Executive Summary

What are the average costs¹ of providing ECE services? How have costs changed from 2011 to 2013?

The average cost of providing early childhood education (ECE) services ranged from $5.80 per child hour² for playcentres to $10.20 per child hour for education and care services. Between 2011 and 2013 costs increased for kindergartens, education and care services and home-based networks. The cost of providing care to children aged zero to one year olds was between 10-20% higher than the cost of providing care to children two to five year olds.

What are the main costs for services? How do they vary across different types of services, and how have they changed since 2011?

Teacher salaries made up around two-thirds of costs for kindergartens and education and care services. This was even higher for kōhanga reo, where 72% of costs were salary costs. For home-based services salaries for both co-ordinators and educators were 78% of costs. Playcentre teacher salary costs were only 15% of expenditure because these services use a lot of volunteer labour, 72% of costs were operational costs, including association levies, which amounted to a third of playcentre costs.

What proportion of costs is covered by Ministry of Education's entitlement subsidy? Do funding subsidies still cover average costs for 20 Hours ECE?

20 Hours ECE covers average costs for all service types except playcentre, where it covers about 80% of costs. The zero to one year olds universal subsidies cover between 60-110% of average costs, depending on service type. The two to five year old subsidy which applies to children or hours not covered by 20 Hours ECE, covers between 40% and 75% of costs.

What is the average income of ECE services, how does it vary across the sector, and how has it changed since 2011?

The average income of services ranged from $6.15 per child hour for playcentres to $10.60 per child hour for education and care services. Income has increased between 2011 and 2013 for kindergartens and education and care services. On average, income was higher than costs for all service types, though the gap between costs and income had decreased between 2011 and 2013.

How much of ECE is publicly funded and how much is funded privately through households and community sources?

All service types get the majority of their funding from the government. This ranges from home-based with 58% of funding from the government to kōhanga reo with 93% of funding from the government and has not changed from 2011. Most other income comes from parents, though for playcentres 17% of income comes from other sources (such as private grants and fundraising) compared to 6% of income from parents.

 
Across all service types, for every dollar that families pay in fees, the government provides $4.80. These numbers are based on income by source data from the survey and are weighted by the number of services in each service type. These figures are based on a sample, and are an estimate only.

What are the average fees, how do these vary across the sector, and how have they changed since 2011?

Average fees for education and care and home-based services were similar at $5.50 to $5.55 for two to five year olds⁴ and $5.60 to $5.80 for zero to one year olds. For education and care services this was 4-5% higher than in 2011. Kindergarten fees were on average $3.60, for children not enrolled in 20 Hours ECE.  Playcentre fees were much lower at an average of $0.50 per hour.

Footnotes

1. "Costs" refers to operational expenditure only and excludes the costs of capital.
2. "Child Hours" refer to both funded and unfunded child hours.
3. An asterisk* means the change is statistically significant; we are 95% confidence that the change between 2011 and 2013 average is real and not by chance.
4. Excluding children receiving 20 Hours ECE funding subsidy.