Early childhood

The Government’s deregulation of early childhood centres could put some at risk of closure and undervalue both teachers and children, according to some sector leaders.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced a “down-payment on deregulation” yesterday in an effort to make setting up new centres easier, cheaper, and help existing services operate in a simpler way.

The changes remove previous requirements that meant new early childhood centres had to justify demand to the Ministry of Education, something Seymour said “just wastes everyone’s time and makes it less efficient”.

But the manager of a non-profit centre in Newtown says this change puts her centre at risk of closure.

“We’re not making money off children, so any centre could pop up next to us and offer cheaper fees,” Megan White, manager of Capital Kids Cooperative, said, particularly as the changes enabled lower wages.

White said in September that opting into pay parity would mean the centre operated at a loss and would have to up its fees.

“We understand the cost of living crisis and parents are going to have to make a choice not necessarily based on quality, and that’s going to mean centres like mine could be shut down,” White said yesterday.

“It’s putting businesses first and not children ...”

She was also concerned about the removal of changes that would have taken effect in August and required a person with a full practising certificate on site all the time.

“To put somebody who doesn’t have a lot of experience in that role puts them in a really vulnerable position. And it’s not fair on that person because if anything goes wrong, it’s on them.

“It’s not valuing our experience, qual