National ECD Context – policy, issues and possibilities

National ECD Context –

policy, issues and

possibilities

Presentation Eastern Cape Planning Commission & ECD Forum:

Possibilities for the future of ECD in the Eastern Cape Workshop.

ITEC 18th and 19th March 2014

Linda Biersteker

[email protected]

1

• The following slides are largely from the Draft National Policy presentation at the National Consultation on March 4th 2014

Current National ECD policy

brief • Develop a policy that

• Supports universalisation of ECD

• Recognises ECD as a right & public good

• Identifies government roles and players

• Addresses the role of NGOs

• Establishes the necessary managements

and coordination structure to lead the ECD

vision

Some foundational inputs from

consultations

• Agreement that ECD Is a universal right & public good Is about the holistic development But often associated with only one

aspect of ECD - learning State is duty bound to provide ECD Heightened duty for vulnerable

children

What is ECD and why is the State

responsible?

• ECD is a universal right – all children are

entitled to without discrimination

• It benefits the child and the country’s

development as a whole

• Therefore the State is duty bound to

provide ECD

Greater

equality A powerful

mechanism to

assist

redistribution

Evidence is growing that the most powerful investment in human capital that a

country can make is in ECD services - with compounding returns

More

education Better

learning,

more

schooling

Better

health Reduces risk

for chronic

disease and

promotes

personal &

social health

Stronger

economy Higher wages

and greater

productivity

Better

society Less crime and

violence,

greater social

cohesion

ESSENTIAL CONDITIONS FOR EARLY CHILD DEVELOPMENT

• Nutrition and health care

• Opportunities for early learning

• Safety

• Responsive parenting

• Family support (including social protection eg CSG)

Benefits of ECD Investments

What is the State’s responsibility to

secure universalisation?

Develop an ECD system that ensures:

Universal availability of all ECD services -

enough services close enough to allow all an

equal opportunity to access;

Equitable access - measures to address

access barriers for vulnerable children

Quality services that are age and stage-

appropriate and suited to context

Essential Versus

Comprehensive Services • Legal distinction between “essential” &

“comprehensive” package of rights – • Essential services:

• Birth registration (section 28 of the Constitution) • Nutritional support and food (s28) • Basic health care services (s28) • Social services and grants (s28) • Safe and affordable child care (s28) • Early childhood education (s28 and S29) • Information (s32)

Prioritised Essential Services and

Children

• Prioritisation of some essential services and certain children required by law and science

• Who: • 0 – 2 year olds • Poverty • Living in underserviced areas (rural and informal urban areas) • With developmental delays

• What: Priority essential services: • Nutritional support • Parenting support • Opportunities for early learning / early childhood care and

education • Medical services

Implications of prioritisation?

• Implication 1: Staggered delivery time line Essential moving to comprehensive

• Long term – comprehensive services and support

• Medium-term – provide all essential services

• Short-term – put in place the necessary institutional drivers and arrangements

Implication 2: Higher duty for at risk

children • General duty to make available for all children

– with focus on under-provided services • More onerous duty to ensure access for children

at risk • State must provide infrastructure, facilities and

fund appropriate quality essential priority services

• where not available for children at risk • are available but access barriers prevent

enjoyment

National ECD Policy Vision

All young children and their families in South Africa live in environments conducive to the optimal development of young children. More specifically, all young children and their caregivers in South Africa have timely access to age- and developmental-stage-appropriate comprehensive quality ECD services and support

National ECD Policy Goals

Long-term goal: By 2030, a comprehensive package of quality ECD services available and accessible Medium-term goal: By 2022, an essential package Short-term goal: By 2015, the necessary legal and operational foundations are in place

EP design and delivery framework to

achieve Goals

• 4 Service delivery domains Health care and nutrition Social protection Parenting support Opportunities for learning (care & ed)

• Across 3 age-groups Pregnancy 0-2 2 - 5

Priorities

• Under-provided services

• Parenting support

• Opportunities for learning

• And nutrition

• Vulnerable children

• Pregnancy to 2 years

• Poorest 65% of children

• Children in under-serviced areas

• Children with developmental difficulties /

disabilities

Programme priority 1

• Family, home and centre-based support for

pregnant women and children under 2 to

provide parenting support – material,

psychosocial support & educational

• Through health facilities and home visits

mother and child workers (falling within the

health sector)

• Capacitated child-minders

• Pre-registration in pregnancy for CSG


• Development of a multi-sectoral national

nutrition strategy for children under 5

• Promoting breastfeeding

• Counselling on complementary and

responsive feeding

• Growth monitoring, early identification and

follow-up

• Micronutrient and food supplementation


• Universal available early learning

opportunities for most vulnerable through

• Early learning support to parents

• Capacitated child minders

• Community-based early learning playgroups for 0-

2 and 2-4 year olds

• Community-based early learning centres for 3 – 4

year olds

• Pre-Grade R programme for 4- 5 year olds

• Increased parental demand


• Inclusion and support for children with

developmental delays / disabilities through the

development of a multi-sectoral inclusive ECD

disability policy, laws and programme

• Prevention, early identification and remediation

• Community based rehabilitation

• Strengthened social security

• Provision of adequate and appropriate

resources to support the policy and

programme


• Development of a national public ECD

communications strategy to promote development

and use of ECD services

• Targeting

• Children

• Parents

• Leaders in government, civil society, trade

unions, business and the media

Structural foundations necessary to

support the national ECD system

• Effective management and coordination of ECD in SA

• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities

• Provision of adequate ECD funding

• Provision of adequate ECD infrastructure

• Provision of adequate ECD HR

• Effective ECD monitoring, evaluation, quality control

and improvement

Effective management and

coordination of the ECD services

and system

Objectives • Strengthen departmental leadership;

and • Establish a coordinated national

management and oversight system for ECD

Effective management and coordination of the

ECD services and system ctd

Goal: By 2015 • Established a national ECD agency • Assigned responsibility to the:

DOH for the mother-and-child worker programme DSD for the administration and oversight of community-

based programmes DBE for Pre-Grade R year (to extent implemented in

schools) and early learning curriculum development and oversight.

