Playcentres say the plan would affect 11,000 families. Photo / The Aucklander
Playcentres claim fewer volunteers will put their hands up to help out if a Government plan to police vet them goes ahead.
Among measures proposed in a bill tabled in Parliament on Tuesday was to police vet all people who have unsupervised access to children while schools and
preschools are open.
Education Minister Chris Carter said the step would make early childhood services and schools safer.
But Playcentre Federation president Marion Pilkington said it was not needed and would put parents off.
"This would require police checks for each of the 11,000 families attending, adding an enormous compliance burden to already overloaded parent volunteers."
Under the plan, parents on camps would not be affected because the activity was offsite and regulations for those helping out with a teacher present would also be unchanged.
The bill would remove "needless" police vetting of non-teaching staff, volunteers and contractors that do not have unsupervised access to children.
The New Zealand Educational Institute, the country's biggest teacher union, was also concerned at potential fallout on community and family involvement in schools and centres.
President Frances Nelson said the vetting could encompass parents and grandparents helping with lunchtime sport, reading, or gardening projects.
A balance between practical concerns for child safety and the community partnership was needed, she said.
Ms Nelson said of the 35,000 non-teacher police vets requested from 2004-06, seven people were identified as "sensitive" or with "red stamps".
She said police vetting was only one tool in a range of strategies. The Education Amendment Bill - which is unlikely to pass through Parliament before the election - also proposed removing the ability for 15-year-olds to apply to leave school, offered measures to clarify roles of boards of trustees and included amendments to deter people from committing offences relating to student loans and allowances.
Police checks:
- Would be made on everyone who works unsupervised at school or pre-school level.
- Playcentres, which are run with parent volunteers, say this would affect 11,000 families.
