One of Australia’s largest providers of before and after school care has been fined after a five-year-old neurodivergent child escaped unnoticed and unsupervised because the organization failed to report the incident in time.
The incident was discovered in February last year after two educators, including one on the first shift, took children enrolled in the OSHC club at Samson Primary School, near Fremantle, to the school’s oval after classes.
When they arrived, the boy separated from the group and sat on the other side of the oval with other children who were not participating in the service.
The boy remained there for 10 minutes, and another parent took him to the school office, where the boy’s parents were called.
OSHClub was also penalized by Washington state authorities for failing to promptly notify regulators of serious incidents and failing to comply with agency educator personnel records.
Samson Primary School, near Fremantle, south of Perth. (Provided by: Nearmap)
Although the incident occurred on Thursday, the State Administrative Tribunal (SAT) found that the agency did not notify regulators until Monday, beyond the stipulated 24-hour window.
OSHClub was ordered to pay a total of $35,000 in fines and costs.
The company’s WA general manager Natasha Brown said the provider’s “robust policies and procedures… were unfortunately inadequate”.
“OSHClub takes full responsibility for this incident and sincerely apologizes.”
she said.
Brown said the child was not harmed or left alone at any point and was on school grounds the entire time.
escape through the gate without being noticed
Meanwhile, staff at another after-school care service in Western Australia were left scrambling after vulnerable children who needed one-on-one supervision left the facility undetected.
The January 2025 incident at St. Joe’s The Village Off-Campus Hourly Care in Albany resulted in an $8,000 penalty for the agency.
The 9-year-old, known as “T” for legal reasons, walked up to the chapel’s pool-shaped gate, unlatched it and left.
A child who required one-on-one supervision went missing undetected for 17 minutes. (ABC News: Samantha Goering)
Despite having a medical condition that required direct supervision, staff only became aware of Mr. T’s departure more than 15 minutes later at roll call.
The boy was eventually found near the playground at neighboring St. Joseph’s College, but ran away as officials searched him.
In the end, he returned to the center 30 minutes after leaving the gate.
The child was found safe at a nearby school. (ABC News: Samantha Goering)
Angelo Barbaro, secretary general of the Ministry of Communities, said it was fortunate that the situation did not worsen.
“While it is incredibly fortunate that the child was found unharmed, services must prevent incidents of this nature by ensuring that all children in their care are properly supervised,” he said.
“Appropriate supervision is essential to keep children safe in education and child care services.
“Our community has tremendous trust in providers who will abide by the law and keep our children safe.”
The boy unlatched the pool-shaped gate and exited the facility. (ABC News: Samantha Goering)
Inadequate staffing and supervision
SAT found that the service, run by Albany-based child care provider Harpreet Dhaliwal, failed to provide legally required staffing and supervision when T left.
The 36 children on site were supervised by just three staff members and another working in the kitchen.
They also failed to prepare an appropriate medical or risk management plan for T, despite being informed that the child had a serious medical condition that required one-on-one supervision.
“Minimum child ratio requirements were not met and lax record-keeping of staff working directly with children indicates that reasonable steps are not taken to ensure that staff follow these policies and procedures,” the SAT found.
Dhaliwal defended the organization and said much had changed since Mr T’s escape.
In January last year, a child was found 300 meters from St. Joe’s The Village OSHC. (ABC News: Samantha Goering)
This includes installing three self-closing gates, requiring parents to sign in to drop off or dropping off their children, and increasing student quotas.
”[Ms Dhaliwal] A medical risk register had been introduced to ensure that all educators were aware of the children attending their services in a planned manner,” the tribunal found.
Dhaliwal was fined $8,600 for multiple violations of the Education and Care Services Act and ordered to pay $2,000 in court costs to the department.
She later told the ABC that although there were some “work pressures” on the day in question that created a “complex environment”, “supervisory negligence cannot be excused”.
In the OSHClub case, the service said it retrained team members, strengthened supervisory practices and changed staffing policies to require all educators to undergo on-the-job training before beginning work.
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