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Overview of this Week’s Update

In this weekly update we include a number of notices along with other bits of new information and help that is available.

What might interest you also is our big focus on the Home-based Early Childhood Education Sector. Over the past few months we’ve heard from some early childhood centre teachers who have talked about their teaching qualification being undervalued, the daily noise levels they experience, and the constant numbers of families and children they are dealing with and they have wondered about other job options. What more teachers seem to be considering is a move into home-based care. The conditions of work are quite different in the home-based sector and a home-based educator may earn as much if not more than as a teacher working in a kindergarten or childcare centre. While working in home-based education is becoming an attractive option, there are also some worries about standards in the sector and risks for children of educators working alone. This was highlighted in the shocking case last year of a home educator contracted to a licensed service who left a baby at her home alone for several hours. The service did not appear to accept any responsibility for the quality of the educator’s work or the baby’s care although it was likely receiving government funding for the baby’s care, and the Ministry of Education was reported in the newspaper to have been satisfied with the way the service had dealt with it though for the family this was not the standard of care they expected.  Our focus on the Home-based Early Childhood Education Sector highlights a number of challenges and issues and explains why it is also at the same time the fastest growing early childhood service in New Zealand.

We mentioned last week that we would be making available an article looking at what educators can do to support literacy teaching and learning in early childhood programmes, following on from the release of ERO’s report on this curriculum focus by the Minister of Education at ChildForum’s national policy forum last week.  But this week has gone by too fast, and we just haven’t had the time to finish the article in time to list it in this newsletter. Look out for it on our website during the coming week.    

The issue of the Government flagging (via the Ministry of Education website) that the licence size for teacher-led early childhood centres and hospital based education services will be changed in the regulations to allow services to have three times the number of children they currently have remains a top issue. The problem boils down to the fact that there is an absence of stated requirements to mitigate the potential for problems arising out increasing child numbers.

Government regulations exist (or should exist only) for the purpose of setting standards across an industry or service, in this case for the protection of children’s well-being, health, safety, and education. But changing current regulations to increase the number of children in centres is not being done for the reason of improving standards.  So why make the change in regulation?  Simply reducing the amount of paper-work for the big multi-licensed centres does not seem to be reason enough for amending the licence size regulation. The government could have asked officials to come up with a different way to reduce the paper-work so as not to introduce potential risks for children, teacher stress and retention, and higher costs to Government (the taxpayer). 

Here are two thoughts to consider: 

1. Why have a regulation for centre licence size at all - if it is true (according to the political rhetoric) that quality for children will be unaffected by changing the regulation to allow centres to have more children together?  But note that all the research evidence, and feedback from the ChildForum survey, suggests that quality for children could well be affected by going to such high numbers of 150 children or 75 babies.
2. If there is no going back on the decision to increase licence size, then a positive action the government could make would be to replace regulation for centre licence size with regulation for maximum group sizes within centres.

Easter Related Activities

Easter egg and bunny activities, making Christmas cards and decorations – are these sorts of activities too religious?  Should activities such as these be banned in NZ early childhood programmes?  Let us know what you think.  Vote in our online poll at http://www.childforum.com/home

Implications of Increasing Maximum Child Numbers in Centres

ChildForum’s survey of  450 people showed only 9% supported a regulation amendment change to allow early childhood centres to be licensed for up to 150 children or 75 under 2s.  91% were against the regulation change. Click here for a copy of the report ...  

What was surprising and is important for education officials and policy makers to know, is that many of those currently working in services that have more than one licence on the same site, and therefore whose service stands to benefit financially from the regulation change, opposed the regulation change for how it might affect children and their working environment.

In NZ there is no requirement for early childhood services to care for children in smaller class or group sizes than the licensing number. At the moment groups of 50 children (0 – 6 years) or 25 (0 -2 years) can be cared for together in the same service facility; and if a provider wants to care for more than say 50 children they are required to apply for a separate licence, and ensure separate staffing, and room spaces for the second group of children.

The regulation amendment to increase child numbers in centres flies in the face of a large body of empirical evidence:

Staff child ratio and group size indicators—two of the best indicators for determining the quality of a child care program.  These two indicators significantly effect many other health and safety issues, such as the transmission of disease being greater when there are more children and adults present.  These two indicators improve the care giving behaviors of staff and the safety of children.  And on the mental health and school readiness side, more secure attachments occur with higher staff child ratios and smaller group sizes. (Fiene, 2002). 

