ACECQA has published its latest Annual Performance Report and it reveals some interesting insights into children's health and safety in services. The number of serious incidents (as defined in regulation 12) continues to be high. In 2021/22 there was a rate of 124 reported serious incidents per 100 approved services, slightly lower than the rate of 125 in 2020/21 (page 19). Half of all approved services reported one or more serious incidents in 2021/22. 63% of long day care services reported one or more serious incidents (page 21). Incidents involving injury, trauma or illness continue to account for around 80% of all reported serious incidents (page 18). Interestingly, the Report notes that services with higher quality ratings are consistently more likely to report serious incidents than those with lower quality ratings. In 2021/22, services rated Exceeding NQS had a rate of 133 reported serious incidents per 100 approved services, compared to a rate of 128 for services rated Meeting NQS, and a rate of 106 for services rated Working Towards NQS (page 21). This suggests that the number of serious incidents is under reported.
In relation to confirmed breaches (meaning where the appropriate Regulatory Authority finds that relevant legislation, regulations or conditions at a service have not been abided by) the statistics are also interesting. In 2021/22 there was a rate of 162 confirmed breaches per 100 approved services, only slightly down from 164 for 2020/21 (page 22). The Report states that 40% of services had one or more confirmed breaches in 2021/22, with long day care (50%) and family day care (40%) services continuing to have the highest proportions (page 23). Sections 165 and 167 continue to be the most breached provisions of the National Law (page 24). Concerningly, they account for 53% of breaches, up from 48% last year.
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