Media Releases

Media Release - ECC Publishes Guidebook For Boards Of Community-based Early Childhood Centres

Early Childhood Council publishes guidebook for boards of community-based early childhood centres The Early Childhood Council is set to release (14 March 2008) a ‘how-to-do-it’ for those running the boards and committees of community-based early childhood centres. Council Chief Executive Sue Thorne calls the handbook "a resource struggling boards or committees can use to sort themselves out", "a manual chairpersons can use to make sure they have all the governance bases covered", and "a primer that outlines the job description for parents new to board or committee membership". Mrs Thorne said the boards and committees of community centres could change regularly and were "in some instances" made up of people with little governance experience. The result was "almost always good intentions, but on some occasions, poor outcomes", she said. In 45 pages, however, the Early Childhood Council Good Governance Guide and Toolkit outlined how to avoid common mistakes, the most common of which was board or committee intrusion into the role of management. Mrs Thorne said board or committee members were often parents of children in the centre. "So of course they have a real passion for what the centre is doing. And it is with the best of intentions that they get involved in day-to-day management. "One board member tells a staff member to do one thing. Another tells her to do something else. A centre manager says something else again. And pretty soon you have confusion." Mrs Thorne said the guide and toolkit had solutions to the main problems boards faced. It included guidance on: • How to separate board, staff and parental responsibilities; • The role of the chairperson; • How to assess the skills of a board or committee against the skills required, and how to fill skill gaps; • How to identify and manage ‘conflicts of interest’; • What to do in a crisis such as staff misconduct, a health scare, or financial difficulties; • "Right down to the correct writing of agenda and minutes". In most cases all boards or committees had to do was fill in toolkit checklists to ensure they were doing things properly, Mrs Thorne said. The book was produced by the Early Childhood Council in association with Steven Nayda of BDO Spicers, with Mr Nayda scheduled to present a three-hour workshop at the Early Childhood Council’s annual conference in Wellington in May. The Early Childhood Council is New Zealand’s largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres. It has more than 1000 centre members. About 40 per cent of its membership comes from the community sector.

14/03/08 - Anthony Keesing