“20 free hours” short changes Playcentre families

PRESS RELEASE WELLINGTON PLAYCENTRE ASSOCIATION

8 July 2007

“20 free hours” short changes Playcentre families.

The parents of 3 and 4 year olds attending Playcentre in the Wellington region are angry that they cannot access ’20 free hours’ for the time their children spend at Playcentre. This is despite the many volunteer hours these parents put into Playcentre, and the proven high quality early childhood education Playcentre provides to children.

“It is a concern that Playcentres are being disadvantaged by this policy, when dollar for dollar, we provide an extremely cost efficient and high quality service for our children,” said Jenny Brown, Co-President of Wellington Playcentre Association. “Playcentre is the only licensed Early Childhood Education service that is not entitled to opt in to the new funding rates.

“Our parents make a significant voluntary contribution of time to our Centres, a contribution which saves the Government money and meets all sorts of other social goals such as good parenting and stronger communities. By being excluded from this policy it implies their value is not recognised.” said Jenny Brown.

Playcentres are run by parent councils, and each session is supervised by trained parent teams. Playcentres operate under the early childhood curriculum, and the Competent Children study rates them as providing the best quality educational outcomes. Parents are trained through an extensive NZQA recognised parent education programme, and the support Playcentres provide for families and the wider community is well recognised and documented.

“We appreciate the need for support for parents finding it hard to pay for childcare when they return to the workforce,” said Jenny Brown. “And the 20 free hours policy would seem to offer that to those parents. However it is simply unfair that our parents cannot have the option to ‘opt in’ to the 20 free hours policy.

“Of particular concern is that this policy puts Playcentre at an unfair disadvantage. It encourages parents to put their children into childcare, rather than staying involved in Playcentre, as they cannot access ’20 free hours’ while at Playcentre.

“What signal is this sending about parents being involved in their children’s education? The current Government is spending millions on initiatives such as the Team Up campaign encouraging parents to be involved with their children but at the same time penalising those Playcentre parents who are involved!” said Jenny Brown.

“What we would like to see is the Government give Playcentres the opportunity to be part of this policy. Playcentres have long been a valued part of the mainstream of early childhood education in New Zealand. Lets keep it that way.”

ENDS

For more information about Playcentre, visit www.playcentre.org.nz

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