Advice on Incident at Child Care Place - Someone Was Almost Killed or Seriously Injured

sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:03
Last edited 08/07/2021 - 14:19 by 1 other user

Hi all,

Just want to get some advice and feedback about an incident that happened to someone i know who works in a childcare facility.

The childcare facility is broken up into two parts where up in hill there is a play area, in the centre is the roof of the child centre that is about level to above level play area and below is another play area - this is how it was explained to me so I have not actually seen the layout

This childcare worker was laying down on the grass with toddlers looking up at the sky at lunch when a huge rock came flying off the roof of the childcare centre and landed inches near the worker's head.

Apparently a child playing at the top play area had rolled the rock onto the roof and it rolled down the roof and landed near this workers head. I am uncertain how much noise this would have made but this worker wears hearing aids and is pretty much deaf to ambient sounds.

Apparently the monitoring of the playground is understaffed and the rocks on the top play area were mentioned before as a hazard but nothing was done.

This rock could have killed a child or worker laying down on the grass.

The childcare worker does not want to report it but I'm furious and think I should report it to SafeWork NSW - Apparently there was a witness but I get the feeling the witness was the person who was minding the kids at the top playground but just saw the rock land and did not see the kid role/thrown the rock onto the roof.

I want to go up there and warn all the parents and have a word to the supervisor but also don't want this person to lose their job as childcare workers are treated like shit.

What should I do - I know construction sites are taken seriously but I don't want to report this and nothing happens except someone loses their job for reporting it

Edit- thank you everyone - The person is reporting it. To address some issues- not all workplaces are a safe place to report issues especially lower paid professions which childcare falls under. Also if the instance occured partly due to work colleagues not doing their job forcing others to pick up the slack i.e people hiding inside because its too cold to go out to monitor kids during lunch and not fulfilling the kid/adult supervision ratio. I am uncertain of the layout and how a large rock could get rolled onto the roof but a toddler could not get on the roof- I assume they either rolled it under the fence or used the fence as a tool role the rock over the fence but just guessing. thank you everyone for the suggestions

Education & Work

Comments

  • John Kimble on 07/07/2021 - 20:04
    +30

    Report it.

    • SF3 on 07/07/2021 - 20:07
      +1

      ^^this.

      OP, if you are concern for the staff, perhaps report it as a safety issue for the children.

      • sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:45

        If i go up there it will automatically put the staff in the spot light and what i heard the reginal manager is a hard ass- i wouldnt mind as i will go toe to toe but dont want to cause grief to staff- given there are kids involved i suspect if i cannot convince person to report it i will have to.

    • bdl on 07/07/2021 - 21:40
      +5

      Report it … to some place other than Ozbargain :)

  • holdenmg on 07/07/2021 - 20:07

    User name checks out.

  • donga100 on 07/07/2021 - 20:16
    +6

    Staff member should definitely report it. If they don't, they may be held partially responsible (not necessarily legally/financially responsible) for future incidents that occur.

    • sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:43
      +1

      I will use this angle to get them to report it - how would they live with themselves if a kid got their face smashed in with a rock if it happens again

  • morse on 07/07/2021 - 20:19
    +1

    Have a look here https://www.acecqa.gov.au/feedback-and-complaints but report your concerns via your childcare centre first. Chances are they will have recorded it as a near miss already. If they haven’t that’s where making an external complaint comes in.

    • sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:39

      thanks- i didnt know of this site — I will follow-up to see if they record the play area

      • John Kimble on 07/07/2021 - 20:41

        I don't think they mean video recording, they mean they file an official report of the incident.

        • sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:48

          oh, thanks for clarification. As i understand neither worker reported the incident and kids who are all 5 and under would not really say anything either

      • morse on 07/07/2021 - 20:47
        +3

        No worries. This is the national site, reports for you I guess would be in NSW via here https://education.nsw.gov.au/early-childhood-education/inves… as per the above site. But they do specify to raise it with the childcare centre first.

        If you’re concerned about immediate safety of children this is the advice for NSW

        Contact us immediately on 1800 619 113 if you're concerned there's a risk to the health, safety or wellbeing of children. This includes complaints about neglect, physical, sexual or emotional harm or abuse. Your call can be anonymous if you wish.

  • Xyzzy on 07/07/2021 - 20:21
    +3

    How old are the children, capable of throwing/rolling huge rocks onto a roof?

    • donga100 on 07/07/2021 - 20:38

      Large enough to kill a person.

    • sardines on 07/07/2021 - 20:42

      they are 6 months old to 5. As i understand there is a garden bed with sandstone blocks around it and a child rolled one of the blocks onto the roof and it rolled down the roof to the playground below. I would say any 4 year old and older would be capable of roling one of these stones.

  • Quantumcat on 07/07/2021 - 20:24
    +9

    Report it. If they don't then it could be a child killed next. It needs to be fixed.

