Transcript Barbara Lambourn

Innocenti Report Card 8
The child care transition
A league table of early childhood education and care in
economically advanced countries
Innocenti Research Centre, Italy, December 2008
Innocenti Research Centre
• Provides reports on the status of children’s
wellbeing in advanced countries
• Benchmarks on a league table of minimum
standards for the 24 (+1) OECD countries
• RC8 researched and written by Peter
Adamson and John Bennett
United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child
(UNCROC) 1989
Article 29
The education of the child shall be
directed to the development of the
child’s personality, talents and mental
and physical abilities to their fullest
potential (1989)
A Great Change
• 1st generation in which majority are
spending a large part of early life in out-ofhome care (80% of children in OECD)
• Neuroscience demonstrates quality
relationships in earliest months and years
are critical for all aspects of development.
• An advance or a setback???
An urgent question.
RC8: The good news
• New Zealand achieved passes for 6 of the 10
minimum standard benchmarks (attendance,
quality, ratios, training)
• Ranked 7th= overall against the other 24
countries
• Beat all other English speaking countries
Not good news
NZ failed to achieve a pass for 4 benchmarks
1. Insufficient parental leave
NZ = 14 weeks @ 50%. 23rd of 25
2. Lower than recommended spending (1% of
gdp) on EC services.
NZ= 0.4%
19th of 23
2. High rate of poverty – over 10%: NZ = 15%
3. No universal outreach of essential child health
services
More good news for NZ
• Over 95% of 4 year olds enrolled in ECE
• “Enormous potential for good”
• Well regulated, national plan, subsidies
Warnings
Potential for harm! “An uncontrolled experiment”
• Number of babies and infants 0-2 in long hours
of child-care
• Lack of attachment to parent or “emotionally
available” primary care giver
• Long term impact on social and psychological
development
• Consensus that “too early and for too long can
be damaging”.
Dilemmas
• Economic imperatives for both parents to
be in work force
• Women’s right to be economically
independent, realise career/personal
aspirations and contribute to the workforce
• Benefits for children from less advantaged
homes
• Professionalisation of parenting
Cost benefits
$1 invested in early years saves $8 in remedial
spending such as……..
• anti drug, alcohol education
• learning and behavioural difficulties
• delinquency, anti social and risk taking activities.
Recommendations
• 1 year supported maternity/paternity leave
• Invest adequately in early years
• Universal support for parenting
• Eliminate child poverty
Innocenti RC 8:The child
care transition
Full report and comments from expert
advisers on UNICEF NZ website
www.unicef.org.nz