Latest news with #BlairBoyer
ABC News
09-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Parents of Klemzig early learning centre speak out amid investigation
Parents at an Adelaide early learning centre under investigation have shared mixed views, as data reveals a number of centres have failed to comply with national laws since June. The Education Standards Board (ESB) is investigating Little Shining Stars Early Learning Centre at Klemzig over the taking and storing of children's images to evidence nappy rash and minor injuries. But the regulator said police found no evidence to warrant a criminal investigation. A father whose child attended the site in Adelaide's north-eastern suburbs said his child had their photo taken by staff members but he had no concerns. "I'm not that worried because I have seen how good they are taking care of my baby," he said. "At one instance they have taken a photo of my baby, it is for my reference only and I have full trust on them." A mother said her child would not attend the service after today. "Quite disgusted, what kind of world do you think you're in to be taking photos of other children's genitals, just for documenting purposes," she said. "That's where you verbally notify the parents." Another mother at the centre said she was not worried about her child's safety. "Our concern is a personal phone, but they say it's not a personal [device] it's an official iPad, they said they took that to show to the parents or something like that, if that is the case I'm not concerned," she said. SA Education Minister Blair Boyer said educators at the Klemzig site used "centre-owned iPads" and not personal devices to take the photos. "There were concerns from some parents that nappy rash was being caused by practices at the centre and the staff felt in some cases, children were presenting at the start of the day with nappy rash so were documenting that — again totally inappropriate and should not have happened," Mr Boyer said. Mr Boyer said the matter was brought to light after a parent made a complaint about a separate issue of children being tapped on the head in efforts to soothe them during nap times. As a result, the centre sacked three workers. Four other Little Shining Stars services — at Pooraka, Virginia, Evanston and Wayville — have also been served emergency action notices, of which they have been ordered to comply with certain conditions in line with national regulations. Little Shining Stars said in statement on Tuesday it had reviewed and amended some of its procedures "to strengthen our compliance and practices". The ESB said the investigation was ongoing and other regulatory action, including prosecution, may be taken when it ends. Mr Boyer said the ESB's investigation was "thorough" and it acted quickly, adding that a funding increase led to increased inspections across the state by the regulator. "That means information that families have around where a centre might be on that chart of national quality standards is more up-to-date information," he said. The minister said the last time Little Shining Stars sites were assessed was in 2021. On the ESB website, seven other childcare centres and a primary school have been listed since June for failing to comply with different provisions of the Education and Care Services National Regulations. The service providers are: Mr Boyer did not reveal details of those incidents and said whether parental notifications were made at those sites depended on the ESB. "Decisions around whether or not emergency action notices need to be issued, like they were for Little Shining Stars, are a decision for the regulator to make," he said. "They are supposed to be assessed and rated every three years and we are trying to support the regulator to actually moved to be able to do that." More money was invested in the ESB in 2023, which has seen service visits rise by 63 per cent on the previous year, and staffing levels double.
ABC News
03-07-2025
- ABC News
SA looks to fast-track childcare mobile phone ban after allegations of abuse in Victoria
The South Australian government is investigating whether it can expedite a ban on mobile phones in childcare centres, following allegations of child abuse material being produced at a Victorian childcare centre. The personal electronic device ban is due to come into force nationally in September, but the state government said on Thursday it was investigating whether the ban could be "brought forward even sooner". Education Minister Blair Boyer has also asked for "urgent advice" on installing CCTV in early childhood education centres (ECEC), adopting a register of educators, and strengthening the capacity of the regulator to notify families when issues arise. "I note the immediate actions relating to child safety announced by Victoria today, in light of the serious charges laid against a childcare worker," he wrote to chief executives of SA's Office for Early Childhood Development and Education Standards Board. It comes after Victorian police charged a childcare worker with more than 70 offences relating to eight alleged victims at a centre in Melbourne's south-west. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan is also looking to bring forward a ban on mobile phones in childcare centres in that state. South Australian Attorney-General Kyam Maher said Mr Boyer had been working towards the ban in childcare centres for "some time" and was now seeking to have it brought forward. "Not having individual electronic devices that can record footage means film can't be made that can be passed on," he said. "It's a pretty self-explanatory thing that's being sought to be curtailed or banned." Mr Maher said the government was "keen to examine" any suggestions put forward that improved child safety, following the allegations in Victoria. "I think everyone was shocked, sickened and horrified," he said. Meanwhile, child sex offenders have been banned from working alongside child employees in South Australia. The legislation came into effect at the start of July, after passing state parliament last year. It applies to registered child sex offenders or those who have been charged with registrable child sex offences but not yet convicted. The SA government said previous laws only restricted child sex offenders in settings where children were the subject of the work, such as childcare. Mr Maher said the penalty for breaching the law was up to five years in jail. "SAPOL have now written to all of those who are registered to let them know of this change in the law," he said.
