Education Minister Sabine Winton mandates ban on personal mobile phones in WA childcare centres

Personal mobile phones will be banned from WA childcare centres after a snap review aimed at boosting children’s safety. Education Minister Sabine Winton ordered the review of WA’s child care system in July to ensure safety protocols were up to scratch in the wake of horrific abuse allegations in Melbourne. Victoria banned phones in daycare centres after childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown was charged with more than 70 offences against babies and toddlers. About 1200 children had to undergo health checks for infectious diseases. Ms Winton said on Tuesday that she planned to implement the ban on personal devices “as fast as we can”, though penalties for non-compliance were still to be worked out. “This move is in line with strong responses from States such as South Australia and Victoria and recognises that these devices can pose a risk to the safety of children,” she said. “Importantly, we will work with the union and the sector to identify any situations where reasonable adjustments should be made to this ban, such as when someone might have caring responsibilities.” The United Workers Union, which represents educators in childcare centres, said it would support the ban. UWU early education director Carolyn Smith said it was a “sensible way” to address the safety issues caused by mobile devices. Shadow education minister Liam Staltari said while the vast majority of child care educators were in the sector “for the right reasons”, the Opposition backed any measures that made children safer and gave confidence to parents. A national child safety review was also launched in May, but Ms Winton asked WA’s Education and Care Regulatory Unit to conduct its own inquiry. A nationally-agreed requirement for centres to have policies around managing private mobile phones was due to be introduced in September, but Ms Winton said she was “going a step further” by mandating phone bans. Some jurisdictions are contemplating mandating CCTV or line-of-sight requirements, while attorneys-general are also set to harmonise the rules around working with children checks. The Cook Government will also kick in another $1.1 million to bolster ECRU’s capacity to increase compliance efforts. The review identified a 14 per cent increase in compliance issues in WA childcare centres, with the number of reports rising to 5428 in 2024-25, up from 4677 the previous year. Ms Winton said that increase was in line with the growth in childcare services. “When you get more compliance notifications, it actually means people are doing their job and I don’t apologise for that,” she said. “In fact, Western Australia is known for being one of the more highly-rated regulatory authorities in terms of dishing out fines — $350,000 worth of fines have been issued in the last year. “I don’t apologise for that. It tells me that people are doing exactly what they should do.” WA has the lowest proportion of centres that exceed minimum standards, with none of its almost 1500 childcare centres rated as “excellent”. About 80 per cent of all services meet minimum standards.