  • websterp on 07/07/2021 - 20:57
    -1

    How "huge is this huge rock supposedly capable of killing a child? Can you give us an idea ? Approx weight, size perhaps?

  • Ughhh on 07/07/2021 - 21:01
    +6

    Sounds like it could be a notifiable incident, in which case is required to be reported to Safework.
    At minimum it needs to be reported to management and controls in place so it won't happen again.

  • Elwes on 07/07/2021 - 21:19
    +3

    If it was because the children are not sufficiently supervised, you could report it to the Dept of Education:
    https://education.nsw.gov.au/early-childhood-education/inves…
    They have inspectors especially for early childhood centres who can warn or fine or shut them down immediately depending on how bad it is. In fact, the centre is obliged to inform the dept of any serious incidents, the boss could get in trouble for not being forthcoming and notifying them that this happened.

  • SnoozeAndLose on 07/07/2021 - 21:50
    +1

    Report it and said it is not personal, not pointing a finger at anyone, you need an action plan to get this fixed.

    Once you reported to the Childcare, they will need to report this to the department of education.

    this way you can force the centre to first get an investigation then come up with the action plan, after that they will need to get a timeline to get this fixed.

    This is a serious issue, therefore, all staff should across this and avoid any future accident.

  • fullmetal on 07/07/2021 - 23:14
    -7

    No one died no one injured. There was an incident and so what? One a million chance of hitting. Move on

    • onetwothreefour on 08/07/2021 - 09:14
      +2

      Don't know about your workplace but most you have to report near misses.

    • Chandler on 08/07/2021 - 10:38
      +1

      Would your current opinion change if you knew that next time it is someone getting killed by the rock?

  • iridiumstem on 07/07/2021 - 23:56
    +2

    I was under the impression that childcare workers have duty of care for the safety of the children. Meaning that if something does happen and authorities find out that there were near-misses and nothing was done to address it or nothing has been reported to people who need to fix it, that'd be considered negligence, wouldn't it?

    Not a legal person so I might be wrong on this, but that doesn't sound like that is something that'd end well for anyone who's involved.

  • EightImmortals on 08/07/2021 - 07:27
    +1

    So you heard a rumour that something happened in a child care centre that has nothing to do with you (presumably) and you now want to stick your nose in?

    How does a young child roll a rock onto a roof without anyone noticing?

    • mapax on 08/07/2021 - 08:51

      but this worker wears hearing aids and is pretty much deaf to ambient sounds.

  • onetwothreefour on 08/07/2021 - 08:27
    +3

    Hang on, kids are able to get onto the roof? Can't they fall off and hurt themselves?

    • EightImmortals on 08/07/2021 - 08:29
      +2

      Nah, they have a rock to hang onto.

      • onetwothreefour on 08/07/2021 - 09:11
        +4

        Phew I thought it was dangerous for a second there.

  • shaybisc on 08/07/2021 - 08:31
    +2

    I can't even imagine the design of this place where a toddler can place a rock on a roof. I suppose it makes clearing the leaves out of the gutters easy.

    • Peter Enis on 08/07/2021 - 08:59

      They cram these centres in wherever they can, so will sometimes have unusual layouts on less than ideal parcels of land.

      • onetwothreefour on 08/07/2021 - 09:12
        +1

        But surely there must be some kind of a fence or barrier to stop people from falling off or throwing rocks off?

  • Big Lenny on 08/07/2021 - 09:17

    report it, get that sh!t shut down

  • Baysew on 08/07/2021 - 09:29

    Have you considered stickers?

  • alexlim2000 on 08/07/2021 - 09:35
    +1

    mspaint or nah

  • brad1-8tsi on 08/07/2021 - 10:23
    +1

    Have them report it as a near miss.

    The companies safety procedures (and the WHS Act) would say they have a responsibility to do this and in not doing so they are breaching procedures and also part of the problem.

    What do they think will happen? They won't get the sack. Why do people not have any idea of what the WHS rules are?

    • morse on 08/07/2021 - 10:59
      +2

      They are unlikely to get the sack, but you can make yourself a target/unpopular for reporting things. I’ve had people roll their eyes at me and get annoyed for reporting near misses and work place hazards. One time it was a trip hazard from an uneven floor right in the middle of a walk way where elderly people had to go to access clinic rooms, I’d seen two people trip on in and catch themselves, but not fall, the director was unimpressed that I raised it as it was going to be costly to fix.

      I’m not saying that makes it okay not to report it, but I understand why people might be fearful. I guess the important thing to emphasise is that there is consequences for not reporting it as well.

  • Jugganautx on 08/07/2021 - 21:20

    How many report it comments until you'll be convinced to report it?

    • sardines on 09/07/2021 - 09:11
      +1

      i was reported — if your from a poor socio economic group worried about your job, the casualisation of the workforce and weakening of industrial relation laws in Australia + the current lockdowns people do not want to rock the boat. This is the result of shitty worker protection.

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