Are our kids safe in ECE? 30% more services pulled up for breaches
In an ongoing investigation into the state of early childhood education in Aotearoa, senior reporter Brittany Keogh looks at whether the regulations designed to keep our tamariki safe in the sector are working.
More and more early childhood education services are being put on notice, or temporarily or permanently closed, for breaching regulations designed to keep tamariki in their care safe.
Serving foods which pose a high risk of choking, the “unsafe” administration of medicines and first-aid, and even illtreatment of children, were some of the reasons more than 1000 ECE services had fallen foul of the Ministry of Education over the past five years.
But sector leaders are divided over whether the trend is a cause for concern for the safety of the 180,000-odd tamariki who attend ECE or a sign that the ministry is being too heavy-handed in its enforcement against non-compliance.
If the ministry finds an ECE service in breach of regulations it can take three actions: issue a written warning highlighting what it needs to do to comply, reclassify its licence as “provisional” and put conditions in place that it must meet to avoid being shut down, or temporarily close the service until the problems are addressed (known as suspension).
Since 2019, the number of ECE services which have had their licences downgraded or suspended has tracked upwards annually, data obtained from the ministry by The Post showed.
At the same time, the number of children escaping from ECE services has been increasing.
Last month, an ECE centre in Canterbury’s Rolleston, where an investigation was launched after a toddler slipped out through a gate in January, was given a provisional licence.
However, the ministry said the noncompliance at the centre, known as WildHeart ,was due to inadequate hazard and risk management that was not related to the child’s escape.
This came after at least 275 ECE service providers were operating on provisional licences or had their operations suspended last year – 30% more than in 2022.
Ministry’s misgivings at mealtimes and medicines
Among those put on provisional licences were Magic Kingdom Childcare and Chrysalis Early Learning Centre, which are both owned and operated by the company Chrysalis Group.
Its directors, Dr Darius Singh and Nikeeta Singh, run three other daycares in Auckland and Tauranga with full licences.
The married couple have many years of experience in the sector and are respectively the president of members’ group the Early Childhood Council (ECC) and a qualified, registered ECE teacher.
According to documents publicly released by the ministry, Chrysalis Early
Learning Centre, in Auckland’s Avondale, was put on a provisional licence on July 28, 2023, after the ministry concluded its policies outlining the steps staff needed to take to ensure the premises was adequately ventilated “while balancing comfortable indoor temperatures and ensuring children have access to the outdoors independently” were not clear.
The same problem was identified at Magic Kingdom, located in nearby Blockhouse Bay, which just the day before had its licence downgraded from full to provisional.
The ministry also found Magic Kingdom was in breach of other regulations, relating to governance, management and administration of the centre, the curriculum and health and safety.
In what was labelled as a “systemic process failure”, the first-aid certificates of seven of the nine kaiako (teachers) qualified in this area were expired.
Records showed a staff member who was not first-aid trained had given firstaid.
Documents stated that the centre’s medicine policy wasn’t up to scratch and described how a teacher who was changing nappies was leaving the nappy changing space and entering the play space to get a child while wearing gloves they had used during an earlier nappy change.
While the centre manager told the ministry this was not in line with Magic Kingdom’s policy, the ministry was not confident it was a one-off occurrence.
Ministry staff also witnessed an incident where multiple children over the age of 2 who said at mealtime that they didn’t like egg sandwiches were told they had to try one before they could have a Vegemite sandwich.
The ministry said the kaiako’s response was “unreasonable” and did not empower the tamariki to make decisions and have them respected.
It also concluded that the toys and play equipment available to tamariki were of “a limited quantity and variety” and “did not provide for purposeful learning for the ages and stages of development of the children attending”.
Darius Singh declined a request to be interviewed. In a statement released via ECC, he said he was concerned the ministry would take “further unreasonable action” against his centres if he commented publicly.
However, ministry documents showed that by October 2, the government agency was satisfied that the centres had adequately addressed their noncompliance, and restored their full licences.
Similarly, Wellington daycares Lollipops Petone and Active Explorers Grenada also had their full licences reinstated late last year after they were suspended and then put on provisional licences months earlier.
Both centres are operated by the country’s second-largest private early learning provider, Evolve Education Group.
Nearly 30 other daycares from the chain were also put on provisional licences in 2023 for problems related to governance, management and administration, health and safety, the premises and facilities and the curriculum.
According to the ministry, staff at Lollipops Petone had provided children with foods posing a “high risk” of choking and administered medicine unsafely.
Evolve Education Group did not respond to a request for comment.
Too much, too little or just right?: It depends who you ask
While the specific details about each of last year’s 275-odd cases of noncompliance were not clear in the dataset obtained by The Post, the majority could be grouped into several broad categories:
problems with governance, management and administration, adhering to the curriculum, health and safety and inadequate ratios.
Three-quarters of the services in question breached multiple regulations, The Post’s analysis showed, four were investigated after complaints were made to the ministry and at least 10 had illtreated a child.
However, the statistics may not fully reflect the extent of non-compliance because the ministry only provided figures up to November 23, 2023.
The Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) publishes a list on its website of services in the sector that have breached regulations annually.
By its count, there were 294 provisional licences held by 281 ECE services (13 services were twice downgraded) last year, as well as 56 suspensions and 36 cancellations triggered by noncompliance.
The organisation’s chief advisor, Dr Sarah Alexander, said the figures were evidence that the mechanisms available to the ministry (written warnings, licence downgrades and licence suspensions) were no longer enough to stop services from “going below the minimum bar of regulated standards”.
The OECE, which describes itself as the lead public adviser for the sector, wanted to see the compliance rate lifted and enforcement increased, the goal being that “all services focused on providing high quality (that is above the minimum acceptable standards) for the benefit of children”.
Alexander said the ministry did not decide to downgrade or revoke ECE licences lightly: “Regulation breaches must be major or serious, are usually multiple, and not able to be resolved quickly or before a change of licence is issued following visits to the service and communications with the service provider and or manager”.
Simon Laube, the chief executive of the ECC, representing 1200 ECE owners and managers, agreed that at first glance the statistics appeared “alarming”, and that services should pulled up on regulatory breaches. However, he questioned the “proportionality” of sanctions such as licence downgrades and suspensions.
Laube said members had regularly sought the organisation’s help after having their licences suspended or downgraded for reasons they didn’t understand because of regulation changes. He alleged that the ministry had “misused” regulations when it recently issued an operator with a suspension notice for failing to police check themselves.
The breach was inadvertent, Laube said, because the provider was not required to do so when it opened its centre 17 years ago, but had to under current regulations.
“The regulations are meant to keep children safe, but they’re also meant to allow parents and families to have access to these services...
“We feel quite strongly that the balance is in the wrong place here.”
In response to questions about the increase in licence downgrades and suspensions, the ministry’s hautū (leader) of operations and integration, Sean Teddy, said in a statement that the figures showed the ministry was using its regulatory tools effectively.
“It is not necessarily an indicator that more non-compliance is happening. There are about 4500 early learning services operating across the country, and of those only 6.6% had their licence downgraded to provisional or suspended in 2023.”