Strengthening Community-Based Early Childhood Education in Aotorea New Zealand

In 2008, the Quality Public Early Childhood Education (QPECE) project brought together a group of New Zealand national organisations with an interest in strengthening community-based early childhood education (ECE) provision. This report reflects their initial phase of work and some background and thinking on: the policy context of community-based services and their backbone role in ECE provision in Aotearoa New Zealand; current arguments and research relating to community-based services; and some international trends and initiatives towards strengthening community-based services.

The goals and advocacy strategies for pursuing wider access to ECE through policy change involve lobbying for the following:

• "Promotion of community-based ECE services, including whānau/parent-led services, through the development of a national plan for ECE provision throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. [whānau: a Māori-language word for extended family]

1. Establish a policy for nationally planned provision of ECE so that community-based services are strengthened and accessible.
   
2. Promote collaborative relationships in planning for ECE provision at local and regional level.
   
3. Plan for the establishment of ECE services in locations that ensure efficient use of Government and community resources.
   
4. Improve the sustainability of the community-based services."

• "Provision of appropriate services to ensure every child can participate in free, high quality ECE.

1. Develop a staged plan of provision that leads to free ECE for all children appropriate to their families and whānau.
   
2. Develop mechanisms to identify communities of interest to protect and foster a diverse range of services.
   
3. Explore new forms of provision that foster collaboration between services, share co-locations and provide flexible services that incorporate different operations in a single service or can be relocatable.
   
4. Explore mechanisms to link stand-alone ECE services with an umbrella ECE community-based organisation. 5. Explore ways to support administration and management of services, including support to umbrella organisations."

• "Robust accountability to Government, parents, whānau and communities, linked to indicators that demonstrate high quality ECE.
  

1. Fully implement the target for all teacher-led ECE services to be staffed by a fully qualified and registered teaching workforce.
   
2. Fully implement the funding review to support quality in ECE services provided by whānau/parents.
   
3. Develop robust accounting systems for ECE linked to key indicators that determine quality outcomes in ECE, including, for example, pay parity for teachers and appropriate funding to support and recognise voluntary endeavours in whānau/parent-led services.
   
4. Build on the principles of quality, participation and collaboration to further improve quality outcomes for children and their families and whānau."

Key challenges include:

• "...move from a market approach, where services alone are responsible for the provision of early childhood education, to a partnership model where services work with the Government and community to build a coherent network of provision in every community."
  
• Use the consultative approach modelled in the formation of this strategic plan to develop new policies.
  
• Move to an extension of free ECE services to children of all ages in every type of ECE service.

The document concludes that in order to offer high quality ECE as a right, the goals and strategies "will require new partnerships among ECE services, local communities and the Government. Collaboration at national and local levels to develop coherent patterns of ECE provision could invoke a sense of commitment to the quality of ECE in every community, as well as to provision that meets national and community aspirations."