The Education Review Office has announced they’ve stopped referring Early Childhood Education services to the Ministry of Education for licence reclassification, which can lead to service closures through licence suspension or cancellation.

This dubious protocol where ERO began providing the Ministry with a steady flow of ECE services to investigate was established under the previous Government.

“Unfortunately, this protocol became an industry in itself, heightening fears among Early Childhood Council members that centres were being systematically shut down,” said ECC CEO Simon Laube.

“Stopping this practice shows ERO either lost confidence in the Ministry to reclassify appropriately, or is simply being pragmatic while the ECE regulatory sector review is underway. Either way, it’s great news for providers.”

“We’ve been calling for this on our members’ behalf and wholeheartedly welcome ERO’s pragmatism. Everybody in the ECE sector relies on parents’ trust that services are delivered appropriately, and government will always need an effective way to deal with providers that fall short of expectations, but this regulatory over-reach had gone too far.”

“We’ve had centres go through traumatic ERO reviews, then Ministry investigations, with the whole process taking years. Small operators just got ground down. The duplication and inconsistency means the Ministry and ERO disagree on non-compliance findings, with the Ministry then conducting wide-ranging investigations and digging up other concerns. ECC has also been advised that licence intervention decisions at the Ministry are now subject to tighter control from the Secretary for Education, and we have more confidence in the Ministry going forward.”

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In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other.

The review is a chance for a welcome reset in early learning, as parents face loss of services in more areas, and increasing unaffordability from growing pressure on supply. ECE centres in some parts of New Zealand are only accepting full time enrolments now, because demand is so high that they don’t need to offer flexible hours. However there’s a participation crisis unfolding with low occupancy and thousands of children not attending regularly.

“ERO’s reviews are more robust when it comes to curriculum and practice and, unlike the Ministry, they recognise areas for improvement and celebrate centres that deliver outstanding curriculum experiences for children. Our system needs more ‘carrot’ and less ‘stick’, so we make the early childhood experience as good as it can be for children.”

“ECC is impressed with ERO’s leadership, we feel we have been listened to,” said Simon Laube.

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