Adele Ferguson

The true scale of abuse in Australia's childcare centres has been hidden. With 200,000 pages of previously confidential files, police tip-offs, and evidence from whistleblowers, Four Corners exposes the reality.

Family day care makes up just 5 per cent of Australia's early childhood education and care system, but insiders, experts and regulatory documents paint a picture of a sector beset by troubling incidents and structural risk.

A 26-year-old man in Sydney charged with 10 counts of child sexual abuse has thrust private equity giant Quadrant into the centre of another national childcare scandal, this time in the booming out-of-school-hours sector.

A Queensland childcare worker has been charged with torturing and repeatedly assaulting a one-year-old baby boy.

Despite repeated warnings from experts and a formal recommendation from a coroner more than three years ago, safe sleep training isn't mandatory for childcare workers everywhere in Australia.

Kids face down asleep in hoodies, electrical sockets exposed and one child locked in a shed. Documents reveal disturbing revelations from inside Australia's childcare sector in crisis.

Thousands of students are getting fast-tracked qualifications to work in childcare centres and it's compromising safety standards, experts warn.

For those like me who have been investigating childcare for almost a year now, the news was horrifying but not a surprise.

It seems without deeper reform the childcare system will continue to bleed public money while failing the children it's meant to serve.  

Parents, educators and experts say the reforms are tokenistic, a band-aid fix, and ignore the deeper structural failures festering in the childcare system.