Chris Gillett

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

The screams in the background were unmistakably from her son. WARNING: This story contains graphic footage and imagery of injuries to a child. An educator from the childcare centre had called to say there had been an incident and could someone come and collect him. From the sound of her child, she knew something was very wrong. "His screams, I will never forget them," she said.

1 month ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

The video is sickening. A baby cries hysterically in a bouncer as a childcare worker slaps her across the face — again and again — for fun. It was filmed at an Affinity Education centre in South Strathfield in Sydney's inner west in May 2023. A colleague recorded the abuse for entertainment to be posted on Snapchat with a laughing emoji. The footage is just nine seconds long, but it highlights ongoing systemic issues around staffing, oversight and safety inside the billion-dollar enterprise.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

The former operator of a Sydney childcare centre where children were force-fed until they vomited, strapped in highchairs for hours and had their heads shoved into garbage bins, has been permanently banned from working in the disability support sector. Thomas Fanous, who was the sole director and person in control of Jumpstart childcare centres, was exposed in March in a Four Corners investigation which revealed he had moved into the NDIS.

2 months ago | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

Some of the country's largest childcare operators are named in a damning cache of regulatory documents the NSW government and regulator tried to keep hidden from the public. The documents detail hundreds of disturbing cases of babies and toddlers being forcibly dragged, pulled, kicked, force-fed, used as a human mop and in some instances, inappropriate sexual behaviour. Some incidents resulted in serious injuries including dislocated elbows, fractures, burns, a fractured skull, and a haematoma.

Mar 27, 2025 | abc.net.au | Adele Ferguson |Chris Gillett

G8 Education, Australia's billion-dollar listed childcare empire, has become embroiled in a damning document dump revealing dozens of its centres in NSW have exposed children to serious safety risks including toxic chemicals, inappropriate discipline, yelling, children going missing and disturbing cases of alleged sexual assaults. The incidents were detailed in hundreds of pages of documents released by the NSW Department of Education in response to a parliamentary order.