G8 Education welcomes the communique from the special purpose Education Ministers Meeting on child safety in early childhood education and care (ECEC) recommending significant improvements to approaches to child safety and protection across Australia.

As one of Australia’s largest providers of early learning services, G8 Education remains committed to working collaboratively with the Federal Government and State and Territory Governments to improve the safety and wellbeing of children in early learning environments.

“We know this has been an incredibly difficult time for families across Australia. We support the efforts of the Federal Government to fast track strengthened safety measures within the early childhood education and care sector,” said Mr Pejman Okhovat, CEO and Managing Director of G8 Education.

“In particular, G8 Education welcomes the introduction of a new National Educator Register and mandatory child safety training for all individuals working in the early childhood education and care sector.”

“While there is no single silver bullet when it comes to improving child safety measures, the introduction of a National Educator Register is a significant step forward that will provide more transparency for providers and prevent individuals who are unfit to work with children from moving undetected through the sector,” Mr Okhovat said.

“We also welcome the decisive action from Federal Education Minister Jason Clare to introduce an assessment of CCTV to inform best practice use including privacy, storage and other matters, to ensure we get that approach right. G8 Education has committed to accelerating the rollout of CCTV to all our centres across Australia, as part of our approach to continuously enhance our child safety policies, procedures and processes.”

“G8 Education has strongly advocated for national harmonisation of policies, procedures and processes, and we welcome the opportunity to continue to work with Governments across Australia to ensure the highest standards of care and protection for every child in early learning environments.”

Our commitment to safety – what we already have in place

At G8 Education, the following child safe policies and procedures are already in place in all G8 Education centres, including:

• prohibiting personal devices in rooms in centres;

• delivering thorough and ongoing education and training with centre teams, including in respect of Child Safety and Child Safeguarding;

• ensuring that physical and online environments promote child safety and wellbeing, including investment in cyber security measures;

• ensuring that all required team member reference and background checks are performed, including ensuring that valid Working with Children Checks (WWCC) are in place during employment and that all Early Childhood Teachers hold state specific teacher registration;

• all team members are designated Mandatory Reporters and are legally required to report any disclosure, concern or reasonable suspicion that a child is experiencing harm or if they are at risk of harm; and

• actively encouraging the confidential and anonymous reporting of any concerns related to reportable conduct, in accordance with our Whistleblower Policy.

Our commitment to continuous improvement – additional actions G8 Education is taking

G8 Education is committed to continuous improvement in its policies and processes, as well as improving its practices, and will be taking the following actions:

• Following the trial of CCTV in several of our centres, we will accelerate the rollout of CCTV to all of our centres.

• Giving parents the opportunity to provide preferences on who supports their child’s intimate care routines, including nappy changes and toileting.

• Following the conclusion of the police investigation and criminal proceedings, G8 Education will commission an independent review into the incident to inform further changes and improvements to our child safety procedures within the organisation.