More than 200 family day care providers across NSW have been shut down in the past five years after a government crackdown on dodgy operators.
The NSW Government confirmed 211 operators had their license cancelled in the last five years and only three new approvals to operate were granted last year.
That was down from 157 approvals the year before.
Among the reasons for operators being shut down were examples of children being hit, play environments being hazardous and educators lacking the correct qualification requirements.
Many other operators had their approval stripped after it was found it misused fees, rebates or were providing fraudulent documents.
NSW Minister for Education and Early Childhood Learning Sarah Mitchell said inspections were ramped up after a big spike in day care providers driven by Commonwealth subsidies and incentives.
"There were some that were set up on the pretence of being a legitimate service, but when we would go in and look, we would see that wasn't the case," she said.
"That's why we've taken the tough measures that we have to shut them so that we can ensure quality in the day care sector."
Labor said the number of closures indicated the government had not acted soon enough.
"That is a result of this Government taking its eye off the ball and allowing an explosion of family day care operators who shouldn't have been licensed in the first place," said NSW Labor's spokeswoman for early childhood learning Jodie Harrison.
Ms Mitchell said the State Government was open to making further changes.
"We want to get that balance right to ensure safety for kids but not letting those who are deliberately trying to enter the sector to do the wrong thing get away with it," she said.
Late last year, the NSW Government introduced a new star rating system for childcare centres.
The system requires centres to publicly display their rating, which was determined by whether they exceed, meet, or are working towards the national standard or if they need significant improvement.
It was introduced following an ABC investigation which found a Sydney childcare network with a low rating was not audited for years before a child died in care last year.
