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Four Corners exposed childcare again. The reforms didn’t touch the thing that’s broken
As early childhood education safety breaches hit the news again on ABC’s _Four Corners_ , many of us are left wondering if the recent reforms are working.
Over the past months, much has been done to tighten legislation to improve practices within the sector. This article explores the mandated changes and why the system still isn’t working.
After the horrific allegations of child abuse, alongside Adele Ferguson’s _Four Corners_ investigation last year, a suite of changes has been mandated.
**The mandated changes include:**
1. Early childhood services need to put children’s safety, rights and best interests at the centre of every decision made in the service.
2. Services have only 24 hours, rather than seven days, to report serious incidents or allegations of abuse.
3. Staff devices are banned when working with children, to reduce the chances of children’s photos being posted online or the creation of child pornography.
4. Staff registers are national, rather than state- and territory-based, to avoid the loopholes.
5. Child safety training has increased and is organised nationally.
6. Vaping bans on all early childhood service sites.
7. Compliance (or breaches) in safety matters is transparent through Government registers and signage.
8. The National Quality Standards (NQS) set by the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) were updated to include child safety within Quality Area 2 (Children’s Health and Safety) and Quality Area 7 (Governance and Leadership).
9. Maximum legislative penalties have tripled, and state and territory authorities have expanded powers to shut down services, suspend educators and enforce direct supervision. Federal funding has been withheld when services repeatedly breach safety regulations.
Additionally, more reforms are planned, including referee checks before hiring any staff (not just educators), more spot checks for services, and more mandatory training.
### Have the mandated changes worked?
Government figures show state and territory regulators doubled their compliance actions in the second quarter of 2026 compared with 2025. In the same quarter, they also rejected 20 times as many approvals as in the same quarter last year. Since May 2022, services meeting the National Quality Standards have risen from 88 per cent to 92 per cent. Staffing waivers in services are down almost half in the second quarter, compared to the previous year.
While the Government is proud of the uptake of the first wave of mandatory training at around 99 per cent, it is less clear if this has led to change in the services. Are educators more likely to report incidents as they are more likely to recognise the signs of child sexual grooming? Have abusive educators left the system in fear of being caught? Do they feel more comfortable reporting incidents as they understand the implications of being mandatory reporters?
## Why isn’t the system working yet?
It’s hard to gauge the full extent of the changes at this early stage. Many hurdles remain before we can fully realise the hope of having all children safe and well educated. This is partly due to the systems set up long ago and ad hoc actions to support staff shortages.
**Staff ratios**
While staff waivers have been reduced, over 4 per cent of services still use them, more likely in regional, rural, and remote communities where staffing is scarce. Additionally, ‘under the roof ratios’, and ‘family groupings’ are used and abused by services to reduce child-to-staff ratios. This means many staff are responsible for large numbers of children, especially at the start and close of each day. They can struggle to supervise appropriately, let alone see what other staff are doing.
**Educator pay and status**
Staffing shortages persist despite incentives for studying early childhood education. This is because, despite the 15 per cent wage rise for some educators, they are still paid far less than school teachers with the same qualification.
Despite the pay rise, educators still face high demands and low community status. People often see them as having fun with children rather than as trained professionals. Poor pay and low status combine to cause burnout and increased attrition. Staff shortages mean less suitable staff are more likely to be rostered, and staff issues are ignored.
**Precarious work**
In for-profit services, educators and other staff are more likely to be casual than in community- and government-owned services. This can mean they are less likely to speak up when issues occur as they fear they will not be rostered on.
_C_**hildcare deserts**
Georgie Dent, The Parenthood’s CEO, says childcare deserts affecting one in four families result from the current funding model. This model does not incentivise service provision in childcare deserts, where the operational costs are higher.
**Poor design**
Many early learning services are poorly designed, making it difficult for educators to supervise adequately because they cannot see from one room to the next.
**Questionable systems**
Overall, successive Governments have turned the education and care of our children into a commodity. Millions of taxpayer dollars are given to private companies, many owned by overseas companies, to provide early learning services. Private providers, many of whom are publicly listed companies, have been big winners.
To boost profits and keep shareholders happy, they pull on one of the easiest levers: staffing levels. This puts children’s safety at risk as staff ratios are met and educators can’t see what other educators are doing.
**Other services**
Over 450 services are not ACECQA-approved services, so they fall outside of the national regulations. This includes services such as Injinoo Childcare Centre in Queensland, run by NPA Family and Community Services, at the centre of recent abuse charges. Children in such services can be particularly vulnerable unless they meet high standards. Fortunately for this service, they installed CCTV cameras, although widespread use can present challenges.
Minister for Early Childhood Services, Jess Walsh, says they will bring these services into the national system. She says ‘there has been a reckoning in the system’ since Four Corners shed light on the sector’s issues in 2025. She says the Government’s reforms are ‘on track’. For example, she says 120 have been put on notice, about half have improved, and the others have lost funding.
**System failures**
The Four Corners program revealed several system challenges. Macquarie University’s Emeritus Professor Gabrielle Meagher has reviewed the number of breaches and argues that the system’s architecture is fundamentally the same. Some providers have high numbers of incidents over a long time. These can include breaches of staff-to-child ratios and staff shortages. Child care subsidies go to services regardless of care quality, location, or whether they are over-casualising their workforce.
‘Working towards’ qualification grace periods for educators are also worrying. That means that someone who is unqualified can be in charge of up to eight babies alone. The Government is reviewing these arrangements, originally introduced because of staff shortages.
Not-for-profit providers are less likely to have breaches and more likely to provide higher-quality care. These find it harder to compete with for-profit services because they employ more permanent and more qualified staff. About 70% of services are now for-profit, and this is growing. While some for-profit services can provide high-quality care, many do not.
While there have been improvements, we need to ask the big questions. Are we tinkering around the edges when we need major reform?
We need to remember that behind each safety breach is a child who is either potentially injured or traumatised. Behind each child is a family that may never trust the system again. This affects them, their parenting, the businesses and organisations that employ them, and the community they live in. Our children, parents and communities deserve a complete overhaul of the system.
**_The main image by Sissy Reyes is for theABC’s Four Corners program._ _It depicts the parents of one of the children who were abused._**
**This article was originally published onEduResearch Matters. Read the original article.**
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child safetychildcareearly childhood education
by Dr Marg Rogers
20 hours ago
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