Budget 2011

Budget 2011 and Early Childhood Education

Government will invest an extra $550.3 million in early childhood education (ECE) over the next four years to allow as many families as possible to access quality ECE services where they are needed the most.

The Government’s priorities for ECE are to increase participation for those groups that will benefit the most from ECE, including Māori, Pasifika and children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, while also controlling Government expenditure.

Budget 2011 includes:

$416.7 million over four years to meet increased demand from more children staying in ECE for longer periods of time and population growth.
$61 million over four years for a Universal Cost Adjustment to Early Childhood Education Funding Rates. The non-salary component of ECE funding rates will be increased by 2.92 per cent. The new funding rates, effective from 1 July, are available in the Funding Handbook.
$21.5 million over four years for extending Equity Funding.
$12.8 million operating and $18 million capital expenditure over four years for an early learning information system to improve information about participation and system performance.
$20.3 million over four years to extend early childhood education for children in State care and to expand the Home Interaction Programme for Parents and Youngsters (HIPPY) for families in most need.

Equity Funding

Eligibility for Equity Funding has been extended to all ECE services that provide ECE to children from high-need communities.
Equity Funding was introduced to reduce educational disparities between different groups, reduce barriers to participation faced by those groups under-represented in ECE services, and support ECE services to raise the level of children’s educational achievement. Equity Funding provides additional resources to ECE services that enrol children from high-need communities, and will be available to all eligible ECE services from 1 July 2011.

Extending Equity Funding supports Government’s priority for ECE, which is to ensure those families who are not currently taking part and who would benefit the most participate in quality ECE. Further information on Equity Funding is available in the Funding section of this website.

The Ministry will undertake a small-scale evaluation of Equity Funding over the next two years to consider whether there is a more efficient way to target funding to the Government’s priority groups.

Early Learning Information project

The Early Learning Information (ELI) project seeks to improve the information the Ministry of Education collects about ECE participation. We need to ensure our information about participation is as accurate and up to date as possible.

This project will fund a new electronic system to collect and store detailed information about ECE participation.

Currently the Ministry receives information about enrolments or funded hours four times a year. The information provided does not uniquely identify children, so we cannot determine who is participating in ECE and for how long.

ECE for families in most need

The new subsidy for ECE for children aged 18-36 months in State care will increase participation by this group of children in ECE. In addition, more caregivers will be able to seek, or remain in, employment while their children participate in ECE.

HIPPY improves education outcomes for vulnerable children, enhances the positive benefits of ECE, and helps transition children to school. The expansion of HIPPY means 2,700 more families will benefit from HIPPY.

These initiatives support the Government’s priority for ECE, which is to increase participation by Māori, Pasifika and children from low socio-economic backgrounds. They are administered by the Ministry of Social Development

Budget 2011 factsheets and question and answers

These Budget 2011 factsheets on the Ministry of Education website provide more information and questions and answers about the ECE initiatives announced in Budget 2011.