Speeches

Speech To The Early Childhood Council End Of Year Function

Speech by Sue Thorne, CEO to the Early Childhood Council end of year function James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, Wellington. 14 November 2007 Welcome everyone and thank you for joining us this evening to celebrate another successful year for the ECC and its members. Not so long ago education and care centres represented a small proportion of New Zealand’s early childhood educators. Today they educate more than half of all preschoolers. The Early Childhood Council is their representative. As the education and care sector has grown, the ECC has expanded from 200 centre members a decade ago to over a thousand today. It has also seen a broadening of its membership – from an organisation that was predominately commercially run to an organisation in which nearly 40% of our members are community centres. Our members range from single centres to large corporates, and everything in between: Chinese and Pacific Island; Christian, Montessori and Steiner; and many, many more. In 2007, as in previous years, the ECC has been busy meeting their needs. We have answered hundreds of questions – ranging from how to implement Free ECE to how to deal with parents who are constantly late to pick up their child and how to calculate staff holiday pay. We interact with our members and the wider community in a number of ways – through our comprehensive and easy to use website, our weekly email newsletter, and our flagship magazine, Swings & Roundabouts. We have run seminars, travelling from Whangarei in the North to Queenstown in the South to deliver them. We have commenced the writing of a governance and management handbook for community centres that will be launched early in the new year. Our 2007 annual conference in Christchurch was attended by 530 delegates. We inspired and sponsored the organisation of the first ever ‘Men in Early Childhood Summit’. This summit led to the creation of a nationwide organisation for male early childhood teachers. An organisation that has gone on to build its own website, to form regional groupings of male educators, and to plan a second summit next year. This year I represented the ECC at the World Association for ECE Peace Conference in Spain where I was privileged to be part of the international group that wrote the Declaration for Peace. I also showcased the work of the ECC at the World Forum on Care and Education in Kuala Lumper. The Early Childhood Council has faced, in 2007, some challenging issues. The centres we represent have, for example, found themselves trapped between contradictory government requirements. On the one hand was the pressure to expand provision to meet demand created by the introduction of free early childhood education for three and four year olds. On the other the limitations on teacher supply exacerbated by the rule that centres had to have 50 per cent of their teachers qualified and registered by the 31st of December. Understandably there was immense relief two weeks’ ago when the government announced there would be substantial easing in the requirements for the 50 per cent deadline. The new rules allow for qualified but not yet registered teachers to count towards the 50 per cent. And they allow, in limited numbers, for part-timers, staff in training, and volunteers to count also. The result will be more places for more children. However, we are still in a very tight labour market as the sector faces the 2010 deadline to have 80 per cent of staff registered, and the 2012 deadline for the achievement of 100 per cent. We will be suggesting, therefore, that the government now takes into consideration policies that may constrain future teacher supply. For example: the intention of the Tertiary Education Commission to cap the enrolment of new teacher trainees at 2006 levels seems likely to reduce the number of graduates just as those 2010 and 2012 deadlines arrive. In addition the government could help ease future labour shortages were it to commit to encouraging men as a potential source of labour in our sector. With more than 14,000 women and fewer than 150 men, early childhood education would have to be one of the most gender-segregated work forces in New Zealand. It would be hard to imagine any government tolerating such gender segregation in medicine, law… or politics. Our sector faces constantly the challenge of getting the balance right between regulation and flexibility. There must of course be regulation for general standards. The question is: how much further should government go? The education and care sector has been very good at adapting to rapid social change. It is we who have provided much of the diversity of care required in an increasingly multi-cultural society. And it is we who have provided the bulk of tailor-made, all-day childcare that has allowed women to enter the workforce in greater numbers. It is our view this rapid adaptation to rapid social change is the principal reason the education and care centres have come to dominate early childhood education in New Zealand. And it is this history that makes us especially watchful when it comes to the possibility that over-regulation might create ‘sameness’ throughout our sector, might prevent us from adapting rapidly to future social change. This is why the Early Childhood Council is monitoring closely the creation by the Ministry of Education of the new rules called criteria. These new rules are set to have an impact on almost all aspects of running early childhood centres. They are a key component of the new regulatory framework that the government intends to implement next year. We are concerned that some criteria may impose unnecessary and expensive restrictions, some of which could reduce the numbers of children centres are able to accommodate. We are currently surveying our membership to ascertain which criteria centres see as especially problematic. And we will be passing both survey conclusions and our opinions to the Ministry of Education. We have ensured also that Early Childhood Council members receive the most up-to-date information on government intentions to check all centres every six years for air pollution. We endorse the need to keep children safe, but wonder about the fact that local body air quality standards vary from region to region, meaning that a centre might be closed in one town for air quality that is acceptable a few kilometres down the road. We wonder also whether or not centres will have the regulatory flexibility to respond creatively to this problem. If 2007 was, for the education and care sector, what the old Chinese proverb calls ‘interesting times’, then 2008 threatens to be ‘interesting’ also. It will be, of course, election year. The Early Childhood Council is anticipating a battle between the main parties over ‘family policy’, with early childhood education a key component in this battle. We will watch with interest. We will keep our members informed. And we will make their views plain to all political parties. To this end we will continue to ask our members to fill out surveys designed to keep us informed of their views. They did a good job of this in 2007, and I am sure they will do so again in 2008. Politics aside, 2008 will be a year of expansion for the Early Childhood Council. We are, right now, in the middle of relocating from Auckland to Wellington to take advantage of the beautiful weather and to increase our advocacy strength. We aim, in 2008, to increase our membership by providing even more reasons for centres, both community and commercially owned, to belong to our association. We have created an exciting new position of Professional Development Manager to increase the number of seminars and workshops we offer to our members and to provide even more effective instant help for members seeking professional advice. In a sector that is often divided by differing views and differing needs, we aim to make 2008 the year of building alliances. We have, in 2007, worked more closely than ever with other organisations in our sector. This process is set to accelerate. Three years ago the Early Childhood Council had two staff. Next year we will have five, and we will have a shiny new office on The Terrace. I am very proud to be leading the ECC into a new year and a new era. I believe our organisation is perfectly positioned to continue to provide a most excellent service to our membership and the families who use their services. Thank you and good evening.

15/11/07 - Sue Thorne