Canberra families will be able to check the regulatory compliance records of early childhood education and care centres under a new public register being developed by the ACT government.

The register was confirmed in the government’s response, tabled yesterday, to a February motion from independent Kurrajong MLA Thomas Emerson seeking reforms to improve safety in the early childhood sector.

Mr Emerson says the move comes 15 months after the government opposed his push for the release of regulatory documents detailing breaches at Canberra centres. He subsequently secured their release through the Legislative Assembly and has been publishing them on his website.

“Families deserve to know the safety record of early learning centres they’re considering for their children,” Mr Emerson says.

The ACT’s early childhood regulator, Children’s Education and Care Assurance, will develop a website to make the information publicly available.

The government has also provided an $8.9 million staffing boost for the regulator, which Mr Emerson says represents an increase of more than 50 per cent over the forward estimates and should allow more frequent audits and quality assessments.

Other measures outlined in the government response include a renewed focus on child safety in the next phase of its early childhood strategy and work with other jurisdictions on educator-to-child ratios and preventing providers with poor records from acquiring more centres through service approval transfers.

The government has also committed to establishing not-for-profit early childhood education and care centres alongside new ACT public primary schools and exploring measures to support existing not-for-profit services.

Mr Emerson says gaps remain, including the government’s inability to issue fines to providers that breach the National Law, in part because the ACT does not have a fine enforcement agency.

The ACT also remains the only jurisdiction without an online portal for verifying Working With Vulnerable People cards, he says.

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