Putting Children First: Early Childhood Education in New Zealand Presentation to Downtown Rotary Auc

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Putting Children First Early Childhood
Education in New ZealandPresentation to
Downtown RotaryAuckland, New Zealand18 October
2005

• Susan M. Thorne
• CEO, Early Childhood Council and Member,
  Education Forum
• ceo_at_ecc.org.nz

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Agenda

• Overview of early childhood education sector.
• Overview of Early Childhood Council (ECC).
• Highlight main points from recent ECC report
  entitled Putting Children First.

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Early Childhood Sector

• Diverse sector 3,500 licensed ECE providers in
  2004. Also home-based care.
• 160,000 children in licensed ECE services and a
  further 20,000 in licence-exempt in 2004.
• ECE centres cater to different ages, cultures,
  teaching philosophies and hours of opening
• Education and care centres (ECEC)
• Playcentres
• Kindergartens
• Te Kohanga Reo.
• ECE centres can be sessional (part-day) or all
  day (open 7am until 6 pm).

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Figure 1 Proportion of ECE Enrolments by Type
of Provider2004
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Early Childhood Sector (Contd)

• Historically, sector was made up of individually
  owned centres.
• Sector largely female owned and operated.
• Majority of ECEC centres are commercially
  operated. 24 are incorporated societies, 19
  are trusts and 5 are owned by public bodies (see
  Figure 2).
• Face of sector has changed in recent years.
• Rise of locally based chains and larger national
  and international chains such as Kindercare,
  Forward Steps (Macquarie Bank), First Steps and
  Kidicorp.
• ECEC centres largely non-unionised.

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Figure 2 Proportion of Licensed ECEC Providers,
by Organisational Form, 1 July 2001
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(No Transcript)
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Early Childhood Sector Growth

• ECE enrolments growing quickly enrolments up by
  2.8 percent per year over past 14 years (see
  Figure 3).
• Growth concentrated in ECEC sector. ECEC centres
  grew by 160 (average of 7 per year) from 1990
  to 2004 (see Figure 4). Other sectors stagnant.
• New Zealand has high ECE participation among
  highest in OECD, with 94 percent of Year 1 school
  students having attended an ECE service.
• Quality of ECE provision is generally good
  Education Review Office found that 85 percent of
  centres in 2001 had generally good quality.

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Figure 3 Growth in ECE Enrolments in Licensed
Services, 1992-2004
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Figure 4 Enrolment Growth in Licensed ECEC vs
Non ECEC Centres
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Early Childhood Council

• Incorporated society formed in 1990,
  incorporated in 1991.
• ECC supports independent early childhood centres
  through advocacy, services and benefits.
• Headquarters in Auckland.
• 860 centres are members.
• Governed by Executive Committee. Four full-time
  staff.
• www.ecc.org.nz

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Putting Children First, August 2005
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Putting Children First Background

• ECC commissioned report on ECE policy environment
  in response to a number of regulatory and funding
  threats facing the sector generally and the
  for-profit sector specifically.
• Move away from many of the Before Five policies
  that had provided platform for diversity and
  growth in ECE provision.
• Report prepared by New Zealand Institute of
  Economic Research.
• Considerable media interest in release of report.
  

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Importance of ECE

• Well-functioning ECE sector is important to the
  well-being of children, parents and society.
• International and domestic research shows that,
  compared to no or low quality ECE, good quality
  ECE is associated with
• Better lifetime economic and social outcomes for
  children, especially those from disadvantaged
  backgrounds, through improving school readiness
  and long-term educational outcomes
• Improved opportunities for parents through
  providing time for employment, education and
  training and child rearing support and
• Reduced cost of schooling and anti-social
  behaviour among children through better
  socialisation and improved economic prospects.

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Key Elements of a Better Policy Environment for
ECE

• Subsidy set to reflect wider social benefits of
  ECE participation
• Government subsidies should follow the child
  enhance choice for parents
• Same subsidies to all ECE providers that meet
  same regulatory standards
• Targeted funding for at-risk families and/or
  those in isolated areas
• Targeted top-up funding for special needs
  children, reflecting the higher cost of service
  provision

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Key Elements of a Better Policy Environment for
ECE (Contd)

• Provide government loans/grants where capital
  markets fail (eg. build/maintain capacity in
  isolated areas) or provide other start-up
  assistance (eg. expert advice)
• Regulation of minimum quality standards, based on
  mix of outcomes and input-based regulation where
  that is more cost-effective
• Monitoring/transparent reporting of service
  performance by independent and contestable
  agency/agencies and
• Provision of advisory services and encouraging
  networks among providers.

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Recommendations for Reform

• Focus of recommendations increasing ECE
  participation, removing barriers to access,
  raising quality and promoting collaborative
  relationships.
• Key recommendations
• Subsidies available to all providers meeting
  objective performance standards irrespective of
  ownership abolish 20 free hours policy and
  better target funding at children not currently
  in ECE
• Remove 6 hour daily limit/review 30 hour weekly
  limit on subsidies
• Improve the targeting of funding to children from
  low-income/at-risk families with abolish Equity
  Funding, make greater use of the Child Care
  Subsidy and provide top-up for geographic
  isolation

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Recommendations for Reform (Contd)

• Make Discretionary Grants Scheme available to any
  provider, irrespective of ownership status and
  review whether assistance should be provided in
  the form of loans, rather than grants
• Abolish requirement that all teaching staff must
  be registered ECE teachers by 2012
• Introduce a fair and accurate system of
  recognition of prior learning (regardless of
  provider ownership)
• Replace all standards that are differentiated by
  ownership with standards that are independent of
  ownership
• Move away from regulating inputs toward
  performance-based regulation, based on
  information disclosure requirements and
  incentives for ongoing quality improvement

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Recommendations for Reform (Contd)

• Encourage sector collaboration by ensuring the
  participation and representation of all sector
  stakeholders in policy development and
  facilitating sector responsibility for the
  development of ECE teaching and professional
  development resources, etc.

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Conclusion

• ECE sector has grown significantly to meet needs
  of modern society.
• Sector growth encouraged by social and economic
  changes (eg increasing labour force participation
  of women) and light handed regulatory
  environment set up in 1990.
• Much of growth concentrated in commercial sector.
• Face of sector changing national and
  international chains.
• No reason why sector cant continue to meet the
  needs of working families if appropriate
  regulation in place.
• Policy threats include increasing regulatory
  burden (eg. Holidays Act), MECAs, price controls
  (20 free hours policy) and anti private sector
  policy bias.
• ECE big issue with parents, employers and media.

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www.educationforum.org.nz