Father's trust in child care shattered by son's shocking injury

Putting a child into the care of another requires parents to take a leap of faith.

For Tamworth father Darcy Galliano, that bond of trust was breached when he was called to collect his five-year-old son from childcare.

Staff at the centre told him the boy had a dislocated knee; his instincts as a parent told him otherwise.

"My son was in excruciating pain; it [looked] like he was going to blackout," Mr Galliano said.

"Me being a father, I realised his knee [wasn't] dislocated, but something else was wrong.

"When I lifted him, [the child's mother] could hear him scream from the Woolworths car park across the road."

According to an incident report from the Little Kindy Childcare Centre seen by the ABC, Mr Galliano's son was attempting to jump over a wooden bench when he slipped and hit his left knee just before 3pm on September 1.

Staff applied an ice pack and contacted his mother.

According to the incident report, medical personnel were not contacted, and the incident was not reported to authorities.

Subsequent medical examinations revealed the child had suffered a spiral fracture to his left femur.

He underwent emergency surgery and will spend six months in a full leg cast.

Eight days after the incident, the NSW Early Learning Commission (ELC) closed the centre for six months, citing "ongoing non-compliance and child safety risks".

Among the breaches listed in the commission's report were a failure to maintain a safe environment, a failure to report incidents and inadequate child protection practices

NSW Early Learning Commissioner Darryl Currie also highlighted "unclean and hazardous areas presenting significant risks such as inadequate soft-fall surfacing beneath equipment and unstable or unsecured furniture" as well as "non-compliance with record-keeping and restriction of personal devices".

He said the centre was known to the regulator.

"There had been other compliance actions in the past, in this case," Mr Currie said.

"With regards to this matter, it was considered there was an immediate risk to children."

Mr Currie said the ELC would be "working with the provider to actually attempt to get them up to what is required to be able to provide a safe service in NSW".

"It's not a set and forget,"

he said.

Little Kindy operates three centres across Tamworth, in northern NSW, with its remaining centres in East and West Tamworth still operating.

It operates 24 centres across the country, with 13 in NSW.

Little Kindy has been contacted for comment.

Childcare desert

The latest data shows a dramatic increase in the number of NSW centres having their approvals cancelled.

Between April 1 and June 30 this year, 174 services were delisted, compared to 20 in the same period last year.

But the ELC said all but one of those cancellations were due to the operator letting their approval lapse by not providing a service for more than 12 months.

Marg Rogers, an associate professor in early childhood education at the University of New England, said the temporary closure of a childcare centre in a regional town could have lasting effects on the community.

"We live in a childcare desert in all parts of Australia that are regional, remote or rural … [which] means there are at least three families applying for one space," she said.

"That means it has an implication on parents' ability to go to work, and to trust services.

"So a closure, even though it may be very justified, can have a huge ripple effect on the community."

Mr Galliano said his trust in others to care for his child had been shattered.

"He's a strong kid, and we can deal with it, but what happens if something happened to a six-month-old baby?' he said.

"Every other child and every other parent [enrolled at Little Kindy] has been impacted, and I'm sure there are single parents who have been displaced because of an inability to keep up to standards.