With a historic plan to overhaul preschool education in the works, there is a glaring gap that needs to be filled when it comes to the conversation surrounding child safety.
Since 2019, there has been a 162% increase in serious mental health problems in teenagers. This is made worse in 2022, with modelling forecasts by Professor Ian Hickie claiming that Australia risks losing more than 4,000 lives to suicide in the next five years because of the pandemic.
Research has long proven that early intervention can significantly improve a child’s mental wellbeing later in life. This is something that Affinity Education Group has recognised and sought to tap into with the introduction of what they call “safety leaders.”
Read next: Early childhood reforms won't work until teacher shortage fixed – expert
Childcare centres to get ‘safety leaders’
As one of Australia’s largest providers of early education and childcare, Affinity Education Group will post a number of trained safety leaders to childcare centres across Australia, starting with the appointment of Samantha Martin.
Martin is currently the centre manager at Kids Academy at Erina Heights. In her new role as a safety leader, she will be responsible for upholding the excellent safety ratings at her centre and mentoring other centres in the area to reach the same standard.
“Achieving the highest safety standards is not just a tick box exercise,” Martin said. “We’ve got to continually adapt our methods and adopt learnings from other centres and the wider sector to make sure we’re doing everything possible to protect our children.”
Martin is joined by 20 other safety leaders to champion this national commitment, working alongside Affinity’s safety and compliance team.
Read more: Empowering teachers to improve student wellbeing
To become a safety leader, Affinity educators and centre managers are tasked to undergo an induction process and receive continuous mentorship from the safety and compliance team.
Tim Hickey, chief executive officer of Affinity, said group has committed to a national approach to prioritising child safety through these new appointments and continued investment in the space.
“The safety of the children in our centres is paramount and has always been our number one priority,” Hickey said. “Following the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw benefit in creating a national program of activity to ensure that our industry-leading approach is consistent in the group’s 180+ centres across the country and that knowledge sharing and learning is shared among our centres.”
“This commitment is another way we are ensuring continual improvement of our safety practices and embedding these safeguards into our culture,” Hickey added. “Apart from parents, childcare workers and educators spend more time with children than almost everyone else in their lives, therefore early educators are at the coalface of protecting our children.”