Goodstart issues statement after two children abscond through broken fence panel

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) provider Goodstart Early Learning has issued a formal statement after mainstream media widely circulated a story about two children leaving one of its services in the South Australian suburb of Blair Athol. 

Dashcam footage shared through various media outlets showed two young children wandering towards a busy road (Main North Road) in the Adelaide suburb after walking through a fence panel which had become separated, allowing them the opportunity to walk through the gap. 

Three educators were supervising nine children in the area at the time of the incident, one of whom ’raised the alarm’ after noticing two children – who had been playing near a section of bamboo – were no longer in the outdoor area.

The damage to the fence panel was concealed by high growing bamboo plantings, and was not noticed when a safety check of the yard was conducted. 

“The safety of children in our care is our first priority and we are reviewing our daily safety checks and other procedures to ensure this type of incident is never repeated,” the statement noted. 

“Goodstart will co-operate fully with the regulator. Safety wraps around everything and we have a designated Safety Champion in every centre to support our teams to keep safety top-of-mind and to share learnings to drive continuous improvement across the centre and the organisation.”

Witnesses to the incident say the children were seconds from walking into the middle of the road before they were pulled to safety by one educator.

“This is a very bad intersection. We’ve seen multiple car accidents, it was very lucky to come out of that lightly to tell you the honest truth,” one witness shared with 9News.

The parent of the child who was found physically on the road at the time of the incident has shared her position with 9News, saying “I am pretty furious. There’s no excuse,” and outlining that she has made a formal complaint regarding the incident. 

Goodstart indicated that an apology has been made to the parent, and that an internal investigation is underway. 

To read Goodstart’s statement in full please see here.