The early childhood education (ECE) sector was the first to be reviewed by David Seymour’s Ministry for Regulation and the first review to incorporate the principles of the Regulatory Standards Act – which was still a Bill at the time. The resulting report in December 2024, presented 15 recommendations all of which were accepted by the Minister on receipt - without public scrutiny and prior to being taken to Cabinet. The Minister was quick to implement many of the recommendations in the new year. Within weeks, legislation had been written, introduced to parliament in July and passed four months later. The centre-piece was changing the purpose of ECE regulations.

By changing the purpose, any future regulation would meet a different threshold: primarily the interests of business and the labour market, rather than the interests of tamariki. Changing the purpose of regulation was not a recommendation of the Ministry for Regulation nor was it included in the terms of reference for its review.

David Seymour is both the Minister for Regulation and Associate Minister of Education with responsibility for ECE. It’s no coincidence that ECE was first-up on the government’s regulatory review agenda. The Minister contended ECE service providers were ‘burdened’ by regulation - and the rules ‘take teachers away from teaching and learning to focus on compliance’ although there was no real evidence to back up that claim.

While regulations needed to be reviewed and updated, the rules themselves were largely sound. It was the interpretation and application of the regulations, and the relationship between government agencies, that caused complexity, confusion and frustration – which the Ministry’s report gave credence to.

The Ministry for Regulation concluded there are two ‘market failures’ in the ECE sector. These ‘failures’ according to the Ministry, result in undersupply of some services in some areas and a lack of incentives for providers/business to expand. They said regulation is “... likely to be inadvertently making the undersupply worse by making it harder for new ECE services to enter the market.” To back up that argument, the purpose of regulation would need to change.

The Ministry recommended ways to address the ‘failures’ including to allow ‘greater flexibility’ of qualification requirements and in particular, for Māori and Pasifika services and in lower socio-economic and rural communities. The Ministry made no attempt to explain why this recommendation would address the issues it identified or to explore or recommend other options to address the ‘failures.’

The Ministry was saying qualified staff are hard to come by, and they are expensive – ‘flexibility’ allows services to employ people with lesser or no teaching qualifications and pay them accordingly. This would certainly incentivise business to expand.

The Ministry of Education was given the job to implement the Minister’s recommendations for regulatory change. It set up a sub-group of its Early Childhood Advisory Committee (ECAC) as a regulatory advisory group drawn from the sector. The recommendation on ‘flexibility’ of qualifications was carved off from other recommendations and given special attention - that

work is underway and is the focus of the group. Curiously the Ministry hasn’t actually stated the problem they are trying to solve or presented any tangible evidence that there is a problem.

Regulations exist to support policy – not the other way around. They exist for good reason: teacher qualifications are key to the provision of high-quality ECE services. Research studies both in Aotearoa and internationally over decades, provide the evidence that teacher qualifications matter.

It is that evidence that underpinned government decisions over 35 years ago to build a qualified ECE teaching workforce. In 1987 an ECE teaching degree was introduced by Colleges of Education and universities, and pathways were designed for people employed in ECE services to upgrade their qualifications to the degree or equivalent. In 2002 the Government initiated a long-term strategic plan which set out targets and provided incentives to reach 100% qualified teaching workforce by 2012. In 2019, a second plan set out the same targets.

Almost 15 years after the first strategic plan, we’re still not there. Why is that exactly? A teaching qualification in ECE has been contested for decades 1. It has been a long-held view by some in the sector and in government agencies, that ‘increased professionalism’ drives up pay rates - arguably limiting financial returns to providers - and not everyone needs to be a qualified teacher – after all, these are small tamariki we’re talking about and the ‘real learning’ takes place when they get to school. It feels like that same sentiment is still at play in 2026.

If there really is a problem with undersupply which can be traced back to the regulations requiring qualified teachers who are hard to find, rather than make qualifications more ‘flexible’ why aren’t we looking at other solutions? If some find the rule difficult to meet, you don’t change the rule - you find ways to help people meet the rule as the government did in 2002. It introduced a range of initiatives to increase the proportion of qualified teachers – a successful strategy, resulting in a significant increase in numbers.

In any other sector, if there are workforce issues in particular areas, the government supports people to move there, creates more training opportunities, incentivises people to enrol in programmes or upgrade their qualifications through scholarships for example. We even build new facilities and provide the flexible training options so people can stay closer to home. The Minister of Health did just that recently: rather than make doctors’ qualifications more ‘flexible’ in rural areas, he announced a new initiative with universities to “... create pathways for more doctors to stay and work in the areas that need them most.”

If there is a genuine wish to provide services in rural areas, why not bolster or partner with Playcentre and other services already operating in those areas such as play groups. Likewise - for Māori and Pacific communities - why not increase support to ngā kōhanga reo and puna reo, Pacific services and a’oga amata. There is potential to encourage councils and educational institutions to provide services in their community rent-free and offer maintenance over time. In the past there used to be ‘pre-schools’ on school sites and mobile kindergartens operating in rural and urban areas. Those models could work again if there is a genuine demand and a genuine desire from government to meet that demand without lowering, limiting or compromising quality standards.

And is staffing the only reason for undersupply of services in some areas? The Ministry for Regulation noted its feedback identified barriers to starting new services related to the number of requirements service providers have to meet not the type of requirement, the cost and availability of suitable land, and the costs of building. Making qualifications more ‘flexible’ won't make building and land cheaper.

As the Ministry of Education readies itself to report on progress to implement the regulatory review, the Minister’s funding advisory group has released its thinking and proposed options for a new funding system. It’s no coincidence that the group has also come up with proposals to undermine the aim of a fully qualified teaching workforce. Currently the more qualified teachers a service employs, the more money they receive from government. Imagine if services received the same money but the rules were relaxed. It’s not such a big leap now the purpose of regulation is primarily in the interests of business.

On 30 June 2026, the Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG) set up to review ECE funding, released its consultation report, and as Ministry of Education it yet to release its proposals on the flexibility of qualifications.

 

Additional references

1 Ko tātou e hoe tonu ana: Steering the waka of early childhood teacher education through choppy seas Pre-publication chapter - Linda Mitchell and Clare Wells: How much longer? Four decades of shifting politics in teacher qualifications https://www.nzcer.org.nz/sites/default/files/downloads/Mitchell%20and%20Wells%20prepublication.pdf

Economics trumps child rights. How the 2024 ECE Regulations Review frames teacher qualification issues and why we should be worried NZCER Early Childhood Folio - Dr Alexandra Gunn https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/early-childhood- folio/articles/economics-trumps-child-rights-how-2024-ece-regulations

Te mana o te tamaiti. Upholding integrity in ECE regulatory reform NZCER Early Childhood Folio – Amanda Coulston https://www.nzcer.org.nz/nzcerpress/early-childhood-folio/articles/te-mana-o-te-tamaiti-upholding-integrity-ece-regulatory