ECE Participation Programme

Quality early childhood education (ECE) gives our youngest children an excellent start, and too many of our children are missing out. Over half of school new-entrants who have not had ECE are Māori and Pasifika children living in low socio-economic areas.

The ECE Participation Programme seeks to increase ECE participation, particularly among Māori and Pasifika children, and children from low socio-economic communities.

Funding of $91.760 million was allocated for participation initiatives in Budget 2010.

Over four years, an additional 9,310 children are expected to access quality ECE as a result of initiatives delivered through the ECE Participation Programme.

The programme addresses multiple barriers to participation through a range of initiatives that:

ensure solutions are appropriate to particular local communities
improve the responsiveness of ECE services to the needs of non-participating children and their families by using different models of provision (e.g. supported playgroups, home-based projects and identity, language and culture projects).
increase the supply of ECE services in target communities through full and partial funding of property projects and one-off grants
intensify support to three and four year olds and their families resulting in enrolment in ECE, regular participation, support for learning at home and a successful transition to school.

These community based initiatives build on promising pilots and the findings and experience from the Counties Manukau Participation Project.

ECE Lead

ECE Participation Programme

Overview -

Intensive Community Participation Project -

Supported Playgroups -

Engaging Priority Families -

Identity, Language, Culture and Community Engagement -

Flexible and Responsive Home-based Solutions -

Targeted Assistance for Participation -