ECC and ECE centre leaders were surprised by the announcement on 31 August 2023 of a new regulatory change to the early learning system, just 45 days before the election. This change was in the form of a new set of requirements on key teachers in every centre, called ‘persons responsible’. New parity funding and changes to police vetting and risk assessments were also included – you can read about those changes in the Early Learning Bulletin He Pānui Kōhungahunga. It is highly unusual to have significant regulatory changes so close to an election cycle. In this article I attempt to pry into what was going on here, and what impact these new persons responsible requirements could have on the ECE sector. Just before general elections, we can usually be assured a little bit of ‘quiet time’ from government departments. For those operating ECE centres, normal times are not quiet. They involve a need for constant vigilance: the education ministry is like a factory constantly producing new ideas and changes to the sector to react to. ‘Quiet time’ is supposed to start about the point where the politicians leave Wellington and go on the campaign trail. During this ‘quiet time’, departments have to check their every move with their Ministers’ Offices. But suffice to say, there will be no plans agreed for more public-facing government activities, unless absolutely necessary. The risk of these activities creating negative noise is just too great. Also, policies take time to develop and even more time to get people to understand and support them prior to delivery. If nobody understands what’s changing, then the changes can’t be implemented. The usual delivery track of new policies tends to follow the three-year election cycle. This is so an incumbent Government can claim credit for all the policies they deliver, and because unless a policy gets delivered within those three years then it is unlikely to be delivered if there is a change in government. So, ministers had better keep on top of their departments. Rather than just waiting for their department to run out of time (or money), competent ministers do the job of holding a public department to account to ensure the delivery of their policies. It is a hard job indeed. Any reforms or work not actually delivered will be subject to review (aka cancellation) by the incoming Government. This makes incumbent governments very good at prioritising the delivery of the policies they really want. As governments approach the end of a three-year cycle we increasingly see them ticking off policies they’ve delivered. Delivered means all the discussions are over and the changes are being put in place. Job done. So why is it that on 31 August 2023, so Persons Responsible Changes – Not Wanted, Not Needed, Not Now MESSAGE CEO's Persons Responsible Changes On 31 August 2023, the Ministry of Education announced changes to Persons Responsible requirements that apply to centre-based ECEs. In summary these included changing the following for Persons Responsible: ● ● Clarifying that persons responsible must supervise and be actively involved with the children in attendance and staff providing ECE from 26 February 2024 ● ● Upgrading the qualification requirements to a Category 1 or 2 practising certificate (this means that provisionally registered teachers can no longer be person responsible) from 26 August 2024 ● ● Requiring all persons responsible to have first aid certificates (on top of the requirement for all adults) from 26 February 2024 December 2023 { 8 }
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