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NZ Government makes legislative change to reduce ECEC red tape
Freya Lucas
Apr 17, 2024
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The New Zealand government intends to make legislative changes with a view to making it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour has announced.
The Government has also signalled its intention to review all regulations governing the early childhood education sector, with the newly created Ministry for Regulation conducting a regulatory review.“We need to strip unnecessary compliance and cost so our early learning professionals can be focussed on education and care of children. After all, costs cannot all be absorbed – they eventually land on the parents,” he said.
One key change involves repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, and stopping the introduction of new person responsible requirements that were taking effect in August of this year.
“Providers and parents are best placed to decide where early learning services should be established. Where there’s demand from parents, providers will follow,” Mr Seymour said.
“Current network approval provisions give the government the right to decide where services should be. They also make setting up new services complex and inhibit competition,” he continued.
The existing process, Mr Seymour said, “gets in the way”, and needs to be reviewed in order for the Government to understand what the purpose of regulation is, and ensure whether, on balance, regulation is the appropriate tool to use.
He is also proposing to revoke the National Statement on the Network of Licensed Early Childhood Services “as soon as possible,” to make granting approvals for new services faster, while the legislation is repealed.
Consultation on this proposal opens today and will run until 5 May 2024.
Changes designed to make it easier for service providers to ensure key supervisory roles are filled are also on the table, with the Government outlining a proposal to remove the new requirement for a higher level of certification which, if successful, will mean that persons responsible will not need to obtain a Full (Category One or Two) Practicing Certificate.
Mr Seymour believes that by enforcing the Full Practicing Certificate requirement there is the potential for fees to be increased, operating hours to be reduced, or even for some services to close due to the lack of fully certified teachers.
“Services in rural areas and lower socio-economic areas are most likely to suffer due to staffing and funding challenges,” he continued.
Teachers will still need a recognised teaching qualification and a practicing certificate, and all early learning services will still need to comply with current licensing requirements including all relevant health and safety regulations until any changes are formalised.
Implementation of the requirements for changing the identity of the service provider on the service licence are also on hold following concerns raised by the sector.
“Early learning centres are a key part of our education system and are important for working parents who need somewhere to affordably send their children,” Mr Seymour said.
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