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One-third fail childcare centres audit

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Author: 
abc News
Format: 
Fact sheet
Publication Date: 
24 Sep 2010
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The Federal Government says childcare centres with ongoing poor service will lose accreditation.

A report by the National Childcare Accreditation Council has found one-third of about 1,100 centres audited failed to provide satisfactory toileting or nappy changing.

About 32 per cent of the centres failed to ensure dangerous objects were kept away from children.

Federal Childcare Minister Kate Ellis says the result is disappointing but the Government is working to lift standards, including improving staff-to-child ratios.

"We need to be ensuring that there are more qualified staff out there, which means training, but also we need to be ensuring that there are greater numbers of staff in those centres so that children are being supervised adequately at all times," she said.

Ms Ellis says the Federal Government is working with the states and territories on a framework to lift standards.

"We need to fix these issues. We need to make sure Australian children are getting the best start in life which is why we've introduced these reforms," she said.

"These reforms are gradual ... over a number of years but we're seeing the first parts of these taking place now. We need to be ensuring that there are more qualified staff out there which means training."

-reprinted from abc news