Federal Education Minister Jason Clare announced changes to increase child safety
Mobile phones will be banned in child care centres from September this year and a trial of CCTV surveillance inside centres will be rolled out within months, under major reforms to the sector announced on Friday by Federal Education Minister Jason Clare.
Clare announced in a press conference that state and territory education ministers have also agreed to establish a national education register and mandatory child safety training.
The changes follow allegations of child sexual abuse incidents by a worker in Victoria, and serious incidents in centres across the country, which Clare said had "shocked and sickened" Australians.
He said while there had been some changes to keep children safe these were "not enough and not fast enough."
"We've all got to step up here if we're serious about keeping our kids safe. That means the Australian government stepping up. It means states and territories stepping up. It means regulators stepping up. And it means the people who run our centres stepping up as well," Clare said.
"The decisions that we took today are the next step, the next things that we need to do to help keep our children safe in early education and care."
Safety reforms introduced
The ban on mobile phones for educators in centres will be rolled out in September with active enforcement, according to the minister, while the trial of CCTV will begin in October or November.
He said work on the national register will begin immediately, with a pilot targeted for December and rollout to begin in February next year.
Work on the national mandatory child safety training for all workers in early education and care centres will also begin immediately, and will be developed by the Australian Centre for Child Protection and be rolled out next year.
The Federal government has already passed legislation to cut funding to centres that aren't meeting safety standards in a bid to address the issue.
It has also published the names of 37 centres that received notices who are at risk of getting their funding cut for not meeting the set safety standards.
