Early Childhood Education

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• Re-establish the target of 100% qualified staff in teacher-led Early Childhood Education centres, and reinstate the funding to support this.
• Set maximum overall child numbers that no centre can expand beyond.
• Encourage clustering of Early Childhood Education Centres with nearby Primary Schools to enhance the transition to school, including meetings between Early Childhood and New Entrants teachers.
• Ensure funding for 20 hours early Childhood Education accurately reflects the cost to parents and centres. (more here)

• Labour will introduce 25 hours of Free Early Childhood Education for New Zealand’s three, four and five year old children, an increase from 20 hours.
• The policy will save all families with a three, four or five year old in ECE full-time or nearly full-time around $25 each week.
• Labour will extend the policy of Free Early Childhood Education for the most vulnerable children earlier than three years of age.
• Labour will restore over time National’s funding for highly qualified ECE centres. We will work with the sector to reinstate the policy of 100 percent qualified staff in all teacher-led services.
• We will build more ECE centres in high-need areas so there are enough places for kids who need them. (more here)

• Intensive support for those parents who need it for the first three years of a babies life.
• Ensure quality standards and equal funding for all early childhood education centres.
• Ensure families in low and middle income areas have access to free, quality ECE.
• Streamline processes for parents to establish new community owned and state owned ECE.
• Te Reo Authority to set curriculum for, fund, and audit te reo and mātauranga Māori outcomes in all ECEs. (more here)

• Ensure early childhood education as the foundation to our future is affordable, available and responsive and includes initiatives such as PAFT, HIPPY, PAUSE, PAUA, kōhanga reo and whānau led centres.
• Initiate nationwide discussion about compulsory early childhood education. (more here)

• Continue to aim for 98 per cent of children starting school having participated in ECE in 2016.
• Support an estimated 5,800 more children to attend ECE by June 2018.
• Provide a $53.6 million boost to subsidy rates to help ECE providers meet rising costs.
• Implement the Early Learning Information system to provide valuable information about ECE to help maximise learning outcomes.
• Ensure funding is fair and sustainable by:

1. Retaining 20 hours ECE.
2. Working with ECE providers to reduce bureaucracy. (more here)

• Establish a fund for research into best practice and innovation in Early Childhood Education.
• Review the demand and funding of early childhood centres for more than six hours per day and for weekend sessions.
• Work with the Te Kohanga Reo national trust to develop a supportive and sustainable funding model that future proofs Te Kohanga Reo.
• Continue and look to increase support for early years and ECE programmes that involve parents directly in the education of their children, eg HIPPY and PAFT.
• Review the adult to infant ratio required in ECE centres as an urgent health and safety matter. (more here)

• Encourage more men to join the teaching profession at all levels, including ECE.
• Support the concept of parents as first teachers and expand access to programmes like PAFT and HIPPY to families other than those deemed to be at-risk.
• Endorse the role of parent-led early childhood education centres, such as Playcentre, to empower parents to lead their children’s education andencourage the parent-child bond.
• Ensure that government funding of early childhood centres is reflected in the fees passed on to parents by requiring them to disclose what proportion of fees are taxpayer-funded.
• Pilot the use of early childhood education centres as contact points for family support services, such as parenting courses, budget advice, health and counselling services. (more here)