The federal government has vowed a crackdown on childcare centres that breach safety rules, and state, territory, and federal governments are working on national reforms to improve the Working with Children Check permit system.

Some have called for men to be banned from the profession entirely — something Ramesh Shrestha labels a discriminatory, knee-jerk reaction.

What measures are needed?

“The safest environments are built through rigorous screening, effective supervision, transparent reporting, and a culture that empowers children to speak up, none of these safeguards depend on excluding people purely because they are men,” he said.

Ramesh Shrestha runs a group for male childcare workers and says children deserve to have responsible, caring male role models as part of their care. Source: Supplied

Shrestha said such measures unfairly stigmatised thousands of dedicated, professional male childcare workers and would contribute to some men leaving the already short-staffed sector.

Shrestha said while it was best practice for nappy changing and toileting to occur in view of two staff members, due to staffing issues and depending on rations in a centre at any one time, it may not always happen that way.

Men feel ‘highly surveilled and monitored’

Martyn Mills-Bayne is a senior lecturer in early childhood education at the University of South Australia. Once an early childhood teacher, he is now in academic research and has spent almost 20 years mentoring men in the sector.

“However, this will put added burden on all other educators in a centre as they must take on this part of men’s work.”

The vast majority of early childhood educators are women, and some say further stigmatising could result in the number of men in the industry decreasing further. Source: Getty / Rawpixel

Mills-Bayne said approach would essentially create a two-tiered workforce and that there may be implications for men’s employment prospects: “Why employ a male educator who will not be able to do part of the role you are employing them for? How will centres consider this rule when they have non-binary or trans educators?”

Mills-Bayne said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse highlighted the need to make sure centres minimise any opportunity for abuse to occur, including glass walls around toilets and nappy change areas and no blind spots in centres.

He said while it may be considered controversial to some, he supported the use of CCTV cameras in childcare centres to provide a layer of transparency to protect children. This is something Clare has said early education ministers will discuss when they meet next month.

‘We need to set up a system that is safer’

“We need to set up a system that is safer, rather than targeting a gender or a particular group of workers,” she said this week.