Waiting times for early childhood education

Indicator Description

The proportion of licensed early childhood education services with waiting times of more than six months.

What We Have Found

The proportion of licensed early childhood education services with waiting times of more than six months has increased over time, especially in the last two years.

Why This Is Important

Children who attend a quality early childhood education (ECE) service gain benefits that last through to their early years in school and beyond (Wylie, C. et al., 2006).  If children are to participate in early childhood education, they must be able to enrol in a service.  Some services may be operating at full capacity and not have any places immediately available for additional children.  These services would need to have short waiting times if children are to have easy access to early childhood education.  Long waiting times are a barrier to participation in early childhood education.

How We Are Going

The proportion of services with long waiting times has risen over time, especially in the last two years.  The proportion increased from 11.9% in 2002 to 28.1% in 2008 for children aged 0-2 years-old; and from 11.2% to 22.7% for children aged 3-4 years-old over the same period.

Percentage of licensed ECE services¹ with waiting times over six months, by age group (2002 to 2008)

1. Services in each age group are restricted to licensed ECE services that normally cater for children of that specific age.

There has been an increasing demand for early childhood education services as indicated by rising participation rates.  In recent years this growth has predominantly been absorbed mainly by Education and Care Services.

In 2008, Education and Care Services made up 55% of all licensed enrolments.  The growth in these service enrolments may be explained by the labour market changes, as these services offer a great deal of flexibility and require little parental involvement.  

From 2002 to 2008, the number of Education and Care Services grew by 27%.  Enrolments at these services across this same period grew at a slightly higher rate.  As a result, waiting times in these services has increased and Education and Care Services now have the greatest portion of services with long waiting times.

Because of their share of the market, the increase in the proportion of Education and Care Services with long waiting times since 2006 has driven the increase for all New Zealand.

Percentage of services with waiting times over six months, by age group and service type (2002 to 2008) 

 
The proportion of Kindergartens with long waiting times for 3-4 year olds rose in 2003 and 2004 but has fallen since.  This increase in waiting times was driven by waiting times for three year olds.  Kindergartens tend to give priority to older children in their allocation of places, with very few having four year olds required to wait more than six months (less than one percent of Kindergartens).

On the whole, Kindergarten enrolments accounted for 23% of all licensed enrolments in 2008.  This percentage has fallen since 2002, where Kindergarten enrolments made up 29% of all enrolments across licensed services.

Waiting times tend to be relatively short for Playcentres and Home-based Services.  In the case of Home-based Services, waiting times refer to the wait for families to obtain a place with one of the caregivers in the network, but families may need to wait longer for a caregiver that exactly matches their specific needs.

Where To Find Out More

To obtain information about participation at early childhood education services, consider indicators:

• Participation in early childhood education
• Hours of participation in early childhood education
  
• Prior Participation in early childhood education: new entrants

The Ministry of Education has established an Iterative Best Evidence Synthesis Programme to systematically identify, evaluate, analyse, synthesise and make accessible, relevant evidence linked to a range of learner outcomes. Evidence about what works for this indicator can be found in:

• Quality Teaching Early Foundations: Best Evidence Synthesis

References

Farquhar, S. (2003). Quality Teaching Early Foundations: Best Evidence Synthesis.  Wellington: Ministry of Education.

Wylie, C., Hodgen, E., Ferral, H., and Thompson, J. (2006).  Contributions of early childhood education to age - 14 performance: Evidence from the competent children, competent learners project.  Wellington: Ministry of Education and New Zealand Centre for Education Research.