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The ECE Taskforce aspires to facilitate high quality discussion that will lead to the development of strong recommendations for how to attain excellent outcomes for children, parents, and New Zealand society.

Submissions have now closed.

The deadline for submissions to the ECE Taskforce was 31 January 2011. You are still able to comment on the ECE Taskforce Facebook page as well as the comments section of this website.

Starting Points for Discussion

The Taskforce Chair has developed the following starting points for the Taskforce discussion.

Key Questions:

1. What configuration of public investments in early childhood education are likely to yield the best returns over the coming years?
2. What policy changes could ensure all children benefit from at least some engagement with early childhood education services?
3. What changes in the early childhood education sector would promote greater responsiveness to the diverse and changing needs of stakeholders?
4. What funding and regulatory models would encourage local innovation and system-wide learning to enhance overall service quality?

Longer Problem Statements:

New Zealand must be future-oriented; providing a great start for our children is crucial. The Government accords high priority to ensuring all children can participate in quality early childhood education.  But funding is constrained. The Government and taxpayers need assurance that public investments in early childhood education will yield the highest possible returns – for children, their parents, and all of society.

Despite considerable recent growth in government funding for early childhood education services, there are still many children who do not engage with formal educational services prior to entering school. Given the research evidence of benefits from pre-schoolers acquiring a strong start in education, ways must be found to ensure all children benefit from at least some engagement with early childhood education services.

The education of children rests on a partnership between families, whanau, service providers, and taxpayers. Broader economic and social changes necessitate periodic review of those partnerships. We need to be sure that publicly-funded early childhood education services respond effectively to the diverse and changing needs of all stakeholders.

The voluntary and highly disaggregated nature of early childhood education service delivery has great potential to drive continuous improvement in the sector. We need to be sure that our funding and regulatory models encourage local innovation and system-wide learning about what works best for improving service quality.