Former Affinity Education workers describe a 'toxic culture' with claims the childcare giant mishandled serious incidents in Canberra

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Former educators at childcare giant 'Affinity Education' are warning families away from the company's ACT centres, revealing incidents of risk to children and a toxic profit-driven culture. The company is in the spotlight after an ABC investigation revealed a disturbing video of a worker repeatedly slapping a child across the face was made public.  And a warning this story may be distressing for some viewers.

Transcript

00:00Educators know what many parents are feeling when they enrol their children in childcare.

00:07They're taking their heart out and giving it to you, to trust, to take care of and look

00:12after. You know, they're coming to service with, you know, sometimes fear, apprehension,

00:18they're having to put a lot of trust in you.

00:20But former educators have left the industry after witnessing too many children at risk

00:26while working at childcare giant Affinity Education.

00:29The company is in the spotlight after this disturbing video was made public last week.

00:38It's prompted more former educators in Canberra to come forward, but they want to remain anonymous.

00:44I don't want to be identified because of how incredibly toxic the culture was while I was

00:52working there, that I just don't want that culture following me.

00:57They've revealed one example where an eight-month-old child rolled off a change table.

01:03It was really horrific for all of the educators involved.

01:07In a statement to the ABC, Affinity said an investigation found the educator had not maintained

01:13hand contact with the child. The educator's employment was terminated and the matter was

01:18reported with the ACT childcare regulator, who followed up but didn't take any enforcement

01:23action.

01:24At another Canberra centre, an incident report describes how an educator dragged or directed

01:29a child into a dining room and locked the door behind him. Affinity said it has a zero-tolerance

01:35approach to any form of child harm. Again, Affinity said it notified the regulator with no enforcement

01:41action. But the regulator said it never received a report. An allegation of this kind is very serious.

01:48Seeker encourages any staff members, parents or others in the community who have information

01:53about harm to children to contact Seeker directly. In a third Canberra case at Affinity, a 17-month-old

02:01boy suffered a spiral fracture to his arm. Affinity said it investigated and notified the regulator

02:08and again, there was no enforcement action. Sometimes there were reprimands. In February

02:142023, a centre was issued a show-cause notice for a failure to adequately supervise three children

02:20for six minutes. Affinity said it investigated and made changes but parents were never told about

02:26the breach. Detailed information about individual centre compliance histories, including any regulatory

02:32actions or notices, is maintained at a centre level and is available to families, the company said.

02:38Since the start of 2024, Seeker has received 49 notifications about the ACT's eight affinity centres.

02:46But as incidents piled up, some educators walked away.

02:50At the end of the day, there was a lot, a lot of trauma that we experienced.

02:55The sector itself needs to be properly reviewed.

02:59The educators say the sector needs to restore families' trust.

03:02If they lose trust in the sector, where does that leave us?

03:06A high-stakes responsibility.

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