ABC News
01-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Education review to consider options for SA non-mainstream schooling
Boosting student engagement, improving school attendance and easing pressures on teachers are among topics that will be tackled by a review into non-mainstream education options in South Australia. About 10,000 students participate each year in non-mainstream schooling programs across the state, including home schooling, online learning and at various dedicated sites. According to the state government, such programs are designed for students who are not able to attend mainstream schools for reasons "including disability, behaviour, geographical isolation, mental health concerns, long-term illness, incarceration" and other complexities. Sites include the Bowden Brompton Community School and the Open Access College, as well as the state's six Better Behaviour Centres which "provide a service for students who are showing signs of disengagement from school". Education Minister Blair Boyer said students with complex needs represented a "growing cohort" across the country, and that the review would examine how options to support them — including in regional areas — could be bolstered. "The numbers in these sites are growing a lot and not just here in South Australia, and I felt like we weren't looking closely enough at whether or not we had the capacity to cope for future growth," he told ABC Radio Adelaide. The government said home schooling and Better Behaviour Centres had "high enrolments from children and young people with disabilities", and that the review would therefore consider what "barriers exist for young people with disabilities, to determine if this is a localised or system-wide issue". "The review that I'm announcing today is looking at all the options that we have through the public education system in South Australia, trying to cater for students who aren't doing well in a mainstream setting," Mr Boyer said. Mr Boyer said the review into non-mainstream schooling was partly prompted by a need to address the array of factors that contribute to non-attendance. The government has previously announced it is considering ways to crackdown on what Mr Boyer described as "chronic truancy" across the public education sector, including by the possible introduction of expiation notices for parents. In May, Mr Boyer told the ABC that while he was not proposing "we start handing out expiation notices willy-nilly", the situation had reached the point where "we need to try some new, different and bold things". He said another possible option was prosecuting parents who were actively preventing their children from attending school. "One of the things that's a bit of a loophole that I've seen has been used by some of those parents is enrolling a child in a school interstate — they're not moving interstate but they are enrolling their child in a school that is interstate," Mr Boyer said in May. "It's very hard for us to determine if that young person is attending that school in an online sense as they have committed to doing, and that's used as a way of getting around the current provisions." The review of the non-mainstream sector would be conducted by the Education Department and completed by the end of the year, the government said. Mr Boyer was today asked about school violence and said that while the most recent data showed it had dropped "for the first time in five years" in high schools, there had been an increase in violence "in primary schools, particularly around dysregulated young people". He acknowledged that growing classroom challenges were having a deterrent effect on would-be teachers. "There's a reason that people aren't choosing to do it," he said. "We do ask our schools to do a lot more of this kind of work around managing behaviour than they ever used to, and that is a challenge for our staff and a challenge for education systems everywhere in the world. "Staff do feel like they are dealing with a lot of things outside of the kind of the core teaching things that motivated them to be a teacher in the first place and we have to find a way of better supporting them. "This review is part of us trying to do that."
