Moves To Simplify ECE Regulation Will Benefit Centres And Parents

The Early Childhood Council says today’s Early Childhood Education regulation announcements and confirmation of a wider regulatory review will help teachers and managers focus on children, not unnecessary compliance.

“Over many years the government has imposed layer after layer of regulation, stifling innovation and creating barriers and hidden costs,” said ECC CEO Simon Laube.

“Today’s changes to Person Responsible and Network Management are a great start for introducing some common sense to childcare regulation, helping providers run more efficiently and better serve their communities.”

The current Person Responsible rule, which defines oversight tasks that can only be performed by a qualified teacher, has been consistently criticised as being too restrictive in practise. In late 2023, an ECC survey showed centres would need to restrict hours they opened or even close altogether to meet the regulation, when provisionally registered teachers would have been made ineligible to serve from August 2024.

Network Management has held providers back from serving their communities, putting a series of pre-licencing hoops to jump through before opening a centre, even if the demand was clearly there.

The scrapping of a new regulation that makes it impossible to sell a centre has also been welcomed.

“Today’s announcement signals a fresh approach that’s really positive for centres and parents, whose children will benefit from quality childcare in ECE. We look forward to further regulation reviews to come. Along with the imminent funding review, these are positive signals to the ECE sector,” said Simon Laube.

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