Contents:

1. Introduction
2. Our Standards
3. Timing of the first ever complaint in 13 years
4. Centre’s own planned self review
5. MOE visit
6. Full list of why 24 items were classed “non-compliance” items.
7. Positive outcomes in the end
   • MOE approval of full license on 15 Nov 2021 for an increase in license number by 25% (i.e. from 40 to 50 children)
   • A new Centre Manager
   • A new Team Leader
   • Two new staff recruited in 2021 to meet growing enrolments
   • Full parent support about the 24 “non-compliance” issues
   • Highest occupancy in the centre’s history throughout COVID
   • Expansion of Under 2’s with a waiting list into 2022
   • After a trail of complaints from centres in Tauranga, we understand the MOE licensing officer has been moved to a different division within the Ministry.

1. Introduction – Did the Ministry of Education’s approach to compliance go too far this time?

The Ministry of Education (MOE) has an enormous job of setting minimum quality standards, licensing, and auditing over 4600 ECE organisations in NZ. We have always supported spot-checks and random audits of ECE centres to ensure and even lift minimum standards, but recently we have had to reflect whether MOE had gone too far this time in choosing an “ambush” approach to check the compliances of an ECE centre. This article describes a recent experience within one of our own centres – Fern Garden Preschool in Tauranga, and the manner in which 24 issues were identified to provide “further evidence” for:

• 18 of which (75%) were already in practice within the centre as able to be located and evidenced by our new manager and new head teacher immediately after the visit,
• the remaining 6 (25%) needing additional evidence to be produced by our team who had been severely disrupted over the past several months due to:
  • 2020 COVID lockdowns,
  • centre building rennovation plans,
  • first staffing restructure (COVID triggered) in 10 years, and
  • change in centre management (one week prior).

Every centre has to meet over 300 compliance requirements every minute of every day they are open – and that’s just the MOE requirements.  We accept this – we are very proud of our team at Fern Garden who have proven themselves (within and outside the ECE sector) to be among industry leaders at this for over 10 years, but we question the way in which this recent episode was approached by an MOE officer “M” in the middle of our restructure, centre management transition, COVID recovery transition, and renovation plans.

2. OUR STANDARDS

We regularly reflect on our quality standards and how they are set by our directors to be intentionally higher than MOE regulations whether it be:

• Investing in ample nature-themed indoor and outdoor spaces for children;
• Investing in over 90% qualified teachers (minimum in the funding band is 80%) and aiming for 100% qualified teachers in 2022;
• Investing in more teachers than required with our 1:3 / 1:4 ratios for babies vs 1:5 MOE regulations;
• Investing in more teachers than required with our 1:8 ratios for preschoolers vs. 1:10 MOE regulations;
• Investing in centre operations that have proven to be award winning;
• Investing in our very own invented parent portal called “Learning Roots and Shoots™”;
• Investing in excellence with over a dozen independently judged and audited national awards or accolades (nearly every year over the last decade).

3. TIMING OF THE FIRST and ONLY COMPLAINT IN THE 13 YEAR HISTORY OF THE CENTRE

The first and only complaint to the MOE about Fern Garden in 13 years was presented to our centre in September, immediately after the country emerged out of 2020 lockdowns, and immediately after a concurrent change in centre management. At the time we received this complaint, our new centre restructure to support our COVID recovery, including a new centre manager and new head teacher, had just started (their first week in the job).

Following the initial visit and swift resolution of the complaint, the MOE officer “M” then unexpectedly proceeded to walk throughout the entire centre requesting further information relating to the full ECE licensing criteria. Our new leadership team (still yet to be fully inducted within their first week) were understandably unable to provide instant responses about HR folders, archive locations of planning, reviews, excursions and documentation and other historical events. The owners (husband and wife team Nikeeta and Dr Darius Singh) were unable to attend the meeting in Tauranga as they are based in Auckland and were concurrently recovering two sister centres off the back of recent Auckland COVID lockdowns. However, the new centre manager and team leader were able to eventually respond to questions and provide requested information within a few days (most by the next day). Regardless, MOE officer “M” still kept the list of 24 issues that was requested on the day and MOE did not change their stance even though over 75% had been evidenced within one to five days. Even one year later (including several delays due to further COVID lockdowns) – that list still reported 24 “provide evidence” requests, as though they had still not been met, causing damaging negative perceptions. Note that our own Fern Garden community of teachers, parents and whanau transparently witnessed the scene of the day and saw the MOE “provide evidence” requests being addressed within the first week.

