An urgent funding boost of $3.7 million is being rolled out to save up to 100 Playcentres from closing this year.
Associate Education Minister Tracey Martin made the announcement today, saying the Covid-19 lockdown disrupted the flow of revenue from grants, donations and fundraising, on top of existing funding issues.
“This gives Playcentre Aotearoa a year’s window to work with the Ministry of Education about the future of Playcentre, what that should look like and where that should be funded from,” Mrs Martin told 1 NEWS.
The measure will hopefully see closures avoided. (Source: Other)
Mrs Martin said she believed Playcentre was a great place to educate children and an “amazing” place to educate parents.
“I’m really excited that Cabinet was kind enough to accept my arguments that we needed to make sure we supported Playcentre and that we can work with Sean and the association and get this going forward for the future.”
Playcentre Aotearoa told 1 NEWS of its financial struggle in May, saying job losses and centre closures were likely in the coming months unless Government provided a funding boost.
Today chief executive Sean McKinley welcomed the news, saying the organisation was “hugely grateful” to Mrs Martin and rest of Government “for coming through for us today".
A further $500,000 has also been received by the organisation from the Government to assess the condition of Playcentres around the country, with many facilities in a state of disrepair.
“Because of the underfunding that we’ve experienced over the last 14 years we really need to invest in those properties to make sure that they’re warm and safe for the tamariki and their parents and whanau that attend our centres.”
He said the organisation would also look for ways to improve other areas of the system in terms of staff being effective in supporting parents.
More than $3 million over four years for Playcentres was also announced at the 2020 Budget.
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