Newsletter - Weekly Early Childhood Update Being Informed - January 2011
Being Informed - January 2011
Issue No. 1
You are welcome to forward this newsletter to family, friends and colleagues
click here to download a PDF copy
Best Wishes for the New Year!
In this Issue:
- New Year
- Needing Help in Getting an Online Presence for Your Early Childhood Service?
- Early Childhood Conference Calendar for the first half of 2011
- Young Gifted Children (birth to 8 years) -
- Charging ECE Fees on Statutory Holidays
- Are Qualified Teachers Really Necessary in ECE?
- What the Funding Changes for Teacher-Led Services with 80% - 100% Qualified/Registered Teachers Will Mean
- What’s Thought to be the Challenges For Early Childhood Services this Year
- Keep Up with the Latest Early Childhood Research
- Contracts and Tenders
1. New Year Reading
This is the time of year when many new teacher graduates are starting their teaching careers and many early childhood services will have staffing changes. It is also the time of year when families are planning the year ahead. Families will be considering enrolling with an early childhood service, or assessing their current use of childcare/early education support, or they will be counting down to their child’s first day of primary school on Monday 31st January.
So in regards to teachers we’ll start this newsletter with a couple of quotes from a research study published five years ago and invite you to reply and let us know if you think anything has really changed in the life of a qualified teacher (click here to send in your thoughts - your reply)
“I can go a whole day or go to lunch time and actually haven’t sat down with a child and done anything” (p.8).
“I’ve got people (children/families) who do half days and they’ll come in and want to pay at 12 o’clock when I’ve got 15 plus children wanting to have lunch and then I’ve got staff wanting to go for lunch and then we’ve got a child who needs to have a nappy changed and all this stuff happening. Yeah, it is totally different, you can’t just do one thing, you can’t just be on the floor and be a teacher” (p.9)… (From an article by New Zealand researcher, Helen Aitken titled “Too much, too soon? The multiple roles and identities of newly qualified early childhood teachers”, published in the NZRECE journal, Vol, 9, 2006. Read the full article online click here).
If you are training to be a teacher this year, or you are employed in an early childhood service, or work in teacher education there are number of new articles containing essential information on a range of training and employment topics at this link click here ...
Are you going for a job interview or looking to employ a nanny or a new member in your teaching team? See an article on questions to ask - click here to view.
In regards to family needs and choices we invite you to check out these four articles:
- Returning to Work Can be a Hard Decision for Mothers (but research shows no conclusive evidence that children are harmed by this). Click here to view article.
- Quality Early Childhood Education – what does “quality” really mean? Read more ...
- What is the Best Time to Start at Pre-school? Read more ...
- Starting School – What Parents Find Helps to Make For a Successful Transition. Read more ...
2. Needing Help in Getting an Online Presence for Your Early Childhood Service?
Action-On-Line created the ChildForum website, and did a wonderful job! The feedback we are receiving is just fabulous.
Action-On-Line have agreed to offer a discount and prioritise requests from any ChildForum members who would like a new website or to refresh and modernise their old one. Click here to find out more about how Action-On-Line can help you.
3. Early Childhood Conference Calendar for the first half of 2011
18th to 20th March
Men in Early Childhood Inc.
31st March
“Future for Children” National Forum, in
16th to 18th April
Montessori Association of NZ Conference in Rotorua. A great line up of speakers, workshops and networking. Read more ...
26th to 29th April
Early Childhood Convention in
20th to 22nd May
Christian Early Childhood Education Association of Aotearoa Conference in beautiful Waikanae (just north of Wellington). The theme is “blooming where you are planted”. Find out more and register from the end of February from the CECEAA website. Read more ...
26th to 29th May
NZ Playcentre Federation Conference in
4. Young Gifted Children - Ann ouncing a NEW SURVEY
Please make time (about 10 - 15 minutes) to participate in a project about gifted education in the early years, including what's happening and what the current needs are. The project is a collaboration between
5. Charging ECE Fees on Statutory Holidays
We have heard angry grumbles about early childhood services continuing to charge fees over public holidays. What do you think about this? Is this all a fuss about nothing? Does your early childhood service understand the rules around charging? Click on information article. Add your views and read what other people think by clicking here ...
6. Are Qualified Teachers Really Necessary in ECE?
In the latest issue of Education Today – The Education Magazine of the Future (Issue 6, 2010) is an article titled “Are Qualified Teachers Really Necessary in ECE?” You can download a PDF copy of this article from the homepage of www.childforum.com. To take out an annual subscription ($48 for one year) to this excellent magazine for ECE and the school sector write to Education Today,
7. What the Funding Changes for Teacher-Led Services with 80% - 100% Qualified/Registered Teachers Will Mean
(a) The Minister of Education’s Perspective
Here is some key text showing the Minister of Education’s perspective as stated in a copy of a letter forwarded to us for our information.
