ECAC minutes September 2024

The Early Childhood Advisory Committee (ECAC) met from 9:00am to 2:40pm on Wednesday, 4 September 2024 at Pūtahi Room, Generator Complex, 40 Bowen Street, Wellington.

Attendees

ECAC members

Kelly Seaburg, Advocates for Early Learning Excellence
Pauline Winter, Auckland Kindergarten Association (AKA)
Heather Taylor, Barnardos New Zealand
Simon Laube, Early Childhood Council
Christine Hall, Early Childhood Leadership Group
Beccy Creswick, Early Intervention Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (EIAANZ)
Patricia Davey, Education Review Office
Raewyn Overton-Stuart, Home Early Learning Organisation (HELO)
Nicola Woollaston, Hospital Play Specialists
Cathy Wilson, Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand (MANZ)
Imogen Held, NZEI Te Riu Roa (alternate of Caroline Mareko)
Allanah Clark, NZEI Te Riu Roa
Tere Gilbert, Ngā Puna Reo o Aotearoa
Janelle Gardiner, NZ Home-based Early Childhood Education Association
Jill Bond, NZ Kindergartens Inc.
Hellen Puhipuhi, Pasifika representative
Karen Affleck, Steiner Education, Aotearoa
Sharon Coulton, Teaching Council of Aotearoa
Helen Gatward, Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu, NZ Correspondence School
Milly Paea, Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust (alternate of Heke Huata)
Kathy Wolfe, Te Rito Maioha Early Childhood NZ

ECAC guests

Hon. David Seymour, Associate Minister of Education
Hon. Erica Stanford, Minister of Education
Iona Holsted, Te Tumu Whakarae mō te Mātauranga | Secretary for Education

Ministry of Education

Tanya Harvey, Director of Education, Tāmaki Makaurau – North, North-West
Andy Jackson , Hautū - Kaupapahere | Deputy Secretary - Policy
John Brooker , General Manager, System, Connections and Early Learning Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Paul Scholey, Senior Policy Manager, ECE and System Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Siobhan Murray, Senior Policy Manager, ECE System Investment Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Graham Bussell , Chief Policy Analyst, ECE System Investment Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Elspeth Maxwell , Manager Operational Policy Early Learning, Te Pae Aronui|Operations
Ray McMillan , General Manager, Network and Regulatory, Te Pae Aronui|Operations
Megan Hutchison, Chief Advisor, Early Learning, Te Tai Runga|South

Presenters

Kate Raggett , Senior Policy Manager, Learning Support, Learner Success & Tiriti Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Kaity Carmichael , Senior Policy Analyst, Learning Support, Learner Success & Tiriti Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Ally Kana , Senior Policy Analyst, Learning Support, Learner Success & Tiriti Policy, Te Pou Kaupapahere|Policy
Rachael Vink , Chief Advisor - Learning Support, Te Tai Runga|South
Michelle Unuia , Principal Advisor, Early Learning, NZ Curriculum & Te Whāriki, Te Poutāhū|Curriculum
Esa Samani , Manager - Pacific, NZ Curriculum & Te Whāriki, Te Poutāhū|Curriculum
Elena Moretti , Director Engagement and Impact, ERO
Lisa Oldridge , Manager Review and Improvement Services Governing Organisations, ERO
David Wansbrough, Head of Sector Reviews, Ministry for Regulation
Kerry Lamont, Principal Advisor Engagement, Ministry for Regulation

Secretariat

Kristen Sharma, Senior Advisor, Te Tai Runga|South (minutes)

Apologies

Nancy Bell, Hautū|Deputy Secretary, Te Tai Runga|South
Liza Iliffe, Christian Early Childhood Education Association of Aotearoa
Emily Dakin, Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust
Fiona Hughes, BestStart Educare
David Moger, NZ Playcentre Federation (alternate of Anna Steel)

Welcome, karakia and introductions

Tanya Harvey

Tanya welcomed the group and Heather Taylor opened the meeting with a karakia.
Apologies and alternates were noted.
The passing of Kīngi Tuheitia and Tītoki Black were acknowledged.
June minutes were confirmed.

Associate Minister of Education

Hon. David Seymour

Minister Seymour gave an update on the ECE sector regulatory review being undertaken by the Ministry for Regulation, and his plans on the ECE funding review.
He thanked members for their submissions to the Ministry for Regulation’s regulatory review. Over 2,300 were received from the sector and parents.
The Minister announced that, from October, centres will no longer have to demonstrate attempts to find a certificated reliever before using a non-certificated reliever when claiming discretionary hours.
Minister Seymour also announced that only part- or full-time certificated teachers permanently employed by a service will need to be paid at the pay parity salary steps required as a condition of the particular pay parity funding rates the service opts into. This means that pay parity salary scales will no longer apply to relievers (unless they are permanently employed part- or full-time certificated teachers).
Topics that members brought up with the Minister included: the timing of the funding review; the position of curriculum in the context of the funding review and regulatory reform; Oranga Tamariki contracts; learning support; and using a social investment lens with the reviews.

Education priorities for Learning Support

Kate Raggett, Ally Kana, Kaity Carmichael

Kate, Ally and Kaity presented on how Minister Stanford’s education priorities relate to early learning.
A work programme will go to Cabinet.
Some members expressed the view that learning support roles should be integrated as part of the work programme from the very beginning, and that the learning support workforce is not just those who have specialist skills; it is also whānau and community.
Regarding Priority 5 and network planning to prepare for increased demand for learning support, this mainly refers to the specialist school network, as there are discrepancies in access across the motu.
A member suggested that more teachers are doing specialist training than there are open positions, meaning that this under-utilised resource remains in centres.
A member pointed out that support is based on school terms, but early learning doesn’t stop for holidays or when a child turns five.
The Māori Affairs Select Committee enquiry and how it might feed into this work was brought up. Their report is still to come.
Moving forward, a reference group will be developed and engagement will occur with the sector. A member advocated for the inclusion of stronger customer voice, including the disability sector, parents and communities.
All work has been informed by the outcomes of the Highest Needs Review, a summary of which can be found here: The Highest Needs Review – Education in New Zealand(external link) NZCER report ‘What matters to stakeholders’ can be found at the bottom of the page.

Early learning programme updates

Megan Hutchison, Paul Scholey

Paul gave an update on progress of the work to provide regulatory relief to the ECE sector since the June ECAC hui. This is a key priority area for Minister Seymour.
Network approval – Select Committee will report back by tomorrow on the Education and Training Amendment Bill which includes the repeal of network approval provisions. The Bill is scheduled to complete the rest of the legislative stages in the next few weeks and is due to be passed by the end of September.
Home-based sector – Targeted engagement with a group of home-based providers is being carried out to look at options to address concerns the sector has raised. Further advice will be given to the Minister after this for decisions.
Police vetting – We are working on this and expect to be providing the Minister with advice soon. Paul will keep members updated through operational ECAC meetings.
Members are welcome to contact Paul with any questions and comments.
There was a query around the current status of the Early Learning Action Plan (ELAP). Some actions are complete, some will continue, some will be discontinued as they may not align with government priorities. Some actions will be considered in respect of the ECE sector regulatory and funding reviews. Once decisions have been made by Ministers, we will aim to discuss the ELAP at the 4 December Quarterly ECAC hui.
While we wait for decisions on the ELAP, Megan provided interim reporting in the agenda packs.
A key deliverable under ELAP action 4.2 is Kōwhiti Whakapae. Megan acknowledged the work that has gone into these resources over the last few years, with the launch of the two new content areas last month.
Immunisation work programme in Te Whatu Ora | Health NZ and Ministry of Health which MoE are supporting: trialing new ideas to increase vaccination rates. If anyone has ideas or innovations, please contact Megan. Next week at operational ECAC, there will be an item on data-sharing between MoE and Health NZ and the potential to share information back to ECE services. A member spoke about the need for extra resourcing for the sector to support vaccination initiatives.
The Education.govt.nz site is changing, with the old site being closed from 31 October. Members were encouraged to look at the preview site for pages they regularly use, and use the form to provide feedback. The parents’ website is also being decommissioned.
Following the June quarterly hui where participation was discussed, a member asked about participation trends for over 5s in ECE and whether data could be broken down in this way. Megan to check whether that’s possible for the participation numbers we report quarterly.
A data sheet covering data and trends in home-based ECE was also provided (as requested at the June meeting).

Actions

Discuss the Early Learning Action Plan (John, 4 Dec ECAC)
Participation data for over 5s in ECE (Megan)

Analysing the ECE regulatory system

David Wansbrough, Ministry for Regulation

David thanked members for their submissions and passion in the ECE regulatory review engagement.
David presented a rough cut of early themes from the surveys (themes from the 500+ written submissions have not been analysed so are not included in this rough cut).
MfR received written feedback from over 2,320 individuals and groups, as well as significant amounts of other information collected through formal face-to-face meetings.
Surveys were submitted by nearly 860 sector workers, 100 service providers, over 770 parents and 60 other interested parties. Further to this, there were more than 500 individual written submissions.
The survey will not be the only source of information for MfR, and they will not rely solely on numbers or volume of submissions to form their analysis.
Submissions will be analysed over the next two months.

Minister of Education

Hon. Erica Stanford

Minister Stanford thanked members for visits to their centres, for engaging with her, for suggestions of early wins, and for their work on the ground.
The Minister spoke of her aspirations for education; student achievement and closing the equity gap. She spoke of her six education priorities and how they link together and are equally important.
Oral language and social and emotional regulation are important. Grounding tamariki in these falls heavily on the early learning sector. The Minister is keen to explore what more can be done to support this, including for parents to know what they should be doing.
Minister Stanford acknowledged the recent release of Kōwhiti Whakapae and is keen for feedback on it.
Learning Support is the most challenging aspect of the education portfolio. A Learning Support Cabinet paper is in the pipeline.
Topics that members brought up with the Minister included: the B4 school check; cross-agency cooperation in child protection concerns; proposed changes for Initial Teacher Education; undergrad- and post-grad-trained kaiako; Learning Support, including independent early intervention providers and gaining cross-party agreement to the direction; curriculum (position in reviews, and new curriculum for puna reo); building relationships with whānau of most vulnerable children; immigration of overseas-trained teachers; and improving the perception of teaching as a career.

Updates from ERO

Pat Davey, Elena Moretti, Lisa Oldridge, Education Review Office

ERO have shifted from three regions to a national team.
Lisa gave an overview of changes to ERO’s refreshed evaluation reports.
From time to time, ERO reviews its processes and makes changes to their reports. This change has included a focus on providing greater clarity for parents about where the service is at on their improvement journey. It also helps to provide ERO with a wider range of data to draw on.
Pat explained the improvement framework, which is available on ERO’s website: Improvement Framework (teacher-led services).pdf - Education Review Office(external link)
The early childhood rubric is no longer in use.
The learner and their learning is a judgement now used which includes a focus on the learning outcomes.
There is a focus in the reports on how the improvement actions in your last ERO report have been progressed.
Judgements sit across a continuum. These are: improvement required, working towards, embedded and excelling. Both the ERO report and the improvement framework make it clear what is above or below the threshold for quality.
ERO are waiting for the outcomes of the regulatory review report from the Ministry for Regulation before any further changes are made.
Elena presented on oral language resources for leaders and teachers. These came out on the same day as the Kōwhiti Whakapae language and literacy resources.
The ERO guides have bite-sized strategies and ideas for ECE teachers and leaders to develop the oral language of tamariki. Resources can be found on ERO’s evidence website: Good Practice: Oral language development in the early years - Education Review Office(external link)

Supports for oral language and Kōwhiti Whakapae

Michelle Unuia, Esa Samani, Rachael Vink

Rachael introduced the topic, linking it to the learning support conversations within earlier sessions.
Esa presented on Kōwhiti Whakapae – what it is and what it does. The social and emotional learning area was revisited. Each learning area has 4 sub areas.
The two new learning areas are oral language & literacy, and maths. There are online tools, videos and assessment examples to support kaiako. About Kōwhiti Whakapae | Kōwhiti Whakapae(external link).
Kōwhiti Whakapae aligns with ERO’s oral language practice, and to the first year of the school English and Maths curriculum.
The team will send out registration links to events to talk about supporting Kōwhiti Whakapae across members’ organisations.
Key messages: take your time, begin small, contextualise, and document progress.
A member spoke about the amount of progress data in paper form, so it’s hard to gather data. They wondered if there are opportunities to leverage software, if software systems were overhauled to enable documentation and the use of AI.
Some members expressed a desire for paid Professional Development days to support implementation of Kōwhiti Whakapae.
A hand-out was provided to each table with reflective questions on supporting teachers developing children’s oral language, and feedback was requested as to what works best. Each table reported back.
A question was asked about the NELPS (National Education and Learning Priorities). The Government are currently consulting on removing NELP from legislation.

Wrap up

Tanya Harvey

Members raised final questions and topics for future hui.
Megan thanked Tanya for chairing in Nancy’s absence.
The discussions from the day will be compiled and used to further inform the Ministry’s work.
Tanya thanked members for their engagement and participation throughout the day.
Heather Taylor closed with a karakia.

Last reviewed: 24 September 2024 Has this been useful? Give us your feedback