A NZ study presents findings which are particularly alarming in the light of the regulation amendment change to increase the legal maximum size of groups to 150 children on 1 July 2011.  Back in 1995 Renwick and McCauley examined the effects of increases in the size of groups in NZ kindergartens. Teachers in larger groups (45 children compared to 30) reported that the larger group had negative consequences for both teachers and children.  Children were overwhelmed in larger groups, and had to compete more for equipment, space and teacher time. Teachers said they found it difficult to do individual or small-group work with children, and that their interactions with children were less positive. Head teachers considered that their job had moved to become one of ‘crowd control’ and they missed the quality of the teacher/child interaction they used to provide.

Even though the adult/child ratio remained constant at 1:15, the larger group size was overwhelming for young children and had had a marked impact on the type of activities teachers were able to offer.

After the regulation amendment change to increase licence size comes in on the 1^st July this year, here’s what we think you need to know about what could happen.  

The Government:

• The government will experience a reduction in revenue from new centre licences. Services applying to be licensed to have up to 150 children will be charged by the Ministry for only one licence and pay only a third of what they would currently be charged – reducing government revenue by around $5,500 for every new service that previously would have held three licenses. 
• The Ministry of Education will have increased administration and staffing costs as multi-licence services on the same site apply to transfer to single licences and other services apply to increase their child numbers beyond 50 if they have the space.
• In the medium term the Ministry of Education may be dealing with an increase in the number of services with serious financial sustainability problems – these may be services that are currently operating financially very well but will find they are unable to compete against the increased efficiencies and economies of scale of the large services in their area, and especially if a new mega service opens just down the road from them.  
• There could very likely be greater pressure on government spending in health for children in the early childhood years as research provides strong evidence of a relationship between increasing group size in childcare services and increased illnesses, doctor's visits and sickness requiring hospital admission.
• In the medium term, government may need to put more spending into primary education to support teachers and schools potentially dealing with greater numbers of children with attachment issues, attention problems, and not being ready for school learning. 
• In the longer term – who knows – but international research suggests that unless children get warm responsive care in the early years, costs may come in the form of NZ having higher numbers of school drop outs, more crime, more adult mental health difficulties, and parenting problems.

Early Childhood Service Providers:

• Hospitals might decide that instead of having playrooms on each children’s ward they could save money and free up space by building a single mega-size playroom for all children somewhere in the hospital.
• Over the next five years we may begin to see a sharp rise in the average number of children cared for in an early childhood centre. 
• We might see the development of mega early childhood centres i.e. services with more than one licence for more than 150 children on the same site.  Providing there is the space to build there is no reason why a service might not have 300 or a 1,000 children on the same site. We could still have services therefore with multiple licences – just with more children in each centre licence.
• In centres currently with multiple licences on the same site, the doors between rooms for each group of 50 children or less may be opened up and kept open.  There will no longer be a need to close doors or put up dividers between rooms when the Ministry or Education Review Office visit, or to have separate staffing for each group of children.
• Some of the currently multiple licensed services will continue to have group sizes of no more than 50 children even though they will be on a single licence for up to 150 children. This may be for the reason of the way their building is designed or a philosophical commitment to provide smaller group sizes. However, financial needs may see a compromise of keeping children in ‘family’ or ‘class’ groups only for the middle part of the day and having all children who arrive early in the morning together and all those who leave in the later afternoon together to save money on staffing. Thus the teacher who greets a child in the morning may be different from the teacher(s) who are caring for the child during the day, who is different from the teacher who is looking after the child at the end of the day and meeting the parents at pick-up time.
• The already big providers of ECE will find it financially feasible, if they want to, to build and open even more ECE services saving on the costs they previously had in needing to have separate facilities for each group of children and staff e.g. separate sleep spaces for each group of children or separate bathrooms – a mega bathroom for all 150 children could simply be provided anywhere in the centre. Thus we could see a reduction in the number of early childhood service providers/owners but an increase in the total number of childcare places available in services.  

Children:

• In hospitals an ECE playroom which is not in the ward children are in, would unlikely be used much as most children cannot leave the wards for any length of time, and there would be major risks with cross-infection, etc.
• In centres we could see higher rates of sickness and absence from ECE. Research indicates that group size has a big impact on child health (Johansen, et al, 1998, NICHD, Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2003). And it is not only the number of children in a group together which matters but also the total number of children in an early childhood facility.

