ECE Quality for Children 2023: Survey Results

Early Childhood Education Quality for Children 2023: Survey Results

What 3,000 ECE staff reported about children’s experiences

The 2023 ECE Quality for Children and Workplace Survey asked staff working in licensed early childhood services about the quality of education and care children experience.

Four findings stand out:

• 26% would not be happy for their own child to attend a service of the same quality as the one where they worked.
• 30% said they did not have enough time to form individual relationships with the children they cared for.
• 35% were concerned for children’s learning.
• 45% of respondents in centre-based services said their service had fallen below minimum adult-to-child ratios at least rarely – with 5% saying this happened all the time and 7% often.

About this report

This is the first report from the 2023 ECE Quality for Children and Workplace Survey. The survey is conducted every three years and has been running since 2014.

The 2023 survey closed when 3,000 completed responses had been received. This report focuses on four questions about children’s education and care:

1. Would staff be happy for their own child to experience ECE of the same quality as the service where they worked?
2. Did staff have concerns about children’s learning?
3. Did staff have enough time to form individual relationships with each child and get to know them well?
4. How often did centre-based services fall below minimum adult-to-child ratio requirements?

Survey participants

A total of 3,000 staff working in licensed ECE services throughout New Zealand participated. Most respondents (92%) worked in teacher-led centres, with smaller numbers working in parent-led and home-based services (employed visiting teachers and coordinators).

Respondents were predominantly experienced and qualified:

• 67% had worked in ECE for more than 10 years
• 83% were ECE-qualified and certificated teachers
• 5% were primary- or secondary-qualified and certificated teachers.

Respondents came from private services (63%) and public and community-based services (37%).

RESULTS

1. Are ECEs good enough for staff own children?

One in four (26%) would not choose the same quality for their own child. The proportion was broadly consistent with earlier survey rounds: 25% in 2014; 27% in 2017; and 25% in 2020. This indicates that staff endorsement of service quality had not materially improved since the survey began in 2014.

Respondents who answered “no” were asked to explain why. Their reasons were focused on issues of:

• too many children for the available staff
• staffing instability and shortages
• insufficient appropriately qualified staff
• teacher stress and burnout
• limited time for individual children
• environments and resources
• management practices and service financial priorities.

Here is a sample of comments of that illustrate these themes:

• “My child would get lost in the crowd.”
• “Children are often left to fend for themselves.”
• “The ratios are horrific, and neglect of children even with passionate teachers who are burnt-out inevitably happens.”
• “Too many staff changes, lack of quality early childhood trained staff employed, and qualified teachers leaving because they have had enough.”
• “An unqualified teacher is often outside with children on her own. Sometimes there are more teachers in the office doing paperwork than there are with children.”
• “Here the teachers are quite often busy doing other jobs instead of being able to sit down and spend time with tamariki. They also don’t have a cleaner which again takes a staff member away from the children.”
• “Teachers are struggling every day to meet the needs of the children. Four crying babies can take the hands of all teachers, leaving up to 16 other children without engagement. There is no time in our under-twos to provide quality curriculum opportunities (ratios are 1 adult to every 5 under-twos).”
• “It’s doesn’t matter how caring you are it can never make up for the terrible adult: child ratios and lack of space and resources. Most parents that don’t work in ECE have no idea how bad things really are for their children in ECE.”
• “Since working in the sector, I have seen far too many issues, and I would prefer not to ever have my children enrolled at any NZ early childhood service.”
• “I wouldn’t be sending my children to any ECE service anytime soon, especially if I wasn’t there. There is some really yucky practice, and I wouldn’t want my child there without me.”
• “The fees are expensive, and money is not being invested back into the centre and children to support their well-being.”
• “The property is not well maintained, and many resources are old and broken. Staff are only paid to start when the children arrive, and the owner arrives even later so the centre isn’t even set up and health and safety checks done before children arrive.”
• “The manager’s beliefs don’t align with best practice – e.g., that we should toilet train who aren’t ready, so we don’t spend as much money on nappies. Minimal food is provided to children – pasta and rice meals are rotated and called creative names on the menu so parents don’t realise children are given the same meals most days. There’s no option for children to attend part-day and children are forced to attend at least 6.5 hours a day.”

