Sue Thorne: Kids in private care matter too

When it comes to the quality of a child's life, no one has more at stake than parents, and parents with young children are often more sensitive to quality than most.

So it was with unease that many parents heard the Government's Budget announcement that 20 free hours a week of early childhood education would be available only for children at community-based centres.

A common question was: "Why is the Government limiting free funding to some centres and some children, and in effect telling us where we should send our children?"

This concern has been backed this month by a report from the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) on early childhood education that shows using centre ownership as a criteria for funding is likely to mean that family decision-making based on the quality of a centre becomes less important as artificially cheaper centres became prevalent.

The report says public subsidies should be available to all early childhood providers that meet objective performance standards. This would bring better outcomes for children.

All centres, regardless of ownership, have the same accountability requirements to Government and parents. A good centre is a good centre, no matter its ownership structure.

If parents weren't happy with the quality of private centres they would leave, and the centres with no customers would close.

But that is not happening because, just like community-based centres, they offer what parents want in quality and service.

Parents choose private centres for many reasons, not least that they are happy to pay fees to have professionals take care of all the time-consuming administration tasks that often fall on parents with children at community-based centres.

They pay a reasonable fee and, in return, there is no more mowing centre lawns or taking part in yet another fund-raising activity. Just more quality time with their kids.

Parents have been telling us for months that they want freedom over which centres they choose for their children, and for centres to be encouraged to perform so parents have quality choices to make. The NZIER research is a clear vindication of their views.

Parents also want to know that their children are being taught and cared for by competent people.

The Government is looking to formalise this by having all early childhood staff qualified with a single teaching qualification by 2012.

But the Government's plan assumes that all staff fulfil a similar role. There is no recognition of the different types of roles and responsibilities within centres and no effort to build qualifications that reflect those differences.

As the NZIER report says, the Government's approach is focused on training providers and teachers' definitions of quality. While that is important there is no input from service providers or centre managers.

These are the very people who have to meet parents' expectations and who are legally responsible for achieving regulated outcomes.

We need to recognise that different stakeholders in the early childhood community have varying perspectives on what makes up quality. They are all valid and need to be fed into the mix to get the best results.

From a parent's point of view, quality considerations would likely include child safety, centre location, flexible hours, and good communication and interaction from staff.

Many parents have told us their opinions on what constitutes good quality education and care should be taken into consideration by centres when setting internal policies and standards, and indeed by the Government when setting regulatory and quality standards.

Parents are concerned about the quality of the care their children receive. And no one knows better than a parent what that quality consists of.

As parents are showing in increasing numbers every year, if good quality is provided by a centre, they will seek it out, and the centre's ownership is of no consequence.

The full report Putting Children First is available at www.ecc.org.nz/report

* Sue Thorne is chief executive of the Early Childhood Council, which represents more than 500 private and 300 community centres. She is replying to an article by early childhood teacher Judith Nowotarski published last Wednesday.