'Fairer' subsidy for tots urged

Abolishing early childhood subsidies based on centre ownership and replacing them with performance standards will bring better and fairer outcomes for children, a study has found.

The Putting Children First report was researched and written by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research for the Early Childhood Council.

It investigates a range of ways to get better outcomes for children in early childhood education centres.

Among the key findings are:

* Public subsidies and other assistance should be made available to all early childhood education providers who meet objective performance standards. This could be done by abolishing the "20 free hours" policy.

* The six-hour daily limit on subsidies should be removed (and the 30-hour-a-week limit reviewed).

* The targeting of additional funding to children from families with low incomes and other risk factors should be improved.

* Abolish the requirement that all teaching staff must be registered early-childhood teachers by 2012 (and adopt a broader approach to quality that recognises staff competence and parent opinions).

* All standards differentiated by the ownership status of a centre should be replaced with standards that are independent of ownership.

The council's chief executive, Sue Thorne, said it was heartening to see recommendations - from an independent source - that, if used as policy, would give parents more choice of centres and improve the quality of centres.

"Parents at our 800-plus member centres 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 good choices to make," she said.

"This research is vindication of their views. Parents know what is best for their children and now they have solid, independent research to back up their gut instincts for their families' wellbeing," Mrs Thorne said.

It was also pleasing to see a recommendation that New Zealand's at-risk families are better taken care of.

"Quality early childhood education and care can be a vital part of any youngster's development and we need better paths for families - no matter what their situation - to access it."

Who gets subsidy

* From 2007, parents will be entitled to 20 hours a week of free preschool education for 3- and 4-year-olds.

* The subsidy will be available only at community-based centres with qualified teachers.

* 67,000 children will qualify.

* The scheme is estimated to cost $52 million a year.

- NZPA