Associate Education Minister David Seymour stands by cuts to ECE regulations, despite sweeping opposition

A vast majority of those in the education sector who gave feedback on cuts to ECE “red tape” disagree with the plans laid out by Associate Education Minister David Seymour.

The Government is attempting to scrap network management provisions, which currently require sign-off from the Minister of Education in the establishment process for new ECE centres, to then go before the Ministry of Education for final approval.

Educators who gave feedback on the proposal vehemently disagreed the change was needed.

Proactively released Cabinet material on the changes states feedback was “varied” and the majority of those who responded “did not support the proposal and used the consultation to voice their concern”. The document stated some in the sector were in favour of the network approval provisions in the firing line, “as it provides a level of protection to their service”.

More than 80% of respondents, almost all of whom worked in the education sector, disagreed with the proposal Seymour put forward.

Concerns about potential oversupply of services were raised in the Ministry of Education’s consultation feedback report, while others who opposed the plans suggested it may see low-quality services pop up, with a focus on “profit-making, rather than providing a quality service for children”.

In an interview with NZME, Seymour, who is spearheading the changes to early childhood education, said he was “not surprised” there was such significant backlash.

“When I [made changes to] end of life choice, 90% of those consulted said that they were against it. Then there was a referendum of the public and it passed by two votes to one.

“Stakeholders will often have a view. Unfortunately, in this case, many stakeholders just don’t want competition,” Seymour said, adding that current rules allow the education ministry to oppose new centres.

The issue of competition was raised in the Ministry of Education documents - those who gave negative feedback suggested it was important for people to consider “protecting” small, community-based, and non-profit services.

Seymour said he was in favour of letting parents decide.

“The idea that we’d put in place a system to protect the centres just ignores what’s most important here, which is the parents and small children who should have as many options as they like,” he added.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour has suggested network approval provisions "inhibit competition" in the ECE sector. Photo / Mark Mitchell

When he announced the Government was taking aim at network approval provisions in April, Seymour said the rules “make setting up new services complex and inhibit competition”.

Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood New Zealand chief executive Kathy Wolfe said the group was “disappointed” about the progression of the bill seeking to repeal the approval provisions.

The Education and Training Amendment Bill is currently in the select committee process, with the ministry expecting the process to conclude before the end of the year.

In a statement, Ministry of Education policy group manager John Brooker said once select committee deliberations have concluded, the bill will go back to the House for further readings: “The timing of these readings will be determined by Parliament.”

A review into ECE regulations, separate from the legislative changes, is also under way. It’s seeking to identify potential problems, and the costs and benefits of certain controls.

“We quite strongly felt that we needed a robust network planning framework,” Wolfe said.

“We didn’t think [the network planning framework] should be repealed, but we recommended some of the implementation and processes needed to be addressed”.

Meanwhile, some educators are on the Government’s side - calling for the regulations to be culled.

An architect for ECE services, quoted in the education ministry’s document, suggested the proposal would make it easier for people to operate in the sector, and would “alleviate a lot of additional expense in setting up and running a centre”.

Early Childhood Council chief executive Simon Laube said the changes would see quite a few “fixes” come through.

Laube said the network management approach for ECE, where individuals or organisations have to apply for eligibility to apply for a licence later, “added at least six months” to the process of setting up a new learning centre.

He suggested the report, which shows 84% of stakeholders disagree with the plans to give regulations the axe, “lacks credibility” as the council’s views of thousands of members counted as one in the submission process. Three out of five submissions representing early learning sector organisations agreed with the proposal.

Bringing down costs and breaking barriers were deemed reasons for supporting the changes. Some felt if the Government’s proposals were supported into law, it would be easier for smaller providers to gain approval to set up.

“The market will provide more choice for children and families,” feedback read.

The national statement on the network of licenced early childhood services, as of February last year, states any person intending to operate a new licenced education service must apply for approval from the Minister of Education before applying for a licence.

The minister is told to take demographics, community needs, and availability of services with different offerings, like te reo Māori, into account when making a decision. Financial positions and service delivery capabilities are also considered when decisions are made.

Services that meet “priority” areas will be looked upon more favourably by the minister, including services that are majority owned by iwi or hapū, those with a focus on supporting children with learning disabilities, areas that support migrant and refugee communities, and sites that use te reo Māori at least 51% of the time.

Some working in the sector fear repealing network approval provisions could have disastrous impacts on local community-based sites.

Megan White, centre manager at Capital Kids, told NZME having network approval provisions taken away essentially means “any early childhood provider can open a centre wherever they like”, something she feels could be a “threat” to local centres.

She suggests communities won’t have the choice they’re promised if the proposal goes through, as “we’re only going to have these big, for-profit centres running”.

“Whānau are not going to have a choice about what quality is, because there’s only going to be one option soon,” she feared.

Azaria Howell is a Wellington-based multimedia reporter with an eye across the region. She joined NZME in 2022 and has a keen interest in city council decisions, public service agency reform and transport.