Look & Learn

With so little rigorous research or monitoring, it’s impossible to know how many of the country's early education centres are falling short in what they provide for children and babies. Experts say the “lax” regulations must change.

- Catherine Woulfe

Welcome to winter: season of southerlies, snuffles and being stuck inside.

So, what will these next few months be like for our smallest and most vulnerable children? University of Otago public health researcher Mike Bedford points out that for this generation of littlies, spending 50-hour weeks in busy early childhood education is not uncommon.

“They might be dropped off at 7.30 in the morning and picked up at 6 pm. Dropped off at 7, picked up at 5.30pm. For all of that time, the childcare centre is their world, that’s what they’re living in. That’s home.”

He has done ground-breaking doctoral research that indicates some of these “homes” may not be the cosy places we expect them to be.

Take temperature: our regulations are “indefensible”, Bedford says. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends a minimum of 18°C for an adult environment, and for babies, 21°C.

“New Zealand has the lowest indoor temperature requirement [for early childhood education, or ECE] that I can find anywhere in the world,” Bedford says, “at least in jurisdictions where the requirements are in English. The only equivalent minimum temperature is Tasmania.”

Our standard is just 16°C, for children as well as babies.

Last winter, Bedford spent seven weeks monitoring 21 centres in the Wellington region and found that only two managed to stay above that “indefensible” minimum for all of the time children were present. (He gave centres at least half an hour’s grace in the mornings, when doors are often open for drop-offs.)

Four centres stayed below regulation for more than 40% of the time. And in some, temperatures dropped even lower – below 14°C – for up to 17% of the time children were there.