Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa

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 Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa 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

Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa is a national organisation comprised of 384 centre-based parent-led services across five geographical regions. At the time of this evaluation all playcentres were on a full licence. 

Playcentre Aotearoa recently confirmed the charitable trust status following the disestablishment of its Constitution and the establishment of a Trust Deed. A board of eight Trustees co-govern across two whare. The trustees are responsible for the governance and management of Playcentre Aotearoa. They delegate management of Playcentre Aotearoa to the Chief Executive, who reports directly to the Board. 

The Chief Executive leads the Senior Leadership Team and delegates authority to ensure that the operations of Playcentre Aotearoa deliver the required outcomes across all aspects of the organisation. The senior leadership team includes specialist disciplines in adult learning, centre support for licensing, property, and health & safety. The delivery and reporting of all licensed services are carried out by the operational team from a national to a local level, including support for volunteer parents to provide a responsive curriculum. 

Playcentre Aotearoa supports the development of volunteer parents through the delivery of a Level Four qualification through Playcentre Education, a private training establishment. 

Findings from ERO’s evaluation at the governance and organisational level included evaluating the extent to which Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa’s strategic intentions, quality improvement systems, processes and practices support the provision of a quality curriculum at individual service level.

3 Summary of findings

Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa continues to undergo significant change. The Board has effectively used external review to inform change and strengthen its position to drive change. 

Current priorities governance are working towards include:

• a new organisational model that shifts the liability of compliance and administration from parents as volunteers, to governance to better enable regulatory requirements to be met 
• becoming a national organisation of which each playcentre is the local expression
• building national consistency and oversight to ensure the provision of quality curriculum 
• establishing viability and sustainability through a Grow Your Centre Campaign
• clear and intentional use of data contributing to increased engagement in parent education programmes.

Many of these priorities are in the early stages of being developed and implemented.

The guiding philosophy has stayed true to its intent of parents as first teachers of their children by learning and playing alongside each other. Governance and management work collaboratively to develop and enact the organisations’ philosophy, vision, mission, and values. There is a well-established culture of collaboration, consultation and consistently seeking perspectives across all levels of the organisation. 

A long standing two whare model of governance informs decision making, and the establishment of a Hononga Māori rōpū is effectively facilitating engagement and support by Māori for Māori. The strategic appointment of key personnel is better supporting the delivery of operational matters such as property, growth, and strategic development.

There is effective use of external funding streams and internal expertise to deliver professional development, primarily by the Ministry of Education’s Strengthening Early Learning Opportunities funded SELO programme. Leaders are yet to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development in relation to impact on outcomes for learners.

Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa is in the early stages of developing and implementing quality improvement systems at governance and management level. Strategic priorities have yet to be fully determined in consultation with whānau. Improvement systems process and practices that are not yet well developed include: 

• systems for managing flow of information across the organisation to better support national identity, consistency of practice, and knowing about progress and impact in relation to key objectives
• building knowledge of how the two-whare governance approach supports tamariki Māori
• knowledge and use of effective internal evaluation at all levels of the organisation for ongoing improvement and knowing the impact of changes made on outcomes for learners.

Most playcentres are in the early stages of growing their understanding and recognising the importance of acknowledging the diverse strengths and needs of Pacific learners. Leaders have acknowledged that they have yet to develop a specific strategy that would benefit these learners. 

Purposeful provision of adult education is supporting ongoing learning for parents to deliver play-based learning programmes and a bicultural curriculum. However, this is not yet an established practice by parents across all regions.

4 Summary of findings from visits to services

ERO visited a sample of 19 services from the Central North Island region to verify what Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa 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. 

The regional team actively promote parents as first teachers, adult education programmes and current national initiatives. 

Practices and conditions that promote positive outcomes for children include: 

• provision of a curriculum consistent with the breath of Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum where children play and learn alongside their parents and whānau in mixed aged settings
• programmes for parents that promote the delivery of a responsive curriculum 
• calm and unhurried environments that effectively support infants and toddlers to explore through a wide range of sensory, creative and physical learning experiences
• a curriculum that encourages children’s independence.

Building regional and national leadership capacity and capability to enhance children’s learning and better support parents and centre support roles is required to:

• implement useful assessment, planning and evaluation that shows children’s developing capabilities in relation to the learning outcomes from Te Whāriki over time
• reflect the cultural context of each community by including the language culture and identity of the children who attend 
• ensure that systems for maintaining compliance with the regulatory requirements are robustly implemented and monitored. 

5 Improvement actions

Prior to the next ERO evaluation Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa will progress the following actions through its Quality Improvement Planning. These are to:

• define the strategic priorities across the organisation that are focused on what is most important for all groups of children 
• build centre advisor and regional leaders shared understanding of the regulatory requirements to support rigorous oversight of compliance within playcentres. This approach should provide assurance to those responsible for governance that all regulatory requirements are being met
• establish agreed communication expectations, systems, and processes for reporting at each leadership level to better enable information flow to inform decision making.

6 Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

As part of this review, a representative of Te Whānau Tupu Ngātahi o Aotearoa - Playcentre Aotearoa 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 

8 Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be in 1 year.

ERO will visit a different sample of services at that time.

Patricia Davey
Director of Early Childhood Education (ECE)

25 March 2024

9 About the Governing Organisation 

10 List of sampled services

All sampled services are on a full licence.

Services sampled in this evaluation: