Budget funding will give more to better-off childcare centres

Better-off early childhood education (ECE) centres are likely to benefit most under the Budget's proposed funding increases, a sector leader says.

The budget proposals include a $30 million increase in subsidies to ECE providers to help with costs in employing qualified staff. It is aimed at ensuring that the costs of having all staff fully qualified by 2012 are not passed on to parents.

Early Childhood Council chief executive Sue Thorne said the proposed subsidies would benefit centres that already had a high proportion of qualified teachers, and so were already on a higher government funding rate, by as much as 13.2 percent.

Centres in areas where it was difficult to attract qualified staff - in particular, rural areas and Auckland - would get a much smaller funding increase. Such centres also had to pay higher wages to attract staff, Mrs Thorne said.

"The way the additional money in the Budget for the bulk funding grant has been allocated shows that the government is being true to its word by rewarding those centres that employ more registered teachers. In a perfect world, where staff supply matches demand, this could be an equitable way to fund children attending ECE services.

"The problem is that the adequacy of the supply of registered teachers varies hugely round the country. Children in hard-to-staff regions such as Auckland, Northland, most rural areas and smaller provincial towns will miss out on the extra funding, while their lucky counterparts in easier-to-staff regions - Christchurch, for one - will get a far greater benefit from the new money.

"Clearly the ability for many regions, particularly rural ones, to access the highest rates of funding is severely hampered by their ability to recruit staff.

"To date, none of the numerous government incentives to reduce regional variations in registered teachers have had any impact. And, in the meanwhile, those centres on the highest rates of funding continue to do well and those languishing in the hard-to-staff regions continue to struggle."