Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Kathy Wolfe: Early Childhood NZ CEO on the modelling for the FamilyBoost payment being incorrect

Transcript

Kathy Wolfe: Early Childhood NZ CEO on the modelling for the FamilyBoost payment being incorrect · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Concern from early childhood educators that proposed reforms would put
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: business over children. The government has recognized that current ECE
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: regulations are outdated, but the sector says changes could love
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: with the standard of teachers. Early Childhood New Zealand CEO
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Kathy Wilf is with me now, thanks for your time
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: this morning, Kathy, marenna, do you feel listen to from
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the results of this review where you're happy with the
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: general gist of it that we will.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Look we call for the review and the general gist
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: of it in terms of addressing some of the cumbersome
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: and complicated processes and overburdensome administration. Yep, there's some good
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: things in there. However, some of the recommendations are nine
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: and definitely recommendation ten is something that we're not very
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: happy about.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: At all, and you can for more detail on this.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: How concerned would it move away from qualified teachers?
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Be very concerning. Qualified teachers are trained to educate our
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: youngest children and they understand the development emotionally and intellectually
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: for children from a vreative vive and for school children
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: to be prepared for school, they need that education and
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: the qualified teacher is what is required to provide them
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: that education.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: And why do you think there would be a move
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: away from this? What's the reasoning behind it?
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: It's mostly about funding. They are also saying it is
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: around teacher shortages, but there's absolutely no link to teacher
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: shortages and qualifications. The cause and effect of teacher shortages
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: is that we just haven't had a decent workforce strategy
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: that managers supply and demn't How do you want.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: To see the balance between business and children struck here
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: when it comes to looking at these reforms.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: Look, every early childhood service is a business, whether you're
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: in community based service or a for profit service. At
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, you've got to run a
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: viable business in order to give back to the ken community,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: but also make short children not educated well, so you know,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: and we're also publicly funded and we have to be
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: accountable for that public funding. So for us, it is
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: really important that that is the key thing about the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: public good and upholding the public good of education and
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: at each other.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Because it was a long it was it was quite
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: a fight. Wasn't it a while ago to get you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: more qualified teachers into early childhood education. I can remember
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: that and of course, the big at that time, the
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: big negative it was going to cost us more because
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: we have to pay qualified people and things. But I'm
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: pretty sure that most parents out there would really like
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the workforce to remain qualified absolutely.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, if you want, if you put your child
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: into an early childhood service, you want to know every
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: single day that your child is not only getting the
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: best care and their well being is looked after, but
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: they've been educated with a qualified person who understands how
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: a child develops. And that can be the difference between
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: an unqualified person who could have an impact on a
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: child through a perverse situation, where a qualified person would
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: absolutely know how to deal with the situation, and that
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: impact on a child can last for a very long time.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: And can you any other major issues with the reforms.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: At this stage, It's just going to be really about
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: working with the government and the ministry around the changes,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: especially around the criteria for the licensing, So that'll be
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: a work in progress, as seymore mentioned, over the next
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: next week, while the qualification one is going to be
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: a very big focus for the sector and there will
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: be very big pushback on this one.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Kathy, I'm just wondering while I've got you if I
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: can ask you about the data and the Herald this
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: morning that revealed the government's estimate of the number of
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: families eligible for the full Family Boost payment was wrong.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Just year, two hundred and forty nine out of the
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: twenty one thousand the government seed were eligible have actually
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: received that maximum amount. The real number of families eligible
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: is unknown. What are your thoughts about that?
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: Well, we always said that the Family Boost was flawed.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: It doesn't reach the families that it should reach. And
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: also there's a few hoops the families have to jump
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: through to even get access to that, and they only
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: get accessed after that paid three months and then they
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: get repaid for that, and many families don't have that
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: money upfront. So we're hoping that Minister Seymour really has
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: a look at the funding for early childhood and we
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: really make a fitful purpose for both early child and
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: services as well as parents and really get the system
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: fixed and working how it should.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: We thank you so much, Katy, really appreciate your time
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: and your thoughts as wonder. That was k Thank you, Kathy.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: That was Kathy from Kathy Will from Early Childhood, New Zealand.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: You see that was a bit embarrassing those figures that
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: were released, But Nicola will have said that the iod's
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: advice was based on its best estimates at the time.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately they got that wrong. But the ID found the
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: modeling for Family Boost challenging because it didn't have reliable data.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So apparently now they are trying to get as much
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: reliable data. But there's other things that complicated as well.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: There's a possibility that some people went, oh, it's not
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: worth applying for it because I'm not going to get
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a huge amount back, or they haven't got around to
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: clicking up all those receipts and applying for it yet.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: But hopefully they'll be able to get that sorted as
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: soon as possible.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 5:24
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• 5:28
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