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Strategic Plan 2011 to 2016

Vision

We are the leading advocate for independent early childhood education centres and are actively involved in driving sector development and

representation at a national level.

Mission

To support independent early childhood centres to be successful organisations achieving the right start in life and learning for children enrolled

in their service; and representing the interests of that membership to have an active voice in the development of early childhood education and

related policy.

Our Principles

The Early Childhood Council (ECC) believes that:

1. Parents, Whanau and caregivers have the right to choose the ECE service they wish to use for their children

2. the early childhood education sector should be free to reflect diversity in approach without being hindered by excessive and/or

complicated Government regulation

3. the early childhood education sector has the capability and the right to define professional leadership for itself

4. public policy and decision-making should be evidence-based

5. individual employers and staff negotiate their own employment arrangements and conditions

6. early childhood education centres are effectively represented at both the local and national level.

For full detail of the ECC’s Philosophy, see the website: www.ecc.org.nz.

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The purpose of this plan

The intent of the Early Childhood Council Strategic Plan 2011 to 2016 is to provide a clear direction and unity of purpose for everyone involved

in the governance, management and delivery of services for our members.

The ECC Strategic Plan is designed to:

Provide guidance and direction to the National Executive Committee so that they can plan and arrange their work to contribute to the

achievement of our strategic goals

Be involved in the process of developing annual budgets and allocating resources to strategic programmes and projects

Provide a framework to measure and track our performance

Communicate to our members, the ECE sector and Government our goals for the next five years and our position as it relates to current

and future early childhood education policy.

This document contains a summary of the major programmes and actions identified by the elected members of the ECC National Executive

Committee as being fundamental to the future of the organisation over the next five years. This document will be subject to an annual review

process. Beneath this document sits the annual business plan and annual budget.

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Contents

Vision ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

Mission ............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

Our Principles ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

The purpose of this plan ................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

Environmental Context ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Our Customer ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Who are our stakeholders? ............................................................................................................................................................................... 6

Goal One: ......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

Goal Two: ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Goal Three: .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 11

Goal Four: ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12

How do we know we are succeeding? ............................................................................................................................................................ 13

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Environmental Context

The Early Childhood Council (ECC) is the largest representative body of licensed early childhood centres in New Zealand. At the time of

writing, the ECC’s (approximately) 1,200 member centres are both community and commercially owned, employ more than 7,000 staff, and

provide early childhood education services to over 50,000 children. The ECC was formed in 1990 from the amalgamation of the Licensed

Childcare Centres Federation and the Associated Childcare Council. The ECC was officially incorporated in 1991.

ECE Situation Analysis (July 2011)

New Zealand’s population is increasing

Percentage of new births continues to grow, but slowly

Population increasing, aging and Europeans decreasing as a proportion

Close to 4,500 licensed ECE services

56.95% are education and care centres; kindergartens 14.2%; Playcentre 10.29%; home-based 7.36% (and 11.2% other)

Education and care centres and home-based services are growing.

Home-based have the highest growth rate, with lower cost in times of financial pressure on families an attractive option

Government strategies for increased participation have favoured community-based education and care centres

Opportunity for education and care centres to diversify into community hubs, or into the provision of satellite home-based services

Enrolment pressure in some areas of New Zealand continues to outstrip supply, but this is slowing as government fiscal policies drive

parent fees up while family income comes under pressure

Economic climate (recession plus Canterbury earthquakes) puts more pressure on smaller operators while larger corporates may seize

the opportunity to expand

Drive to professionalise the ECE teaching sector has slowed, with reductions in incentive funding cut

Government drive for value for money has led to an investment-friendly ECE Taskforce Report, but with recommendations that demand

an active campaign by education and care centres to ensure they are implemented in a centre-friendly manner.

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ECC SWOT (July 2011)

Strengths:

Significant (and growing) membership, therefore influential voice

Growing specialist capacity

Strong historical reputation

The ECC is financially sound

Weaknesses:

Knowledge of members (data systems)

New website not fully implemented or as user-friendly as it could be

Professional development historically ad-hoc, with increased competitive activity – ECC losing ground

Limited revenue streams increase vulnerability

Opportunities:

Grow membership value-add

Diversify ECC membership types

Diversify income streams (research, expanded resources, etc)

Facilitate members’ into new growth areas of service (eg: centre providing satellite home-based, etc)

Add to the range of preferred suppliers, thus increase revenue for the ECC

Take the lead on a number of ECE Taskforce recommendations

Threats:

increased competitor activity ‘stealing some of our ground’

growth in the number of representative bodies

impact of government revenue cuts on the sector and (specifically) on the membership

government participation policies favour community-based services

significant impact of Canterbury earthquakes on this region (including post-earthquake de-population, closures and service uncertainty)

The ECC is largely funded by membership subscriptions; membership is voluntary and is available to all licensed independent early childhood

centres managed by community and commercially owned groups. Our members' centres are diverse, ranging from centres in small rural towns

to those in large cities, from centres as small as 10 licensed places through to a number of centres with multiple licenses. 62% of members are

owner-operated centres, the remaining 38% are community owned, roughly similar to the sector totals shown in the above table. The ECC is

one of about sixteen sector-representative organisations. A number represent comparatively small, specialised philosophies of ECE, such as

Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, etc. There is evidence of centres holding memberships with more than one representative organisation. The

probable reason is that different sector-representative organisations tend to have different strengths and service offerings to centres.

