Head office location:
Auckland
Number of services:
48
- Service type:
-
- Education and care service
Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd
Kindercare Learning Centres
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 Limited is as follows:
ERO’s judgement Organisational Conditions
| Assurance Review | Whakatō Emerging | Whāngai Establishing | WhakaūEmbedding | Whakawhanake Sustaining |
| Overall judgement | Progressing |
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 Limited (Kindercare) is a national early childhood organisation comprised of 49 centre-based services in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, and Christchurch. Kindercare is contracted to manage Living and Learning Foundation’s two services and report quarterly to their Trustees on centre operations. At the time of this evaluation all services were on a full licence.
Kindercare has a governing board with delegated management responsibility to the senior leadership team. There have been recent changes to the organisation’s structure. A general manager of operations position has been created to maintain oversight of operational and curriculum leadership to services. Two regional managers now oversee 11 area managers nationally. Strategic initiatives remain 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 Limited’s strategic intentions, quality improvement systems, processes and practices support the provision of a quality curriculum at individual service level.
3 Summary of findings
Kindercare have been working to progress ERO’s two actions for improvement since the previous review in October 2022. They have made good progress against the action focused on gathering evidence to determine what works or doesn’t for particular groups of children. Senior leaders have worked deliberately to gather multiple perspectives in relation to specific groups of learners. Data collection has provided them with some useful insight into what is working well. They have determined that most parents have regular opportunities to contribute to planning for their child’s learning, including sharing their aspirations. Engagement with ERO has led senior leaders to recognise the need to continue to refine data collection and scrutiny to enable them to make judgements about equity and excellence.
Area managers and centre leaders are yet to have a clear understanding of the purpose and use of internal evaluation and most teaching teams are yet to understand the difference between review and evaluation. Clearer guidance for internal evaluation and building area managers knowledge of how to provide effective feedback to teaching teams is a next step.
The second improvement action was to develop curriculum indicators of quality at differing levels to support greater consistency in the judgements. This should have enabled the organisation to have a clearer overview of the quality of curriculum in services, however, it was not well understood and therefore not progressed. This remains an improvement action.
Kindercare are working to ensure their plans for improvement are specifically focused on progressing equitable outcomes for every learner. Their initiatives remain targeted on promoting equity of access and inclusion.
The 2021-23 strategic plan has been extended for a further year to support a more deliberate emphasis on distributive leadership, culturally responsive and reciprocal partnerships with whānau, recruitment and retention of personnel. While targeted reporting supports monitoring of progress, leaders have recognised through their analysis, that data gathered from services was less reliable. Kindercare intends to gather and use more reliable data to evaluate the plan at the end of 2024. The findings from this evaluation will inform the development of their new strategic plan.
The five-year te ao Māori action plan was recently evaluated using internal and external cultural expertise. Success indicators were not specifically linked to outcomes for Māori learners limiting the quality of the evaluation findings. A strategic rollout of this plan remained focused at senior leadership and management levels, building capability and competence with many aspects of te ao Māori. This focus is now shifting to building service level competence.
The Pacific action plan to support teachers to work more effectively with Pacific learners was recently developed. The plan requires further refinement, including more robust and measurable indicators of success linked to positive outcomes for Pacific learners and clearer actions.
An overall finding from this evaluation is that more specific and measurable indicators of quality are required across the above two plans.
4 Summary of findings from visits to service
ERO visited a sample of 16 services to verify what Kindercare Learning Centres Limited 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.
Senior leadership review initiatives and professional development identifying successes, challenges and next steps in key areas. Curriculum leaders have continued to develop relevant useful professional learning and development and resources to build teacher capability. Senior leadership are yet to evaluate and report to the board on the effectiveness of professional learning and development provision on improved teacher practice and the difference it is making for children.
High levels of relational trust between centre leaders and area managers and between team leaders and centre leaders have been maintained and continues to support debate and collaboration focused on improvement.
Most services are in the early stages of developing their local curriculum, as area managers and centre leaders are yet to fully understand what this constitutes. While all teams have determined with their communities their curriculum priorities, most are yet to align these with the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum. Some teams have begun to develop a curriculum that is inclusive of the history, stories and places of significance to mana whenua. Clearer guidance and support are needed to build shared understanding across the organisation.
Specific strategies that are supporting learners include maintaining:
- highly evident and agreed teaching practices that enable the realisation of the organisation’s vision of safe and loved
- ‘Head, Heart, Hand’ strategies that are especially responsive to individual needs of very young children and supports them to learn through play in calm and settled environments
- effective partnerships between children, their whānau and external agencies to support children who have additional needs with ongoing learning and development
- inclusive and consistent teaching practices that support diverse learners to be active participants in the curriculum
- an intentional focus on growing children’s social competence and emotional resilience through effective implementation of ‘You Can Do It’ strategies. This programme has not yet been evaluated.
Māori children experience their language and culture through routines, group times and waiata. However, all teams are yet to consider how to use cultural information in planning to better support Māori learners.
