A message from our CEO: it is vital we all learn the lessons from safeguarding cases

Goodstart recently learned that no charges have been laid by police in relation to allegations of misconduct at our Mt Helen centre, after several months of investigation.  

The toll on the families, and the many wonderful educators who worked at that centre, during this investigation has been immense. My heart goes out to them all. 

I cannot discuss in detail here the allegations about a particular educator. Police have undertaken a long investigation and have decided not to press charges. Importantly, Goodstart terminated the employment of the staff member in question (after months of police and regulator investigations) when he was made a prohibited person by the regulator.  

We have now, finally, been cleared by police to start our own investigation into those allegations of child harm. We have hired an independent external investigator to ensure no stone is left unturned.  

This message is not about what the person subject to those allegations did or did not do. There are some important lessons from this case, separate from the allegations in question.  

Serious consequences for serious failures  

Goodstart now knows that a Centre Director repeatedly failed in their obligations to report allegations made to them about this person. We terminated their employment for that failure. 

Goodstart has very clear processes about how to safeguard children. And comprehensive training at every level to back those up. Our policy is called ‘Look. Do. Tell.’ It requires immediate and comprehensive reporting from all our people. We all know to breach our obligations means disciplinary action and potential termination. 

In this case, our investigation revealed that the Centre Director had concerns about the person in question in late 2023. As an experienced director, she had used Goodstart reporting processes correctly many times before. But for some reason, she reported her concerns in 2023 as being a concern about the family of a child in our care. (The educator in question was also a foster carer.) Goodstart and the law have a process for keeping children safe when reports are made about things that happen at a child’s home. We followed that process and reported the concerns immediately through to the correct Victorian Department. 

Our investigation also revealed that the Centre Director had other concerns about the person in question in 2023 but did not report those concerns through Goodstart’s very clear mandatory reporting processes. The investigation also found some evidence the Centre Director incorrectly implied to families and other staff that our investigation and corporate rules had been followed. 

The Centre Director did not report properly until August of 2024, months after her initial concerns. 

We immediately referred the matter to police, the early education regulator, child protection and the Commission for Children and Young People. 

While we are not permitted by police to investigate reportable allegations until police investigations have concluded, we can investigate breaches of our own rules. And we did. We uncovered these failures, and we terminated the centre director’s employment as a result.  

I am always devastated to learn of instances where individual staff members breach our strict reporting policies. But our response in this case demonstrates how seriously Goodstart treats reporting, and our responsibility to keep children safe.  

Next steps for our investigation 

We appointed an independent external investigator five days after receiving police clearance.  

And we have been reaching out to families. Firstly, we spoke to those directly involved in this case, and now we are starting to reach out to those who had children at Mt Helen during the relevant period, and all other Goodstart families in the Ballarat area. We are ensuring families know the results of the police investigation and what our investigation will mean.  

We have provided a phone number for families to reach us on if they wish to talk during the investigation. Informing and supporting our children and families is our highest priority. 

More than a headline: learning the broader lessons for reforming systems 

I have chosen to write this piece as it is important that the real learnings are understood. A short web piece, or a brief interview, will not forensically pull out what this case really shows us. And child safety is too important to be dealt with glancingly. 

This is what we know and could learn, as a provider, as part of a sector, and as a community. 

Firstly, sometimes bad people choose to work in early learning for all the wrong reasons. Just like they target other institutions where people are vulnerable. 

All of our processes must be geared to ensuring these people have no entry point, and they are detected as quickly as possible if they find their way in. 

For Goodstart, this means a range of things. It means we have a strict recruitment process and make very significant investments in training and professional development, safety, and investigation teams. It means relentless focus on building our safeguarding culture so that everyone reports any concern they have to keep children safe. It means, like in this case, if we discover failures by our people, the consequences are very serious. 

For me, it also means personal action. From the moment I commenced as CEO in March 2023, I was laser focused on this issue. Within months of commencing, I undertook a review of every allegation of a sexual nature over the previous ten years. With our safeguarding experts, I examined every case, assessing whether the right decisions had been made, and pulling out learnings and improvements. We made some changes from that process, including how to listen better to children. For example, we hire expert child interviewers in certain cases. 

What it really takes to put children first 

I have undertaken mandatory face to face webinars with all of our Centre Directors right across our network. The message I gave them was very simple and I have repeated it dozens of times since: 

‘You have two very important responsibilities: one to the children in your care, and one to the people who work for us. But they are not created equal. If you are ever in any doubt, or feel tension between those two things, the safety of the child must always come first.’ 

Everyone nods when they hear this. But in real life, it’s hard. We value and trust our people. I don’t know why this centre director failed to report this person the way she was required to. Sometimes we think people we know and trust could never do something as wrong or ugly as harming a child.  