Responsibilities of the ECD agency

• Plan, coordinate & monitor national programme of ECD • Support key government departments • Develop & support implementation of specific

programmes Nutrition support. Parenting support National inclusive ECD disability programme Early learning

• Establish high level targets and norms and standards • Strengthen alignment of budget bids with the national

ECD Policy

Role of Non-Government Sector

• NGOs & private sector have an important support role

• But cannot absolve State of responsibilities

• Requires State regulation, monitoring & oversight

• Within a common ECD framework

National ECD funding policy

The objective: For the State to secure and distribute sufficient funds to ensure universal availability & equitable access to ECD services, especially for low income families that cannot afford user fees.

National ECD funding policy ctd..

• Funding is in place for health, social security and birth registration

• But insufficient for parent support and early learning • Policy commits to the provision of funding in these

areas for Programme support - post costs and a per-child

subsidy Infrastructure development Training National and provincial management, supervision

& oversight The National ECD Agency’s costs


Eligibility criteria for per-child subsidy will be aligned to eligibility for the CSG (approximately 65% of 0-4) and calculated to cover cost of participation in early learning programme Post-allocations to early learning playgroups and centres - based on ratios & norms as specified in the HR policy COGTA will receive, and in turn allocate, ring-fenced infrastructure grants to municipalities to support the national ECD infrastructure policy.


• Funding will be made more accessible through the promotion of conditional registration

• GRSA bears overall responsibility for securing

sufficient funds. To do so it will: Increase the allocation of public funds, and mobilise funding from additional sources, and coordinate funding through a national ECD

funding framework.

Infrastructure policy

• Two types of infrastructure are required : Service delivery infrastructure Management infrastructure

• There is sufficient infrastructure for health, social

security and birth registration But, insufficient infrastructure for parenting support and

opportunities for learning / early learning services.

Infrastructure policy ctd …

• To scale up requires a massive Government-driven expansion of infrastructure.

• Infrastructure includes: For service provision - buildings, spaces

inside and outside, water and sanitation and electricity, learning materials and equipment.

For management - offices, cars, water and sanitation, electricity, connectivity / communications infrastructure.

Infrastructure policy ctd…

The GRSA will develop multi-faceted expansion programme which will:

• Make use of fixed existing ECD infrastructure – such as health facilities, primary schools

• Make use of other under-utilised public infrastructure • Under-utilised non-government spaces • Mobile and other outreach facilities e.g. Toy Libraries • Increase no of registered programmes through

conditional registration drive • Amend and diversify infrastructure norms

Infrastructure policy

• Where no existing infrastructure is available Municipalities must provide land and buildings for the establishment of new Early Learning Centres in under-served areas.

• The provision of water, sanitation and electricity must be included in the expansion programme.

• Infrastructure to include sufficient learning and teaching support materials & equipment to support quality services.

Human resources policy

• The objective of the HR policy is to Develop appropriate cadres of ECD workers, in sufficient numbers, and with sufficient skills

• Workers required Mother and child ECD workers Facilitators for out of centre programmes e.g

playgroups Practitioners for centres ECD coordinators / supervisors Cooks

Human resources policy ctd…

• HR capacity and training capacity is limited • To remedy, a multi-pronged policy will

• combine short courses to increase skills with ongoing accredited training

• Expand community health worker programme within the DOH to include the mother & child worker category, trained through a specialised short course

• Develop national early learning playgroup facilitator programme, with standardised short-course training provided

Human resources policy ctd…

; . In the longer term they will be supported to participate in accredited training; .

• Use all available training capacity for accredited training – FET colleges, NGOs and private providers

• Align national qualifications to EP with respect to NQF Level 4 and Level 5 training ;

• Articulation of the ECD NQF Level 4 and 5 qualifications to enable progress to an ECD Level 6 qualification or a Bachelor’s degree in Education

• Enable career pathing/professionalisation

Monitoring, evaluation and quality

control

.

A centralised national ECD monitoring and evaluation framework will be developed under the leadership of the Agency which will: • Annually measure progress towards achievement of the national

policy vision, goals and objectives, • Assess the ECD programmes for which the Agency is directly

responsible, • Develop mechanisms the use of evaluation results to improve

planning and quality of services • With line departments, develop appropriate quality and

qualification norms and standards for the delivery of quality services

Strategic pillars of monitoring,

evaluation and quality control

.

• Continuing quality improvement: Objective Establish processes for continuing quality improvement across

all modes of service delivery • Monitoring of the national ECD programme: Objectives

Track access, participation and growth of individual children in ECD services;

Assess the adequacy, efficiency and quality of local service provision; and

Support planning for adequate resourcing of the district in order to meet the targets of coverage and quality of services.

Strategic pillars of monitoring,

evaluation and quality control ctd

.

• Administrative policies and procedures: Objective To enable especially vulnerable children to

benefit from public financing for ECD & Ensure an appropriate level of health and

safety in ECD centres and programmes.

National ECD Context – policy, issues and possibilities

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