2007 consultation feedback

Proposed licensing/certification criteria for ECE services consultation 2007

This report provides a broad overview of the response rate and results of the 2007 consultation process for the proposed licensing/certification criteria for early childhood education (ECE) services.

Background

A new regulatory framework for ECE services will be implemented in 2008.  The licensing and certification criteria for ECE services are one part of this framework.  The criteria are deemed regulations prescribed by the Minister of Education. They state the day-to-day requirements that different ECE service types must meet in order to meet regulated standards of education and care. The Secretary of Education will use the criteria to assess compliance with the standards.  Compliance is required in order to gain and maintain a licence to operate an ECE service (or be certificated, in the case of playgroups).

Draft licensing/certification criteria were developed by the Ministry of Education in conjunction with sector representatives to explicitly state current expectations for compliance with existing requirements. The draft criteria were released for public consultation in mid-2006.  Feedback received during this process was used to refine and revise the criteria.

A second phase of public consultation was conducted during October-November 2007 to meet the requirements of the Education Amendment Act 2006. The proposed licensing/certification criteria for ECE services were presented on a website alongside draft regulatory standards of education and care, and supporting guidance information.

Response

A total of 246 submissions were received about the proposed licensing/certification criteria for ECE services. Two submissions (from playgroups) were rendered invalid, as they were submitted anonymously. Twenty-four percent of the responses were submitted via email.

ECE organisations providing submissions were asked to state the number of ECE services involved in providing feedback.  Based on this information, the submissions received represent 2757 ECE services. Table 1 provides a breakdown by service type, compared with existing numbers of services based on MoE 2007 annual census data to provide an indication of response rates.

Table 1: ECE sector response to proposed criteria consultation period 2007 Service type Number of submissions made Number of services represented Number of services as at 1 July 2007 Apparent sector response rate (%)

Note that:

• Some over-representation has occurred for kindergartens and playcentres due to submissions being received from umbrella organisations at both national and regional levels 
• Nine of the education and care submissions were made by stand-alone ECE services
• Feedback was provided on behalf of all kohanga by the Te Kohanga Reo National Trust.

In addition to submissions made by or on behalf of ECE service providers, 23 general submissions from interested organisations and individuals were received. These submissions provided extensive comment on the proposed criteria from a range of different perspectives. Respondents included:

• Six DHB/ Public Health Units
• Three Territorial Authorities
• Two teacher education/professional development providers
• One fitness/recreation facility.

Findings

Respondents were asked to rate their level of agreement to a series of statements about how achievable the proposed criteria under each regulatory standard were for their ECE service. These statements were intended to provide a broad ‘barometer’ of sector confidence in relation to the proposed criteria. Figure 1 represents the total responses to these statements across the ECE sector.

Figure 1: Cross sector response to ‘achievability’ statements about proposed criteria

(Please see the downloads section at top right of page for a larger image)

Note that:

• To ensure that analysis was valid, responses were weighted according to the number of services represented in each submission. For example, the response to statements in a submission representing 10 ECE services counted 10 times, and responses in a submission from a stand-alone ECE service counted once
• Submissions representing a total of 313 services did not provide answers to these statements, and have been excluded from analysis of this data.

Further insight into how different parts of the sector consider the proposed criteria may affect them is achieved by analysing this data by service type, as in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Service type response to ‘achievability’ statements about proposed criteria

(Please see the downloads section at top right of page for a larger image)  

 Data indicates that:

• Sector confidence for the proposed criteria under the curriculum standard is high, although there is a lower level of confidence among playgroups;
• Forty-two pecent of Centre-based services are not confident about their ability to achieve the proposed criteria under the premises and facilities standard, with another 30% unsure;
• Centre-based services are less confident than the rest of the sector about their ability to achieve the proposed criteria under the health and safety practices standard; and
• Hospital-based services are not confident about being able to meet the proposed criteria under the governance and management standard. Comments in the relevant submissions (n=2) indicate that this relates to requirements for parental involvement and the keeping of attendance records.

Respondents also provided detailed information about how the proposed criteria would impact on their services, and in some cases provided estimated costs. This information generally aligned with the ‘barometric measure’ represented in Figure 2. For example, the majority of the proposed criteria noted in submissions from centre-based services (87%) related to the Premises and Facilities standard. This is likely to be because they are the ‘high cost’ criteria for services to meet.

118 submissions representing a total of 271 services noted that they would have no significant difficulty achieving the proposed criteria. Services responding in this manner were either:

• Playgroups
• Kindergartens
• Stand-alone Education and care services
• Large Home-based service providers.

Next steps

Final decisions about the criteria have not yet been made. The feedback received from this consultation process is being used to refine and revise the criteria where necessary. A technical drafter (i.e. an independent lawyer with expertise in drafting legislation) has also provided detailed advice to ensure that the criteria are clear and make the standards enforceable from a legal perspective. 

Once any final changes have been made, the criteria will be submitted to the Minister of Education for approval. The Minister has recently announced his intention for the new regulatory framework (including the licensing/certification criteria) to be passed into law in July this year, with an implementation date of 1 December 2008. This means that services will be able to access copies of the new regulations and criteria from July, and have time to familiarise themselves with the legislation before it applies to all new services from 1 December.

It will take a period of six years (from 2008 to 2014) to transition all services to the new system.  Existing services will continue to comply with the requirements that currently apply to them until they are visited by the Ministry and assessed against the new legislation.