25 May 2017
Press Release: ChildForum
Budget 2017 puts more children at risk
Budget 2017 has allocated additional money to cover the cost of increasing child participation in early childhood
education, providing a further 31,000 places but this does little to address parent and teacher concerns for children.
ChildForum chief executive Dr Sarah Alexander says that continuing to make it hard for parents to have time available
for their child and allocating funding for child participation in early childhood education without an emphasis on
quality and safety does not give every young child the best early start they deserve.
A lack of childcare is no longer an issue. The number of sessional-licenced kindergartens has dropped from over 500 to
just one, while nearly all childcare services including kindergarten now require children to attend 6 or more hours a
day in accordance with government policy on participation.
“Young children are already being disadvantaged by policies and systems that have turned early childhood education into
big competitive business rather than a quality and care focused sector and funding having been slashed in areas that
were designed to maintain high standards.
The sector is now getting to the point of having an oversupply of childcare place and this is leading to local community
services struggling to maintain numbers and stay afloat, good teachers are leaving the sector because of high stress and
poor employment conditions, and parents have less certainty that their child’s needs will be adequately met,” says Dr
Alexander.
“The very high rate of child participation means more children are at risk of learning problems, emotional and
behavioural difficulties when the care is not of high quality,” she added.
This year’s Budget includes provision for extra specially-trained teachers to help some 3 and 4 year old children with
pre-literacy skills. Vulnerable children will also benefit from other packages to support them from an earlier age.
Dr Alexander says funding to services needs to be based on ensuring standards are maintained and that all children
benefit from quality care. A good start would be to reduce group sizes from the maximum of 150 children and lift the
minimum requirement for trained staff from 50 to 100%.
“Social investment in children needs to be focused on quality of care” she says. “This is just as, if not more,
important than funding early childhood education providers simply to provide more places and longer hours of childcare
or giving tax breaks to working parents.”
“Focusing on our most vulnerable children is important,” she added. “But it is also important that parents have time to
learn to parent and be involved in their child’s early learning and that all our children benefit from the great work
that trained teachers can do”.
ENDS …