Articles

Disestablishment Of ECD Completed This Week

On 1 October 2003, Early Childhood Development was merged into the Ministry of Education. The Minister's decision to disestablish ECD was done swiftly and without consultation with the early childhood sector. This record looks at the stated functions of the former ECD, how these roles may conflict with existing Ministry functions, and gives the ECC's opinion on why the Minister may have chosen to bring the axe down on the ECD. Early Childhood Development (ECD) was a Crown entity, established under the Education Act 1989. ECD's stated purpose, through its regional offices throughout New Zealand, was to provide advice, support and information about early childhood education and parenting to parents, early childhood centres, playgroups, and the wider community. ECD's website notes that it "spearheads Government's investment in the development of learning opportunities for children in the first five years of life." The ECD Mission statement notes that …"(ECD) focus particularly on meeting the needs of groups with lower participation rates in early childhood services, through supporting existing services and service providers to enhance their quality; developing or encouraging the development of needed new services; and working directly with families to overcome any barriers preventing them from having access to services." On the 12 March 2003 the Minister Trevor Mallard, wearing both his Education and State Services hats, announced the folding of the Early Childhood Development agency into the Ministry of Education in a move he described was designed to provide a more cohesive service delivery in early childhood education. At the time the EC sector was caught completely by surprise. There had been no prior warning of the disestablishment of ECD, no consultation with national early childhood organisations, simply a press release from the Minister stating it was a done deal. In an information sheet to the sector in September the Ministry of Education notes under the heading: "What integration offers - The integration of ECD functions with the Ministry will combine the strengths of each organisation to build greater support for the sector." The ECC however considers a merger such as this is to be a real concern. The creation of one single agency which is the inspection and enforcement agency, the funding administrator, the provider of advice and support to existing and developing centres, and the researcher and policy advisor to government will, we believe, lead to confusion, conflict and poor decisions. Reducing the number of agencies to one compliant Ministry will enable the Minister to "control" the sector from Wellington, rather than allowing the sector to continue to develop as it has done in the past, within local communities and be truly responsive to the needs of those communities who use ece services. The Minister's deliberate failure to consult with the sector prior to his announcement of the merger reinforces this perspective. In addition an important independent stream of advice on ece policy provided to the Minister by ECD has now been lost and we speculate that this may well be exactly why the Minister decided to close down ECD, one less organisation to provide any opposition to his plans. The Ministry this week has sent out a newsletter to all services giving details of the new Ministry structure following their absorption of ECD. It remains now to be seen whether housing more bureaucrats under one roof in Wellington will provide better outcomes for children and families in our local communities.

02/10/03 - Sue Thorne