Response to 7:30 Report
We appreciate the opportunity to respond to recent media stories regarding the early childhood education and care sector including the 7:30 Report aired on Monday 7th April 2025. In line with our Affinity Safety Commitment and ‘See Something? Say Something!’ policy, we treat all compliance and safety incidents at our centres extremely seriously and are committed to upholding the highest standards of care for children.
The trust our families and children place in our team’s professionalism and commitment is not something we take lightly. Our highest priority is ensuring safety while delivering best-practice early education outcomes and nurturing the children we care for.
Affinity has worked hard to create a strong self-reporting culture where we actively support, encourage and expect all members of our team to ‘speak up’ and raise any concerns or issues.
Families are able to immediately report any questions or concerns regarding child safety and wellbeing directly to your Centre Management team or Affinity Area Manager first, or to our centralised Family Support Team.
Email: [email protected]
Free call: 1800 244 532
As a national community, we strive to continually improve our quality of care. In the event of a breach, error, or family complaint our policies require immediate action, including but not limited to:
- Internal reporting within 12 hours to our national Compliance and Safety team
- Making direct contact proactively with the child’s family
- Staff involved stood down during full internal investigation
- Mandatory and voluntary reporting to relevant authorities and Departments
- Follow up training and review with the individual educator and/or team
- Termination of employee when necessary
By far the majority of our team of educators and teachers deserve and receive our recognition and respect for the hard work they put in for children every day. Our team know we will always seek to support them while maintaining our responsibilities to our children and families, and as a registered provider in the ECEC sector.
In addition to the highly experienced teams operating our centres, Affinity invests heavily in a national team of Quality, Education, Compliance and Child Safety experts who provide daily support.
We work together to continuously improve our policies and practices to ensure a safe, nurturing, and enriching environment where children can learn and grow.