“The main change early childhood services will see from Budget 2010 decisions is the replacement of the 80-99% and 100% funding band rates with new 80%+ funding band rates from 1 February 2011.”
“A decision was also made in Budget 2010 to reprioritise funding set aside for future funding rate increases arising from the settlement of the 2008 Kindergarten Teachers Collective Agreement”
“There is a range of measures a service could take in response to the funding changes taking effect in February 2011. These include changes to the hours of operation of the service, reduced or restructured staffing, or general changes to increase efficiencies”.
(b) What this Means for Children
Hopefully it won’t be negative for children. Responsible early childhood providers will continue to strive to provide as high if not higher quality than before. How can this be? Well, many have told ChildForum that as they will be relying more on parent fees and contributions they will be working harder to involve parents and provide services that help to retain families and full rolls.
While there is a risk that parents struggling to pay any increases in charges will look to cheaper options that may not necessarily be as good for their child, at the same time they will have a basis for comparison. Parents feeling forced financially to go for a cheaper option that is also not as good may feel challenged to find ways to compensate or make up for this for their child (e.g. shorter hours of work or more time watching and being involved at the early childhood service).
(c) What this Means for Parents
The cost of childcare matters hugely to mothers (and we would expect for at-home dads too!) considering whether to return to paid work according to Australian Treasury research. Where the hourly cost of childcare before rebates and benefits is 10% higher, the likelihood of a mother returning to paid work is 3% lower. A 10% increase in the cost of childcare can mean a 7% drop in the total number of hours a mother works. Because there is no stated policy of the current Government (in contrast to the previous government who brought in the 20 Hours Free ECE Funding scheme) to getting more at-home parents into the paid workforce there is no impediment to childcare/ECE fees rising further in NZ and government funding of ECE places dropping further.
But at the moment, don’t be unnecessarily frightened by the newspaper headlines before Christmas saying that parents of tens of thousands of preschoolers can expect fee increases of up to $80 a week as a result of the government removing the two top funding bands for teacher led centres. To see how much your service funding will drop compare the rate of funding it currently receives per hour for your child to what the new rate will be (see the rate charts at this link click here ... )
Here are two examples:
- If your all-day service currently is on the 80 – 99% qualified/registered teacher funding rate and your 3 or 4 or 5 year old is receiving 20 hours ECE, government funding of $11.78 per hour drops to $11.12 an hour – that’s a 66 cents difference per hour that you could expect to see added to the optional charge rate unless the service finds ways to “increase efficiencies” as suggested by the Minister.
- If your all-day service is currently on the 100% qualified/registered teacher rate it will be receiving $13.35 per hour for up to 30 hours for each child under two-years-of-age and this rate changes to $11.80 – a $1.55 per hour drop in public funding for each under 2 year old.
If your fee or 20 hours ECE optional charge increases more than is necessary to compensate for the drop in public funding, it is quite likely that the service is budgeting other costs into calculating fee increases, such as the increase in GST (if this was not passed on to parents last year) and increases in operational costs such as in the staff wage bill and the costs of resources, cleaning etc.
Optional charges in services with 80% or more qualified/registered teachers are likely to go up as according to the Ministry of Education “from 1 February 2011 a service with more than 80 per cent registered teachers may request an optional charge for having a higher proportion of ECE qualified and registered teachers than is funded for”.
However optional charges remain ‘optional’. It is up to individual families to choose whether to agree to pay an optional charge or not. Parents can not be charged a compulsory fee for the first 20 hours of ECE if their service is receiving this funding for their child.
(d) What this Means for Currently Employed Staff
Basically it means – if you have a good job at the moment, then hold on to it. The job market is likely to tighten! Think twice about resigning and taking a break for some overseas travel, in case you find it hard to get a job when you return. Carefully check out new job offers and make sure that you are moving onto something better that will offer stable employment. See ChildForum’s paper on wage rates and conditions, click here to view the paper.
(e) What this Means for New Teacher Graduates or People Looking to Return to Early Childhood Work
Instead of employers chasing you because they need qualified/registered teachers, you will have to work harder to convince employers as to why then need to employ YOU. Employers will be looking more often beyond the fact that you a qualified teacher to other attributes you may offer as an employee.
(f) What this Means for Service Providers
Generally speaking most services currently on the 80 – 100% funding rates are not going to be able to afford, or have the funds available so easily, for items such as interactive whiteboards and will be waiting longer before replacing vehicles, ovens or other big ticket items. Decisions to expand or to take on more staff are being put on hold by some service operators whilst they wait to see what the full effect of the funding changes will be and as they also wait to see what further changes may be announced in the May 2011 Government Budget.
Few seem to be planning or even thinking about withdrawing from 20 Hours ECE Funding. This is for business reasons of the funding providing the bulk of income for many services. It’s also for altruistic reasons of giving greater access to ECE for families not otherwise able to afford ECE and wanting to offer the cheapest rate possible for all families. And a commercial reality in an environment in which an “industry” has developed is that pulling out of the 20 hours ECE funding would run the risk of an exodus of older children to other services, especially kindergartens who are now providing longer hours.
Some services are considering or have already looked at ways to maximise capacity, by for example taking away parents’ choice of half days or requiring enrolment of more than 6 hours a day thereby getting parents to pay more and restructuring staffing so only a minimum staffing are on ‘the floor’ especially at the beginning and end of the day. This ‘industry’ style solution of maximising capacity and matching staffing very closely to numbers rather than to need is a practical approach but one that is not likely to be good for children, conducive to staff work-place satisfaction, or good for the future public image of ECE teacher-led services.
We’ve heard from other service providers on the top funding rates who are thinking more outside of the square and are striving to find creative approaches to addressing a funding shortfall. Some of the ways include forming partnerships with other businesses in their local community, increasing fundraising efforts, finding other revenue streams (e.g. expanding into home-based or after-school care), and developing alternative methods to show children’s learning, and plan and review that are less consuming of staff time.
When parents are paying more for ECE it will become even more important to ensure all parents are informed and reminded about the WINZ childcare subsidy. For families who qualify for the subsidy it may make a difference as to whether a family can afford to stay with an early childhood service or not. At the same time services, and especially those who cater for a lot of low income families will need to have in place good ways of managing cash flow and not allowing debts to build up. For an article with lots of advice and tips about this click here...
(g) What this Means for NZEI and the Teaching Profession
Over recent years there has been a shortage of qualified teachers in many areas of NZ. Qualified teachers have been in hot demand! But now things look set to start to go in favour of the employer. It won’t be so good for teachers. NZEI union member recruitment numbers are likely to increase as teachers who are not already members look for representation and help.
Will government honour its commitment to all teacher-led services being required to have 80% qualified/registered teachers by 2012 in order to operate? 2012 is only one year away – or possibly up to two years depending upon the date in 2012 for achieving the target which the government has not yet set.
There is a heightened likelihood that the next step in reducing government spending in ECE (perhaps in the May 2011 Budget, but more likely after the general election) will be the removal of kindergarten staff from the State Sector Act. NZEI and those working in the Kindergarten Sector would be wise if they don’t want this to happen, to seek a pre-election promise from political parties that staffing in sessional kindergartens will remain protected under the Education Act and teachers salaries and conditions of work will continue to be protected in all kindergartens under the State Sector Act.
8. What’s Thought to be the Challenges For Early Childhood Services this Year
The results of the November 2010 survey covering a range of different services show what things are believed to most likely worsen and improve in the early childhood sector this year. Three key themes for what’s most likely to improve were:
- Opportunities for more self-determination of quality as an upshot of government funding changes
- Better staff relations, teacher morale, and stronger teamwork
- Strengthened internal management systems and financial efficiency
While views on what’s likely to worsen or deteriorate clustered around the following themes:
- Worries about money and financial uncertainty
- Parents paying more and losing families
- Staff quality, employment opportunities, pay and conditions of work
For more information see the December 2010 Being Informed Newsletter or click here ...
9. Keep Up with the Latest Early Childhood Research
A publication of 2010 early childhood research is now available. It is an essential addition to early childhood professional service libraries and a key reference for people doing assignments for teaching studies and higher education degrees. Click here to go to the Store page, then click on the book icon, and read more about the NZRECE journal
10. Contracts and Tenders
(a) Working Group Members to Evaluate the ECE Participation Programme
The Ministry is forming an evaluation working group of staff and external contractors to lead and undertake an evaluation of the ECE Participation Programme. Organisations or individuals will be contracted to be members of the evaluation working group for four years. Specific roles and responsibilities will be decided for each phase of the evaluation. Proposers are invited to submit a priced proposal. For a copy of the RFP contact Fiona Mao, Ministry of Education. Phone 04 463 8707. All proposals must be received by Friday 11th February 2011.
(b) Call for Providers to Establish and Run Playgroups
The Ministry of Education invites proposals for the establishment and operation of a supported playgroup in each of the following areas for a three-year period:
- Kawerau – for a copy of the RFP documentation and more information contact Kylee Hema, Ministry of Education, Phone: 07 858 7173
- Ngaruawahia/Huntly West - for more information contact Kylee Hema, Ministry of Education, Phone: 07 858 7173
- Whangarei - for more information contact Eileen Tofa, Ministry of Education, Phone: 09 632 9591
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