Playcentre and the new ECE Taskforce

The Government’s newly announced ECE Taskforce is an opportunity to take a fresh look at the best outcomes for children, families and wider society, according to NZ Playcentre Federation president, Maureen Woodhams.

Terms of reference for the Taskforce focus on efficiency and effectiveness in ECE provision, and must also aim attention at making provision sustainable.

“There is a rich body of research to show the factors that lead to high quality early education for children,” says Maureen Woodhams. “Playcentre provides good outcomes for successful parenting, and builds social capital, which member parents transfer into their wider communities.”

Playcentre parents are actively involved in running education sessions for their children, where parents learn alongside role models, and undertake NZQA-approved modules on centre management and early childhood learning.

“The work Playcentre does comes at a high cost in volunteer time,” says Maureen Woodhams. “The current weight of volunteer time required running a Playcentre is unsustainable, and this is largely due to administrative requirements. Current government funding assumes we will not pay administrators.”

“In our research, parents were, by and large, happy with the amount of time spent on session delivering the education programme.

However, for each centre there were 2179 volunteer hours required each year. Some of this load should be removed to pay administrators to ensure that Playcentre continues to provide our efficient education service.”

Playcentre has provided high quality early childhood education to NZ families for almost 70 years. There are nearly 500 Playcentres around the country, providing education to 16,000 children and their families.