The early childhood education sector's regulations are excessive and confusing, according to the review by the Ministry of Regulation. File photo. Photo: 123rf
Children in early learning are at an unacceptable risk of harm due to gaps in the way the sector is monitored, the regulatory review of early childhood education says.
The review by the Ministry of Regulation published on Wednesday says the sector's regulations are excessive and confusing, and the division of watchdog responsibilities between the Education Ministry and the Education Review Office are unclear.
It cited regulations about door handle heights, water cylinder temperatures and immunisation records as examples of poor rule-making.
The review also recommended allowing "greater flexibility in workforce qualifications", because some services struggled to find enough qualified teachers.
Regulation Minister David Seymour said he accepted all 15 of the review's recommendations, which would bring a major shake-up to an outdated system.
"Providers are currently required to deal with 98 different licensing criteria for centre-based services. These include illogical and burdensome conditions such as a regulation to hold immunisation records for every child over 15 months old or needing to maintain a consistent indoor temperature of 18 degrees when we all know a small, short term plus or minus won't do anyone any immediate harm.
"The Ministry has recommended removing, changing or merging approximately three-quarters, or 74 per cent, of these criteria, simplifying the system so it focuses on children's welfare and education, instead of paperwork, duplicate recordkeeping and hawkishly watching the mercury."
The review said responsibility for monitoring the sector was split between the Education Ministry and the Education Review Office and enforcement responsibilities needed to be clearer and take a risk-based approach.
It said the ministry could take compliance action against services, but relied on tip-offs and complaints before it acted, while the review office visited services every few years but could not take direct action when it spotted non-compliance with regulations.
"These gaps in oversight and coordination place children at an unacceptable risk of harm, particularly as they are often unable to advocate for themselves or communicate issues effectively. This situation undermines public trust and fails to meet parental and societal expectations that regulatory oversight should include proactive and risk-responsive compliance monitoring.
"Additionally, the lack of role clarity between the Education Review Office and the Ministry means that critical compliance issues may not be addressed swiftly, further increasing the risk of harm to children and weakening the overall integrity and effectiveness of the ECE regulatory system."
The report called for "unannounced visits for ECE service providers that fit specific risk profiles" - something sector insiders had repeatedly told RNZ were needed to catch rules breaches.
It also recommended introduction of "improvement notices" for instances of non-compliance where the ECE service provider was willing and capable of improvement, and "a form of enforceable undertaking for instances of non-compliance where the ECE service provider is not willing or may not have sufficient capability to achieve compliance".
The report said there was a shortage of teachers because the job was relatively poorly paid given the level of qualification required, and feedback suggested there was a high degree of burnout.
That made it difficult to expand existing services and set up new ones, it said.
The report recommended making qualification requirements more flexible.
It said options included allowing vocational ECE qualifications to count towards qualified teacher requirements; allowing teachers to count towards qualified teacher requirements if they met a threshold of years of experience working in the sector/with children; removing the link between level of funding and the number of certificated teachers.
The recommendation was likely to alarm people who had fought to increase the proportion of qualified teachers to a minimum of 50 percent of teaching staff, with higher rates of funding for services with higher percentages. The previous government planned to increase minimum teaching staff rates to 80 percent and eventually 100 percent.
The report said Education Ministry regulatory impact statements were bias toward education outcomes at the expense of other government objectives such as labour market participation.
A group of early learning organisations said it hoped the report would result in "removing the unnecessary burden of poor regulation while not reducing the quality education that Aotearoa New Zealand is known for".
The group included Barnardos, Central Kids, Te Rito Maioha, Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand, New Zealand Kindergartens, Early Learning Advocates for Excellence and HomeBase Aotearoa.
Earlier this year, the government changed the rules so services were no longer obliged to pay qualified early childhood teachers who work as relief or casual staff at pay parity rates.
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