Group size should be limited to twice the maximum number of children allowed per adult. Smaller child care centers, not just those with smaller class sizes, have lower rates of disease. Outbreaks of Hepatitis A occur at the rate of 3% in centers that enroll less than 20 children but 53% in those that enroll 51 or more children (Hadler, Erben, Francis, Webster & Maynard, 1982). Children in small child care centers in France had two to three times the risk of repeated infections (e.g., upper respiratory tract infections, otitis media, conjunctivitis) than children in family child care settings with no more than three children (Collet, Burtin, Kramer, Bossard & Ducruet, 1994).  To read more go to: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/ccquality-ind02/#Staff1

• In centres we could see reduced opportunities for learning and lower quality teaching. In the words of early childhood expert and book author Jim Greenman (Quoted in Exchange Everyday): "Perhaps the quickest and most fundamental evaluation of a child care setting is to observe the quantity and quality of conversation. To note whether adults are listening to children, provoking the ideas of children, and offering a child one of their most precious gifts — undivided attention and their full human presence. How can this occur with real world ratios and group sizes and all the daily demands of care? It can only happen in environments that support teachers and are well designed and prepared for independent use by children”. 
• Teachers in centres with larger numbers of children (and adults) are likely to find it harder to establish warm, responsive, and reciprocal interactions with children. This in turn has serious implications for children forming positive attachments with their caregivers/teachers and for children’s mental health.  Children may come to see themselves as a number rather than as an individual for whom the teacher knows their name and has time for (this was one of the major concerns expressed in the ChildForum survey feedback).  The NICHD study (1996) reports that teachers responsible for several infants and toddlers at the same time have limited time to devote to any single child. And other research has shown that in centres with higher numbers of children teachers are more likely to become overly restrictive and controlling or detached and uninvolved with children (Doherty, 1996).
• The size of the group affects noise levels and the amount of stimulation and confusion (Press, 2006).  From the perspective of children, when there are too many others, and too much noise, it may not be a happy place to be:

I’m happy in this picture at the lucky, lucky preschool because it’s not noisy there. There aren’t too many kids. (Bronte, aged four, cited in McNaughton et al, 2004).

• In centres with more children we could see children at greater risk of being exposed to unsafe levels of noise. This affects children’s hearing and may result in long-term hearing loss.
• In centres with higher numbers of children, toddlers in particular may exhibit increased rates of aggression unless they are cared for in small groups with teachers who teach pro-social behaviours (Hay, 2003).

Teachers, Managers, and Employees  

For staff in early childhood centres what might we expect to see?

• Higher levels of stress and emotional burnout as staff try to cope with large numbers of children and their multiple needs, alongside trying to maintain relationships with many more families.
• Lower levels of job satisfaction as teachers find it harder to form and sustain relationships with children and colleagues; and they begin to feel their job is more akin to crowd control than really making a personal difference in children’s lives.
• Teachers may find that working in larger services increases the probability of division of duties.  Thus they may find that they are put onto nappy changing all day, every day for example, instead of being responsible for taking care of all of the needs of a small group of children.
• Teachers may find it a struggle to form meaningful relationships with children as they cope with having so many children around them.  Imagine what could become the reality of teachers chatting with 150 children over lunch – 75 babies in cots together or one baby crying and needing attention and the others crying in response.   
• As with the possible affects of larger group sizes on children, there are risks for staff of being more likely to be exposed to unsafe levels of noise, contagious diseases, and preventable illnesses.

Family Choice and Access to Quality ECE:

• Families with most resources (knowledge, money, and jobs that have some flexibility to wait for their child’s name to come up on a waiting list, etc) will be able to make the choice of enrolling at, or not enrolling at, a smaller centre.  (Note that feedback from the ChildForum survey suggests that smaller centres could respond by developing as boutique centres for the financially well-off since they won't have the economies of scale of the larger services to survive otherwise.)
• Less well resourced families won’t have the same degree of choice. They will have to take what ever is available in the way of a childcare place at a price they can afford.   This means that children who are already most disadvantaged, most at risk educationally and in health, and most needing the best quality out-of-home care and early education are more likely to be concentrated in services that have larger group sizes, providing longer hours of care, and at a cheaper price, and will be the ones who are disadvantaged most by this regulation amendment change.

What’s New

The Home-based Sector under the Microscope

We’ve published a series of articles on the Home-based sector.  You can find these online at childforum.com by clicking on the link here ...

