Early childhood centres brace for cuts | Hawkes Bay News | Local News in Hawkes Bay

Job losses and raised fees are likely as early childhood education centres bear the brunt of the Government funding cuts that hit this week.

The Government's $290 million budget reduction would effect 2000 early childhood education centres (ECE) nationwide and 93,000 children, where fully qualified teachers comprised over 80 per cent of staff.

The rate change was set for February 1 next year, but most of the funding was distributed in advance so that ECEs felt the decrease in the quartile that began on Monday.

Kidicorp chief operations officer Fiona Hughes said parents would feel the budget cuts in their wallets as centres were forced to increase fees from between $10 and $50 a week.

She said increased fees may cause parents to choose cheaper alternatives like informal ECE with family members, "putting the education component [of early childcare] at risk".

This was reinforced by a New Zealand Childcare Association survey which reported 60 per cent of centres expected participation levels to drop as a result of increased fees, which in some cases had already risen with GST changes last month.

Mrs Hughes said centres may be forced to make savings through redundancies and trading fully-qualified teachers for carers.

Heretaunga Kindergarten Association, which managed 16 Hawke's Bay kindergartens, announced its commitment to retaining all teaching staff in wake of the budget cuts.

General manager Bronwen Bertram said the association's philosophy asserted trained teachers gave children quality education, and lost revenue would instead be recovered through cuts in operational costs like maintenance, professional development and resources.

Jenny Yule, managing director of Porse, welcomed the budget cuts as an opportunity for the sector to work more closely with in-home childcare.

Budget cuts did not affect in-home childcare and already Porse had seen an increased demand for its services.

Ms Yule said the ECE sector and parents should respond by investigating more broadly what was best for children, particular for those under two years old. She said there were large numbers of parent-led services that did not require fully-trained and funded staff.

Labour spokesperson Sue Moroney said the Government was responsible for the price hike. Education Minister Anne Tolley said there had been a cost blow-out under the Labour government which saw funding treble for early childhood education, while children participation numbers increased by less than 1 per cent.