The New Zealand Herald is bringing back some of the best premium stories of 2020. Today we look at Choosing Childcare, a Herald investigation into the world of early childhood education.
A beginner's guide to early childhood education in NZ
Private centre, home-based care, playcentre, kindergarten ... the world of early childhood education is a complex and often expensive minefield. No wonder parents and caregivers are overwhelmed when it comes to the best options for under-5s. With most mums and dads in paid work by choice or necessity, the number of preschoolers in care and education facilities is higher than ever. So what should you be looking for as a parent? Why does it cost so much? And which is the best childcare option for you and your child?
The options can be bamboozling. There's kindergarten, playcentre, kōhanga reo, home-based care, playgroups and, at least in Auckland, new centres with attractive names seem to be popping up on every second street corner.
To make life a little easier, the Herald has produced an interactive map so that you can search for services in your neighbourhood and see how many children they cater for in each age group and their ERO ratings.
From daycare to kindergarten - what are the options?
There are now six main service types to choose from for early childhood education: a catch-all group called "education and care centres" with 62 per cent of enrolments; kindergartens (13 per cent); home-based care (8 per cent); Playcentre and kōhanga reo (4 per cent each); and unlicensed parent-run play groups (9 per cent).
Services across all these groups say they follow various philosophies such as Montessori, Steiner, Reggio Emilia and Pikler.
The Herald looks at the six options and what they involve.
Can you afford daycare for another child?
When Jo was looking at going back to work after having her second child she was shocked at how much she would need to pay.
For fulltime care for two children under 3 she was looking at $450 a week - and that was with a discount on the full $600 the daycare centre could have charged.
The cost of daycare for her two little ones was virtually the same as the mortgage payments on her Auckland house and, after paying for all the other costs of running a home, the family would be left struggling just to get by.
Yet once she went back to work she and her partner would be earning too much together to get any childcare subsidies.
It's a situation familiar to all too many families and often results in some delaying their second child so they get the 20 hours free subsidy from age 3 to make it more affordable or, in other cases, one parent has to quit their job because the cost of care means it is not worthwhile them working.
The Herald looks at what the various childcare options cost and what's the best value for money.
How young is too young?
Many New Zealand parents face difficult decisions about early childhood education: Are they financially better off putting their kids in care? Are their children growing up without them? And do infants belong in early childhood education?
These concerns have been aired since childcare became more mainstream in the 1970s, but have become more prevalent in the past 10 years as the number of children going into early childhood education has risen steadily.
Driven by social, economic and political changes, children are being enrolled in daycare earlier in their lives, for more days of the week, and are staying for longer periods each day.
So should parents be worried? And is putting younger children in ECE for longer hours bad for them?
The price war in the suburbs
In the five years to December, the number of NZ children under 5 actually fell by 0.9 per cent, and the numbers enrolled in licensed early childhood education (ECE) fell by 0.5 per cent - but the number of ECE services touting for those children jumped by 8.2 per cent.
The sector is still highly fragmented. The 10 biggest groups, including the kindergarten associations, Kōhanga Reo and Playcentre Aotearoa, still own only 45 per cent of our 4690 licensed services. The rest are owned by individuals, small companies, churches and community groups.
A former public health official who completed a doctorate on ECE centres last year, Dr Mike Bedford, says intensifying competition is driving operators to maximise rolls and minimise costs.
The Herald looks at how new daycare centres are touting for a shrinking number of children.
An insider's view
Finding the right ECE for your child can sometimes be very difficult. Even for myself, as a parent of three boys and a teacher for nine years, it can still be a challenge.
All parents want the best for their children, and knowing we are leaving them with strangers at the beginning can be daunting and lead to some separation anxiety.
Parents and caregivers may not be aware, but all teachers are required to follow the Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards.
Each centre will go through regular Education Review Office (ERO) evaluations to review and reflect on their practices and documentation. Each has to display their latest ERO report and policies.
This gives families an indication of where the centre sits professionally, but overall the "feel" you get when you first enter a centre and the room your child may go into, is also important and will together give you an indication of what the centre will be like. If the children and staff are happy and friendly, then most likely the centre is good.
Nicholas Batley, head teacher of the Glenfield Early Learning Centre, shares his views of childcare.
How to decide what's best for your child
At face value, it's hard to differentiate between centres based on qualified teachers because 96 per cent of "education and care centres", as well as virtually all kindergartens, can now say they get the top "80 per cent" state funding rate for using qualified teachers to deliver at least 80 per cent of their required staff hours for their numbers of children.
However this measure has now become meaningless, because almost all centres can also say that their staff/child ratios are better than the required minimums of 1:5 under age 2 and 1:10 aged 2-plus.
The actual average ratios for the past five years have been 1:3 under 2 and 1:6 aged 2-plus in education and care centres, and 1:7.5 aged 2-plus in kindergartens.
But most of the additional staff above the required minimums are unqualified.
Parent-led early childhood services such as playcentre and kōhanga reo argue that there is no need for all early childhood teachers to be qualified.
So how you decide which is right for you?
Ten things you need to know in making your choice.
