The OECD says in its latest report that early childhood education can bring a range of benefits, but in order to bring those benefits it needs to be of high quality.

Governments should set national standards for quality in early childhood education (ECE) according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

''Expanding access to services without attention to quality will not deliver good outcomes for children or the long-term productivity benefits for society,'' OECD Director for Education Barbara Ischinger says.

''Indeed, research has shown that if quality is low, it can have long-lasting detrimental effects on child development, instead of bringing positive effects''.

The report contains five areas which the OECD believes encourage quality in ECE. They are:

• setting out explicit goals for quality;
• implementing curriculum standards;
• improving staff qualifications and working conditions;
• engaging families and the community; and,
• improving data collection and monitoring.

The report suggests that a more integrated approach to quality can allow governments to combine resources for ECE and improve consistency which means ''variations in access and quality can be lessened and links at the service level are more easily created''.

Important areas for minimum standards include staff to child ratios, staff training, curriculum development and the service's physical environment.

The standards should apply to both privately run and community led services.

The report echoes some of the recommendations of the 2011 New Zealand Government advisory ECE Taskforce group which suggested that ECE services should be more closely monitored to make sure they are providing high quality education and care, and government should introduce minimum requirements for staff training and development, improve staff to child ratios, and develop more robust procedures for dealing with under-performing services.