For quite some time now, the Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) NSW has been uncomfortable about the numbers of breaches/non-compliances published (eg 7,773 for 2018/2019 and 7,865 for 2017/2018 for NSW) as to whether they genuinely presented public benefit or do they (unintentionally) denigrate the early childhood education and care sector. 

Do all breaches/non-compliances carry the same significance of concern? Should parents demonstrate equal levels of (grave) concern about misplaced signs and documents versus the inability of any service to conduct proper emergency evacuations? 

With the assistance of the NSW Department of Education, ACA NSW has been able to provide the following information showing the number of services and number breaches that carries financial penalties. 

The above numbers paint an extremely different perspective (compared to 7,773 for 2018/2019 and 7,865 for 2017/2018 for NSW). Moreover, they instead provide significant reassurances to parents that of the over 5,500 early childhood education and care services operating today, the number of breaches/non-compliances that are severe enough to warrant financial penalties are extremely low.

ACA NSW members can access the ACA NSW's Sector Watch (using their username and password) for even more detailed information about breaches/non-compliances that has been made available by the NSW Department of Education.

PUBLISHED: 13 OCTOBER 2020