How do low staff wages and poor conditions impact on children’s happiness and wellbeing?

We have governments all over the world who talk about the value of early childhood care and education. How can we move beyond this rhetoric to provide quality for children through quality teachers? If we want quality and want quality teachers then we have to pay a professional wage that shows RESPECT for early childhood as a PROFESSION.

In 2016 a child under two years of age choked on the apple he was provided to eat for afternoon-tea at an early childhood centre. The toddler now has a hypoxic brain injury and severe cerebral palsy – he is unable to talk, swallow normally, or move his body.

Incidents like this have occurred before in ECE and will likely occur again. What occurred was a breach in one or more clauses of the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations such as to take all reasonable steps to promote the good health and safety of children (Regulation 46, 1a). If you talk with Plunket or any health officials you will be told that certain foods are a high choking risk for babies and young children, and other foods can be made safer through boiling, grating, or mashing, (or wrapping a piece of apple in muslin). However, the Ministry of Education did not see it that way, because in the criteria it used to assess compliance with regulations, the criteria did not specifically mention that choking risk needed to be considered in providing food to children. What we learnt from the Ministry's handling of this case is that there may be no consequence for an ECE service that puts children's lives at risk

Tips and advice for keeping current staff and successfully recruiting new staff to your service?

Key message to pass on to other operators is to not expand or open more services unless you can be sure you've got staffing sorted first