Anna Fleet

The future of Playcentre, a New Zealand institution for almost 80 years, is under threat.

The Government suggests it is the model that’s at fault, but it is Government regulations that are preventing it from thriving.

Minister of Education Chris Hipkins this week acknowledged Playcentre is ‘‘experiencing some financial difficulties’’ and implied this is due to a model based on ‘‘parents going in with their kids’’ and the trend for households to have two parents in work.

We acknowledge society has changed over the years and this has had an impact on Playcentre as well as many other volunteer-based organisations. People tend to have fewer children and there is more economic pressure for parents to have two income streams if possible.

However, a huge proportion of our centre members work part-time (or even full-time) and still choose to come to Playcentre. While Playcentre may not be for everyone, the barriers to these people participating in and sticking with Playcentre is not necessarily our model of parent participation.

It might surprise a lot of people to learn that Playcentres have to meet all the same regulatory requirements as teacher-led Early Childhood Education services – the amount of red tape is daunting for parents and often makes little sense in a parent-led environment. In many of our centres we employ staff to take some pressure off families but, with the cost of employment growing, we know that this is unsustainable within our current funding levels.

We’ve changed our support structure in response to external changes from the Ministry of Education, NZQA and other government bodies. The bar is continually shifting

The ministry has always struggled to understand Playcentre – we don’t fit nicely into one of its little boxes.