Katrin Reed was laying in a hospital bed when she received a “heartbreaking” call from her daughter’s childcare centre.
A member of staff from Nido Early School in Werribee rang the mother of two about 11am on Tuesday, May 17.
“I got a phone call from the daycare to say that … Maisie’s got out, that they didn’t really know what had happened,” Ms Reed said.
Ms Reed said the school had “no idea” her daughter was gone, which she found “quite concerning”.
“[They said she] had exited through a bathroom door to the outdoor play area, they were having maintenance done on the gardens and they’d left a gate open,” Ms Reed said.
“She’d gotten out through there and had walked about 10 metres along the edge of a building before another parent found her and took her back in.”
The daycare released a statement to parents, informing them a child had been “left alone” for three minutes.
“She wasn’t left alone, she was out of the centre, big difference,” Ms Reed said.
“She wasn’t just left unattended, they made it seem as if she was left in a room inside the building for three minutes.
“Anything could have happened, you don’t know who could got in to the service through that open gate, and you don’t know who could have found her.”
Ms Reed believes the childcare centre should “no longer be open” and submitted a formal complaint.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education and Training said the department was “investigating a report of an unsupervised child at Nido Early School on May 17”.
“The health and safety of all children in early childhood centres is our top priority,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the department was also reviewing a similar incident at the same early learning centre on Thursday, December 16, 2021.
Fatima Halloum
