Sydney, Australia – A grandfather mistakenly took home the wrong one-year-old child from First Steps Learning Academy in Sydney’s Bangor suburb on Monday afternoon, prompting an inquiry by the New South Wales Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority.The error came to light when the child’s mother arrived at the daycare center to discover her daughter was missing, according to a report in the sydney Morning Herald. The mother, who wished to remain anonymous, stated staff were unable to provide details about the man who had collected the child, beyond noting he was an older gentleman wearing shorts.
“I can’t explain the feeling,” she told the newspaper.”They couldn’t tell me [the man’s] name,they couldn’t tell me who he was,they couldn’t tell me who he was meant to pick up. They couldn’t tell me what he looked like, apart from that he was wearing shorts and he was an older gentleman.”
While childcare centres typically enforce policies restricting child pickups to authorized parents, guardians, or carers, the mother emphasized the daycare bears responsibility. “We are not angry with him. We are not upset at him – we blame the daycare.”
The grandfather’s wife told the Sydney Morning Herald her husband was “devastated” and “owned the mistake,” promptly returning the child upon realizing the error.
First Steps Learning Academy has stood down the staff member involved and issued an apology. “We sincerely apologise to the families directly involved in this deeply upsetting and isolated incident,” said nursery director Trisha Hastie. Hastie confirmed this was the first such incident at any of First Steps’ nurseries and stated procedures have been strengthened to prevent recurrence.
the incident occurs amid increased scrutiny of childcare safety in Australia, following the announcement of new legislative changes last month designed to improve sector-wide safety standards.
