On 20th May 2015, 7 News Brisbane reported on the growing concern of “child-swapping” fraud happening at some Family Day Care (FDC) centres in Brisbane, costing taxpayers millions every year (source).
Child-swapping occurs when FDC workers swap between each other’s children to rort taxpayer-funded childcare subsidies, while the government attempts to tighten childcare payment laws (source).
Executive Manager of FDC Queensland Peta McNellie acknowledged that the fraudulent practices in FDC also coincided with the growth of FDC:
“FDC has been operating for over 40 years and delivering incredible environments for the education and care of children. Our focus is the quality for children. To those who are only interested in making money and not meeting regulatory requirements, you are not welcome in our sector.”
As a non-profit organisation, ICH provides two FDC Services (Brisbane Kids and KITES) which strictly do not condone or practice “child-swapping”, or any other fraudulent FDC practices.
For 40 years and counting, both ICH FDC Services have established impeccable record to abide by the National Regulations and Law, as well as the National Quality Standard and Early Years Learning Framework.
Our priority is to provide the best quality of care, while ensuring that all ICH FDC processes are ethical, open and transparent.
We consider that in some cases of fraudulent behaviour within the FDC industry, the educators may have not received proper training, and are – knowingly or not – exploited by their profit-driven Approved Providers and trainers.
So if you are an educator who faces any issue with your current FDC Provider, please get in touch with us directly (admin@ich.org.au or call (07) 3372 1711). You can also contact Family Day Care Queensland for advice and support.
To quote our ICH FDC Manager Sandi Herbert:
“Ultimately, children are more important than the almighty dollar.”