Sector Update
16-month-old child left alone inside closed education and care service in Mirrabooka
June 2025
The Learning
At all times, reasonable precautions and adequate supervision must be implemented to ensure children at an education and care service are protected from harm and hazard. (National Quality Standard – Quality Area 2 Children’s health and safety)
Adequate supervision is knowing where children are at all times and monitoring their activities actively and diligently. For children who are sleeping this means educators can see and/or hear them and regular checks are conducted.
The importance of having adequate policies and procedures which are followed by staff cannot be underestimated. End-of-day procedures must be comprehensive and should not compromise supervision. A range of systems should be in place to track children in attendance. Prior to closing the service, each area must physically be checked, including sleeping areas, to ensure a child is not accidentally locked inside.
There are a range of resources which have been shared with the education and care sector regarding supervision and the importance of following policies and procedures.
- Policies and procedures: Not just a tick and flick - Queensland Regulatory Authority resource
- Active Supervision in 6 steps – ACECQA resource
- Active supervision - ECRU resource
- Adequate Supervision: a fundamental practice – ECRU resource
In addition, the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), Risk Assessment and Management Tool aims to help children’s education and care service approved providers, leaders, educators, teachers and staff to understand the importance of assessing and managing risk as an embedded part of quality practice and improvement.
It is extremely fortunate that in this case the young child was unharmed, but this incident is a timely reminder to all approved providers of education and care services to ensure their supervision policies and procedures are robust and strictly followed.
The Incident
A Department of Communities investigation found that in August 2024, a 16-month-old child was left alone for approximately 23 minutes in Busy Bees Mirrabooka after educators closed the centre and went home for the day, leaving the child inside.
The child’s mother arrived at the service at approximately 5:40pm to collect their child. However, the service was closed, unstaffed and with all the lights switched off. The service usually closes at 6pm. The mother contacted the approved provider, who stated that staff were returning to re-open the service.
At approximately 6:04pm, a staff member returned to the service and located the child, who was sleeping in a cot. The child was returned to their mother and appeared to be happy and in good health.
The Penalty
The State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) ordered the approved provider, Maragon Australia Pty Ltd, to pay a total of $17,500 including costs for contravening Section 165(1) of the Education and Care Services National Law (WA) Act 2012, for an offence relating to the inadequate supervision of a child.
More information on the SAT order is available on the eCourts website.
