Childcare Centre Closure: Tamworth Family's Trust Shattered After Son's Severe Injury

A Tamworth father's trust in childcare was shattered when his five-year-old son suffered a severe leg injury at a local centre. The incident has raised concerns about the safety and compliance of childcare services in regional areas.

Incident Details

Darcy Galliano was called to collect his son from the Little Kindy Childcare Centre on September 1, after staff reported that the boy had a dislocated knee. However, Mr Galliano's instincts told him that something was more seriously wrong.

“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 Mr Galliano lifted his son, his wife could hear him scream from across the road.

An incident report from the centre revealed that the child had been attempting to jump over a wooden bench when he slipped and hit his left knee. Staff applied an ice pack and contacted his mother, but medical personnel were not contacted and the incident was not reported to authorities.

Medical Examination and Aftermath

Subsequent medical examinations revealed that 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.

The NSW Early Learning Commission (ELC) closed the centre for six months, citing “ongoing non-compliance and child safety risks”. The commission's report listed multiple breaches, including a failure to maintain a safe environment, a failure to report incidents, and inadequate child protection practices.

NSW Early Learning Commissioner Darryl Currie 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”.

“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.”

Community Impact

The temporary closure of the childcare centre has raised concerns about the impact on the community. Associate Professor in early childhood education at the University of New England, Marg Rogers, said that the closure 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.”

Mr Galliano fears for his son's long-term health and future job prospects due to his injury.

“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.”

“Things shouldn’t get to this point.”