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Community Centres

For more information contact Early Childhood Council CEO Sue Thorne on 027 448 3215 Community centres Community and private early childhood centres are opting out of the Government’s 20 free scheme in similar numbers, and for the same reasons, according to an Early Childhood Council survey that was closed off today (01 July). Both community and private centres had the same reasons for opting out: the Free ECE rates not covering costs, the refusal to cut quality in order to be able to afford to opt in, the refusal to lower staff numbers in order to be able to afford to offer Free ECE, the paper work and compliance costs, the failure to index Free ECE to inflation and the vulnerability of centres to future cuts in the real value of the subsidy. One community centre mentioned ‘a loss of approximately $12,500’ if they opted in. Many complained of ‘the inability to provide the high standard of service we provide now’ on Free ECE rates. And another complained of it being ‘outrageous and unfair’ that the Ministry of Education suggested that centres should ‘increase the fees of younger children to give older children free care’. Half of the community centres surveyed said the free ECE rate would not cover their costs of providing Free ECE. The ECC survey was sent to 598 decision makers representing more than 1000 centres nationwide. The response rate to the survey was 46%. Respondents included community and private centres; sessional and all-day; and a wide variety of special character centres including Montessori, Steiner, Reggio Emilia, Christian, teen parent units, Chinese, and language nests. The ECC is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. Its more than 1000 member centres are both community-owned and commercially owned, employ more than 7000 staff, and care for more than 50,000 children. Its membership does not include Kindergartens, Kohanga Reo, and home-based networks.

02/07/07 - Sarah Ellich