OSHC approved provider penalised $12,000 plus legal costs for inadequate supervision

Freya Lucas

Aug 29, 2024

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The approved provider of an outside school hours care (OSHC) service in Western Australia has been ordered to pay a penalty of $12,000, plus $2,500 towards the Department’s legal costs over an incident centreing around inadequate supervision.

An eight year old child was attending the service for after school care, and was signed into the service at around 3pm, quickly asking educators if she could go to the toilet.

An educator gave permission and then walked on to the front room of the Service with two other children, leaving the child unsupervised, but informing another educator that the child was in the toilet.

After some time had passed and the child who had been to the toilet had not returned to the service, one educator moved to the toilet area to look for her, checking the cubicles, but being unable to locate the child.

The educator then moved to the area where the children stored their bags, noticing that the child’s bag was missing.

The staff then checked other areas of the school, and were unable to locate the child. After 15 minutes had passed the service contacted local police.

A member of the school staff (not connected to the OSHC service) suggested the child may have gone to a friend's house, and contacted the home of the friend, however the child was not there. The staff member suggested a second location where the child might have been, and contacted that family, confirming the child was in their home.

Approximately 30 minutes after the child left the service she was returned to the care of the OSHC by that family.

The approved provider was found to have contravened section 165(1) of the Education and Care Services National Law (WA) Act 2012 for the offence of inadequate supervision of a child.

"Inadequate supervision within the education and care services sector is a significant concern of the Department of Communities," Angelo Barbaro, Acting Executive Director, Regulation and Quality, Department of Communities said.

"Despite Communities’ Education and Care Regulatory Unit providing ongoing information and support to the sector regarding the importance of active supervision, we continue to see cases where inadequate supervision has put children at risk."

The approved provider has since enacted measures to address the vulnerabilities of the building in which the Service operates to enhance the safety of children at the Service and to minimise the prospect of a similar accident occurring, and has implemented a number of measures to increase supervision.

For a comprehensive review of the agreed facts of the incident please see here.

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