A seven-year-old boy with autism walked out of an outside school hours care service unnoticed and was found alone one kilometre away, after crossing two major roads. Active supervision was the link that failed, and the regulator's response holds hard lessons for every service in the country.
On 30 January 2025, a parent's worst fear became real at the Camp Australia service at Victoria Park Primary School Outside School Hours Care (OSHC) in Western Australia. A seven-year-old boy with autism left the service alone and unsupervised. He travelled roughly one kilometre on his own, crossing several major roads including Shepperton Road and Albany Highway, until a member of the public noticed him and called police, who returned him unharmed.
The child was safe, but the regulatory outcome points to a deeper failure that should concern everyone in the sector. This was not a freak accident. It was a breakdown of active supervision, the vital link under Quality Area 2 of the National Quality Standard between a service's safety policy and the lived reality of the children in its care. When that link snaps, the cost is measured in far more than dollars. Here are four lessons every provider and educator can take from it.
| The case at a glance | Finding |
|---|---|
| Penalty | $82,000, ordered by the State Administrative Tribunal |
| Provider | Camp Australia Pty Ltd |
| Service | Victoria Park Primary School OSHC, Western Australia |
| Incident | 30 January 2025 |
| Breach one | Inadequate supervision, Section 165 ($40,000) |
| Breach two | Failure to protect the child from harm and hazard ($40,000) |
| Tribunal history | 16 separate occasions |
Lesson one: active supervision is a skill, not a passive state
Educators sometimes treat supervision as simply being in the room. From a regulator's point of view, presence counts for nothing if it is not active. Under Element 2.2.1 of the National Quality Standard, active supervision is a deliberate, high level skill: educators scan for maximum vision, position themselves so their backs are never to the children, and stay alert to where every child is.
It is also multimodal. In a busy OSHC environment, sound is a vital partner to sight. Educators need to listen for shifts in tone or volume that signal distress or a change in activity, even when a child is briefly out of view behind equipment or other children. ACECQA's own guidance on active supervision makes the same point in plain terms: effective supervision means being conscious of the physical environment and attuned to the needs of each individual child.
Lesson two: the cost of inadequacy is a warning to the whole sector
The financial penalty is a jarring wake up call. Camp Australia was ordered to pay $82,000, split with clinical precision: $40,000 for inadequate supervision under Section 165 of the Education and Care Services National Law (WA), and a further $40,000 for failing to take every reasonable precaution to protect the child from harm and hazard.
The louder signal is not the dollar figure, it is the history. The provider has now faced the Tribunal on 16 separate occasions, a track record that points to a systemic gap between corporate policy and floor level practice. Western Australia's regulator has made clear it will keep using the compliance tools available under the national law where there are serious breaches, and that the state intends to keep leading the nation on enforcement. For repeat matters, safety treated as a line item rather than a foundational value is no longer being tolerated.
Angelo Barbaro, Executive Director, Regulation and Quality, Department of Communities (WA)
Reflecting on the near miss, the regulator noted that the consequences of a child crossing two busy highways and several roads could very easily have been catastrophic, and pointed to tragic cases where children have been struck by vehicles even on quiet suburban streets. In this instance, it was a member of the public who prevented a tragedy.
Lesson three: individual needs call for specific Behaviour Support Plans
In child safety, one size fits all is itself a hazard. This incident involved a child with autism, yet the failure to prevent his exit points to a lack of tailored oversight. Active supervision must be adjusted to the specific needs and circumstances of each child.
This is not only about children with a diagnosed disability. A Behaviour Support Plan is a reasonable step for any child whose circumstances call for adjusted monitoring. As the regulator put it, services must make sure staff are trained and supported to actively supervise all children, whatever their needs, and that includes developing and following Behaviour Support Plans. If a child is known to leave without warning, or has sensory sensitivities, that strategy needs to be documented and every educator trained on it.
Lesson four: balancing agency against high-risk transitions
The sector rightly champions child agency, allowing children to explore independently and take appropriate risks. That is vital for development, but educators have to exercise professional judgement so agency never tips into negligence. That balance is most delicate in OSHC, which carries its own risks: the handover between school and the service, and the design of the premises itself.
The National Regulations require premises to be designed and maintained so that children can be adequately supervised, and require particular care during transitions and transport. In the Victoria Park case, the child was lost during the highest risk window of all: the movement between the school and the care service. Professional judgement is the bridge that prevents a wandering event. Educators need to read the environment for exits and blind spots, and to prioritise safety over independent exploration during those high stakes transition moments.
Safety is a culture, not a checklist
The deeper lesson of this $82,000 penalty is that safety is a living culture of teamwork, not a box to tick. It relies on constant, active communication: telling a colleague when you leave a room, sharing updates on a child's wellbeing, and reassessing the environment for new hazards as the day changes.
In a state leading the nation on enforcement, the question every service can sit with is a simple one. Are our environments genuinely designed to make supervision easier, and are our educators free to watch the children, or are they so buried in administrative tasks that supervision quietly slips? Active supervision is the difference, and it is never a checklist item.
Sources
- Department of Communities (WA), "Approved provider in Victoria Park penalised after seven-year-old child found one kilometre from service," media release, 21 July 2026. wa.gov.au
- State Administrative Tribunal decisions, available via the WA eCourts portal.
- ACECQA, "Active supervision: ensuring safety and promoting learning," Quality Area 2 information sheet.
- Education and Care Services National Law (WA); Education and Care Services National Regulations, provisions on supervision, premises and transitions.
A note on accuracy. This article reports on a public regulatory outcome and refers to specific provisions of the Education and Care Services National Law and National Regulations. Requirements can change, and the way they apply depends on your service context and jurisdiction. Always check the current legislation and your own regulatory authority, and treat this as general information, not legal advice.