The Government established up to 20 hours of free early childhood education for 3- and 4-year-olds in teacher-led services in July 2007, but not all children were able to access the scheme and optional charges were being made by providers.
From January 2009, the word "free" was removed from the policy.
A report, co-authored by University of Otago College of Education dean Prof Helen May and University of Waikato School of Education senior lecturer Dr Linda Mitchell, was released to the public yesterday and set out a vision for quality public early childhood education for 2020.
The report, called Strengthening Community-based Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa-New Zealand, came from the Quality Public Early Childhood Education Project. The project involved nine organisations representing a diverse range of services, including education and care centres, kindergartens, play-centres and home-based services, and the New Zealand Educational Institute.
There was a wealth of research showing quality early childhood education had long-lasting effects on the educational outcomes for children, the report said.
Participation levels in early childhood education in New Zealand have risen dramatically in recent years.
However, those children who were most disadvantaged were also those most likely to miss out, the report found.
There are still large gaps in the quality, provision, accessibility and affordability in many communities. The community sector would like to serve those communities, but lacks the capital to expand.
The report recommended lobbying, and developing policy, for a national approach to the provision of early childhood education.
Strengthening community-based services to provide more opportunities for all children would be a key focus.
"The goals and strategies will require new partnerships among ECE services, local communities and the Government," the report said.
"Collaboration at national and local levels to develop coherent patterns of ECE provision could invoke a sense of commitment to the quality of ECE in every community, as well as to provision that meets national and community aspirations.
"Collaboration offers the potential to stimulate new ideas of the roles that early childhood education might play, not only in strengthening children's learning and wellbeing, but also in supporting adults and building community cohesion."
Otago early childhood education providers and parents welcomed the report.
Parent of two under the age of 5, Jackie Daniels, said the present situation was complicated and did not work well for families.
Her daughter, Gabby, is at the University of Otago Childcare Association and her recently born son was on the waiting list to go there.
"But there is no guarantee he'll get in," she said.
"Ideally, I would like them both to go to the same place. If they can't, I'll have to take my oldest out and put them both on another waiting list to get in somewhere else," she said.
"I don't want to be traipsing around the city dropping off and picking kids up from different places."
NZEI president Frances Nelson said the report ultimately called for an expansion of free provision of early childhood education as a fundamental right.
"Early childhood education provides the foundation for all future learning, and families in all types of communities should have the right to access high quality services. This report is significant for that vision," she said.
