Secret rating system kept parents in dark about safety fears at NSW childcare centre

Wheeler review into the NSW childcare sector found there were often ‘differences between the quality rating (that may be some years old) and the RA risk rating of services [RRS]’. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP

A childcare centre in New South Wales was approved as “meeting” government standards in the publicly available rating system, but flagged months later as a “very high risk service” in a secret rating system maintained by the Department of Education, the Guardian can reveal.

The centre, which Guardian Australia is choosing not to name, was flagged by officers from the NSW early childhood regulator as being in the highest risk category of childcare services, after officials visited in May 2024 to investigate a complaint.