Early Childhood Participation

Is '20 Free Hours' the answer?

Report prepared for the Early Childhood Council by the NZ Institute of Economic Research

Released 26 January 2006

The Early Childhood Council is pleased to present our new report, Early Childhood Participation - Is '20 Free Hours' the answer?

Once again, we are very grateful to our researchers - New Zealand Institute of Economic Research - for the detailed research work contained in the report. In the 2004 Budget the Government announced that from July 2007 three- and four-year old children in teacher-led community-owned centres would receive free early childhood education for the first twenty hours a week per child.

The indications were that this would be $90 per week per child (suggesting an extra $4.50 per hour per child). Centres would not be able to charge a fee for those hours.

The Early Childhood Council strongly criticised the unfairness of the policy, as it excluded children in commercial centres, and further tilted the playing field in favour of community-owned centres, without any clear policy rationale.

In the run up to the 2005 general election, the Prime Minister announced that the 20 Free Hours Policy would be extended to cover all licensed teacher-led ECE services, regardless of ownership structure. The reason provided was that the government's financial position had strengthened, so that it could now afford to offer free early childhood education for all three- and four-year olds in licensed teacher-led ECE services.

The details of the policy and its implementation are yet to be decided. A Sector Advisory Group has been set up by the Ministry of Education in order to ensure that the policy is implemented in a way that is as practical and workable as possible. Sue Thorne, CEO of the Early Childhood Council is pleased to be a part of the Sector Advisory Group and looks forward to making a positive contribution to the implementation of the policy.

In order to add constructively to the debate about the policy, the Early Childhood Council commissioned a report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research to analyse the policy and its implications for the early childhood sector.

The report, Early Childhood Participation - Is 20 Free Hours the answer? assesses the 20 Free Hours Policy against the standard public policy criteria of efficiency, equity, and effectiveness, and raises a number of concerns about its effects on the early childhood sector.

The report then takes a detailed look at five other options and finally makes several recommendations regarding the 20 Free Hours policy and other possible alternatives.

Download the full report and key findings here:

Early Childhood Participation Full Report 844 KB, PDF/Zip		Early Childhood Participation Key Findings 188 KB, PDF/Zip

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Putting Children First

Early childhood education policies for a new tomorrow Report prepared for the Early Childhood Council by the NZ Institute of Economic Research

Released 31 July 2005

The Early Childhood Council is pleased to be present our new report, Putting Children First.

The report focuses, in particular, on policies which regulate staffing and management, and on policies which provide and set conditions for tax-payer funding support.

Putting Children First has been a major project for the ECC and we are very grateful to our researchers - New Zealand Institute of Economic Research - for the detailed research work contained in it.

We think the report will prove very useful to all those looking for quality independent research that provides a factual base for helping move forward the debate on appropriate policies for the early childhood education sector.

The report recognises that many of the government's recent policy changes have been of good quality and will likely lead to positive outcomes for children and parents. But it also clearly makes recommendations on areas where the policies need to be improved.

Early childhood education and care has recently become a significant political issue, with the two major parties publicly battling for support over their opposing ECE policies, and so the timing of the release of Putting Children First, although fortuitous, could not be better!

We hope through your reading of Putting Children First that you gain useful insight and knowledge into ideas on how best to regulate the ECE sector, and what needs to be done to get the best outcomes for New Zealand's pre-schoolers.

The Key Findings

• Public subsidies and other assistance should be made available to all early childhood education providers who meet objective performance standards.
  This could be done by abolishing the '20 free hours' policy.
• The six-hour daily limit on subsidies should be removed (and the 30-hour per week limit reviewed).
• The targeting of additional funding to children from families with low-incomes and other risk factors should be improved.
• Abolish the requirement that all teaching staff must be registered ECE teachers by 2012 (and adopt a broader approach to quality that recognises staff competence and parent opinions).
• All standards differentiated by the ownership status of a centre should be replaced with standards that are independent of ownership.

Download the full report and key findings here:

Putting Children First Full Report 688 KB, PDF/Zip		Putting Children First Key Findings 128 KB, PDF/Zip

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