The Turnbull Government has for the first time published the details of child care services that have been the subject of enforcement action as it continues its crackdown on dodgy providers.
Minister for Education and Training Simon Birmingham said the publication of the Child Care Enforcement Action Register would mean providers who rort the system would no longer have anywhere to hide.
“This register should serve as a warning to providers that if you’re non-compliant and do the wrong thing you will be hung out to dry,” Minister Birmingham said.
“Whilst the overwhelming majority of providers are legitimate and provide high quality care, those who go down the wrong path should be held to account for their actions.
“Parents should be able to access the information necessary to make informed choices when deciding on a child care service and have confidence that they are entrusting the care of their children to a compliant and reputable provider.
“This is about making sure the track record of child care providers is crystal clear to families.”
The register shows compliance action by the Department of Education and Training in 2016-17 led to 141 sanctions and immediate cancellations with the majority imposed on Family Day Care services.
Minister Birmingham said the introduction of the register was one of a suite of compliance measures the Turnbull Government had introduced to target providers who seek to deliberately rort the system or fail to provide the high standard of care expected.
“The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) acknowledges in their recent audit report that we’ve removed a lot of risk from the system through actions such as establishing a serious non-compliance taskforce and significantly increasing the level of monitoring activities,” Minister Birmingham said.
“This compliance action has been pivotal to the estimated $1.8 billion in child care fee assistance that has been prevented from flowing to unscrupulous providers since the beginning of 2014.
“The measures the Turnbull Government has introduced continue to improve the integrity of the child care system and protect taxpayers and families.
“This includes carrying out more than 3800 compliance checks in 2016-17 and is in stark contrast to Labor who in 2012-13 carried out only 523 compliance checks and failed to suspend or cancel a single provider.
“The Turnbull Government’s new child care package, which kicks off on 2 July will also provide additional compliance powers to crack down on rorters while investing more to help those families who need it most.”
The new Compliance Action Register will be updated on a quarterly basis and is available at: www.education.gov.au/child-care-enforcement-action-register.