2. Are staff concerned about children’s learning?

Early childhood services are legislated to be places of, and for, education. By law under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations every licensed service provider must: plan, implement, and evaluate a curriculum designed to enhance children’s learning and development and provide children with a positive learning environment.

Thirty-five percent of respondents reported concerns about children’s learning.

Analysis of respondents’ comments identified several recurring factors:

• teachers being stretched across too many children and responsibilities
• insufficient meaningful teacher-child interaction
• staff stress, fatigue and burnout
• staffing instability
• insufficient ECE-qualified or experienced staff
• large groups of children
• insufficient support for children with additional learning or behavioural needs
• limited resources and environments that constrained learning opportunities
• management and financial priorities.

Respondents described situations in which meeting children’s routine physical care needs and maintaining the operation of the service could leave insufficient staff capacity for sustained interactions, intentional teaching and extending children’s learning.

Here is a sample of comments:   

• “Teacher retention is appalling and there is a constant flow of relievers who can’t plan and support children’s learning.”
• “Some staff don’t engage or communicate with children at all. The only time they communicate is to tell children to ‘stop crying, you are ok’, ‘it’s lunchtime’, or similar.”
• “Teachers are stretched beyond capabilities and burnt out, stressed, and tired.”
• “Due to unmotivated staff who do not provide all the areas of play for children as they do not want to tidy up or put in the effort.”
• “The children are bored, they have long hours in care, they are needing more quality interactions with teachers, and are not being extended.”
• “It feels more like a babysitting service where routines like rest and lunch-times are followed only and not an environment where effective learning can take place.”
• “Two qualified staff, the rest unqualified young ladies who do not understand the importance of face-to-face communication and connection with babies, plus different faces in the room each day…. no relationship. I see children with high emotional needs, a lack of self-regulation, long days in noisy small rooms with unnatural outside areas.”
• “With 52 children two to four-years in one room we can’t always monitor or plan for the children’s learning adequately.”
• “There are a lot of tamariki that are falling short with their oral language, emotional and social behaviour and have learning difficulties. We are expected to deal with it daily with a two hour or 1 day course. There are not enough support workers available to support us or the tamariki.”
• “Management of privately owned education services need to be accountable. We have had access to buying resources restricted, including being able to buy toilet paper and milk for the children.”
• “The corporate group is not investing in equipment, and the physical environment in our centre is affecting the learning opportunities for children.”
• “Things are at bare minimum, even the fences. Children can get over the fences and escape.”

What could improve conditions for children’s learning?

The findings point to four areas for attention:

1. Staff retention and supply
2. A strong ECE-qualified workforce
3. Environments and resources that support children’s learning and care
4. Better support for staff working with children requiring additional assistance.

3. Do staff have enough time to form relationships with children?

Relationships are central to quality ECE. Te Whāriki guidance highlights reciprocal and responsive relationships and notes that lower child-to-adult ratios and small group sizes can support children’s development.

Respondents¹ were asked whether they had enough time to form individual relationships with children and get to know them well.

Thirty percent said no.

The result was little changed from 2020, when 29% reported insufficient time. Comments in both survey rounds identified three particularly prominent pressures:

• too many children
• insufficient staff
• other duties taking staff away from children, including cleaning, administration and documentation.

Staff described feeling rushed and having insufficient uninterrupted time to talk, play and build relationships with individual children.

Here is a sample of quotes to illustrate the main problems:

• “It’s like working in a baby farm or factory. Too busy and teachers hardly have time to do the assessments or provide stimulation for the tamariki. You get the job done and you go home.”
• “Too many children and I’m too busy dealing with the chaos.”
• “I find there are constant interruptions, children butting in, behaving unsafely, (climbing on shelves, throwing things, taking toys from others) and no one else around to help.”
• “With not having enough staff this means we are just robots, not actually able to spend time with children.”
• “There are way too many children, too much noise (can’t always hear what the children say), and there’s always something that takes me away from the children e.g., cleaning, dealing with paperwork (on the floor), incidents/accidents, etc.”
• “The daycare company are more concerned with us keeping to cleaning schedules than teaching and care time for children.”
• “I have always had great relationships with the children I work with but there simply isn’t the time to stop and build those anymore.”
• “I feel rushed to just meet routine needs and manage behavioural issues. Quality time with children has declined which I find sad and feel like I’ve failed the children in my care.”

