Secret rating system kept parents in dark about safety fears at NSW childcare centre

Case in which parents were not told centre was in the ‘very high risk’ cohort illustrates a glaring safety gap, critics argue

A childcare centre in New South Wales was approved as “meeting” government standards in the publicly available rating system, but flagged months later as a “very high risk service” in a secret rating system maintained by the Department of Education, the Guardian can reveal.

The centre, which Guardian Australia is choosing not to name, was flagged by officers from the NSW early childhood regulator as being in the highest risk category of childcare services, after officials visited in May 2024 to investigate a complaint.

The service was subjected to numerous visits by inspectors who also monitored all complaints against the centre and notifications by the centre to the regulator over a one-year period, documents shared with the Guardian show.

These notifications included allegations of child neglect, injuries to children, bullying of staff, understaffing of the service and the alleged sexual assault of a child by an educator.

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The case illustrates a glaring safety gap in the NSW childcare system, in which public ratings of childcare services, which are determined according to the National Quality Framework (NQF) rating, often differ from the secret risk rating given to centres by the Department of Education.

The NQF rating is displayed publicly on government websites and is one of the only tools available to parents to judge the quality and safety of a centre to which they send their children.

The childcare centre had passed its NQF assessment and rating process in March 2024, where it was judged to be “meeting” quality and safety standards across all categories.

The secret risk rating is not available to the public. Parents at the centre were not notified that it had been placed in the high risk cohort or of the notifications to the regulator being examined as part of the increased scrutiny on the centre.

All but two of these notifications were closed without disciplinary action being taken. The regulator found that apart from the two instances, there had been no breaches of regulation on the part of the centre. The sexual abuse allegation was reported to the Department of Education’s investigations team, but the investigation was closed “with noting [sic] being able to be substantiated”, the report said.

Education ministers agreed to legislative changes in August that would require the publication of any breaches or compliance actions against childcare services.

But these only apply to instances where the incident has been substantiated and action had been taken – not cases that were investigated and closed with no regulatory breaches found. In the case of this NSW childcare centre, two out of 22 reports were followed by compliance actions.

The childcare centre has since been removed from the high risk cohort, with the Department of Education officer writing: “The service has made progress throughout 2025. The number of notifications has dropped and reporting obligations continue to be met.” It was commended in the report for “turning things around”.

“The service has been reflective and has made changes to improve its internal processes and prevent similar issues in the future.”

The secret risk rating system

About 18% of services in NSW were rated high or very high risk in the secret risk rating system, with fewer than 5% in the highest risk category, as of 1 August, the NSW Department of Education told Guardian Australia.

The existence of a secret risk rating system, the RA (risk assessment) risk rating of services (RRS), was highlighted by the Wheeler review into the childcare sector in NSW, conducted earlier this year.

Chris Wheeler’s review found that there were often “differences between the quality rating (that may be some years old) and the RA risk rating of services [RRS]”.

Wheeler found the public rating was a measure of general safety and quality issues, whereas the RRS considered these issues “alongside compliance information which is more dynamic and up to date”.

He found that the secret risk rating likely gave a better sense of “the actual and current risk to the wellbeing of children enrolled in a service” despite the fact that it was not available to parents.

The NSW Department of Education said the public rating was a national rating, whereas the RRS was a NSW-based assessment tool.

A spokesperson said that the risk rating system was “used to inform the timing of the next assessment and rating, the frequency of visits and the intensity of the regulatory oversight”.

“Risk levels will continue to be an internal tool used by the regulatory authority to ensure resources are focused on the safety of children and lifting and maintaining the quality of education and care services.”

As part of his report, Wheeler compared the quality and risk ratings of 34 services. He found that 66.6% of services that were publicly rated as “exceeding” national standards – the highest rating – were rated either “high” or “very high” risk in the secret rating system.

For those centres “meeting” standards, 42.8% were either “very high” or “high” risk.

Abigail Boyd, a NSW Greens upper house member and chair of the education committee, said that the existence of a secret risk rating system was “sickening”.

“Parents and carers deserve to have the fullest information available to have the confidence their children will be safe, and it’s unconscionable for the regulator to be wilfully withholding highly relevant safety information.”

However she said that making this risk rating system public was “at best a response and not a solution”.

“We shouldn’t be accepting a situation where services can be considered high risk, and that’s all right as long as you know. What we need to be doing, and what we are demanding, is creating a sector where standards of the highest quality are the norm so families, carers and children can have the confidence that no matter which service they use there will be safety, dignity and respect for children and workers.”

The reports made against the NSW childcare centre

After placing the childcare service – the report into which has been seen by Guardian Australia – in the “very high risk” cohort, officers monitored all complaints and notifications of incidents at the centre between April 2024 and April 2025.

Among those 22 notifications included a disclosure by a child of sexual abuse by an educator, which was referred to the regulator’s investigations team and later marked as closed “with noting [sic] being able to be substantiated”.

Another incident involved a child who was taken to the bathroom by their parent at the service and the parent observed blood when wiping her child. The child was taken for medical assessment and hospital discharge papers confirmed the child’s diagnosis. The officers recommended closing the case “as no regulatory breaches or child protection concerns were identified”.

Other incidents included a parent complaining their child was “consistently” “wet” during collection time; another that involved a parent complaining her child was not provided with water while in care; and a complaint by a staff member that she was bullied by staff and management. These were all closed.

There were also several injuries reported, including one that involved an educator allegedly grabbing a child by the arm and causing them to fall off a pole they were climbing on. The educator was terminated after an investigation.

Another incident involved a child injuring another child. When investigators examined the case, they found the service was out of ratio at the time of the incident, with only two-thirds of the required number of educators working directly with the children at the time.

The centre was found to have responded appropriately in response to these cases.

“Since joining the RRS cohort, they’ve submitted 22 notifications – most of which were closed without any regulatory breaches,” said the report. “Only two compliance actions were issued, both of which were responded to within adequate time frames and addressed all concerns adequately. The service has been reflective and made changes to improve its internal processes and prevent similar issues in the future.”

In April 2025, the Department of Education recommended that the service be removed from the high risk cohort, noting that “the service has made progress throughout 2025. The number of notifications has dropped and reporting obligations continue to be met.”

• In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800; adult survivors can seek help at Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helpline International