Latest news with #LindaHowlett
Sydney Morning Herald
7 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘That's all they care about, is money': Childcare chain sets debt collectors on assaulted kid's mother
Edge, a for-profit childcare chain owned by private equity firms, only cancelled the debt collection process after being contacted by A Current Affair this week. A spokesperson for Edge said the company 'understands these circumstances are sensitive and the collection process has been cancelled'. More shocking alleged child abuse cases are emerging including one exposed at a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry by one of the state's top cops. Commander of the NSW Police Child Abuse Squad, Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett, revealed to the inquiry on Thursday a disturbing case of a childcare worker dropping a seven-month-old baby and fracturing its leg in two places but not notifying parents. 'The child was only taken to the hospital a week later where that child sustained a significant injury and was obviously in distress for a number of days,' Howlett said. Loading A New South Wales police spokesperson confirmed the incident happened at Dapto in June and a 27-year-old female childcare worker had been charged with neglect of a child in her care. The centre has not been named but Howlett claims it not only failed to notify parents but actively tried to cover the case up. 'When we approached the centre, they actually denied anything took place. It was the CCTV that we obtained, we saw the actual injuries and how the actual injury took place,' she said. Discovering the full extent of a childcare centre's history is almost impossible in Australia given the secrecy in how the industry is regulated. Loading Families are directed to a government website which is run by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) to find 'trusted information' about safety standards at the 16,000 centres nationally. But a search of Edge Early Learning, Morayfield, reveals it is 'meeting National Quality Standards' and that 'your child is made to feel supported and welcomed' and 'plays in a safe well-maintained environment.' There is no mention of the two assaults 18 months ago or the former centre director failing to notify parents. Another case involving Le Smileys Early Learning Centre at Gracemere made national headlines in 2022 after a three-year-old child was left on a bus for six hours, suffering heat stress so severe she was given a 5 per cent chance of survival. The Rockhampton centre operators pleaded guilty to 4 charges and were fined $50,000 in a Queensland court. But there's no mention of that on the Starting Blocks website, it too is 'meeting National Quality Standards' and keeping children safe. Another case involves John Paul College, in Daisy Hill south of Brisbane, after school care which is deemed to be 'exceeding National Quality Standards' according to the trusted government website, even though it was prosecuted and fined $15,000 for allowing two six-year-olds to wander off more than two kilometres, on their own. Chey Carter from Divergent Education says it's hard for even those in the industry to know where to find compliance information. 'Families, unless they know where to go, they also won't find that information,' Carter said. 'It's hit-and-miss. You go in just hoping that you're making the best decision.' An ACECQA spokesperson said it is working with regulators to 'receive the approval to publish more compliance information' on 'All governments are improving transparency so families can better understand how early childhood education and care services are regulated and monitored,' the spokesperson said. 'This will be a key area of focus when Education Ministers meet on 22 August to discuss a range of measures for improving child safety.' How the National Quality Standard ratings are assessed is also cause for concern. The Edge centre at Morayfield had its rating assessed in April, which involves officers from Queensland's Early Childhood Regulatory Authority observing the centre for a day, or two at the most. The centre receives seven days notice to prepare for that visit and put its best foot forward. The Regulatory Authority decided Edge was meeting the national quality standards even though it had already taken compliance action over the assault of two children. The details of that compliance action remains hidden from the public. The Education Department told A Current Affair it is 'unable to publish compliance action that is taken against an individual educator as this is protected information under the act'. Professor Leah Bromfield runs the Australian Centre for Child Protection and oversaw research on the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse a decade ago. 'Transparency, to me, is an absolute first principle when it comes to responding to abuse and neglect,' she said. 'As a country, I think we thought we'd done this, we had learned about the dangers to children and institutions, and we'd learned. We built a huge amount of evidence about what to do differently. 'When this is kept a secret, the only winners are perpetrators and the reputation of institutions. We are not keeping the best interests of children at the centre of what we're doing.' Placing privacy provisions above the safety of children is what helped Australia's worst paedophile Ashley Griffith continue his vile offending at childcare centres for almost two decades. The Queensland Regulatory Authority has found a number of breaches by the centres where he was employed but won't reveal which ones have been hit with any compliance action. The breaches include 'failing to notify serious incidents within required timeframes, use of inappropriate or unreasonable discipline and failure to accurately record incidents or notify parents and guardians within prescribed timeframes'. One victim's father tried to warn the broader public about the regulator's secrecy after Griffith was sentenced to a minimum 27 years in prison for his crimes last year. 'Parents are walking their children into these centres today with a false sense of security in its excellence rating,' he said. 'Their kids are having naps on the same cots other kids were raped on, being watched by the same staff who failed to stop it from happening.' Whilst keeping the names of individual centres secret, a spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Education said the Regulatory Authority has 'communicated emerging findings and recommendations for prevention measures with the early childhood education and care sector'. 'Critically, the RA has also communicated the findings of the investigations completed to date to the Queensland Family and Child Commission, to inform the System Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Review currently under way,' the spokesperson said.
