Perth Voice Interactive

A CHILD wandering away from Camp Australia’s out-of-school-hours care at Coolbinia Primary has seen the operator hit with a $14,000 penalty.

It was one of three levelled against Camp Australia this week for similar scenarios across an incident-filled summer of 2022-23.

The four-year-old child was attending a school holiday care program at Camp Australia’s Bradford Street, Coolbinia service on January 12, 2023, and was one of four ‘kinder’ aged children among the 32 total kids. 

Six staff were overseeing them, but just after lunch the children were arranged into three groups to head off to activities.

The child was in a line heading to the library with a staff member up front, but “in the short distance transitioning to the library the child separated from the group”, according to a State Administrative Tribunal summary of facts.

Some time between six and 36 minutes later, two members of the public spotted the child, who said he was looking for the library. They returned him to care, apparently while the staff member who had taken the group to the library was in the middle of conducting a headcount.

The Department of Communities took Camp Australia to the SAT, and after the facts were agreed on by both parties the SAT ordered Camp Australia to pay a $14,000 penalty to the DoC for “failing to ensure that all children receiving education and care at its service were adequately supervised at all times the children were in the care of the service”.

The incident followed another temporary loss of children on December 21 at Camp Australia’s care service for Grandis Primary School in Banksia Grove. Two five-year-olds were at the playground under the supervision of an educator, when one child said “oh mummy’s here” and both wandered off at about 3.30pm. 

Their exit wasn’t noticed due to an over-reliance on technology: The iPad that tracked who’d been signed in or out had a flat battery.

Missing

The kids were spotted walking along Grandis Boulevard by an educator from another care provider where they’d previously been enrolled, who recognised them and contacted their parents. Camp Australia only realised the kids were missing when one of the parents contacted them around 4pm. That incident saw Camp Australia hit with another $14,000 penalty.

The escapes continued: At Camp Australia’s service at Makybe Rise Public School in Baldivis, a three-year-old child who’d just started kindy went missing shortly after arriving for his first day in care on February 3, 2023. 

He arrived around 3pm, and a headcount at 4pm showed a mismatch between present kids and those checked in on their software. The service manager assumed the child had been picked up by his parents. Instead he was wandering through alleyways between shops and walking on the road on a 36-degree day. 

Camp Australia was hit with an $18,500 penalty for inadequate supervision, and a $15,000 penalty for not taking every reasonable precaution to protect kids from harm or injurious hazards. The service manager was sacked.

The company has since sent staff to three workshops to ensure they comply with supervision procedures. Following the Coolbinia incident, they also purchased high visibility jackets to keep track of kids in their care.

by DAVID BELL