KEY POINTS:
A major preschool is opting in to the Government's controversial 20 hours "free" early childhood education scheme, as parents increase pressure four months after it launched.
Kindercare - which has 21 centres in Auckland and eight in Christchurch and Wellington - is expected to offer the Government-funded hours by next month.
Before its launch in July the policy of 20 free hours a week for 3 and 4-year-olds was slammed by some in the industry who described its level of funding as dangerous and a threat to the quality of early childhood education.
Only 50 per cent of Auckland centres had opted in when it started, the lowest proportion in the country.
Nationally, 62 per cent of preschools on average had joined by the start of July.
Kindercare communications manager Barbs Tozer said the provider informed parents of its preliminary decision to opt in.
She said she could not disclose specifics of how the scheme would operate, including if optional charges or donations would be requested, before full details were sent to parents by the end of the month.
One parent, who was happy Kindercare was opting in and described its service as "fantastic", believed the decision was prompted by a fall in enrolments.
"[It's] a complete about-face by Kindercare which is not surprising though. It's been highly noticeable that they've been shedding kids over the past few months," the parent wrote on an online forum.
Ms Tozer said the decision was motivated by the desire to ensure parents weren't losing out.
"Our enrolments have had very minimal effects. It wasn't a factor at all in our opting in," she said. "The decision to opt in was purely to deliver the benefit to our families."
National Party early childhood education spokeswoman Paula Bennett said centres were under pressure to make the scheme work no matter what.
Ms Bennett said centres were employing mechanisms such as charging more for children under three years or running longer sessions to get around the inadequate funding provided.
"I've lost count of the amount of centres that no longer offer a six-hour session and only offer seven or more. Then they can charge more for that seventh hour," she said.
"There's no doubt that parents want the discount and that centres want to give it to their parents, it's a shame it's being done in such a hidden cost way."
The country's biggest private provider, Kidicorp, opted in at launch and chief executive Wayne Wright said average occupancy lifted between 4 and 5 per cent since.
"We always supported the programme as a concept. No programme when it is first initiated is ever perfect," said Mr Wright.
"I'm cautiously optimistic it will get better in its first review but I probably wouldn't expect that until July next year."
He said operating the scheme had become easier over the past four months.
"It's still messy but you can still operate within the rules of the scheme and stay compliant with the ministry's requirements."
