FOLLOWING on from July’s uproar Nicole Lawder says the government has yet another opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the Conder Early Learning Centre’s incident where unsupervised children swallowed sleeping tablets.

“A compliance notice issued regarding the incident in July highlighted a number ofserious failures,” Nicole says.

• A child was released into the care of a person without written authorisation to collect the child.
• Medication was not stored according to centre policy.
• Child enrolment forms have not been updated regularly to incorporate new health information or authorisations.

“Parents will be pleased that the inquiry is completed although it is unfortunate that procedures were not adequately followed in this case. The incident was frightening for all involved and the outcomes could have been much worse.

“The ACT Childcare regulator must keep on top of these issues and ensure compliance activities are undertaken in a timely manner. This is another unacceptable incident for the ACT Education Minister Joy Burch to learn from.

“Parents place their trust in childcare on a daily basis. It’s imperative that everything possible is done to ensure a safe environment for children,” Ms Lawder concluded.