Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd

1 ERO’s Judgements

A Governing Organisation Evaluation evaluates the extent to which organisational conditions support equitable and excellent outcomes for all learners in the organisation’s services. Te Ara Poutama- indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most is the basis for making judgements about its effectiveness. The Governing Organisation Quality Evaluation Judgement Rubric derived from the indicators, is used to inform the ERO’s judgements about this organisation’s performance.

ERO’s judgement for Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd is as follows:

ERO’s judgement Organisational Conditions

The organisation conditions encompass Ngā Akatoro | Domains of:

• Ngā Aronga Whai Hua | Evaluation for improvement
• Kaihautū | Leadership fosters collaboration and improvement
• Te Whakaruruhau | Stewardship through effective governance and management

2 Context of the Governing Organisation

Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd is a national early childhood organisation comprised of 48 centre-based services in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch. At the time of this evaluation all Kindercare services were on a full licence. The organisation has a governing board with delegated management responsibility to the senior leadership team. Members of this team provide operational and curriculum leadership to services. Strategic initiatives are aligned to the organisational values of Safe, Loved and Learning.

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd’s strategic intentions, quality improvement systems, processes and practices support the provision of a quality curriculum at individual service level.

3 Summary of findings

Conditions supporting the organisation to build an effective culture include:

• a clear mission, vision and values that are cohesively embedded and provide clarity and a sense of purpose throughout the organisation
• high levels of relational trust enabling critique of practice and working collaboratively
• an experienced senior leadership team, using individual strengths and fostering a culture of collective responsibility
• ongoing access to relevant internal and external professional learning and development to grow knowledge and implementation of best practice.

Improvement strategies that the organisation is implementing well include:

• an initiative which effectively enhances the care and education of infants, toddlers and young children to build trusting relationships
• a wraparound approach that focuses on supporting diverse learners
• a well-resourced Family Support service that enables equity of access and inclusion for families and their children
• teaching strategies that support children to build their social and emotional resilience
• leadership pathways and initiatives to support sustainability, continuity, and succession planning in Kindercare services.

Review and Internal evaluation processes are well established and used to improve and examine aspects of practice across the organisation. These are yet to be used well at all levels of the organisation to determine the effectiveness of initiatives and practices on equitable and excellent outcomes for all children.

The organisation has some useful information and high-level judgements about services performance in relation to the implementation of its strategic initiatives. Evaluating each initiative using the espoused learning aims would provide a clearer picture of:

• how well it was being implemented in each service
• the extent to which the learning aims are being achieved
• what additional professional learning or support is required and for whom.

At a regional level the area managers annual review of each service could be further strengthened by using more refined data that will assist in making accurate judgements about quality and effectiveness. The annual review covers a number of target areas with specific foci in each area. Prioritising key areas to look at in greater depth, and from which to gather and analyse data, would enable more reliable judgements to be made about the effectiveness of curriculum for specific groups of children.”

Leaders pull together their overall judgements for their projects and initiatives separately for its North and South Island services. Putting these two information pieces together to create an overall picture of performance would provide an opportunity to facilitate deeper critique of each services quality including adequacy and targeting of resourcing.

Responding to Pacific learners at an individual service level is variable. Service leaders have identified that a specific strategy for Pacific learners would be beneficial. Some services have taken the initiative to use Tapasā: Cultural Competency Framework for Teachers of Pacific Learners to support how teachers work more effectively with Pacific learners.

Organisation leaders are in the early stages of implementing their te ao Māori action plan. The organisation has contracted external support to assist it in achieving this strategy. Aspects of this initiative have been evaluated during implementation to determine future actions.

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

ERO visited a sample of 14 services to verify what Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd knows about the quality of each of the services’ learning conditions and to what extent the organisational conditions support service improvement. ERO selected the service sample in consultation with the governing organisation.

Most of the services had established leadership teams with a third having more recent changes. Teaching teams often reflect the diversity of the service’s community. Services are well supported by experienced area managers and knowledgeable curriculum advisors. Two centre service managers maintain oversight of the northern and southern regions respectively.

Organisational conditions that promote positive outcomes for children include:

• well-monitored processes for managing children’s health and safety
• resourcing well-maintained, respectful, and engaging learning environments
• deliberate strategic appointments of key personnel
• building learning communities across the organisation to support professional growth and organisational sustainability for example the leadership strategy
• providing access to a range of internal and external professional learning and development through the creation of a learning hub for all staff that promotes current and relevant quality practices for leaders and teachers
• agreed teaching practices that enable the realisation of the organisations vision of safe and loved are highly evident
• targeted and specific support for beginning teachers.

Specific strategies that are supporting learners include:

• Head, Heart, and Hands practices to support holistic development for children up to the age of three
• ‘You Can Do It programme’ that promotes wellbeing, social and emotional competence
• the Digital Technology programme for older children to support them to becoming technologically literate.

Many services have developed their localised curriculum and priorities for learning with their communities. Further strengthening in aligning these priorities to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum, would assist in providing more robust assessment of children’s learning and progress in relation to these.

An internal review process is established and regularly used at service level. Area managers and teaching teams are yet to consistently implement and moderate the quality of curriculum to support ongoing improvement. Regular systematic evaluation of each service curriculum priorities for learning is required for the organisation to have robust evidence to realise its vision of learning.

5 Improvement actions

Organisation leaders to continue to refine internal evaluation processes that enable them to make judgements about equity and excellence. Using internal evaluation to measure the impact of their strategies, programmes, and practices on all learners. In particular a stronger focus is required on gathering evidence to determine what works/or doesn’t for particular groups of children. In particular:

• children with additional learning and development requirements
• Māori and Pacific learners
• children up to three years of age.

Organisation leaders to progress the strategy for Pacific learners.

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning:

• Refining the internal review process to include:

   

  • development of indicators of quality, in relation to curriculum at differing levels to support greater consistency in the judgements made across the organisation and impact on children’s learning and development

  • identifying service improvement focus/foci.

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd completed an ERO Governing Organisation Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they stated that the organisation has the systems, processes, and practices to be assured that service providers for licensed services within the organisation are meeting legal requirements related to:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management, and administration.

The licensed service provider/s of the sampled services listed at the end of this report also completed an ERO Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist for their service. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet legal requirements, including those detailed in Ministry of Education Circulars and other documents, related to these areas.

All early childhood services are required to promote children's health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements.

Patricia Davey
Manager Review and Improvement Services, Governing Organisations

30 March 2023 

7 About the Governing Organisation

8 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: