Hon David Seymour
Associate Minister for Education

Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced an Early Childhood Education (ECE) Funding Review to ensure the funding system is simple, fair, and gets value for money.

Mr Seymour has established an ECE Funding Review Ministerial Advisory Group (MAG), chaired by Linda Meade to carry out this review. It will report on it’s findings this time next year.

“No money is being taken away and any findings by the MAG will be at least financially neutral,” Mr Seymour says.

“ECE funding should be used effectively to keep costs for families down. Vote Education spends approximately $2.7 billion on ECE. We need to make sure this funding is going as far as it can and prioritising the right things.

“The MAG members bring a range of early learning and business expertise which will be key to the review.”

The group will be chaired by Linda Meade who has a mixture of economics and real experience in the sector. She is the perfect chair for this review.

“The ECE funding system should provide the best return on investment for taxpayers. This means providing families with accessible and affordable services which facilitate parents returning to the work force and give kids a great start in life,” Mr Seymour says.

“There is huge demand for ECEs from families across New Zealand, however numbers show supply isn’t keeping up. That is why we are committed to making changes which will allow the industry to expand and provide more high-quality services for families and their children.

“The funding system is too complicated. It confuses families, providers struggle to forecast financial sustainability, and parents take time off work when they can’t access care.

“We want to be certain that taxpayer money is being used effectively. For example, we don’t know if the ‘one size fits all’ funding approach in ECE works for parents who don’t have traditional working arrangements or consistent patterns of child attendance. These parents are often the most disadvantaged.

“The review will be wide ranging, though some things are excluded. The policy benefits of 20 Hours ECE will and FamilyBoost will be preserved. Please find the review terms of reference attached.

“The review will compliment other work we are doing in the ECE sector. Changes made by the ECE Sector Review to modernise and simplify ECE are also underway. By the end of next year ECE providers will also be governed by a regulatory system which ensures regulations are focused on what matters, child safety.

“In the meantime, recent amendments to the pay parity opt-in scheme aim to provide some cost relief to ECE services.”

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