A four-year-old boy suffered a head injury after allegedly being forced onto a bed at a childcare centre near Bathurst.

The 24-year-old female staff member is alleged to have pushed the boy onto a bed at the Grow Early Education centre in Kelso, causing the child to strike the edge of the bed and suffer a two-centimetre laceration to his head.

The alleged incident occurred last month, with police arresting the woman at a home in Kelso on Tuesday afternoon and charging her with reckless wounding at Bathurst Police Station.

The woman’s employment at the centre was terminated in the hours following the incident, which was also reported to the Department of Education.

She has been granted conditional bail, and will appear at Bathurst Local Court on October 29.

Grow Early Education has 15 childcare centres spanning NSW, Victoria and Queensland, including two other centres in regional NSW. The Kelso site is understood to have security cameras monitoring teachers and children inside the centre.

Parents and teachers at the centre will be informed of the charge against the worker in a letter signed by chief executive Bill Adler later on Wednesday.

It comes as the industry confronts a crisis triggered by a series of incidents in recent months. These include a toddler going missing after being handed to the wrong grandparent, revelations children’s mouths were taped shut in a “breathing exercise”, and a three-year-old who ran onto a busy road while in care.

The federal government expedited the passage of childcare reform in July following a swath of arrests, which have increased scrutiny on centres failing to support the safety and quality of their services.

More to come