Three young children under the age of four left a daycare facility in Perth’s south and were discovered playing on a sidewalk, leading to a fine for the facility’s owners.
The State Administrative Tribunal fined service provider ES5 Ltd, doing business as Buggles Child Care Beeliar, $22,000 and assessed costs of $2,000 for breaking the regulations governing education and child care services.
The youngsters escaped the centre through an outdoor gate in August of last year, according to a Department of Communities probe.
When a mother who had just picked up her child saw the kids, she rushed them back inside.
The investigation revealed that the educators at the centre had seen the gate left open more than once during the course of the day but had neglected to alert the accountable party.
Additionally, they neglected to make sure the gate was properly shut, and the centre neglected to report the occurrence to the Department of Communities Education and Care Regulatory Unit within the mandated 24-hour period.
The Department of Communities’ Executive Director Phil Payne stated in a statement on Friday that “this is the ninth instance where disciplinary action has been taken against a provider where children have left the service unattended, and employees have been ignorant of them departing.”