{"id":7358,"date":"2013-10-09T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-09T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oece.nz\/general\/complaints-system\/complaints-suggest-problems-with-quality-control-in-the-early-childhood-sector\/"},"modified":"2021-09-07T18:51:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T06:51:32","slug":"complaints-quality-control-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/complaints-quality-control-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Made Public for the First Time &#8211; Complaints Against ECE Services"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Early Childhood Service Complaints Made Public.  <br><span style=\"line-height: 1.3em;\">August 10, 2013<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"line-height: 1.3em;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.3em;\">A child at an early childhood centre was left in a swing to go to sleep and ended up with rope burn and bruising to the forehead.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myece.org.nz\/making-a-complaint\/169-nz-ece-complaints\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">just one complaint among more than 200<\/a>, many of them serious, made against early childhood education (ECE) services last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Among other serious complaints were:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>A parent complained that \u201cher child had been bitten and had her hands and arms twisted by the teacher at the service and that she has been verbally abused\u201d.<\/li><li>A student on teaching practice observed two staff at a centre smacking children and the person in charge dragging children by the arm.<\/li><li>A parent was concerned about a sexual act happening at her son\u2019s service with her son being involved.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>A record of the complaints requested under the Official Information Act showed that some of the complaints were referred to outside agencies such as Child, Youth and Family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, in many cases it appears the Ministry of Education simply contacted the service provider and asked them about the matter or referred the complainant directly back to the service.&nbsp; In some of the more serious cases, the service in question had its licence temporarily restricted or an action plan was put in place until the Ministry was confident the service was no longer breaching regulations. &nbsp;Services continued to care for children in most cases and licences were not suspended.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"line-height: 1.3em;\">With children attending ECE from as young as six weeks and for as many as 6 to 10 hours a day, children\u2019s vulnerability to being affected by poor care is especially high. &nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt can be difficult for any parent to make a complaint and especially hard for working parents because they are dependent on that care and they can be frightened of losing their place if they complain. If the Ministry refers complainants back to their ECE service they may not continue with the complaint which will not result in any improvement\u201d, says Dr Sarah Alexander.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere needs to be <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">a change to unscheduled onsite inspections<\/span> and not relying primarily on a service\u2019s written records or on the word of the service provider especially when complaints involve child abuse, health, safety, and standard of education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry refers parents to the Education Review Office website which carries reports on early childhood education services. However, many of the services complained about last year have satisfactory ERO reports and are on a three or four yearly review schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Alexander says that currently complaints are not public record, making it difficult for parents to know whether the service their child is attending has ever had any issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChoosing an early childhood service and deciding to stay with it is like planning a holiday, buying a car, or choosing what restaurant to go to\u201d, says Dr Alexander.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Alexander says it is important for parents to have accurate and detailed information about early childhood education services, including when they do and do not meet required standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDecision-making is better if you have heard what other people\u2019s experiences have been, you know something of the history of the place and what risks you might have to plan for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ministry of Education should routinely make publicly available full reports into ECE services where complaints were of a<a href=\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/2019-complaints-report\/\"> <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">serious<\/span> nature<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>END &#8211; ECE Complaints Made Public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Early Childhood Service Complaints Made Public. August 10, 2013. A child at an early childhood centre was left in a swing to go to sleep and ended up with rope burn and bruising to the forehead. This was just one complaint among more than 200, many of them serious, made against early childhood education (ECE) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":8772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Complaints Made Public for the First Time - Early Childhood Services<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Complaints made public indicate that the Ministry of Education has a problem of quality control in early childhood education and learning.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/complaints-quality-control-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Complaints Made Public for the First Time - Early Childhood Services\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Complaints made public indicate that the Ministry of Education has a problem of quality control in early childhood centres.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/complaints-quality-control-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Office of ECE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-10-09T10:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-09-07T06:51:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/toy-puzzle-post.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Sarah Alexander\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Complaints Made Public for the First Time - Early Childhood Services\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Complaints made public indicate that the Ministry of Education has a problem of quality control in early childhood centres and learning services.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/toy-puzzle-post.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Sarah Alexander\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/complaints-quality-control-problem\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/public\/big-issues\/complaints-system\/complaints-quality-control-problem\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Sarah Alexander\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oece.nz\/#\/schema\/person\/e5c05d728b27da920ece73d0df9baf1b\"},\"headline\":\"Made Public for the First Time &#8211; 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