'Free hours' out of reach for many

One of the leading supporters of 20 hours' "free" early childhood education, Barnardos, says the policy has failed to make preschool education more accessible to low-income families.

Barnardos, which accounts for a sixth of the 15,000 children in home-based early childhood care, has imposed a $28-a-week "optional charge" on all 3- and 4-year-olds to cover yawning losses - effectively shutting out families who cannot afford to pay.

Chief executive Murray Edridge said funding for home-based childcare under the "free" scheme for 3- and 4-year-olds, a maximum of $175 per child per week compared with up to $245 for centre-based care, just did not cover costs.

The policy gave a "windfall" to families with children already in childcare and encouraged them to increase their hours to 20 a week, but left other families outside on waiting lists.

"The original policy was set up to provide access and affordability. It hasn't done that," he said.

"It made services cheaper for those currently using them. We have more care now for 3- and 4-year-olds taking advantage of the 20 hours, and therefore less ability to care for those under 3."

He said the charity had to subsidise its home-based childcare with "many hundreds of thousands of dollars" from the introduction of 20 free hours in July 2007 until it imposed the $28 fee late last year.

"Barnardos was the first of the large organisations to commit to 20 hours free," Mr Edridge said.

"We believe in the philosophy of better access and affordable access to good-quality early childhood education."

But he said the agency had also closed its home-based network in the Rodney District, and was reviewing two other networks, partly because the new policy had made them unviable.

Despite Barnardos' woes, home-based childcare in general has been the biggest winner from the 20 hours free policy, boosting its numbers of 3- and 4-year-olds by 51 per cent in the first two years of the policy up to last July.

By comparison, 3- and 4-year-old enrolments rose by 16 per cent in the same period in all-day childcare centres, and fell in all three sectors that traditionally take children for less than a full day - kindergartens (down 11 per cent), playcentres (down 5 per cent) and kohanga reo (down 2 per cent).

Amanda McIntosh of the Home-Based Early Childhood Education Association said the new funding system encouraged parents to leave their children in fulltime home-based care after they turned 3 rather than putting them into kindergartens, which traditionally took children for only 15 hours a week, or into playcentre or kohanga, which were excluded from the 20 free hours unless they were "teacher-led".

The National Government has announced that the 20 hours funding will extend to all playcentres and kohanga from July.

Ms McIntosh said the increased numbers of 3- and 4-year-olds raised concerns for home-based carers.

"One of the things that is concerning us is that we are losing our capacity to take under-2s. Research proves that if you are going to place children under 2 in care, home-based is the best option."

But she said almost all home-based carers apart from Barnardos recognised from the start that the Government funding was inadequate and imposed "optional" top-up fees of about $30 a week.