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Our Customer

Our customer is our member, who are independent early childhood education centres and are represented by the centre owner or manager

Who are our stakeholders?

A stakeholder of the ECC is an individual or organisation that helps or enables the ECC to deliver its services to its customer. Stakeholders

may be internal or external to the ECC. To prioritise our stakeholder engagement the following four categories have been defined to determine

the communications activities that will be undertaken:

Inform – we will tell stakeholders to make them aware.

Consult – we will engage, listen to and respond.

Involve – we are committed to work together where common ground exists.

Partner – we need to work together to achieve the best outcomes.

Dimension Type Stakeholder Partner, Inform

External Political Minister of Education (and Associate) Inform, consult, partner

Other related Ministers Inform, consult

Members of the Education & Science Select Committee Inform, consult

Ministry of Education Inform, consult

Other ministries, government departments and agencies Inform

National Party spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

Act Spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

Maori Party spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

Labour Party spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

Green Party spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

Mana Party spokesperson on (early childhood) education Inform

New Zealand Teachers Council Inform, consult

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Dimension Type Stakeholder Partner, Inform

New Zealand Qualifications Authority Inform, consult

Education Review Office Inform, consult

Children’s Commissioner Inform, consult

Economic Bank Inform

General Suppliers Inform

Preferred Suppliers Inform, consult

Tertiary Institutions Inform, consult

Social ABC Developmental Learning Centres Inform, consult, partner

AKA & EC Leadership Inform, consult, involve

Barnados Inform

Christian Early Childhood Education Association of Aotearoa Inform, consult, partner

ECC members Inform, consult

ECE Students Inform

Early Education Federation Inform

Kidicorp Inform

Kindercare Inform, consult, partner

Te Kohanga Reo National Trust Inform

Media Inform

Montessori Aotearoa New Zealand Inform, consult, partner

NZ Childcare Association Inform

NZ Educational Institute Inform

NZ Home-Based Association Inform

NZ Kindergartens Inform

NZ Playcentre Federation Inform

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Dimension Type Stakeholder Partner, Inform

Other non-member centres Inform

Parents Inform

Reggio Emilia Provocations Inform, consult, partner

Reggio Emilia Association Inform, consult, partner

Federation of Rudolf Steiner Waldorf Schools in New Zealand Inform, consult, partner

Technological ECE software developers inform

Internal National Executive Committee members Inform, consult, partner

Staff Inform, consult, partner

Contractors Inform, consult, partner

A separate Strategic Communications Plan will be developed to specifically address communication goals and tactics for these stakeholders.

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Goal One:

To provide value to our members

How we will do this:

To promote Growth

Grow the Member’s Benefit Programme to enhance benefits to members and increase the ECC’s revenue

Solidify the range of ECC events – including workshops, conference, and other event opportunities to strengthen member participation

and loyalty

Solidify the range of ECC publications and explore new product lines.

To enhance Value

Maintain the Annual Membership Survey

Maintain the Annual Salaries and Wages Survey

Continue ad-hoc incidental surveys of members as and when appropriate

Significantly complete the revised ECC website to increase user-friendliness, search functionality and enhanced member participation.

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Goal Two:

To provide relevance and leadership to the sector

How we will do this:

To promote Growth

Promoting to the wider community the interests and well-being of children participating in quality centre-based, teacher-led early

childhood education

Critiquing policy, programmes and research of government, government committees and major organisations

Promoting the latest advances in evidence-based quality ECE service delivery

Providing support and advice to ECC members on the management of centres as viable and successful businesses.

To enhance Value

Actively developing the knowledge base of the ECC in order to better support its members

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Goal Three:

To shape early childhood education policy

How we will do this:

To promote Growth

Ensure all ECC strategic policy is current and relevant to the sector

To take a leadership role in the independent review of the implementation of Te Whaariki

To take a leadership role in the design of a performance monitoring model, based on ERO’s self-review concept

o that embraces the wider determinants of quality improvement

o that enables services to demonstrate the extent to which the outcomes of Te Whaariki are being achieved

o that includes a self-disclosure tool for services to demonstrate performance to parents and other stakeholders in ECE

o to obtain the Minister of Education’s endorsement of that model

o to trial the model within the ECC’s membership

o to advocate for that model to be adopted across the sector

Ensure the ECC is represented and involved in the development of a revised sector funding model and any other opportunities to be

heard at a national level.

To enhance Value

Maintain an effective working relationship with policy-makers.

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Goal Four:

To drive professional development and recognised training

How we will do this:

To promote Growth

Advocate for common (consistent, relevant and high) standards across tertiary institutions providing ECE qualifications

Develop and promote a model of professional development for ECE teachers that connects to the curriculum and to the staff annual

appraisal model

Develop and promote a framework for delivery of quality early childhood education that reflects the likely mix of staff working in

centres

Design and promote a centre self-review model that drives quality improvement in centres, meets ERO regulation and compliance

needs, and attempts to minimise variance across ERO reviews

To enhance Value

Ensure that the website, publications and events reflect the latest trends in effective, evidence-based professional development and

recognised training

Meet our members’ needs for a robust and on-going programme of professional development.

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How do we know we are succeeding?

Monitoring

A performance dashboard report will be presented to the ECC Executive at each meeting, showing variances against expected progress and

remedial actions.

Who we have consulted?

Members of the ECC National Executive Committee

Chief Executive Officer

ECC Staff