• A story investigating the needs and challenges faced in the Home-based sector.
• A set of guidelines/indicators of the best home-based network.
• An article about being a home educator and how one educator has found the role.
• An article about running a home-based service and a director’s expectations and view of practices that work well.
• The essentials you need to know in setting up a home-based service.

What’s Stopping a Teacher Accused of Abusing Children from Getting another Teaching Job

The Employment Relations Authority (ERA) has upheld a teacher's complaint that the preschool at which she was accused of abusing children had agreed to provide a positive reference as part of her exit settlement and therefore she should be given one and it should describe her as "competent".  The Authority ruled in the accused teacher's favour and banned publication of the accused teachers name and the name of the preschool. The Head teacher when talking later to a newspaper reporter said she was worried about providing a positive reference and would blame herself if something happened to another child at another preschool. Previous cases that have been heard by the ERA suggest though that should the preschool report the teacher to the NZ Teachers' Council, this may under certain circumstances be supported by the ERA. 
Read More by clicking on the link here ...  

Notices for Service Providers

Is your Website looking Tied?  Do you Want to Attract New Families?

As a ChildForum member you can receive a very good discount from Action Online and have the brilliant help of a website company that really knows how to create great and inexpensive websites.  Go to http://www.actiononline.co.nz/   or read more about Action Online on our ChildForum website by clicking here ... 

Ministry Request for Proposals from Providers to Open New Services in Auckland

The Ministry of Education is seeking suitable providers to establish and manage an early childhood service located on one or all of the following school sites:  Weymouth Primary School, Weymouth Road, Manurewa;  Mansell Senior School, Settlement Road, Papakura; and  Homai Primary School, Browns Road, Manurewa.  Are you interested in putting in a tender? The deadline for responding is Monday, 11th of April 2011 at 12:00 pm.  To respond to this request you must you must read the documentation and complete a RFP. For a copy of the Request for Proposal  (RFP) contact Marlene Rei, Senior Advisor Participation, Ministry of Education, Phone: 09 632 9491. Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Encouraging Donations and Being a Donor

The Office for the Community & Voluntary Sector is keen to draw everyone’s attention to the 31st March marking the time to claim your tax credits for donations made during the previous 12 months. If parents or others don’t want the tax credits they can donate them to the bank account of an approved not-for-profit organisation including the earthquake appeals. Click here to go the OCVS website and learn more about how to make your donations go further …

Dr. Alice Honig’s 35^thAnnual Quality Infant/Toddler Caregiving (QIC) Workshop

Fancy a holiday in the USAand a great learning opportunity?  Or treat one of your valued teachers to this super opportunity to attend Dr Alice Honig’s Quality Infant/Toddler Caregiving workshop over five days in May, 2011 at the University of Utah, Syracuse. Training caregivers of children under the age of three, the world renowned QIC workshop is based on research and theory in social emotional, cognitive, motor, sensory, and language development. This course consistently draws participants from around the world. Lectures include observations and interactions with real infants, as well as videos and demonstrations of developmentally appropriate toys and games.  Click here to go to a link for information and registration forms ...

Inexpensive, Top Quality, Professional Development Now Available

Teaching Central Ltd introduces a new concept in professional development. This is customised PD, delivered through interactive media to suit your needs. This is the ultimate flexible learning option, where you can select to use online, CD, or post. The benefits to early childhood services are that the PD can be run over four, six or eight weeks, for which you can choose the start and finish dates. This means that you can make real progress and long-term changes to practice that will strengthen and enhance your programmes. Also, with the financial constraints placed on early childhood, a major benefit is the cost of this professional development. No expensive staff meetings, yet the whole team is involved and learning together whilst undertaking their routine duties. Certificates and transcripts are provided on completion, for each participant. An exclusive discount of 5% is given to members of ChildForum for services provided by Teaching Central Ltd. Find out more by clicking here ...   or Email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Safe Sound Indicator (a noise monitor like a traffic light system) is now available for all Early Childhood Services

After providing a national series of workshops for educators on protecting young children's hearing and practical tips for improving early childhood environments for children and adults, ChildForum is continuing its partnership with the National Foundation for the Deaf to help to make the very useful and much needed Safe Sound Indicator (a noise monitor) available to all home and centre-based services. Read more and purchase your SSI by clicking here …

Report from the Future for Children Policy Forum

The Future for Children Forum is held every three years in election year.   At the 2011 Forum held last week we focused on early childhood education and care policy, and in particular on children’s rights and best interests.  We are beginning to publish the proceedings from the Forum and am  progressively adding copies of speeches, notes from the group discussions and feedback.  Please continue to check our website for updates. Access material from the forum and read more by clicking here ...      

On the Government's Beehive Website read a speech given by the Minister of Education at the  Forum.  Click here to go to the page ...  http://feeds.beehive.govt.nz/speech/child-forum

Notices for Researchers and Academics

Massey University Jumping Beans Research project

Dr. Ajmol Ali, Dept of Sport and Exercise Science at Massey University is working with Sophie Foster on a graduate research proposal: 'Child-centered physical activity: Effect on motor skill development in infants'. Dr. Ali is seeking a suitable Exercise Science, Early Childhood Education, Early Childhood Development, Human Nutrition or Developmental Psychology graduate student to undertake the 12 month MSc study. A proposed student stipend of $20,000 will be available.  If you are a graduate student and interested please send your contact details to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Government’s Teaching and Research Fund

Expressions of interest for the new funding round for the Teaching and Learning Research Initiative are now being called for.  Applications close on 11 May. The TLRI is a government fund established in 2003 and managed by NZCER. It funds research across the education sector, with the purpose of enhancing teaching and learning to improve outcomes for learners. All the documents relating to the new funding round are available from the TLRI website, click here to go to the TLRI website ...    

Post-Doc Fellowships

The Rutherford Foundation is advertising two post-doctoral fellowships available for recent PhD graduates to undertake two years' research at any research institution, including research businesses, in New Zealand. The area of research must be science or technology, including social sciences. The award is worth $190,000 covering stipend, research costs and research-related travel. Information on criteria and application processes is available from the Royal Society or by clicking here ... 

Melbourne Conference

The Honoring the Child, Honoring Equity 11: Inspiring change(s): insights, challenges, hopes and actions Conference will be held 18-19 November 2011 at The University of Melbourne, Australia.  The Conference Themes are:

• Education for All – Where does equity fit in education and who is ‘All’?
• Creating change – deconstructing and reconstructing theory and practice for equity
• Exploring multiple childhoods for equity
• Examining silence and privilege for equity
• Equity in an increasingly contested environment

The call for papers is now open and the deadline for submission is 3 June 2011.  Go to the conference website for more information by clicking here ...  

That’s all for this week’s early childhood update

Look out for more next week.  Next week we will be having a special focus on Easter. 

Best wishes from the ChildForum national office team.

 

References

Doherty, G. (1996). School for three- and four-year-olds: what does the research tell us? Canadian Journal of Research in Early Childhood Education, 5(1), 135-142.

Fiene, R. (2002). 13 Indicators of Quality Child Care:  Research Update .  Paper presented to:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and Health Resources and Services Administration/Maternal and Child Health Bureau U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Fiene, R. (2002). Licensing Indicators of Quality Childcare.   http://ecti.hbg.psu.edu/docs/publication/LicensingRelated_Indicatorsof_QualityChildCare.doc

Greenman, J. (2011) cited in Exchange Everyday email 5 April 2011 titled. A place for Learning Everyday. The email discussed What Kind of Place for Child Care in the 21st Century?", in the latest Exchange publication, Environments:  A Beginnings Workshop Book.

Hay, D. (2003), Aggression as an outcome of early child development: Comments on Tremblay, Keenan and Ishikawa and Raine. Encyclopaedia on Early Child Development.  Centre for Excellence for Early Childhood Development.

Johansen AS, Leibowitz A, Waite LJ. (1988). Child care and children's illness. American Journal of  Public Health. 78(9):1175–1177

McNaughton, G., Smith, K. and Lawrence, H. (2004). Hearing young children’s voices: ACT Children’s strategy: Consulting with children birth to eight years of age. Centre for Equity and Innovation in Early Childhood, University of Melbourne.

NICHD (2003) Child Care and Common Communicable Illnesses in Children Aged 37 to 54 Months. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 157, 196-200.

NICHD Early Child Care Research Network (1996), Characteristics of infant child care: Factors Contributing to positive care giving.  Early Childhood Research Quarterly 11, 269-306.

Press, F (2006). What about the Kids? Policy directions for improving the experiences of infants and young children in a changing world. New South Wales Commission for Children and Young People.

Renwick, M. & McCauley, L. (1995). Group size in Kindergartens.  Issues arising from changes to group size and other policy developments in the Wellington Regional Kindergarten Association in 1994. NZCER: Wellington.