The moment this mum knew something wasn't right at her daughter's childcare.

Content warning: This story includes descriptions of child abuse that may be distressing to some readers.

The first thing Anna* noticed were the bruises on her two-year-old daughter's back. Then her toddler's behaviour started to change.

The Australian mum-of-two instinctively knew something wasn't right, but she had no idea that a female childcare worker who was supposed to be looking after her "bright and vivacious" little girl would be responsible.

Anna is now sharing her story to help other parents — and to force change in the childcare sector as calls for more protection and safety protocols grow.

Listen: Australia's child care sector is reeling after child sex abuse allegations. Post continues below.

'I had no idea what was going on.'

At first, it was a few small things that Anna noticed, that snowballed into a dawning realisation.

"She was too young to vocalise what was happening to her and over a period of a few months I had instinctively been taking photos of bruises and marks and things like that on her body and had reported concerns to her daycare," Anna told Mamamia.

"I was picking her up and she was incredibly distressed… this culminated in her having extreme daycare refusal, and she started having night terrors at night. So we'd be up until 11 or 12 o'clock with a screaming child.

"At the time, I had no idea what was going on."

Initially, Anna assumed that her daughter might have some kind of medical issue, so she took her to the GP, who found nothing.

"The educator kind of insinuated that maybe there's something wrong with my child," Anna said.

"A few months went by with this kind of stuff. We were wondering what on earth we were going to do, and then I was approached by another educator at the centre… she basically said to me, 'you need to remove your child from the care of this educator immediately'. She wasn't safe.

"It was incredibly alarming."

That childcare worker went on to describe the abuse that had been going on.

Anna told Mamamia her daughter experienced emotional and physical abuse, as well as neglect.

"First it was exclusion-type behaviour, so not allowing her to participate in activities and shaming her in front of other children and educators," she said. "(My daughter) is quite a smart little cookie, so she picked up what was happening and was incredibly distressed by it."

But then the educator started refusing to follow any sleep or comfort strategies for Anna's daughter.

"I was told she would take toys away and her dummy away, an hour before nap time to 'wear her out' to make it easier to put her to sleep.

"When this strategy wasn't effective anymore, the educator came up with the idea that she would flip my daughter on her stomach and use her knee to hold her down for extended periods of time — up to half an hour apparently — while she would fight and struggle to get out from under her.

"Those were the marks I had been seeing on her back."

Comfort toys were denied to Anna's daughter. Image: Getty.

Suddenly, facts started clicking into place.

Anna recalled she would often pick her daughter up with a soiled nappy or undies, which had been left for "an extended period of time".

"So much so, that it was dry by the time I picked her up. She'd have rashes. It was awful," she said. "She was coming home with a full lunch box of food, so she wasn't sleeping, and she wasn't eating."

Once she realised the extent of what was happening, Anna went to the centre to make a complaint. She was assured the worker would be removed from her child's care. But the educator was only moved to an operations capacity and still had access to her child.

After the formal complaint, the worker allegedly uploaded a half-naked photo of Anna's daughter to a private cloud-based app for educators, parents, and families to document and share children's learning journeys.

"I'm 99 per cent sure that was an act of retaliation designed to humiliate and hurt us," she said. "I contacted the administrators of the app, and they confirmed it was a major breach of child safety standards. An absolute no-go."

After the photo incident, Anna was sure the childcare centre would act to protect her child.

They didn't.

"The centre then acted to protect the staff member. They called the claims the other educator made 'salacious', they refused to investigate them, to talk to staff, and they attempted to terminate our enrolment at the centre."

This left Anna and her family feeling distressed and isolated. She attempted to escalate the matter to child safety, to the police, to their state's Department of Education.

After a five-month investigation, the accusations made by the fellow worker were substantiated by the Department of Education. However, a loophole would mean the individual educator responsible would not be held liable.

"The first thing I noticed when I read the outcome was it was based around breaches of the centre. There was nothing about the individual mentioned," Anna said, adding that the provider of the centre retired during the investigation, meaning there were no lasting consequences.

And although the new provider terminated the educator's employment, it hasn't stopped her from finding other jobs working with children.

"The female worker who abused my daughter remains working in the sector to this day."

What needs to change.

Since experiencing firsthand how the system allows these individuals to remain in the sector, Anna has been actively advocating for reform.

She believes the childcare system needs an urgent overhaul to prevent further harm to children.

"The number one thing I think is most important, having followed the other stories in the media, is there should be a national registration of childcare workers to ensure workers can not simply move between centres or states," she said, adding there needs to be stronger "whistleblower protections" as well.

"Ultimately, I believe there needs to be a Royal Commission to thoroughly address the cross-jurisdictional and deeply embedded systemic failures that we're seeing."

Anna said her family felt 'punished' after bringing the issues to light. Image: Getty.

Through investigating the sector, and trying to find alternative care for her daughter, Anna heard story after story from other parents.

"Every centre we went to, we were given horror stories by people we know," she said. "We could not find one within a 10-kilometre radius of us that we were happy with, that would be a better option."

She said her story is "mild" in comparison to others she's personally heard.

"I have at least another 10 people I've spoken to with much more horrific experiences. It's pretty disturbing, and it keeps me awake at night," she said.

In the end, Anna opted to look after her daughter at home until she was old enough to enter prep.

"It was a really restorative experience," Anna said. "She is good, but there are lasting behavioural challenges. She really struggles to trust other adults."

Anna wants other parents who may be struggling to know they're not alone.

"It's devastating, and I understand the feeling of hopelessness in a system where it feels like nobody will listen."

*Names have been changed to protect identity.

Feature image: Getty.