Early childhood centres to get $6.6m

Funding of $6.6 million will be ploughed into building new early childhood centres as the Government moves to plug holes in its free childcare policy.

But Education Minister Trevor Mallard has admitted there will not be enough capacity for everyone to benefit from the 20 free hours a week for three- and four-year-olds when it is introduced in 2007.

The extra money, announced by Mr Mallard yesterday, will create 308 places for children at new and expanding centres, and will also help cover the planning costs for another 41 services.

The funding comes from the first round of the annual $12.8 million Discretionary Grants Scheme which provides planning and capital assistance to community-based groups and early childhood education centres in areas of need. It is specifically designed to help children from low socio-economic, rural and isolated communities.

Mr Mallard made the announcement at Greenlane National Women's Hospital Creche, which is to receive $1.06 million from the scheme, to relocate and build a brand new centre, catering for an extra 25 children on top of the existing 50 places.

It takes spending on early childhood capacity to $64 million since 2000, creating about 4300 new places.

Mr Mallard said research showed that early childhood education, involving qualified teachers, "makes a significant difference to the way children develop and achieve later in their lives".

"This funding reflects our Government's commitment to make quality early childhood education more accessible and affordable for all New Zealand families," he said.

However, the policy has been criticised because only community centres with qualified teachers will be eligible to offer the free time and there are not enough to go round.

"I'm not going to pretend there will be an automatic place for every family that wants one," Mr Mallard told the Herald.

"We've always had waiting lists."