Felicity Wilson MP
Shadow Minister for Early Education
The Minns Labor Government has failed to adequately address even in the face of public scrutiny and parental pressure. Today’s release of the Productivity Commission’s report into early childhood education and care has laid bare an alarming increase in serious incidents for children across NSW.
The NSW Liberals and Nationals have echoed the concerns of parents as serious incidents continue to rise, with our children at risk of harm.
Shadow Minister for Early Education Felicity Wilson said, “as parents, we expect that when we send our kids to preschool, childcare, or out of school hours care that they are safe and cared for, but the data released by the Productivity Commission is beyond startling with the massive increases in serious incidents showing that parents’ concerns are not being met with the urgency required.”
Today’s Productivity Commission report shows that in 2024–25, New South Wales recorded 9,430 serious incidents across early childhood education and care services. That equates to a rate of 154 serious incidents per 100 centres and represents an increase of almost 1,000 cases since 2023.
A serious incident has profound consequences for a child and can include death, serious injury or trauma, emergency services being called, or children being unaccounted for.
The data also show that there were 18,743 breaches of the National Quality Framework recorded – an increase of 859 breaches from 2023 and a decline in staff lacking an ECEC-related qualification with an increase of 3,723, or 35%, since 2021.
“Having sat in the emergency room following an early learning centre incident with my own child last year, I know that parents are concerned that NSW is at a crisis point,” Ms Wilson said.
“The growing number of breaches should be a wakeup call and demonstrates that more needs to be done to address this crisis, because every breach is a risk to the safety of a child.”
“This Government is relying on a waivers culture to avoid meeting required staffing levels. Staffing levels are legislated for a reason - to ensure safety and attention to care.”
“While the Minns Labor Government talks about reform, the reality on the ground tells a very different story. You cannot claim success when children are at risk. Every child deserves to be safe, and every parent deserves peace of mind. Right now, this Government is not delivering either.”