In recent weeks we’ve seen more reports of alleged child sexual abuse involving a Sydney childcare worker. There have also been reports of children leaving a Melbourne kindergarten unnoticed and getting onto a busy street.
Stories like these have sadly become a regular feature of the news cycle. And have once again raised questions about safety and public confidence in the early childhood sector.
Over the past year, we have seen multiple responses from governments to improve childcare safety.
But amid all these discussions, parents’ own perspectives about safety have received far less attention. Our new study set out to address this gap.
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Our research
Our study surveyed more than 300 Australian parents and carers. We wanted to understand how safety shapes their decisions around childcare.
We recruited participants through social media and parenting networks. All had children aged up to five years. The sample included a mix of families with children already attending childcare (77%) and those not currently using it (23%).
Most families using a service were using long daycare (82%), followed by kinder/preschool or family daycare.
Safety is important – but it’s not the only thing
The survey showed safety is, unsurprisingly, central to parents’ decision-making about where their children go to childcare. But it is not the only factor.
Location was actually the most commonly ranked priority for parents when choosing a service.
Safety and safeguarding ranked second overall. Safeguarding involves services actively working to prevent harm and protect children.
Close behind in third was the service’s reputation.
Parents’ responses reminded us that childcare safety decisions are rarely made in isolation. As with other studies, ours found proximity to home or work, affordability, and availability continue play a big part in decisions, limiting the luxury of choice for many families.
Parents who don’t use childcare are different
Parents who were not currently using childcare placed an even stronger emphasis on safety than those already enrolled.
It’s possible that once families have an established relationship with a service, they feel more reassured about their child’s safety. Equally, it may be that concerns about safety are keeping some families out of childcare altogether.
When all parents talked about safety, they weren’t thinking equally about every type of risk. Their biggest concerns centred on staff-to-child conduct and supervision ratios. Fewer parents identified child-to-child behaviours as a major concern, despite growing evidence of this risk.
Parents want more information
Our research also found it’s not enough for services to tell parents their children are safe. They want to understand how services are ensuring this.
More than 85% said they wanted more information. Specifically, parents want clearer information about staffing changes, supervision practices, incident management, educator training, and their child’s relationships with staff and peers.
Many parents also want safety communication to be ongoing, not limited to when they enrol. Parents told us they want centres to create an environment where families feel comfortable raising concerns.
Parents say they are more likely to feel confident when safety isn’t treated as “something happening behind the scenes”, but as an everyday part of how a service operates. Just as services might tell families what children had for lunch or how long their sleeps were, it would also be routine to talk about safety.
Services should welcome parent questions
Australia has recently introduced significant reforms to strengthen childcare safety and accountability, such as mandatory training requirements for workers, strengthened recruitment processes, and expanded reporting obligations if something goes wrong.
But as many early childhood and safety experts have noted, these changes alone will not be enough to keep kids safe.
It is also important that services are building strong partnerships with families. Services must welcome respectful conversations and be willing to discuss any queries openly. It should be a cause for concern if parents feel this is not the case.
Providers can build trust by inviting questions and feedback, and creating regular opportunities for families to seek information and raise concerns. Other useful measures include notice boards, posters, sharing podcasts, and hosting seminars to normalise these discussions.
Parents shouldn’t have to chase information or wonder what questions to ask.
What next?
Like any study, ours has some limitations. We captured parents’ views at one point in time, but these perspectives may evolve. For example, do parents trust services more over time or less? And what influences their attitudes?
Our participants came from across Australia, although most were mothers from Queensland, and fewer were families not currently using childcare. That means there’s value in extending this work.
Future research should more closely consider how factors such as gender, education and cultural background might be shaping how families make decisions about safety and the care they choose for their kids.
Associate Professor Nadine McKillop, Dr Larissa Christensen and Associate Professor Susan Rayment-McHugh were co-authors of the research described in this article. They are all affiliated with the Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Bricklyn Priebe is affiliated with the Sexual Violence Research and Prevention Unit at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
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