A sharp rise in reports of violence, neglect and sexual misconduct in the childcare sector in Victoria has revealed serious concerns about the safety of children in early-years services. According to the annual report from the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People (VCCYP), the number of mandatory notifications relating to childcare centres surged by 32 per cent in the 2024-25 financial year compared with the previous year.
In the 2024-25 year, the VCCYP recorded 705 notifications of “reportable allegations” in the childcare sector—that is, cases where an allegation of serious harm or misconduct was made—and within those notifications there were 967 individual alleged acts. Breaking that down, the report said there were 627 allegations of physical violence, 152 of neglect, 78 of sexual misconduct and 27 of sexual offending.
Across all sectors subject to the mandatory reporting scheme—including education, health, and religious organisations—the commission noted a total of 2,232 notifications in 2024-25, representing an 18 per cent increase over the previous year.
Critically, the report also highlights that the rate at which allegations of sexual offences are being substantiated has surged: more than half (51 per cent) of sexual offence allegations across all sectors were found to have sufficient evidence to be substantiated, up from just 15 per cent in 2018-19. Meanwhile, almost half (48 per cent) of sexual misconduct allegations were substantiated in 2024-25.
The early-childhood care sector has come under particular scrutiny after the arrest of a childcare worker in Victoria who is charged with more than 70 offences, including the alleged sexual abuse of eight children aged five months to two years. That case prompted the state government to commission a rapid review into childcare safety.
That review concluded there was “no silver bullet” for preventing dangerous individuals from gaining employment in childcare, and called for a “fundamental reset” of the system. The government has responded by announcing legislation to create a new regulatory authority for early childhood in Victoria, although it admitted it would not meet a year-end deadline to implement all of the review’s recommendations—including reforms to working-with-children checks.
The government’s handling of the issue has drawn criticism from the opposition. The Liberal Party of Australia’s shadow education minister, Evan Mulholland, said the “horrifying increase” in reportable conduct in childcare reflected a broken system under the ruling Australian Labor Party.
Meanwhile, the commission itself warned that its capacity to respond has been undermined by the sheer volume of notifications combined with limited resources. It said: “We have focused our limited resources on the cases of most obvious and serious risk to children.”
The VCCYP also pointed to worrying trends in other settings, noting that incidents in youth justice facilities had escalated sharply—assaults up 114 per cent, youth-on-staff violence up 100 per cent, and dangerous incidents up 211 per cent. “Poor quality of care incidents reached their highest in four years, rising 275 per cent.”
