ACT leader David Seymour at a Wellington early childhood centre on the day he announced the terms of reference for the Ministry for Regulation's early childhood education inquiry, its first regulation review. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A Wellington early childhood centre manager says she is scared some regulations that keep children safe may be taken away by a government review.
The sector is the first to be reviewed by the Regulation Ministry, with the minister David Seymour saying rules protecting children have gone too far, pushing up wait times and prices.
"Why do we need these regulations taken away?" - Megan White
Capital Kids early childhood centre manager Megan White told Morning Report the industry's regulations were needed to keep tamariki safe.
"Why do we need these regulations taken away? It's not identifying or looking at any of the issues that we're actually facing in early childhood."
A lot of the issues that are being discussed relate to early childhood workers not having the time to do the paperwork associated with the regulations, she said.
"But if we were to look at the real issues around ratios and funding this properly, it would really allow teachers to actually have the time to actually fill in these regulations that keep us all safe."
The regulations were necessary to keep tamariki and kaiako safe, she said.
"It's a really scary thought that they're going to be taken away and maybe fast-tracked this fast without actually you know talking to the sector and making these changes without having any input."
Asked why she thought some in the early childhood sector were supporting the move, White said that was likely because many workers were burnt out and tired because there was insufficient staffing to allow them time to fill out the regulations which were needed.
White said the parents in her community were supportive of the early childhood regulations.
"Because they want to know when they drop their tamariki off to us that their children are safe and without these regulations their children may not be safe."
Removing regulations would not make early childhood care cheaper, she said.
"The only way to make early childhood cheaper in New Zealand is to cap the fees, fund centres properly and take the profit motive out of the sector."
White said she hoped that David Seymour would ask for some feedback from the sector rather than trying to fast-track the removal of regulations.
Meanwhile, a teachers' union said the Ministry for Regulation was not putting children's needs first in its review of the early childhood education sector.
On Wednesday, Seymour announced the ministry would report back to Cabinet within the next six months with regulations that could be removed or changed. He said the review was a response to urgent calls from the sector to look into the complexity of the regulation it faces.
But NZEI national secretary Stephanie Mills said it had its priorities wrong.
"We've got a few concerns - one is that we think the health and wellbeing and the quality of teaching and learning for children should be at the centre of the review and that certainly wasn't apparent in the terms of reference."
Mills said a lot of the burden for the early childhood education sector came from the archaic funding system, which Seymour said would be looked at separately.
But a trainer of early childhood teachers said it had been calling for a review of the sector for quite some time though successive governments and education ministers.
Early Childhood Education New Zealand chief executive Kathy Wolfe said if it was done well, it would make a big difference to the cost and quality of the education.