Investigations continue

According to ACT Minister for Education, Yvette Berry, the BCC Executive is still yet to meet the requirements of a Compliance Notice issued late 2019 to “demonstrate their fitness and propriety to be involved in the provision of education and care services”. She advises the Regulatory Authority, CECA, “continues to pursue BCC regarding compliance with this obligation”.

The ACT Office of Fair Trading has also been actively investigating BCC for some months.  They determined several clauses in BCC’s Enrolment Contract, allowing for the exclusion of children, may be in breach of Australian Consumer Law as possible “unfair terms”.  BCC, via their legal representatives, are reportedly refusing to amend their enrolment contract despite requests by Fair Trading to do so.  We note this is in addition to HRC’s recent Recommendations to amend their enrolment contract AND the findings of the Directorate’s audit late 2019, which in consultation with the Government Solicitors Office, stated that these same clauses also breached Section 105 of the Education Act 2004.

We understand Work Safe ACT, the ACT Education Directorate, the Department of Education, Skills and Employment - Schools Assurance Office and State & Federal Education Ministers are all continuing to actively investigate and/or monitor work practices at BCC.

The ACT Human Rights Commission is also committed to pursuing compliance with the recommendations set out in their Final Report on BCC, which found BCC had not taken its obligations towards the care of children seriously. The recent HRC Final Report publicly stated “it does not appear that BCC’s complaints policy prioritises the safety and wellbeing of children and young people or that complaints are taken seriously, and responded to promptly and thoroughly, with consideration for fairness to all parties”.   

Misleading Advertising

Despite some reforms and noting the BCC’s lack of adherence to the compliance notices, which the school continues to fight, it is hard to believe they would advertise on busses around Canberra that the “Charnwood Early Learning Centre ‘BLITZES’ National Quality Standards!” An ACT Education investigation into the BCC Early Learning Centre in 2019 concluded that ‘evidence identified incidents where staff failed to follow sleep and rest policies for children, where interactions and discipline of children was not appropriate, and inaccuracies in working directly with children records.

How then can BCC claim that they are blitzing national quality standards, particularly noting the BCC executive’s continuing refusal to submit to the compliance notice in order to demonstrate their fitness and propriety to be involved in the provision of education and care services?

A fitness and propriety re-assessment is an opportunity for leadership to publicly demonstrate their ability and suitability to operate and govern BCC and restore trust, demonstrating they take compliance and competency seriously.

Dropping enrolment numbers

Despite ABS reports of an an overall 10% increase in Independent School enrolments in the ACT for 2020, enrolments at BCC dropped by almost 16% over the same period, according to myschool.edu.au census data.  In contrast, other private Christian schools in the ACT recorded up to a 27% increase in enrolments over that same period.

The governance and management issues at BCC appear to be slowly taking a toll on its reputation and enrolments.