Infants and Toddlers in Non‑Parental Education and Care: Insights from the Children’s Commissioner Inquiry
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner has completed a major inquiry into the non‑parental education and care of infants and toddlers in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Published in 2011 as Through Their Lens, the report provides an evidence‑based examination of how early childhood education funding, policy, and regulation settings affect the wellbeing of our youngest children.
Led by Commissioner Dr John Angus and Dr Janis Carroll‑Lind, the inquiry keeps children’s interests at the centre and presents ten key recommendations for improving infant‑toddler care.
Recommendations of the Children’s Commissioner
1. Support parental care
- review current policies for paid parental leave and funding of early childhood education and care to identify the balance of incentives provided for parental care and formal non-parental care
- provide advice on increasing the quantum and flexibility of support for parental care
- provide advice on the merits of having ECE service funding attached to the individual child rather than tied to types of provision and paid to providers.
2. Support flexible provision and flexible use of ECE
- review policy, regulatory and funding settings for their impact on flexible provision of hours and days of attendance for infants and toddlers
- provide advice on changes that would improve access to part-time and flexible education and care for infants and toddlers
3. Support quality ECE provision
- note the conclusion of this report, that several regulated minimum standards are set too low in aspects of service quality that are important for infants and toddlers.
4. Improve regulated standards
- making a regulation that limits group size to no more than eight under two-year-olds for purposes of supporting responsive and stimulating interactions
- reducing the regulated minimum ratio of adults to children for under two-year-olds from 1:5 to 1:3 in ECE centres and from 1:4 to 1:3 for home-based educators caring for children where two are aged less than two years
- increasing the regulated minimum space for under 2-year-olds from 2.5m square to 3m square
- supporting ECE service to give effect to the inclusion of quiet spaces in the design and layout of their premises and the provision of acoustic absorption materials, if necessary, to reduce noise levels that may negatively affect young children’s learning and well-being.
5. Support a knowledgeable and skilled workforce
- report on the extent to which services to infants and toddlers in licensed ECE services are provided by qualified and registered teachers, and any trends that are occurring
- provide advice on the extent to which changes are a consequence of the recent regulatory and funding changes and on any remedial changes that are necessary
- provide advice on amending regulations in mixed age settings to apply the minimum of 50 percent of qualified, knowledgeable and skilled staff to service provision in the under-2 area.
6. Support practices that enhance responsive care and education
- note that the issues about quality of service reported by ERO in 2010 are confirmed in this inquiry
- note that the relicensing process will not address these concerns for many infants and toddlers who will use services over the next three years
- direct officials in consultation with ERO, to advise how improvements to practice quality might be more quickly achieved.
7. Support professional learning
- note the role of education and professional learning in addressing quality issues for the learning and development of infants and toddlers
- encourage a focus on current and up-to-date professional learning in areas where it could make a contribution to infants and toddlers
- reconsider the decision to cease practitioner research initiatives that help to improve the quality of provision to under-2s
- direct officials to provide advice on the merits of amending regulations to require qualified staff providing services to infants and toddlers to have obtained, or be obtaining specific professional learning on working with under-2s
- direct officials to review the regulations and funding settings of home-based educators with a view to enhancing the levels of knowledge and skills expected of carers and levels of support provided by their employers.
8. Support quality teacher education specific to infant and toddlers
- encourage teacher education providers to review their initial teacher education programmes to ensure they provide adequate content specific to infants and toddlers
- support teacher education providers to offer postgraduate papers and qualifications on infant-toddler specialisation
9. Improve management of infant and toddler health interests
- set up a process for health sector engagement in policy development, regulation and operational planning for formal non-parental ECE at national and regional levels
- provide advice on the merits of allowing health professionals with appropriate qualifications to count as additional qualified staff for the purposes of early childhood regulatory and funding requirements
- provide advice on ways to increase the engagement of primary health professionals in early childhood services
- review the adequacy of the monitoring regimes for health standards in formal non-parental education and care
10. Improve parent access to information
- review the information for parents on the Ministry of Education website
- improve parents access to information
