They were comfortable that the staff seemed like “good people” who “would be nurturing and knowledgeable”.
But in March 2019,seven-month-old Jack was put down to sleep in a poorly ventilated room,in a bassinet that was dangerous for a child his age.
Instead of wearing the sleep suit his mother had provided,he was loosely wrapped over his clothes and dribble bib. The childcare worker looking after him had let her CPR qualifications lapse – and when she found him unresponsive and blue after 40 minutes unchecked,she needed instructions from triple zero. She was too late.
Baby Jack Loh died at a Randwick childcare centre in March 2019.Supplied
On Wednesday,an inquest into the death of Jack Loh found that while the baby had an undiagnosed heart condition,the “unsafe sleeping environment” at the Rhythm and Rhyme Family Day Care Centre in Randwick,operated by Kidstart,most likely contributed to his death from pulmonary hypertension.
Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee said the “overwhelming evidence” showed the conditions under which babies slept at the centre were unsafe. The bassinet,which was too small for the seven-month-old and contained a poorly fitted mattress,a pillow,loose-fitting sheet and the wrap,would have “hindered” his ability to move,and posed a suffocation risk.
Given bassinets are considered unsafe for children once they are capable of rolling,Mr Lee recommended national regulations “expressly prohibit” their use “in all early childhood education and care settings”.
Jack’s father,Joe,said the bassinet ban was the “most straightforward” of seven recommendations Mr Lee made in his findings. Other recommendations,relating to training,risk assessment and oversight issues,he was “happy to see” but also “just still outraged by the knowledge” of how the industry has operated to date.
Margot and Joe Loh with their son Jack,who died in 2019.Supplied
Mr Lee found Kidstart did have an appropriate sleep policy in place,but it “was not meaningfully implemented” by the centre.
He found Kidstart “failed to ensure the health,safety and wellbeing of children cared for” at the centre by failing to properly train the educator,Helen Rateau,failing to conduct adequate inspections,and “actively encouraging mispractice” through financial arrangements that encouraged breaching national regulations for child to educator ratios.
Although the centre on the day of Jack’s death was not in breach of the ratio regulations,Mr Lee said the existence of such breaches among multiple educators “reflects a practice of a provider prioritising profit over quality of care”.
He also recommended the NSW government implement a register that would contain the details of the children,the staff,the days and hours of attendees and educators operating above ratio – something Mr Loh said is “outrageous” the department doesn’t already have on hand.
“As a parent,you just assume that that happens. You assume the department knows this basic information,” he said. He said he also assumed the department would inspect premises rather than “outsourcing that to the provider”,and there would be a “certain level of safety and expertise”.
Since Jack’s passing,“we have not put our children into care until they were old enough to walk,” Mr Loh said,and he “felt almost embarrassed” about the detailed questions he was asking.
“No parent was doing that,I felt like a weirdo asking those questions.[But] that’s what I had to do to satisfy myself of the risks,” he said. “Unfortunately,in too many situations the children are at risk,and obviously Jack’s situation was the worst possible outcome.”
Minister for Education and Early Learning,Sarah Mitchell,said she wants “every child to have access to a safe and high-quality early childhood education” and will carefully consider and respond to the findings.
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