ABC News
24-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Crackdown on SA childcare centres finds 'half not meeting standards'
A crackdown on childcare centres in South Australia found half were not meeting national quality standards, a parliamentary committee has heard. Giving evidence in the budget estimates committee on Monday, Education Minister Blair Boyer and his department heads said $7.11 million in additional funding had been given to the Education Standards Board over three years. The funding was the result of a recommendation from the Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care, and has allowed the board to more than double the number of compliance officers from 18 to 39 full time equivalents. Acting chief executive of the Education Standards Board, Sean Heffernan, told the committee that before the funding increase, some services had gone for up to a decade without being assessed. "There has been such a big gap between assessment and rating visits so where there has been a service that hasn't been assessed or rated potentially between eight or 10 years," he said. "What we were finding though was a large number of services at that time, given the gap between the assessment ratings, 50 per cent of those were receiving a 'working towards'." There are four rating categories under national quality standards: "significant improvement required", "working towards national quality standard", "meeting national quality standard" and "exceeding national quality standard". Mr Heffernan said the number of services receiving a "working towards" rating had dropped since the initial crackdown. "What we have done is introduce a pre-assessment and rating visit, which is around three months before their assessment and rating actually commences, which then determines areas of compliance or areas that might need focus," he said. "What that has done is reduce that significantly down to 17 per cent." But Mr Heffernan said 17 per cent is still above the national average of nine per cent. The committee was also told there had been an increase in childcare staff being banned from practising. In the 2023-24 financial year, three staff were issued with prohibition notices and two entered into enforceable undertakings. In this financial year, five staff were issued with prohibition notices and nine entered into enforceable undertakings. Education Minister Blair Boyer said that increase was also because of the increase in assessments. "The number of visits to early childhood education and care services increased by 72 per cent on previous years," he said. "With 2024-25 seeing a further 23 per cent increase on top of 2023-24 through increased assessments and ratings and introducing some proactive monitoring." Shadow Education Minister Heidi Girolamo said the numbers were concerning and asked for more details about which childcare centres the action related to. "It's one thing to be able to go through and do these assessments," she said. "It's the next steps that are important to make sure these childcare centres are given enough support to make sure that they can make these improvements to make sure children are kept safe," she said. Mr Boyer told the committee the Office for Early Childhood Development has a "quality uplift program" to help raise standards at childcare centres.
Herald Sun
05-05-2025
- General
- Herald Sun
SA public school attendance, truancy rules changes
Don't miss out on the headlines from SA News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Fines for parents who fail to enrol their children in school, or who keep them from attending class, are among changes being considered to toughen truancy laws. Parents could also have less time to tell teachers why their child is absent and the head of the Education Department could gain more power to demand proof, such as sick certificates. The state government will soon launch public consultation on a suite of changes to the SA Education and Children's Services Act in a bid to lift school attendance. It comes as the government confirms 76 families, with a total 114 children, have come under close watch for chronic non-attendance since early 2022. However, there have been no prosecutions since 2017, when two parents were taken to court for failing to get their kids to school. School attendance rates plummeted to below 85 per cent following the arrival of the Covid-19 virus in 2020 and have not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels of almost 91 per cent. Across the country there are an estimated 80,000 children and teens who never returned to the education system. If a child is absent for 10 days or more in a term it is considered 'chronic non-attendance'. Education Minister Blair Boyer said the proposed law reforms would ensure authorities 'can act when parents or guardians are not supporting their children to go to school'. 'Monitoring, support and formal warning letters (to families) have shown positive results, with children who were never enrolled now attending school and those who were disengaged receiving the right support to return to learning,' he said. In coming weeks the government will launch an online survey on potential changes including: INTRODUCING fines for parents or carers who fail to enrol their children in school, prevent them from attending or refuse to provide documents to the department. These could be imposed without having to launch court proceedings. GENERATING a legal warning letter for parents who flout the laws. EMPOWERING the department boss to request documents from parents of chronically absent children, including sick certificates or referrals to specialists. CUTTING the number of days carers have to notify a school of the reason a child is absent from five to three. Mr Boyer said the government had invested more into 'making sure we get attendance numbers up, particularly through support for families and student mental health, but it's important this is done in partnerships with parents to make it work'. The proposed law changes follow the creation of a specialist attendance team within the Education Department, staffed by social workers and support officers, in 2023. The government also launched a trial to improve attendance at 10 public primary schools last year. Originally published as SA Education Minister Blair Boyer reveals plans for changes to truancy laws, including fines
