David Hughes: Does playcentre have a future?

Springvale Playcentre in Fox Rd. A blessing for David Hughes and his daughter. Photo / Paul Brooks

OPINION:

Springvale Playcentre has been a real blessing for me and our daughter. As a somewhat older dad, attending Springvale Playcentre has allowed me to meet, engage and get to know other parents which otherwise would have been more challenging.

Three years ago, I had never heard of playcentre. I'm originally from the UK and had not encountered this iconic institution which has been a rite of passage for generations of many Kiwi tamariki. Little did I realise then how important it was to become in our lives. Our daughter loves going to playcentre. She prefers it to the excellent daycare centre she also enjoys attending. It's just that at playcentre she interacts with a parent. We have enjoyed the playcentre experience that enables parents to be part of how their child learns, and develops through play. I have appreciated the playcentre support of myself as a first educator of our daughter. This sets playcentre apart from kindergarten, childcare, preschool and daycare options.

Playcentres started in the 1940s. In the 1950s and 60s they were the second most popular ECEC (Early Childhood Education and Care) service after kindergartens. Playcentres are parent run early childhood service run co-operatively. Parents are trained and supported as the educators in the service. They were once mainstream but over time have become marginalised in favour of professionalisation supporting teacher-led services. Government ECEC policies have over time have increasingly failed to accommodate or even excluded playcentres. Today, playcentres only enrol 5 per cent of tamariki who attend ECEC providers.

Playcentres are subject to similar licensing and legislative requirements to any other ECEC provider. In my earlier role as the Springvale Playcentre president, I became acutely aware of such things as the Ministry of Education's myriad of rules and ERO that keep many involved in education awake at night.

These requirements have become more and more onerous over time and members are increasingly unwilling to commit the extra time as volunteers to meet them. Therefore, numbers enrolled have dropped, threatening future financial viability of playcentres.

A case in point is the latest major change in 2021 to licence supervision rules requiring the presence of more qualified members on session. Many more members will need to commit to study, usually soon after they have just become parents. A continual pipeline of newly qualified members will need to replace older members who move on and leave when their child reaches school age. Springvale Playcentre currently doesn't have enough qualified members.

With the fallout from Covid, 2020 was effectively a lost year in terms of member training. Therefore, an extra paid facilitator has had to be employed to run its sessions. Financially, this can only ever be a temporary measure in the hope that sufficient numbers complete these new qualifications quickly. Playcentres both in Whanganui and elsewhere around the country face similar daunting challenges around this issue. My fear is this will finally sound the death knell of playcentre.

We have attended more than 200 Springvale Playcentre sessions to date. Our involvement with playcentre will come to a close at the end of the year when our daughter moves on to school. We are eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to be so involved with playcentre. I do hope that it continues to play a significant role in the Kiwi ECEC landscape and future parents will also have the opportunity of the benefit of being involved in playcentre that we have.

David Hughes moved to Whanganui after working for 35 years in England, Australia, New Caledonia, France and other countries. He works as a translator from French into English and is involved in a project growing heritage wheat varieties.