KEY POINTS:
The Government's much-vaunted promise of free childcare for 92,000 children appeared shaky last night after 80 per cent of Auckland's childcare centres either rejected or did not commit to the offer.
In the first comprehensive survey of childcare centres since funding was announced, just 14 per cent of Auckland centres had decided to take up 20 free hours of early childhood education for 3- and 4-year-olds from July 1.
A further 38 per cent would refuse it and nearly half were still undecided, according to the survey of the Early Childhood Council's members - about half of those able to offer the funding.
The centres said the offer of free hours fell short of running preschool services. And centres which accepted the offer were unable to charge extra fees.
Council chief executive Sue Thorne said most were leaning away from the free funding because it left them reliant on voluntary payments from parents to make up any gap between what the funding covered and what centres offered.
"They should not be promoting to parents that what they currently get is what they will get for free. The big issue is not about trips to the forest or hot lunches," she said.
"Those things are chicken-feed compared with keeping good teacher/children/staff ratio costs or property costs. The single thing to make this policy work is to modify those charges.
"If the Government's goal is improving quality, as it says, we have to be very careful that this policy doesn't do the opposite."
Community centres and privately owned centres were refusing to accept the policy under the present rules.
The main sticking point was that the funding of between $4.09 and $10.60 a child an hour was only $1.02 to $4.60 more than the present levels of subsidies, on top of which centres are free to set their own fees.
Paula Bennett, National Party spokeswoman on early childhood education, said Education Minister Steve Maharey's boast that 92,000 children would have the free hours in the first year would involve a 100 per cent acceptance by centres.
"He's dreaming. Labour is only offering enough for a low-end standard. Centres are now quite clearly telling the minister they will not compromise on quality and so thousands of children are going to miss out on it."
Uptake in Manukau made a mockery of Labour's promise to make early-childhood education more affordable.
"Manukau City has one of the lowest uptakes of early-childhood education and a high number of Maori and Pacific Islanders and families that are struggling.
"Those people are perhaps most in need of 20 free hours, yet the survey shows these people are the least likely to have a place to go on July 1."
Mr Maharey yesterday showed no sign of backing down on the issue, but left the door open for changes.
The ministry was still talking to the groups affected and he would follow the discussion with interest.
Nationwide, nearly one-quarter of centres said they would take up the policy, 31 per cent would spurn it and 46 per cent were undecided.
Acceptance was lower in cities such as Auckland, Wellington and Hamilton than in rural areas.
The biggest interest was in rural areas in the South Island, where 57 per cent of centres had decided to use the funding.
Two providers - KidiCorp and Barnardos - have said they will offer free funding but others, including Kindercare, ABC, Forward Steps and Bear Park are still to decide.
In the breakdown of Auckland regions, just 4 per cent of those in North Shore had decided to offer it and one-third had decided against it.
Nearly two-thirds were undecided.
In Central Auckland, 42 per cent had decided against it and 18 per cent had decided to adopt it. In Waitakere 21 per cent had decided to take up the offer and 21 per cent had decided against.