The Age
7 hours ago
- The Age
‘That's all they care about, is money': Childcare chain sets debt collectors on assaulted kid's mother
Edge, a for-profit childcare chain owned by private equity firms, only cancelled the debt collection process after being contacted by A Current Affair this week. A spokesperson for Edge said the company 'understands these circumstances are sensitive and the collection process has been cancelled'. More shocking alleged child abuse cases are emerging including one exposed at a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry by one of the state's top cops. Commander of the NSW Police Child Abuse Squad, Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett, revealed to the inquiry on Thursday a disturbing case of a childcare worker dropping a seven-month-old baby and fracturing its leg in two places but not notifying parents. 'The child was only taken to the hospital a week later where that child sustained a significant injury and was obviously in distress for a number of days,' Howlett said. Loading A New South Wales police spokesperson confirmed the incident happened at Dapto in June and a 27-year-old female childcare worker had been charged with neglect of a child in her care. The centre has not been named but Howlett claims it not only failed to notify parents but actively tried to cover the case up. 'When we approached the centre, they actually denied anything took place. It was the CCTV that we obtained, we saw the actual injuries and how the actual injury took place,' she said. Discovering the full extent of a childcare centre's history is almost impossible in Australia given the secrecy in how the industry is regulated. Loading Families are directed to a government website which is run by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) to find 'trusted information' about safety standards at the 16,000 centres nationally. But a search of Edge Early Learning, Morayfield, reveals it is 'meeting National Quality Standards' and that 'your child is made to feel supported and welcomed' and 'plays in a safe well-maintained environment.' There is no mention of the two assaults 18 months ago or the former centre director failing to notify parents. Another case involving Le Smileys Early Learning Centre at Gracemere made national headlines in 2022 after a three-year-old child was left on a bus for six hours, suffering heat stress so severe she was given a 5 per cent chance of survival. The Rockhampton centre operators pleaded guilty to 4 charges and were fined $50,000 in a Queensland court. But there's no mention of that on the Starting Blocks website, it too is 'meeting National Quality Standards' and keeping children safe. Another case involves John Paul College, in Daisy Hill south of Brisbane, after school care which is deemed to be 'exceeding National Quality Standards' according to the trusted government website, even though it was prosecuted and fined $15,000 for allowing two six-year-olds to wander off more than two kilometres, on their own. Chey Carter from Divergent Education says it's hard for even those in the industry to know where to find compliance information. 'Families, unless they know where to go, they also won't find that information,' Carter said. 'It's hit-and-miss. You go in just hoping that you're making the best decision.' An ACECQA spokesperson said it is working with regulators to 'receive the approval to publish more compliance information' on 'All governments are improving transparency so families can better understand how early childhood education and care services are regulated and monitored,' the spokesperson said. 'This will be a key area of focus when Education Ministers meet on 22 August to discuss a range of measures for improving child safety.' How the National Quality Standard ratings are assessed is also cause for concern. The Edge centre at Morayfield had its rating assessed in April, which involves officers from Queensland's Early Childhood Regulatory Authority observing the centre for a day, or two at the most. The centre receives seven days notice to prepare for that visit and put its best foot forward. The Regulatory Authority decided Edge was meeting the national quality standards even though it had already taken compliance action over the assault of two children. The details of that compliance action remains hidden from the public. The Education Department told A Current Affair it is 'unable to publish compliance action that is taken against an individual educator as this is protected information under the act'. Professor Leah Bromfield runs the Australian Centre for Child Protection and oversaw research on the Royal Commission into Child Sexual Abuse a decade ago. 'Transparency, to me, is an absolute first principle when it comes to responding to abuse and neglect,' she said. 'As a country, I think we thought we'd done this, we had learned about the dangers to children and institutions, and we'd learned. We built a huge amount of evidence about what to do differently. 