Quality in early childhood education (ECE) is not an accident. It is the result of aligned systems that recognise care as both heart work and skilled work. The ECE Funding Review (MAG 2025) provides the opportunity to rebuild that alignment. For too long, wages, ratios, and registration have been treated as separate conversations, rather than as a single ecosystem of protection and pedagogy.
As the Ministry of Education (2025) notes, workforce funding must now reflect the true cost of quality, not only the financial but also the relational and ethical costs. When teachers are supported, ratios are safe, and registration is universal, protection is built in by design.
We cannot protect children if we do not protect the people who care for them.
1 - Wages: The Measure of Dignity
Pay is not just an employment issue; it is an ethical one. When wages lag behind parity, the message is clear: ECE work is undervalued. OECD (2021) found that low wages directly correlate with staff turnover and lower relational stability in early learning settings. Each resignation disrupts attachment, continuity, and trust.
The Teaching Council of Aotearoa NZ (2024) reminds us through Our Code, Our Standards that professional care is both an ethical and relational obligation. Fair pay makes this possible by creating the time and stability needed for teachers to notice, respond, and protect.
2 - Ratios: The Arithmetic of Attention
Ratios determine the rhythm of care. When ratios are stretched, attention fragments. As Education Counts (2023) highlights, services with lower ratios report stronger outcomes in social-emotional development and fewer incidents requiring behavioural intervention. Safe ratios create the space for kaiako to be present, attuned, and proactive.
Inadequate ratios, by contrast, generate reactive environments with more stress, less observation, and higher risk. The Funding Review should establish ratio settings that balance safety, sustainability, and affordability while recognising the biological truth: children learn and regulate through consistent, responsive relationships (Harvard Center on the Developing Child, 2016).
3 - Registration: The Spine of Accountability
Registration represents the profession’s shared commitment to competence, ethics, and protection. Yet, gaps remain. Not all adults in ECE are registered, and many face administrative barriers to maintaining their qualification or registration status.
The Teaching Council (2024) requires employers to make mandatory reports on competence or conduct under the Education and Training Act 2020, but these obligations apply only to registered teachers. Meanwhile, the Oranga Tamariki Act (1989, updated 2024) allows any person to report a concern about child safety under Section 15 but does not make it mandatory for unregistered adults.
The review can close this policy gap by introducing a baseline safeguarding qualification linked to a simplified, low-cost registration pathway. This would create a consistent duty of care across the workforce while reducing administrative burden.
4 - Leadership and Trust: The Compass of Culture
Leadership is where policy becomes practice. Strong leaders turn funding into culture by modelling ethical reflection and relational consistency. The Ministry of Education’s (2024) Regulatory Review of ECE found that leadership workload, administrative pressure, and limited time for mentoring directly affect quality and safety outcomes.
A rebalanced funding model must include paid time for supervision, coaching, and professional dialogue, the unseen infrastructure of protection. When leaders are supported, trust flows outward to kaiako, whānau, and children.
Leadership accountability is not about control; it is about culture.
5 - The System as a Whole
Wages, ratios, and registration cannot be solved in isolation. They are the interconnected framework of dignity and protection. The Funding Review must therefore treat them as an integrated design challenge, ensuring that:
- Wage parity is maintained across qualifications and service types.
- Ratios are evidence-based and child-centred.
- Registration and safeguarding qualifications are universal, simple, and sustainable.
When all three levers align, quality becomes stable, protection becomes routine, and trust becomes measurable.
Quality is not a policy; it is a system alignment.
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Reflection Prompts
- How do wages and ratios affect your ability to lead ethically and sustainably?
- Where does registration strengthen or complicate accountability in your service?
- How could funding make these levers work together rather than compete for attention?
Inline References
- Ministry of Education (2025). ECE Funding Review (MAG 2025). education.govt.nz.
- OECD (2021). Starting Strong VI: Supporting Meaningful Access and Quality in ECEC. oecd.org.
- Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (2024). Our Code, Our Standards: The Code of Professional Responsibility and Standards for the Teaching Profession. teachingcouncil.nz.
- Education Counts (2023). ECE Participation and Ratio Data. educationcounts.govt.nz.
- Oranga Tamariki (1989, updated 2024). Oranga Tamariki Act, Section 15: Reporting Concerns. orangatamariki.govt.nz.
- Harvard Center on the Developing Child (2016). From Best Practices to Breakthrough Impacts. developingchild.harvard.edu.