All 15 recommendations from a review of ECE regulations have been accepted, with the government promising a simpler, cheaper system for providers, writes Catherine McGregor in today’s extract from The Bulletin.

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Big changes for early childhood education approved

Cabinet has approved all 15 recommendations from a review of the early childhood education (ECE) regulatory system, paving the way for a major overhaul of how centres are licensed and monitored. Regulation minister David Seymour, who launched the review in mid-2024 and received its findings in December, described the current system as “calcified” and said the goal is to refocus regulation on what really matters: child safety. “By the end of next year, ECE providers will be governed by a regulatory system which ensures regulations are focused on what matters,” he said.

An amendment bill will be introduced in July to implement many of the changes, and Seymour expects it to pass before the end of 2025.

Cutting red tape and changing enforcement

One of the most significant shifts will be to the ECE licensing system, where 98 separate criteria – each of which can currently trigger the closure of a centre – will be reviewed, merged, downgraded or eliminated. Just 26 of the requirements will be retained in full, Cate McIntosh reports in The Press (paywalled). Among the rules highlighted by Seymour and likely to go are requirements for maintaining a constant indoor temperature of 18°C and for holding immunisation records already kept by Health NZ.

Those are just some of the “arbitrary” ECE regulations that Seymour has denounced. Last year he claimed to have received reports from teachers and carers who said they’d written reports and plans on risks “such as apples falling from a tree in the playground, the first aid certificate being hung on the right-hand side of the doorframe instead of above it or the ‘noise pollution’ of a train driver honking the train horn at the children as it passed,” Julia Gabel reported in the Herald.

Under the new system, graduated enforcement tools will replace the current all-or-nothing licensing approach. “There will no longer be high-stakes open-or-shut rules,” Seymour said, promising a move from a punitive culture to one that promotes early intervention.

Teachers fear lower standards; some providers voice support

Absent from yesterday’s media release was any reference to two of the most controversial recommendations: removing regulated curriculum standards and allowing staff without teaching qualifications to count towards staffing ratios. These proposed changes have raised alarm among educators, researchers and unions, who argue they risk eroding the quality of care and learning in ECE. “Teacher qualifications are one of the most direct factors in determining the quality of experience that children have,” Otago’s College of Education professor Alex Gunn told RNZ.

The ECE Sector Partnership, which represents a majority of providers, has endorsed the overall direction of the review, welcoming the focus on safety and economic sustainability. But Kindergartens Aotearoa CEO Amanda Coulston says the reforms are focused on for-profit providers and the “commercial imperative”, and will make the sector “even more unsafe for children”, The Press’s McIntosh reports.

More industries face the regulatory razor

The Ministry for Regulation is also probing potentially outdated or restrictive rules in other sectors. A review into agricultural and horticultural product regulation has already concluded, with the government accepting all 16 recommendations aimed at giving farmers faster access to products already available overseas.

Meanwhile, a review into the hairdressing and barbering industry is yet to be released. Among the rules under scrutiny are bans on serving coffee in salons and restrictions on pets in premises, which Seymour has derided as outdated and unnecessary. All three reviews reflect Seymour’s broader campaign to remove unnecessary regulations –  what he calls “a tax on growth” – from the business landscape.