minister last week.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah. I think it was a part way to what
we were all looking for. I think there's some really
good things in there, including you know, the increased compliance
sex and you know that brings normality that it's happening
more frequently. I think the reforms that are coming in
like today effectively we're very on the cards. Everybody knew

(01:22):
about it. Vaping was just an extension of the already
tobacco laws. There's been the model policy out for electronic
devices for quite a long time, and I think that
you know, now it's just coming to force, I guess
as of today.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
So Sarah, tell us a little bit more about the
you know, about the changes that come in today, exactly
what they are. And I know you've already touched on
the fact that you know, I guess you guys could
see them coming and you knew what to expect.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Yeah, So the personal devices has always been a bit
of a contentious issue, you know, in the day, in
the age of the mobile phone, but I think in
a majority of services would already have a policy that
you can't have your personal devices on the floor. Apple
watches will be an interesting space to see where they
go because some of the wording is around whether it

(02:12):
can capture images, and a watch technically can't capture an image,
but it is like a personal device, So that be
interesting to see where that sort of lands as we
go through this. The vaping, I think, you guess vaping
is one of those things you can't necessarily tell people
are doing it like tobacco, but I think most education

(02:35):
and care services would be pretty clear on no vaping
or around the service. And the third one that comes
in today is that all notifiable incidences must be reported
within twenty four hours. I think that's pretty standard practice
across the board now anyway as well. So this suite

(02:55):
of reforms I don't think any great expected consequences coming
out of that.

Speaker 1 (03:02):
What about you know, some of the other things that
they're flagging, you know, looking at changing down the track,
I guess in terms of CCTV in the centers for example,
and I know the National Education Register. It's something that's
been spoken about for a little while. Now. What do
you think of some of those changes.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, I think the register's a really good idea. You know,
a lot of people have been calling for like a
professional register for a long time. I think that that's
a welcome and pretty sort of straightforward initiative, and you know,
will allow people to track and not do that center
hopping if they've been flagged. The CCTV, I think, is
a whole nother mind you know, like a mindfield of issues.

(03:45):
I think services are already a bit of a fish
bowl there's lots of eyes on in and around, and
I do think that there are invocations around privacy and
fair work and all sorts with the CCTV. So I
understand they're doing a trial with three hundred services. Be
interesting to see what comes out of that. What I

(04:06):
think is the will be bring the biggest impact is
the national child safety training because that's what we need,
is we need like whistleblowers, we need people to know
what we're looking for and we speak out when they
think something's gone, you know, something's not right, and have
hopefully have protections in amongst that. I think that's the key,
the key bit of this change.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Well, the thing that I'm hearing really loudly and clearly,
you know, from from childcare workers and educators is that
you're actually, you know, you want things to be stringent
because you know what's happened in recent months is it's
it's so not the way that the large majority of
wonderful childcare centers operate.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Yeah, absolutely right, And I think that you know, educators
attacking a bit of a bit of a blow with
all the media coverage and sort of dispresumption of guilt,
you know, or no trust can broadly across services, and
we're really talking about a really tiny percentage. I mean,
any percentage is too much for you know, significant harm.

(05:12):
But what's happened is everything's got swept up in this.
You know, they're talking about publishing compliance breaches. You know,
a compliance breach can be a very tiny administrative thing,
like a certificate's not in a folder, and that's getting
you know, potentially lumped in with you know, significant compliance
breaches which are a risk, you know, to children. It'd

(05:35):
be interesting to see how they unpack that too, because
a compliance breach, I think, is not what people think
it is. They think it's big, major things, but it
can be very small things as well, which are considered
considered to be a compliant breach.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Yeah, I mean what kind of things can be considered
a compliance breach?

Speaker 2 (05:53):
Can it be well, expired band aid who knew that
band aids have expiring dates on them? I don't know
an enrollment form where they've not listed the child's medical
practitioner for their breach of compliance. There's lots of you know,
lots of tiny, tiny things that there aren't materially of
any risk to anyone, but it would still be considered

(06:13):
to be a compliance breach.

Speaker 1 (06:17):
Now in terms of you know, the safeguards that have
been announced, the changes that come into place today, do
you think there are other safeguards that you know, are
there other things that you'd like to see happening in
the Northern Territory or do you think the changes that
are going to be implemented go far enough?

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Well, the register will in part do what I think
needs to be done is around that reference checking, which
I guess is that tracking who has access to that
as a provider. That bit we don't know yet, you know,
I would definitely you know, for us reference checking previously.
You know, the most recent employer is a big part

(06:53):
of it. So whether whether that captures that or not,
but I would have liked to have seen more I
guess explicit HR mandated around employment and employee how processes
of employment.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Well, Sarah, it's really good to speak with you this morning.
Always good to catch up with you. I appreciate your
time and thank you for sort of giving us a
bit further detail about these changes and what they're going
to mean. Thank you any Thanks so much,