But the only way things will change is if every provider, and every one of our regulatory and workplace systems, agrees with the child first principle: Children’s safety first, always.  

Even if it means giving the child the benefit of the doubt over someone an allegation is against. In this case, that principle meant a centre director was terminated. 

Despite all of the work Goodstart does every day, we have still learned things from this case. In the same way that we examine and learn from every failure and any near-miss we experience. For example, we have taken even more steps to ensure all our people in every centre and every role know they must report everything, even if they are told someone else has reported it. And we are developing simple new tools about the steps that must immediately be taken to secure evidence and work with families as soon as there is an allegation.  

But there are other lessons to be learned here. 

What we learned about regulation 

I firmly believe that the Victorian Government, other state governments, and the federal government, are focused on the right things as they review and reform in the wake of some of the latest cases which have emerged. They are determined, and they are acting quickly. 

But we must examine the things that went wrong to make sure we get the solutions right.  

In this case, a Goodstart staff member failed to report, and suffered the consequences. 

But this case was also characterised by multiple overlapping system failures which teach us about what needs to change from a systems point of view. Goodstart wrote to six government agencies once we unpicked events. We shared what we had learned, and I met to talk through these issues. 

Thes system failures happened not because any individual or government did the wrong thing. But because the systems are not considered as a whole and are prevented by legislation and practice from working effectively together. 

Firstly, Goodstart reported this person to the child protection regulator in September 2023, because we believed from the Centre Director that the issue was with a foster carer. This is the correct legal process for us in reporting a foster carer. We do not know whether the regulator did not advise the foster care agency, or whether the foster care agency did not advise the Commission for Children and Young People as they were required to do. But we do know that the CCYP were not notified at the time. If they had been, they would have been informed this person worked elsewhere with children and notified their employer. In this case, it was a missed opportunity. 

Secondly, Goodstart had to repeatedly request police investigate these allegations, after they initially declined to do so. Even though there were multiple allegations, and children involved. We had to seek information, permission to talk to families, and permission to start our own investigation. 

Thirdly, Goodstart was not advised when this person received a prohibition notice from the education regulator, even though at that time he was still employed by Goodstart (albeit suspended). The person themselves was not even advised, due to errors in addressing.  

Fourthly, even with a prohibition order, this person also retained their working with children check despite repeated representations from Goodstart (including directly from me) to the relevant regulatory authority asking that it be suspended during the investigation. I know this is an issue the Victorian Premier has been personally focused on changing. 

System reform must be national 

We could point fingers at Victoria for this, but we do so at our peril. 

In many ways, Victoria has been an exemplar of investment and good planning in early learning. It has the lowest rates of centres failing the National Quality Standards in the country. It has the most regular visiting schedule to check on centres. It makes great investments in safety and quality. 

But every state and territory has a range of different agencies involved in these cases, and different rules and thresholds for issuing working with children checks and sharing information.  

The only way every child in Australia will have safety protections of the very highest level is common and strict national protections. 

First, we need a national working with children check to control who enters child care. Attorneys-General recently agreed changes. Banned in one, banned in all is a good start, long overdue.  

But it does not solve the real problem. It would not have solved the problem in this case.  

The real problem is that in some states, people can continue to hold a working with children check even where they are under investigation by police or the regulator for a serious offence. Or if they have been prohibited. In some states, they can start work while their working with children check is pending. And employers are not consistently notified when there is a problem. We need to have a good national look at who can get and keep a working with children check. And one system to oversee it. 

Secondly, we need a national educator register so we can see and track who is working in the system. Again, Victoria is ahead of the game with its register, but this must be national. And include all the places people have worked, so providers can check records when they take someone on. 

Thirdly, we need a national reportable conduct scheme. Five states have these, each operating with different rules. Every person in every state should be subject to mandatory reporting rules. 

Finally, there must be embedded in every piece of this puzzle the very clear principle that children’s safety comes first. It needs to override workplace relations legislation, under clear parameters and rules. The only thing that matters to us more than our workers’ rights is the right of every child in every one of our centres to be safe, every day. 

What now? 

Over the coming days as we commence our own investigation, we will be reaching out to families. 

We condemn the reporting failings of a Goodstart staff member. Once reporting occurred, we took all the right steps. And we have learned from this case and will keep learning. But the pain of Mt Helen families and staff will be in vain if we do not ALL learn its lessons. 

The truth is not always simple and cannot always be understood from a headline. The story here is one of incremental system failures and the need for whole-of-system fixes. 

At Goodstart, we will keep working to improve our own processes, every day. But it is also time for every state and territory government to work together to get this right. 

Dr Ros Baxter is CEO of Goodstart Early Learning. 

She also received a Public Service Medal in 2019 for her work establishing the National Redress Scheme for survivors of child sexual abuse.