March 9, 2021.
The ECE services operating on a provisional licence last year, and/or that received a licence suspension or cancellation is public knowledge.
> See the full list of services here.
> See a more in-depth review into issues in the Ministry of Education and its ECE licensing and compliance system
Despite reduced ability for Ministry of Education staff to run inspections due to Covid-19 lockdowns, there has been a surge in the number of ECE services on provisional licence.
The numbers:
218 – Services on a provisional licence
43 – Services that received a suspension notice
25 – Services had their licences cancelled on them
In total 238 ECE services had one or more licensing action against them. This total comprises:
0 – ECE licensed hospital-based services
9 – Kōhanga Reo
22 – Playcentres
38 – Home-based services
9 – Kindergarten Assn run centres
160 – Other education and care centres
Of the 160 non-kindergarten association education and care centres, 111 were privately owned and just 49 were community-run.
Why do centres that are privately owned dominate the figures? A simple explanation is that there are many private centres and groups in the ECE market so of course more services that received licensing actions against them were private. But if private is to be equated with higher standards then this number needs to fall.
