Calls for regular inspections after 241 early childhood centres fail to meet minimum standards

New Zealand's national body for early childhood education and care is calling for regular inspections of child centres by the Ministry of Education after it was revealed over 200 failed to meet minimum standards.

The Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) recently revealed that last year 241 early childhood services were downgraded to a provisional licence, placed on suspension or closed permanently because they breached legal minimum standards. Of this, 51 had their licences​ suspended and 30 were ordered to permanently close.

OECE chief advisor Sarah Alexander said the length of the list was concerning.

"It is very worrying because we know that the Ministry of Education is risk-averse, they will not put a service on a provisional licence or suspend or cancel the licence unless there are usually multiple breaches and it amounts to a serious nature," Alexander told Melissa Chan-Green on AM.

The common breaches found at early childhood services were related to health and safety, qualification requirements for staff, curriculum, and premises and facilities.

The number of childcare centres ordered to close was up by eight in comparison to 2021, and the number which had their licences suspended was up by 15.

Alexander said the Ministry of Education hasn't changed its approach to inspecting facilities so the rise in breaches is not necessarily down to more preschools being caught.

She said there are no regular check-ups and inspections only take place if there has been a complaint against the care centre and even then they are given a heads-up before the inspection takes place.

Writing into AM, two childcare workers who did not want to be named, said when there were inspections the centre they worked at would put on more staff and try to appear better.

Alexander said there needs to be regular inspections to stop problems at preschools before they grow worse.

"Services knowing that the Ministry is there to support them, to make sure they don't fall out of compliance, but actually spot problems before they get to be big problems," she said.

Early Childhood Council CEO Simon Laube told AM when these inspections are done, it isn't always clearly communicated what the breach and concerns are so the centre often doesn't know what is needed to improve.

Ministry of Education's acting leader of operations and integration Martin Hillier said in a statement while the Ministry doesn't have regularly scheduled licensing assessments, there are regional staff who undertake licensing visits in response to incidents, complaints and ERO reviews.

"We have two roles: one is to make sure there is quality early childhood education that meets community and whānau needs. The other role is to make sure that learning environments meet all regulatory requirements, including health and safety, whilst maintaining continuity of education and care," Hillier said.

"When we identify services are not meeting licensing standards, we may downgrade the licence to provisional, which allows the service time to remedy the issues. More often than not, services demonstrate compliance within the set timeframes, which is our desired outcome."

A full list of early childcare centres that failed to meet minimum standards can be found here.