Safety at Play to Learn

At Play to Learn, safety is not simply a policy, procedure or compliance requirement. It is a responsibility we carry every day.

For more than 20 years, families have trusted us with what matters most: their children.

We believe every child has the right to feel safe, known, valued and understood. This means protecting their physical safety while also creating environments where children feel emotionally secure, respected, listened to and confident that the adults around them will act in their best interests.

Our approach to safety is proactive, transparent and continually evolving.

Policies are important, but children experience safety through people.

That is why we place significant emphasis on the professional expectations, education and ongoing development of our team.

Our educators and leaders receive ongoing guidance and training relating to child safety, mandatory reporting responsibilities, professional conduct, supervision, risk management and their responsibilities when working with children.

We maintain clear expectations around professional behaviour and accountability and continue to strengthen our practices as regulations, research and sector expectations evolve.

Our leaders also work alongside educators to translate policies into everyday practice.

We want every member of our team to understand not only what is expected of them, but why it matters.

We take the security of our centres seriously.

Our approach includes controlled access to our services, security and monitoring systems, procedures around entry and departure, and processes designed to ensure that access to our environments is appropriately managed.

Following previous security incidents that occurred outside operating hours, Play to Learn further strengthened its security measures across affected operations.

These measures have included enhanced surveillance and monitoring, strengthened access controls, additional security measures, review of alarms and response processes, overnight security where required, consultation with relevant authorities and specialists, and continued review of our security procedures.

No children or educators were present or harmed during those incidents.

For us, responsible leadership means learning from every experience and asking:

What else can we do to protect our children, our people and our community?

Safeguarding children also means ensuring their voices matter.

We encourage children to communicate their ideas, preferences, feelings and concerns in ways appropriate to their age and development.

Educators build genuine relationships with children so they can recognise changes in behaviour, communication or emotional presentation and respond thoughtfully.

Children should never have to earn an adult’s respect.

They deserve to experience it from the beginning.

Working with children is a privilege that carries significant responsibility.

Our team members are expected to understand and uphold Play to Learn’s professional expectations, Code of Conduct, child safety responsibilities and relevant regulatory requirements.

We expect our educators and leaders to demonstrate professionalism, appropriate boundaries, accountability and sound judgement in their interactions with children, families and one another.

Where something does not meet our expectations, we believe in addressing it.

A strong safety culture cannot exist where difficult conversations are avoided.

Safety requires leadership.

As an Approved Provider with more than two decades of experience in early childhood education and care, Play to Learn maintains governance systems designed to support oversight, accountability and continuous improvement.

Our senior leaders work closely with Centre Directors and educators to review practices, identify risks, strengthen systems and ensure expectations are understood across our services.

We do not view compliance as the finish line.

Meeting regulatory requirements is essential, but our responsibility is to continually ask whether our systems, environments and practices can be stronger.