'When this is kept a secret, the only winners are perpetrators and the reputation of institutions. We are not keeping the best interests of children at the centre of what we're doing.' Placing privacy provisions above the safety of children is what helped Australia's worst paedophile Ashley Griffith continue his vile offending at childcare centres for almost two decades. The Queensland Regulatory Authority has found a number of breaches by the centres where he was employed but won't reveal which ones have been hit with any compliance action. The breaches include 'failing to notify serious incidents within required timeframes, use of inappropriate or unreasonable discipline and failure to accurately record incidents or notify parents and guardians within prescribed timeframes'. One victim's father tried to warn the broader public about the regulator's secrecy after Griffith was sentenced to a minimum 27 years in prison for his crimes last year. 'Parents are walking their children into these centres today with a false sense of security in its excellence rating,' he said. 'Their kids are having naps on the same cots other kids were raped on, being watched by the same staff who failed to stop it from happening.' Whilst keeping the names of individual centres secret, a spokesperson for the Queensland Department of Education said the Regulatory Authority has 'communicated emerging findings and recommendations for prevention measures with the early childhood education and care sector'. 'Critically, the RA has also communicated the findings of the investigations completed to date to the Queensland Family and Child Commission, to inform the System Responses to Child Sexual Abuse Review currently under way,' the spokesperson said.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Childcare workers with ‘red flags' should be on database to prevent them ‘shopping around' for lax centres, inquiry told
The head of the New South Wales police child sex abuse squad has called for the creation of a national database of childcare workers who have had 'red flags' raised that fall short of criminal prosecution. Giving evidence before a government inquiry into the early childhood education sector in NSW, Det Supt Linda Howlett said such a database would allow centres to share intelligence about former employees who have faced serious allegations that didn't result in criminal charges. They are still allowed to work with children. 'I personally would like to see a database that actually has all those red flags included in it,' Howlett said on Thursday. 'At the end of the day, the offenders that we've actually charged, and a number of them are quite high profile, have never had a criminal history. They have a working with children check and that's the issue.' Howlett's call goes significantly further than the proposed 'national register' of childcare workers that has been put forward by the federal education minister, Jason Clare, in the wake of horrifying allegations of sexual abuse of children at daycares across Melbourne by a childcare worker. Clare has suggested a register – containing details of staff and where they have worked – would assist in protecting children. However, a Guardian investigation last month revealed that most childcare workers who are reported to police or the childcare regulators for allegations of child abuse are allowed to continue working with children, because police and childcare regulators struggle to block them from continued employment if the claim doesn't result in a criminal conviction. A 2023 review of the childcare regulatory system, conducted by the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (Acecqa), found many cases of alleged abuse came down to 'a child's word against an educator's' resulting in 'unsubstantiated claims where no further action is taken'. Childcare services 'have no way to share this information with another approved provider considering employing that person unless they are contacted as a referee,' it said. Howlett said that she understood there were legal and privacy issues regarding any database that tracked allegations that had not been proven. But she said child safety concerns should take preecedence. She said perpetrators 'need access to the children, that's the main aim, and they will do anything to get that'. 'So they'll stay under the radar … what they'll do is they shop around. They'll look for centres that aren't doing the right thing, and that's where they have the opportunity to offend.' Howlett said some of red flags that might be noted on a database could include people who work across many centres, whom she said may be 'centre shopping'; as well as reasons people have been fired from a previous childcare centre. It could also detail any allegations about their behaviour. 'Obviously, we can't crucify people. You know, people have got their rights … but that's why I think a database should exist… so then that information should be recorded,' she said. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Rachael Ward, the acting children's guardian for NSW, said it could be beneficial to implement a register for childcare workers similar to the one for the out-of-home care system in NSW. 