Baby left alone after hours at NSW Childcare Centre

NSW Childcare center under investigation after toddler left alone when the center closed.

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Another shocking tale of mistakes at a Childcare center.

When daddy arrived to collect his son from the Little Smarts Daycare Center in Blaxland he found the staff had already left for the day, leaving his child asleep inside.

He called the police who then forced their way inside and found the boy in an air-conditioned room.

The child’s parents declined to speak on camera and but told 7News, they are “very happy with the childcare centre and continue to use it”.

“The most important thing is our baby boy is safe,” they said.

The centre’s owner said the child was only unattended for 20 minutes due to a miscommunication between staff and that more checks were being put in place to avoid a repeat.

Nesha O’Neill from the Australian Childcare Alliance NSW said: “There is always going to be human error. We have very strong regulations in place that are designed to prevent this happening, and given the amount of children in care…it’s very, very rare”

Police said they will not be pursue the matter as the child was not injured.

The Department of Education said it will conduct a full investigation and appropriate action will be taken.

Share your thoughts below.

Stock photo via Getty Images

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37 Comments

- - meedee said
  - 17 Dec 2021
    10:13 am
Very concerning but thankfully all ended well and the Center is lucky that the parents were so very understanding

- - ella12 said
  - 10 Feb 2016
    2:58 pm
That is absolutely shocking. Extremely poor form in regards to the irresponsible staff.

- - mom170638 said
  - 19 Jan 2016
    11:43 pm
The 2 previous stories mentioned on this site (the one linked above in Brisbane and the one that one links to in QLD) where children died occurred at family daycare homes, not daycare centres. Can I ask why you have not differentiated between the 2 in your articles when they are completely different models of care? It honestly seems like deliberate scare-mongering. I will be very interested to see if this comment gets published and has an answer. In situations like this where parents are making decisions about their childrens wellbeing it is important for the media to report the truth.

- - aprilb1 said
  - 14 Jan 2016
    1:47 pm
Still a worry, imagine if it was any longer

- - Number One Mum said
  - 03 Jan 2016
    10:46 am
It’s Disgusting the place should loose it’s Licence The other mothers should take there kids out of this centre

- - coastalkaryn said
  - 29 Dec 2015
    6:43 pm
Oh dear – what a terrible mistake!

- - june11 said
  - 19 Dec 2015
    12:13 am
In Adelaide Parents/guardians have to sign a book when they take their child in and again when they pick them up. Obviously the book wasn’t checked or they would have known the child was still there.

- - tessie said
  - 12 Dec 2015
    1:44 pm
What a scary thing to have happened to their child. Why is there not one person responsible to make sure all children have been picked up? This would definitely stop this from happening again. Just glad the child was okay.

- - mom91861 said
  - 04 Dec 2015
    7:06 pm
That young boy was very lucky there was no worse outcome of his misadventure

- - mom94125 said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    7:52 pm
nope not right! they left the baby and the aircon on. Did they not at least hear that and think, oh i will check that? this should have been avoided. there is no excuse for leaving a child unattended!

- - mom80542 said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    5:35 pm
Good on the parents for sticking with the Child care centre. They obviously know and trust them enough to understand this was a definite & unintended ‘mistake’. People are too quick to condemn people who make mistakes these days. However, things may have been different if the child was hurt. Glad the child was not in this instance.

- - robyn_smithwick said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    3:45 pm
Thank goodness the little child was ok.

- - Mummytoabeautifulprincess said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    2:15 pm
What on earth?!!! I don’t know whether I would be so forgiving if that was my child!

- - rovermum said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    9:19 am
Wow. I would assume a thorough check of each Childcare room would take place before the centre is closed each day. Concerning.

- - levismumma said
  - 03 Dec 2015
    8:04 am
This is beyond scary. To think these are people we are supposed to be trusting to look after our children.