Child education complaints rise
THE number of complaints about early childhood education (ECE) services in Otago and Southland has nearly doubled within 12 months, a Ministry of Education report shows.
Five complaints were laid about ECE centres in the southern region in 2016, and were among 331 across the country investigated by the ministry.
A ministry report shows the number increased to nine in the region in 2017.
Of the nine investigated, the ministry upheld two of the complaints.
Nationwide, the ministry received 339 complaints about 286 services in 2017 — a slight increase from the 2016 numbers — and 166 were upheld following investigations.
There were 5527 services in the country in 2017.
Ministry of Education sector enablement and support deputy secretary Katrina Casey said upheld complaints meant standards had not been met or an investigation found something the service was required to improve.
In 2017, the ministry suspended the licences of six services in relation to 10 complaints, and can celled the licences of nine services in relation to 11 complaints, she said.
‘‘We changed a further 31 services’ licences to provisional in response to 41 complaints.’’
Complaints lodged nationwide included concerns about facility governance and management, fraud, health and safety, noise, supervision practices, adulttochild ratios, alleged physical and sexual abuse, breaches of child privacy and protection orders, and overcharging of fees.
Ms Casey said the ministry started releasing information on ECE complaints in 2014 to give parents and the sector confidence. The ministry took all complaints seriously and acted upon them.
Since reporting began, the proportion of services receiving complaints and the number of complaints upheld had remained steady.
‘‘Every complaint we receive is treated seriously. We assess each complaint, and if a service falls short of the standards, we impose conditions for improvement or shut the service down.
‘‘Nothing is more important than the safety and wellbeing of our children.’’