“It’s deeply concerning the government’s advisory group on early childhood education (ECE) funding is proposing trading-off quality factors including teachers’ qualifications and pay, to reduce barriers to participation” said Amanda Coulston, Kindergartens Aotearoa (KA) spokesperson. “It is short-sighted and unacceptable.”

Submissions on the advisory group’s report are due today, after a six-week consultation period. The advisory group identified barriers to accessing services, variation in quality, and lack of information about ECE and its value as ‘key problems’ with the current system.

“The advisory group has come up with 35 possible options for change – most of which will simply shift the problems around rather than address the issues in a meaningful and sustainable way.”

“The critical issues for the sector are that funding is inadequate and has not kept up with inflation, and a significant portion of public funding is diverted to profit and shareholder return.”

“ECE is a public good. It makes a positive contribution to individuals as citizens, to our society and to our democracy.” Amanda said. “There is a significant body of work both here in Aotearoa and internationally that sets out the benefits to tamariki at the time they are participating in high-quality ECE and as they progress through the education system and through to adulthood.”

“We need the government to invest in high-quality ECE. There is simply no value in the minimising or ‘trading off’ quality standards – to do so is a lost opportunity to enhance educational outcomes for every child and for Aotearoa, and for tamariki to thrive.” Amanda said.

Kindergartens Aotearoa’s recommendations to the advisory group

 We urge the MAG to recommend that the government:

backs universal funding by -

• increasing funding to ECE services and strengthening accountability for the use of public funding; 

‘follows the money’ by - 

• investigating and understanding the level of fees paid by parents and caregivers by service and ownership type, and by region;
• examining and comparing the level of profit posted by different types of service providers, and analysing company structures where services pay significant sums to the parent company or investors;
• redirecting funding currently diverted from ECE to profits and shareholder returns, back into universal funding to services;

addresses affordability and improves access to services through –

•  legislating universal entitlement to high-quality ECE at the completion of paid parental leave;
• capping the fee level parents and caregivers are charged;
• redirecting funding for Family Boost rebates to extend 20 hours to two-year-olds;
• increasing funding to extend entitlement for up to 30 hours ‘free ECE’;
• directing the Ministry of Education to reprioritise and focus learning support on tamariki in ECE;
• planning the provision of services and supporting and growing current services to meet community needs and aspirations, particularly in areas of undersupply of services;
• funding isolated services on the basis of a ‘notional roll’; 
• identifying crown land or property for the use of community-based services;
• revisiting the work undertaken by the sector reference group on equity and targeted funding as a basis for developing a single funding formula;

strengthens quality and reduces administrative complexities by -

• funding the service rather than the user to reduce complexities and administration for whānau and for government agencies;
• implementing initiatives to support 100% qualified teaching workforce in teacher-led, centre-based services by 2030;
• maintaining current funding bands based on the recognition of qualified and certificated teachers;
• establishing a national collective agreement for ECE qualified and certificated teachers based on pay parity rates with primary teachers (as per the KTCA), negotiated and administered centrally by the Ministry of Education;
• undertaking further work on funding rules (daily hour limit) to ensure there are no unintended consequences including reducing viability or increasing profit margins at the expense of quality; 

improves information collection and dissemination by -  

• requiring providers to publish their fee schedules and information about fees, online;
• setting up a webpage to provide information on service types and contact information for whānau;
• collecting better information on ratios including where improved ratios are supported though targeted funding;
• requiring mandatory provision of data on workforce pay and employment conditions based on individual employees and including employment agreement coverage;
• undertaking further investigation with the sector to simplify rules and payment schedules, and streamline reporting on targeted funding;
• streamlining financial reporting requirements to ensure all services submit the same information regardless of service ownership.

 

[1] Kindergartens Aotearoa represents six regional kindergarten associations around the country that operate more than 280 services, catering for over 13,000 tamariki each day. Nationally, kindergarten associations employ over 4,200 qualified teachers.