Cuts to frontline staffing for children with special needs have been revealed, on the same day as the findings of a new survey highlighted an urgent need to address delays in support for our youngest children.
Figures presented to Parliament today by Labour education spokesman Chris Hipkins showed the Ministry of Education had reduced frontline numbers, such as speech therapists and advisers, by 41 staff since 2011.
In that same time period, Mr Hipkins said, staffing in the ministry's public relations unit had increased by more than 200%, with spending almost tripling to $2.4 million during that time. The ministry now has 21 public relations staff.
In the House, Education Minister Hekia Parata said she was unaware of the details of the cuts.
However, she said while there had been an underspend of $3.5 million in special education last year, most of that was at school level. The special education budget was up 26% to $530 million in total, which was very large in comparison to the public relations spending, she said.
The minister said the public relations team provided timely access to information, and had recently modernised the ministry's website.
The release of the figures during Question Time came just before a parliamentary inquiry into learning difficulties heard the results of a survey carried out by the Early Childhood Council.
It found 80% of the council's member centres surveyed believed children were suffering developmental delay due to inadequate support services.
The council's chief executive, Peter Reynolds, said the survey of 153 early childhood centres also found 90% of centres said they did not receive Education Support Workers (similar to teacher aides for preschool children) for the time needed, while 59% waited more than three months for assistance with assessment and diagnosis.
Presenting to the inquiry into dyslexia, dyspraxia, and autism education, he said almost a quarter of children waited more than six months for assessment services, and when they did come, 57% of centres rated the services as "poor" or "very poor".
Mr Reynolds provided several examples of bad practice, including one case where a Ministry of Education Early Intervention teacher had advised an early childhood centre to not enrol a child because the centre was unlikely to receive help any time soon.
He said there were teachers with no idea how to help the children, who were sometimes very violent, and who had punched, kicked and bitten as a consequence, and in some cases injured teachers.
"These findings beg a question," he said, "if not Government, if not teachers, if not centre management, who is in a position to provide timely and effective help for all those children and their families? The answer, it appears, very often, is 'no one'."
Mr Reynolds said the delays could cause pre-schoolers to suffer isolations and anxiety, and leave them to fall further behind. Transitions to school were then " hopelessly inadequate".
The survey mirrors figures in the Ministry of Education's annual report this year, which found that almost half of preschoolers referred to a government service because of learning or behavioural difficulties are not getting help quickly enough.
Children with a development or learning delay, a disability or behavioural difficulty that significantly affects their ability to learn can be referred to the government-funded Early Intervention Service.
The inquiry into learning difficulties will continue for several more select committee sessions. A government update into special education is also under way.
