Child Protection at Little Lights

Our centre has 16 CCTV cameras covering the whole building, inside and out, with no blind spots.

We deliberately keep our rooms open: no cubby houses, tall furniture or hidden corners where a child could be out of view. Transparent spaces mean every adult is accountable, every minute of the day.

Footage is kept and can be reviewed whenever it is needed, and it is available to regulatory bodies on request. Nothing is left to memory or one person’s word.

Secure entry, in and out. Our doors are PIN and fob controlled, with double doors at the exit so no child can wander out, and children are only ever released to the adults you have authorised.

The nappy change room has a clear glass wall and door, so every nappy change is visible to the whole room, all the time.

The children’s toilets are in full view too. They have half walls and no enclosed areas, so toileting is always supervised and every adult is accountable, while children still learn independence.

Nappy changes and toileting are the moments families worry about most. At Little Lights they happen in full view, so you never have to wonder.

From the moment we open until the last child goes home, there are always two or more staff on site, including opening and closing. That is above the minimum the law requires, and we are often well above ratio. Two sets of eyes means a child is never alone with a single adult.

How we supervise:

• Educators are spread out across the room and the yard, positioned so every child is in sight.
• No staff chatting together in a corner. Every educator is engaged with the children.
• Paperwork is done off the floor by extra staff, so the educators with your child are never distracted by documentation.
• Children are counted and accounted for at every transition, inside and out.
• Visitors are never alone with children. Tradespeople and visitors sign in and are accompanied at all times.

Many centres fill gaps with casual staff from recruitment agencies and staffing apps, which can mean a stranger the children have never met is caring for them that day. We avoid this.

Little Lights has its own small group of in-house casual educators. They are screened and trained like our permanent team, they know our centre, and most importantly, the children already know them. Familiar, trusted faces every day.

Every educator at Little Lights is hand-picked. We look for Christ-like, mature and responsible people who are warm, gentle and nurturing with children, and who genuinely watch out for them. Before anyone starts with us, they go through:

• a Working With Children Check, verified by us
• interviews and reference checks
• a search of the regulator’s registers for any history that would stop them working with children
• multiple child protection trainings, repeated every year, and every educator is a trained mandatory reporter
• trial shifts at the centre, where they are watched closely by our experienced staff and reviewed on CCTV footage before any offer is made

We never rush a hire. If someone is not right for our children, we wait.

Our record. Little Lights has never had a child protection complaint or allegation made against any member of our staff. Not one, ever.

Meet our team →

Little Lights has never had a child protection complaint or allegation made against any member of our staff. Not one, ever.

We never take that for granted. It is the result of careful hiring, open spaces, close supervision and a team that truly cares, and we work hard every single day to keep it that way.

Children are safest when they understand their own bodies and know they will be believed. Through our body safety books and everyday conversations, children learn the correct names for body parts, that their body belongs to them, the difference between safe and unsafe touch, and who their trusted adults are. Every year, Life Education’s Healthy Harold visits with a body boundaries program made for young children.

All of this is done in a gentle, child-friendly way, through stories, songs and simple language, so children are protected while their innocence is kept. They learn to stay safe without ever being frightened.

Child protection does not stop at our gate. We host free information sessions for families with child protection specialists, including police child exploitation experts, on how grooming happens and the warning signs to look for. Every family is welcome.

Our Director, Michelle, has worked in childcare for 20 years and is deeply passionate about child protection. Outside the centre, she volunteers as the child protection team leader at her local church. Protecting children is not just her job, it is her life’s work.

Through our family app you receive regular photos, videos and messages through the day, so you can see your child happy, settled and engaged. Photos and videos are taken only on centre devices, never on personal phones.

If anything happens, you hear it from us first, by phone call or text, and every incident, injury or illness is recorded in a written report that you see and sign.

You can call, text or message us any time, and you are always welcome to drop in unannounced.