CANBERRA’S out of school hours care has seen the most “serious incidents” nationally, more than doubling the Australia-wide average, according to the 2021 Report on Government Services (ROGS). 

According to the report, “serious incidents” relate to incidents involving serious injury or trauma to, or illness of, a child, as well as incidents where the attendance of emergency services was sought.

In the ACT, over the 2019-20 financial year, there were 182.6 serious incidents per 100 national quality framework approved services in out of school hours care. The national average over the same time is 63.5.

When taking into account all service types during the 2019-20 period, including out of school hours care, centre-based day care, family day care, preschool and vacation care, Canberra, again, had the highest number of serious incidents at 176.5 per 100 national quality framework (NQF) approved services – 637 serious incidents in total.

Of the 637 serious incidents, 434 were related to trauma or injury, 93 incidents saw emergency services involved, 72 incidents involved a missing or unaccounted for child, 29 were in relation to illnesses, five were were in relation to a child being locked inside or outside of a service, and four incidents saw children collected by unauthorised persons.

The state or territory with the second highest amount of serious incidents was in SA, which saw 112 serious incidents per 100 NQF, well-below the ACT. The national average for serious incidents seen across all service types is 103.

Following the report, Education Minister Yvette Berry released a statement saying the ACT government continues to demonstrate its commitment to providing the best education for children and young people in the ACT.

In her statement, Ms Berry does not address the level of serious injuries in the ACT’s early childhood care, however, when the topic was raised by “CityNews”, a spokeswoman to the minister said relatively few incidents breached the education and care services national law or regulations.

The spokeswoman instead attributed the high level of serious incidents to the ACT Regulatory Authority, which has a very high level of engagement with providers and services who are particularly proactive in raising any concerns and complaints. 

“The majority of serious incidents reported related to injury or trauma. The most common of these instances being trips and falls accounting for 58 per cent of these instances, followed by interactions with equipment or furniture at 14 per cent and interactions with other children at 12 per cent,” she said. 

“The reports on incidences in early education and care services reflects the strong reporting culture here in the ACT. Majority of these incidences are trips and falls, interactions with equipment or furniture, and interactions with other children.”

The report also revealed that Canberrans pay the most for early education and care nationally, with a weekly (50 hours) family day care services costing an average of $599 per week in the 2019-20 financial year, and centre-based day care costing $595 for Australian government child care subsidy (CCS) approved services.

The median national average is almost $85 cheaper a week for family day care services, with centre-based day care services costing $523 on average, nationally.

In a response to these figures, the spokeswoman to the education minister said the ACT government already provides free access to public early education and care for four-year-old children.

“Additionally, the ACT Government has committed to universal access to free, quality early childhood education for 15 hours per week, 48 weeks per year for all three year olds by the end of this term of government,” she said.