Furthermore, no acknowledgement was taken by the MOE officer “M” of the challenging circumstances in which the centre was operating at the time such as :

• still inducting a new centre manager,
• still inducting a new head teacher,
• still settling staff from the first restructure (due to COVID) in 10 years,
• recovering out of COVID lockdowns, and
• major renovation plans to expand the building to meet the growing demand and waitlist for our under 2’s.

Requests were made to MOE officer “M” for a delayed repeat visit to allow for the necessary induction of the new leadership team (so that at least they could be familiar with the centre and show MOE all files and systems on the day of their visit). These requests were denied.  Even in these circumstances, the majority of issues were minor and resolved within one to five days.  But at what cost?

Any parent or teacher or other ECE professional reading the high level “provide evidence” requests from MOE, unchanged for one year, could be forgiven to thinking our centre still wasn’t safe, and that our team was not doing the job they do so well every day. Fortunately for the centre, because of our transparency and openness to all matters raised by the Ministry, our parents were extremely supportive and agreeable with our position that they could see for themselves each and every day – so much so, that enrolments grew by word of mouth to reach record high levels at Fern Garden, and continue to have a one year waiting list today. All despite the list of 24 requests that continued to be reported as needing to “provide evidence” by MOE throughout 2021.

How many other ECE centres are being subjected to this similar treatment of unfair and unreasonable conditions in which to present their centre? Interestingly, we understand from the wake of several ECE centres in Tauranga who made complaints about a similar experience by the same MOE official, that MOE officer “M” has since been relocated into a different “non customer facing” department within the Ministry.

4. CENTRE’S OWN SELF-TRIGGERED, PLANNED REVIEW

• Phase one of this planned review was a significant redesign of the interior of the entire centre during 2017/2018, which ERO acknowledged and commended in their 2018 quality review. Extracts include:
  • “A major upgrade to buildings and furniture in 2017 has significantly improved the learning environment in both age-group spaces.”
  • “The centre is well resourced to enhance child-directed learning.”
  • “Governance is effective. A clear vision and philosophy guide centre practice. This is supported by a robust policy framework, and effective organisational systems and processes. Internal evaluation at different levels of centre operation is evident and leads to ongoing development and improvement. A well-developed appraisal process supports teachers to critically reflect on and improve their practice.”
• Phase two of the planned review was a further expansion of the Under 2’s indoor and outdoor spaces, planned during 2020. However, due to COVID lockdown disruptions throughout 2020 and the concurrent change in centre management, this project could only resume back on track in September, which coincided with the above MOE visit.

Parents have been supportive and agreeable with our position that they can see for themselves each and every day – so much so that enrolments have grown by word of mouth and referrals to reach record high levels at Fern Garden and continue to have a waiting list until 2022…

We understand that following several complaints from other ECE centres in Tauranga, MOE officer “M” has since been relocated into another department within the Ministry

5. MOE VISIT 

• 2007 (MOE original centre license),
• 2011 (MOE license),
• 2015 (ERO) and
• 2018 (ERO).

In fact, we have always welcomed audits and inspections over the last 10 years across our three centres and seen this as an opportunity for an extra set of professional eyes to upgrade and improve our policies, procedures and practices. This has fed into our continuous improvement philosophy and made us and our teams who and what we are today for our communities and tamariki.

When combined across our three centres, we have seen over a dozen ERO visits or MOE licence visits over the last 10 years. That means the directors, Nikeeta Singh and Dr Darius Singh, have personally met and engaged with MOE for a license visit / financial audit or ERO for a centre-wide audit every 10 months over the last decade (i.e. rotating on average across all centres, not every 10 months at each centre!). They had never encountered an approach by a MOE or ERO officer as Fern Garden had encountered with Officer “M” in September 2020.

In this particular instance, the directors were dealing with COVID lockdown and restarting issues for their Auckland communities and were not available for the first time to meet with MOE in Tauranga, leaving their new leadership team exposed and vulnerable, despite their written request to MOE officer “M” for additional time to settle and induct them properly.

The full centre license review by MOE officer “M” went ahead regardless, and “non-compliance” items are listed below, alongside subsequent evidence provided within 1-5 days.

For the next 12 months, MOE did not remove ANY item from the list that were resolved within one day or one week of their visit (given our new leadership team needed the necessary time to locate and provide all the required evidence) and so MOE continued to publish the full list of 24 headlines, as though the centre was still non-complying to these. This could not be further from the truth as repeatedly evidenced and approved by MOE since.

