Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has suggested some in the early childhood education sector are making more noise about the Government's new policy because it is election year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has suggested some in the early childhood education sector are making more noise about the Government's new policy because it is election year. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In an occasionally testy press conference yesterday, Hipkins defended having to tweak the policy after announcing it last month, saying the confidential Budget process had meant consultation could not take place until afterwards, which he said was not uncommon.
The expansion of the ECE scheme was to include a requirement that centres allowed parents to only enrol for 20 hours of free childcare. This has now been scrapped.
“There has been ongoing consultation with the ECE sector,” said Hipkins.
“We didn’t consult with them specifically about the extension of 20 hours free to two-year-olds because obviously it wouldn’t be much Budget secret if we were telling everyone about it.”
He also claimed some in the sector were making more noise about their issues with the policy because it was an election year.
That’s being strongly denied by one ECE provider central to efforts communicating the sector’s concerns who says their criticisms were prompted by poor consultation.
“We have only come together because we were responding to Government policy changes,” New Shoots Children’s Centre director Kelly Seaburg said.
“This is not us driving a certain agenda, this is in response to policy that’s come out where they haven’t consulted with the sector properly.”
Hipkins also announced yesterday that paid parental leave is set to go up on July 1 by $51 a week for new parents and $1327 for those taking the full 26 weeks of parental leave. Paid parental leave rates are pegged to the average wage, so would lift by 7.7 per cent, Hipkins said.
In Budget 2023, the Government announced 20 hours-free childcare per week, already in place for 3 to 5-year-olds, would be expanded to 2-year-olds from March next year.
However, several conditions were attached - such as the teacher-to-child ratio it funded and the restriction of any further fees being charged - that prompted providers like Seaburg to claim the policy would degrade the level of childcare and lead to more centre closures.
Providers had told the Herald if they couldn’t request optional charges from parents on top of the free 20 hours, they wouldn’t be able to fund better teacher-child ratios or offer various parts of their services.
After several meetings between sector leaders and Associate Education Minister Jo Luxton, Hipkins yesterday announced the Government would abandon the condition that required centres to only provide the free 20 hours if parents requested it.
New Shoots Children’s Centre director Kelly Seaburg. Photo / Supplied
He said this would allow some providers, particularly smaller ones that relied on the funding they received through extra hours of childcare on top of the free 20, to continue receiving that money.
“They’ll still have to charge by the hour, but they will be able to bundle that with 20 hours,” he said.
Hipkins also noted there would be a strong focus on transparency regarding fees, saying clear information on hourly fees would need to be provided for parents.
Seaburg was cautiously welcoming the move but said it was still unclear whether providers could charge fees even if parents only wanted the free 20 hours of childcare per week, so they could provide better ratios and their full suite of services like food, nappies and excursions.
If not, Seaburg said existing concerns about the viability of many centres still remained, alongside fears it would compromise the quality of childcare.
“The point is we’re still left with quite a lot of confusion,” she said.
Hipkins suspected some providers wouldn’t be pleased by the Government’s focus on transparency. Seaburg contested this, as it wasn’t a concern she’d heard from parents.
“For the Prime Minister to say that, I just think that’s a complete misnomer.
“I don’t think the service providers are concerned about being transparent but the question they have to answer is, what information do they actually want that isn’t already being provided and for what purpose, or is this policy being driven by ideology rather than genuine need for change?”
It was understood sector leaders would meet ministers on Friday to discuss the change, which Seaburg said would have been preferred prior to the Government’s decision yesterday.
Alongside expanding free early childcare, the Budget promised free public transport for 5 to 13-year-olds, and half-price for under 25s starting from July 1.
However, last week RNZ reported that Wellington was struggling because it did not have an age verification process and Auckland Transport was also not sure it would be able to make the technical changes to its HOP card system in time.
Hipkins said the subsidies for it would be there from July 1.
Asked yesterday if it was incompetent to set up Budget announcements that could not be implemented in time, Hipkins said: “No.”