'We have an out-of-home care register, which has a flag system … and that does alert other out-of-home care providers if there is a red flag. 'It just means 'contact me for further information'. It doesn't say what the allegations are, it's just that 'I have … information that may be of use to you if you're going to employ this person'. I do wonder if there'd be a register that could be created in a similar vein.' Howlett warned that parents who suspect their children have been abused at a childcare centre should not notify the centre director – but instead go straight to police or the regulator to report incidents. 'My advice to parents and my advice to anyone would be, do not approach the director of the centre,' said Howlett. 'They shouldn't be doing that, as far as I'm concerned, they're tipping off the educator or the centre about what's taken place.' Howlett said that childcare directors who receive reports of abuse from parents may act out of 'self-preservation' and potentially downplay the allegations and seek to discourage parents from official reporting. 'I'm sorry, I'm probably a little cynical, but the director, first of all, doesn't want to lose the business. Money's involved and they don't want this centre to get a bad reputation.'
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
NSW Police worried child abusers who 'shop around' care centres are going undetected
The head of NSW Police's Child Abuse Squad has detailed how offenders are moving between childcare centres without being detected. A state parliamentary inquiry into child care on Thursday examined the police processes for investigating cases of neglect and abuse in the sector. Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett, the Commander of the State Crime Command's Child Abuse Squad, told the inquiry offenders were likely to "shop around" and work at childcare centres that did not have strong measures in place to prevent abuse. She said this meant crucial "red flags" were being missed. "What people don't really understand is a lot of these offenders are very, very smart, they've got a name in mind," Superintendent Howlett said. "So what they will do is they will centre shop, they'll go to a number of centres and work there. And if they've got the appropriate systems in place that they can't offend, they'll move on to the next centre. Superintendent Howlett said her squad — which has about 235 staff across the state — was working to identify these workers. But she said it was difficult because police did not have access to information on why they had moved between centres. "I personally would like to see a database that actually has all those red flags included in it," she said. "It might not lead to a criminal offence but it should be what I consider to be intel-based." An added challenge, Superintendent Howlett said, was a reluctance among parents and educators to report incidents to police. "My advice to parents and to anyone would be, do not approach the director of the centre," she said. "Because at the end of the day, I'm probably a little cynical, but the director doesn't want to lose the business, they don't want a bad reputation, they're in panic mode because parents are then thinking that their children have abused." Superintendent Howlett pointed to examples where parents had approached the centre and had been "talked out" of taking any allegations further. "A lot of (centres) will do their own investigations before they report it to the police, or they'll have a conversation with a person of interest and…contaminate further evidence that might come about," she said. "Or they'll go and question the child itself, and that's something we totally disagree with. It's up to us to be interviewing the child because we've got specialist investigators who focus upon that." Quizzed on the role of CCTV in childcare centres, Superintendent Howlett said it played an important role in gathering evidence. "Because they're working they forget that the CCTV is there," she said. She told the inquiry her "strongest recommendation" was that centres should be required to always have at least two workers in a room with a child. "I know centres aren't agreeing with that, they're saying they can't employ those people," Superintendent Howlett said. "But at the end of the day, this sector is earning a lot of money, and what price do we put on the safety of our children? "Once a child has been offended against, that would have ramifications for the rest of their lives."
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Childcare staff should report crimes to police, head of child abuse squad tells inquiry
Staff in the childcare sector who suspect or see abuse should first 'report it to police' and not the regulator, the head of the New South Wales police child abuse squad, Det Supt Linda Howlett, said during a public inquiry into the childcare sector. 'If you're walking down the street and you saw someone being assaulted, nine times out of 10 most people would contact the police. I don't really understand why this sector sees a criminal offence or an offence and they choose to report it to the regulator,' Howlett said