Even though items were evidenced immediately after the visit by our new manager and new team leader team, MOE had not removed any items from their list for an entire year

6. FULL LIST OF 24 ITEMS TO “PROVIDE MORE EVIDENCE” ABOUT

Out of the 24 items raised by MOE in the table below:

• 18 of the items (75%) were evidenced within a few days and well before official notification was received about the “requests for evidence” at the time of the visit,
• the remaining 6 items required additional evidence for areas which take time to show, such as ongoing PLD and mentoring of our team which had been severely disrupted over the past 12 months due to COVID and a change in centre manager,
• a major item was the basis of granting an extensions in early and mid 2021, due to COVID delays in the construction sector (i.e. backlogged supply of materials, labour and consents). This was the final phase of a significant long term self-review for our Under 2’s renovation project.

Fore Details Please Visit following links https://www.chrysaliscare.co.nz/blog-post/roller-coaster-sucess-for-dr-darius-singh-and-nikeeta-singh-for-their-centre-under-fire/

7. OUTCOMES AND KEY NEXT STEPS…

Every centre has to meet over 300 compliance requirements every minute of every day they are open – and that’s just the MoE and ERO requirements.  We accept this – we are very proud of our team at Fern Garden who have been among industry leaders at this for over 10 years – we are incredibly grateful for our new manager’s professionalism and expertise in steering a steady pathway through this, but we question the way in which this episode was approached by MOE officer “M” in the middle of our critical restructure, centre management transition, COVID recovery transition, and renovation plans.

In the case of MOE’s visit late last year (2020), fixing licensing breaches such as changing a single word in several of our policies have been welcomed and immediately implemented. Documented evidence of policies, procedures and practices that have always existed, but could not be presented on the day by our new centre manager (who was still yet to be fully inducted into the centre), has been communicated to MOE. Where applicable, we have welcomed the upgrades.

This experience highlights the challenges faced by many childcare centres throughout the country.  The Ministry has the role to ensure licensed services meet their standards and offer a safe and welcoming environment to children.  But we wonder about their approach taken here.  Regrettably, this experience is not unique and we fear the next occurrence of this approach by MOE to any other ECE centre in our sector.

No appreciation was taken by MOE officer “M” of the challenging circumstances in which the centre was operating. Requests for a delayed visit to allow for the necessary induction of the new leadership team (so that at least they could show MOE all files and systems on the day of their visit), were denied.  Even in those circumstances, the majority of issues were minor and resolved within one to five days.  But at what cost? 

Any parent or teacher reading the high level “breaches” of the Ministry’s concerns could be forgiven to thinking our centre wasn’t safe and wasn’t welcoming.  And that our team were not doing the job they do so well every day. Fortunately for us, because of our transparency and openness to all matters raised by the Ministry, our parents have been extremely supportive and agreeable with our position that they can see for themselves each and every day – so much so that enrolments have grown by word of mouth and referrals to reach record high levels at Fern Garden and continue to have a waiting list today. All despite the list of 24 requests that continued to be reported as “needing to provide evidence” by MOE for an entire year.

Given the details of this particular case, the title of this article is an appropriate and open reflection of whether the MOE had gone too far this time in requesting information from a centre and then instantly declaring 24 non-compliance items not able to be answered on the spot by a new manager and new head teacher on the day.

We are pleased that the majority of requests were able to be evidenced prior to receiving official notification of the list of 24 issues, and we are grateful for MOE’s extension based around Phase 2 of our planned construction project that was delayed due to COVID and has now been completed.

We are also grateful for the new MOE licensing team to have stepped in an approved a full license on 15 November 2021 with an increase in the number licensed from 40 to 50 children.

We believe that no centre should have to go through this experience, and we are immensely proud of our multi-award winning Fern Garden team as they continue to stand taller and stronger today with the following positive outcomes for our community:

• MOE approval of full license on 15 November 2021 for an increase in license number by 25% (i.e. from 40 to 50 children)
• A new Centre Manager
• A new Team Leader
• Two new staff recruited in 2021 to meet growing enrolments
• Full parent support about the 24 “non-compliance” issues
• Highest occupancy in the centre’s history throughout COVID
• Expansion of Under 2’s with a waiting list into 2022
• After a trail of complaints from centres in Tauranga, we understand the MOE licensing officer has been moved to a different division within the Ministry.

Centre directors, Nikeeta Singh and Dr Darius Singh are qualified educators and continue the vision and legacy of both their parents and grandparents who have dedicated their lives to education as qualified teachers. This experience is too important to remain silent about, brush aside or be forgotten, and so they are available at any time:

• to discuss anything in-person,
• to clarify any matters of fact,
• to share their “upgraded” and “approved wording” policies with any centre,
• to support another ECE centre owner/manager/team who may be going through a similar experience,
• or to further discuss any other matters described above.

Please email directly at [email protected] or call mobile 021 0477 276.