Most teaching teams are in the early stages of:
- implementing individual planning for children's learning and intentional teaching strategies that extend and enhance learning
- considering how to reflect the languages, cultures and values of Pacific learners within their curriculum, environment, and teaching practices.
5 Improvement actions
Prior to the next ERO evaluation Kindercare Learning Centres Limited will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning:
- increase the emphasis on the quality of the curriculum across Kindercare services. To support greater consistency in curriculum judgements made across the organisation
- develop agreed, measurable curriculum expectations
- evaluate the quality of curriculum delivery using curriculum expectations to understand the impact on children’s learning and development
- identify service areas for improvement, target PLD and monitor progression
- continue to build all organisational leaders’ capability and collective capacity to use internal evaluation to generate a strategic view of what is working or not and for whom.
6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements
As part of this review, a representative of Kindercare Learning Centres Limited 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.
7 Actions for Compliance
During its visits to sample services ERO identified the following non-compliances:
Non-compliances
Profile number | Name of service | Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Services, 2008Non-compliance identified during this review | Satisfactorily addressed |
| 70575 | Kindercare Learning Centres Clyde 201 | HS4 - 6-monthly reporting to FENZ is undertaken in accordance with the centre’s Fire Evacuation Scheme. HS8 - Adults undertake lockdown drills on an at least three-monthly basis. | Yes
Yes |
| 20084 | Kindercare Learning Centres Grey Lynn | HS12 -Equipment, premises and facilities are checked on every day of operation for hazards to children prior to their arrival. HS28 – Medication record keeping including parental authority and acknowledgement in accordance with the requirement for the category 2 and 3 medicines. | Yes Yes |
8 Next ERO Review
The next ERO review is likely to be in two years.
ERO will visit a different sample of services at that time.
Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)
26 August 2024
9 About the Governing Organisation
| Service types | Education and care service | |
| Total number of licensed services | 51 | |
| Total number of children licensed for across all services | 4419 children, including 775 aged under 2. | |
| Total number of children enrolled across all services | 4465 | |
| Ethnic composition (%) | Māori 13%; NZ European/Pakeha 31%; Pacific 6%; Chinese 13%; Indian 13%; other Asian groups 10%, other European 10%, other ethnic groups 5%. | |
| Number of full-time equivalent teachers | Qualified | 627 |
| Unqualified | 223 | |
| Review team on site | April/June 2024 | |
| Date of this report | 26 August 2024 | |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | Governing Organisation Evaluation. | |
10 List of sampled services
All sampled services are on a full licence.
Services sampled in this evaluation:
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
Assurance Review | Whakatō Emerging | Whāngai Establishing | Whakaū Embedding | Whakawhanake Sustaining |
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
| Governing Organisation | Kindercare Learning Centres Ltd |
| Head Office Location | Auckland |
| Service types | Education and care service |
| Total number of licensed services | 48 |
| Total number of children licensed for across all services | 4107 children, including up to 633 aged under 2 |
| Total number of children enrolled across all services | 4098 children, including up to 985 aged under 2. |
| Ethnic composition* (%) | Māori 11.8% NZ European/Pākehā 32.9%, Chinese 13.7%, Indian 12.8%, Other European 10%, Samoan 2.1%, Tongan 1.2%, Cook Island 0.9%, Fijian 0.4%, Niuean 0.3%, Tokelauan 0.1%, Other Pacific groups 0.3% |
| Number of full-time equivalent teachers | Qualified: 669 |
| Unqualified: 411 | |
| ERO team on site | December 2022 |
| Date of this report | 30 March 2023 |
| Most recent ERO report(s) | No previous ERO reports. |
8 List of sampled services
All sampled services are on a full licence.
Services sampled in this evaluation:
Profile Number | Name of service | Service Type |
| 70163 | Kindercare Learning Centre Avonhead 211 | Education & Care |
| 60092 | Kindercare Learning Centre Ltd Boulcott | Education & Care |
| 20535 | Kindercare Learning Centre 10 P Constellation | Education & Care |
| 20465 | Kindercare Learning Centre 10 B, T and P Constellation | Education & Care |
| 10275 | Kindercare Learning Centre 18 Dannemora | Education & Care |
| 10211 | Kindercare Learning Centre 16 Hilltop | Education & Care |
| 47352 | Kindercare Learning Centre Palmerston North | Education & Care |
| 10108 | Kindercare Learning Centre Papatoetoe | Education & Care |
| 47730 | Kindercare Learning Centre Paraparaumu | Education & Care |
| 46758 | Kindercare Learning Centre Peachgrove Road | Education & Care |
| 20382 | Kindercare Learning Centre 5 Remuera | Education & Care |
| 45054 | Kindercare Learning Centre Sawyers Arms 213 | Education & Care |
| 70071 | Kindercare Learning Centre Tower Junction 215 | Education & Care |
| 46757 | Kindercare Learning Centre Wigram Skies 219 | Education & Care |