A Sydney childcare centre that repeatedly lost children and left toddlers in soiled nappies all day has joined a growing number of centres leaving the sector rather than meet stringent new safety laws.
Since tough new child-safety reforms came into force in October, 27 childcare services in NSW have either shut their doors or sold to new owners because they have been unwilling or unable to adhere to new expectations.
The reforms came into effect after a string of high-profile scandals in the sector, including child sexual abuse at centres, a child being used as a mop, and a centre sending a toddler home with the wrong grandparent.
Early learning education centre Greenwood Penrith, operated by one of Australia’s largest childcare providers G8 Education, will cease operations from May 15, citing “child safety” reasons, in a decision parents and former workers say should have happened years ago.
While G8 would not give specific reasons for shutting down, it said the decision was “not made lightly” and that the provider’s highest priority was the “safety, wellbeing and care of all children in our centres”.
However, the centre recorded 168 confirmed breaches since opening in 2018. On multiple occasions, the centre was found to be operating in a manner that posed, or was likely to pose, immediate risk to the safety of children.
There were 15 cases related to inadequate nappy changes and 27 confirmed incidents where children were unaccounted for or unattended to. In once instance, a compliance officer found a child alone in a playroom, crying and banging on the door to be let out. Educators did not respond.
Regulators served the centre more than 20 enforcement notices, including four emergency action notices.
The closure comes after a dozen NSW childcare centres run by one of Australia’s largest providers, Jenny’s Kindergarten, were sold in March following almost 500 confirmed breaches, including a child locked in a storeroom and babies sleeping on the ground.
At the time, acting Early Childcare Commissioner Daryl Currie said new child safety reforms were forcing operators to “lift their game or get out of the sector”.
The Herald spoke to three parents of the Greenwood centre who said their children were left in nappies all day, in incidents that ranged from 2019 to 2025.
Alicia Kenyon’s daughter attended the centre in 2020. She said staff repeatedly left her autistic daughter in soiled clothes, lost track of her on multiple occasions – once for about 30 minutes – and showed “no real urgency”, leaving her questioning how the service was allowed to stay open.
“I feel like I probably should have done more, complained higher … maybe there would have been a possibility that something would have happened sooner.”
Rebecca Brouwer’s eight-month-old son suffered severe nappy rash at the centre in 2019. She said she was not surprised the childcare service was shutting down.
“We tried to put him in his high chair, and he just screamed … when we pulled off his nappy, all of his skin came off his bum, and it was just red raw. He was beside himself.”
They took him to the doctor who told Brouwer: “He’s been left in urine for so long that it’s burnt through all of his skin.”
One former worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect future employment, said the centre was understaffed and undersupported.
They said they witnessed a child left in a soiled nappy all day, and multiple incidents of unsupervised or missing children that were not properly reported.
“It was constantly out of ratio. Too many kids in the room, but never enough staff. Every day it was just a nightmare,” the worker said.
“There’d be at least five or six instances that I knew of where a child had been left alone or shut in a room … Half the time it didn’t get reported, or it would just be pushed under the rug.”
Documents released under a parliamentary call for papers revealed the centre constituted “an unacceptable risk to the safety, health and wellbeing of children at the service” and issued a show-cause notice in June 2022.
In March last year the centre was issued an emergency action notice after it was found to be “operating in a manner that posed an immediate risk to the safety, health and wellbeing of children”. Two months later, it received another emergency action notice.
Greens MP Abigail Boyd said the centre was a “pretty shocking service” and said the regulator was “letting big providers off the hook” by allowing them to close their doors.
“Looking back on the compliance actions that have been taken in relation to this particular centre, it’s pretty surprising that action hasn’t already been taken by the regulator to close them down.”
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Emily Kowal is an education reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.
