Many to miss out on free early childhood education

Survey reveals many set to miss out on free early childhood education

An Early Childhood Council (ECC) survey has found few early childhood centres intending to offer the Government¹s 20 hours free early childhood education.

The survey reveals only 22.7% answering yes¹ to the question will you be offering free ece in your centre?¹.

Sent to 615 decision makers responsible for running almost 1000 early childhood centres, and completed yesterday (31 January 2007), the survey is the first publicly available hard data on the likely uptake of 20 hours free.

It suggests that well over half of New Zealand three and four year olds are set to miss out.

31.1% of survey respondents said they would definitely not be offering free early childhood education. And 46.2% said they remained undecided.

Survey comments indicate that a substantial majority of those currently undecided are leaning towards not taking part.

Regions in which fewer than a quarter of centres answered yes¹ to the question (will you be offering free ece in your centre?¹) include: North Shore City (3.7%), Auckland City (18.4%), Manukau City (12.5%), Waitakere City (21.4%), Hamilton (10%), Wellington (16.7%), and Christchurch (18.8%).

Only 20.5% in other North Island cities¹ (meaning North Island cities outside of Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton) said they would take part, and 22.2% in other South Island cities¹ (meaning South Island cities outside of Christchurch).

Opt in to 20 hours free was greatest in provincial towns and rural areas.

In a result that has confounded the expectations of some, community centre managers are opting out along with their private-sector colleagues. Nationwide only 30.9% of community respondents said they would take part in 20 hours free. In the Auckland region (Auckland City, North Shore, Waitakere and Manukau combined) only 16.7% of community centre respondents said they would be taking part.

Reasons respondents gave for not offering free ece were that they could not maintain quality with the amount of money the Government was offering, that the rates would not cover their costs, that offering free ece would send them broke, that costs of administration would be huge¹, and that the Government¹s proposed voluntary payments from parents were too uncertain to allow for an approach to budgeting that could maintain quality.

The most common reason respondents gave for taking part in 20 free hours was that the funding levels were less than or equal to what they were charging already.

Most undecided¹ respondents indicated they were leaning toward not participating in 20 hours free. They commented on the jeopardy to quality of cutting teacher numbers, the impossibility of making ends meet at the rates announced, the fear free payment rates would not be adjusted for inflation and would erode over time, the fact that voluntary parental payments would not provide enough security of income, and the need for a compulsory top up fee so they could maintain the programmes they were delivering currently.

Says ECC Chief Executive Sue Thorne: These results are alarming and indicate that, as things stand, most children will not be able to access the 20 free hours.

It is clear that commercially-run and community-run centres are opting out together. And they are doing so for exactly the same main reason: to defend the quality of care for children.

To follow their thinking you need to understand two things.

Firstly the psychology: many centres are labours of love. Someone has spent years developing programmes to serve the unique needs of a specific community.

Secondly: the figures announced by Government immediately before Christmas are misleading. They say Government is offering between $4.09 and $10.60 an hour for 20 hours free. If this were true most centres would be participating. But it is not true. Most of this money is existing funding, money centres are getting already. The new money for 20 hours free is actually between $1.02 and $4.60 an hour.

Thus Government is offering between $1.02 and $4.60 an hour for services that are currently charged to parents at rates between $2 to $15 an hour.

From the point of view of those running centres the policy is saying: ³You may have spent the last ten years of your life creating childcare programmes for the community you serve. Too bad for you and too bad for them. Now we want you to cut those programmes and lower the quality of care so that you can afford to take our 20 hours free².

The bottom line for most centres is as simple as the ABC we teach our children. Most centres, whether community-run or commercially run, will not be able to take up 20 hours free as it stands, because cutting much-loved childcare programmes is against everything they stand for.¹

Mrs Thorne said the situation was best in those centres where costs were lowest, and worst in those centres in which costs were highest and 20 hours free was therefore least affordable.

Most centres in the rural South Island, for example, are opting in because they can afford to do so without cutting childcare programmes. This is because their land, labour and other costs are low. But in Auckland, for example, land that might cost $50,000 in the rural South Island might cost $500,000 or more. And staff 15% more.¹

The ECC survey results are based on an email survey sent to 615 ECC members (decision makers for almost 1000 centres nationwide). The survey ran from 19 to 31 January 2007. The response rate was 42.9%

The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. Its almost 1000 member centres are both community-owned and commercially owned, employ more than 7000 staff, and care for more than 50,000 children.

The table The table below displays, by region, the responses of early childhood centre managers to the question: Will you be offering free ece in your centre?¹ Yes No Undecided

North Shore City 3.7% 33.3% 63%

Auckland City 18.4% 42.1% 39.5%

Manukau City 12.5% 50% 37.5%

Waitakere City 21.4% 21.4% 57.1%

All Auckland 13.7% 37.9% 48.4%

Hamilton 10% 40% 50%

Wellington Region 16.7% 29.2% 54.2%

Other North Island City 20.5% 25.6% 53.8%

North Is Provincial Town 39.5% 26.3% 34.2%

North Is Rural 50% 30% 20%

Christchurch 18.8% 12.5% 68.8%

Other SI City 22.2% 55.6% 22.2%

South Is Provincial Town 31.2% 31.2% 37.5%

SI Rural 57.1% 0% 42.9%

All New Zealand 22.7% 31.1% 46.2%

ENDS

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