4. Do centres fall below minimum adult-to-child ratios?

Respondents² working in centre-based services were asked how often their centre fell below minimum adult-to-child ratio requirements.

• 5% said all the time
• 7% said often
• 14% said sometimes
• 19% said rarely
• 55% said never

45% report their centre has fallen below minimum ratios

Almost half (45%) reported that their centre had fallen below minimum adult-to-child ratios at least rarely, while 26% said this occurred sometimes, often or all the time.

Their comments identified several situations:

Insufficient staffing or relief cover

• “Often at break times we are out of ratio, for example we had 25 kids today with only two staff while one was on lunch.”
• “We used to rely on relievers when staff were sick, but it’s extremely difficult now to even have relievers as their pay rates are so high, so we just make do.”

Staff absences

Respondents mentioned late arrivals, breaks and staff temporarily leaving because they felt overwhelmed.

• “Going out of ratio also happened due to staff needs and behaviour.”
• “Staff arriving late for their shift or taking too longer breaks leaving the ratios out.”
• “Multiple staff going off the floor to vape taking us out of ratio.”
• “Sometimes teachers become so overwhelmed dealing with children’s terrible behaviour problems that they need to leave the floor to catch their breath.”

Relying on expected child absences

• “The head office moved staff to another centre without replacing them and the relievers just aren’t there to replace them. We rely on children being sick and not coming as the only way of staying within ratio.”
• “Our centre over-books children, with the hope some will be sick.”

Adults being counted but not available to children

• “Our centre uses a kitchen person to show we are meeting ratios. Often on paper they put down that she’s with the teachers and children, but she’s not as she’s in the kitchen or other rooms.”
• “Our manager will put herself down as teaching on paper to comply with ratios but is never in the room with us.”
• “No admins on site anymore at kindergartens in our association, so teachers are now answering the phones, dealing with walk in inquiries, etc., and this takes us out of ratio.”

Legal ratio does not necessarily mean adequate supervision

Respondents also described a separate issue: situations where the service was within its required ratio overall, but individual groups were left with substantially fewer staff available to supervise them.

• “I have turned up for a shift and there was one teacher with 8 babies on her own, with the other teachers being on the other side of the building in the preschool area. Extremely dangerous conditions for the teacher.”
• “Across the centre we are ALWAYS legal. But to get work done, often a certain area within the centre is out of ratio, which is dangerous but not illegal, so we put up with it and it keeps happening.”
• “I work in the over 2s area and there are 2 rooms.  During free play the 2 rooms are open so everyone is together but behind closed doors we don’t have the 3 teachers we should have for the room because for the centre the ‘numbers are fine’.”
• “I suppose legally we are in ratio but often I am left alone with 20 or more tamariki, and not at a contained time such as mat time but a free play or pack up time. The other teachers are tied up in other areas, such as outdoors, toileting, and changing nappies.”

Conclusion

The 2023 survey identified persistent concerns in ECE quality.

One-quarter of respondents would not have chosen ECE of equivalent quality for their own child, more than one-third had concerns about children’s learning, almost one-third reported insufficient time to develop individual relationships with children, and 45% of centre-based respondents reported that their service had fallen below minimum adult-to-child ratios at least rarely.

Across the four measures, recurring issues emerged: the number of children staff were responsible for, staffing levels and stability, adult-to-child ratios, staff workload, teacher qualifications and experience, resources, management practices, and insufficient time for individual children.

For young children, quality depends not only on a service being open, funded and compliant on paper. It depends on whether the adults working with children have the time, capacity, support and conditions needed to know them well, respond to their needs and support their learning.

Recommendations arising from the findings

1. Strengthen adult-to-child ratios and apply appropriate ratios at group level.
2. Support staff counted in ratio to remain focused on children rather than cleaning, administration and other competing duties.
3. Increase the availability and retention of qualified ECE teachers.
4. Ensure staffing reflects the actual support needs of the children attending, rather than relying only on regulatory minimums.
5. Strengthen monitoring and enforcement where services fall below minimum staffing requirements.

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Footnotes

1. Responses were included from 2,726 staff whose role was primarily hands-on with children and not respondents who were staff managers or professional leaders. ↩︎
2. This result was drawn from 2,718 respondents from education and care centres only (excluding for example, home-based and Playcentre) who answered the question on ratios. ↩︎