RESPONSE FROM AFFINITY EDUCATION GROUP CEO TIM HICKEY TO ABC TV’s 7:30 PROGRAM
“These are very serious and troubling matters. I want to express again how profoundly sorry I am that something like this could occur to any child in our care. It is something that never should have happened.
“I would like to reassure families we have a zero-tolerance approach to any form of child harm and will dismiss employees found to be in breach of this safeguard, as well as engage with external agencies up to and including police where required.
“Our people share the deep concern over failings when they occur in the early childhood education and care sector. The safety, wellbeing, and development of every child must always come first. I am personally committed to doing everything in our power to honour the trust that families place in us through transparency, accountability and an unwavering focus on quality care.
“While even a single failing is one too many, it is also important to acknowledge these incidents are not representative of the dedicated, professional team who care for children every day across thousands of centres. The vast majority of people who work in early education, including those at Affinity, are deeply committed to nurturing, protecting, and educating children with compassion and integrity.
“To support our commitment to the children in our care, Affinity invests back, with over $70 million of capital spent on compliance, training, safety, care, systems and processes across our network over the past three years. We also reinvest in the professional development of our educators, including through our Affinity Learning Academy, a key sector differentiator and a widely-recognised development pathway that has helped more than 2,200 educators attain nationally recognised qualifications since 2017, and through our funded Bachelor degrees in the Affinity Teacher Scholarship pathway that was launched in 2019.
“I would like to reassure all families, and our team, of the care and concern with which we treat matters like this. We will strengthen the trust families have in us by continuing to act with integrity and our ongoing investment in the quality of our centres and people, at the same time as continuing to work closely with regulators to improve standards.”