8. LESLEY SOPER (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister for Social Development and Employment
What is the Government doing to invest further in the provision of out-of-school care?
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister for Social Development and Employment) Link to this
The Government in Budget 2007 has committed a further $17.4 million over the next 5 years to improve the quality, affordability, and availability of out-of-school services. There are currently 667 out-of-school care and recreation, or “OSCAR”, providers delivering 1,100 approved programmes for 5 to 14-year-olds. The average weekly out-of-school care subsidy payment for parents has more than doubled since 1999, increasing from $17 per week, per child, to just over $36 per week now. A strong out-of-school sector, of course, gives parents much more choice in terms of how they combine the responsibilities of work and parenting. It also provides opportunities for children and young people to spend their out-of-school time in more challenging activities, which can, of course, further improve their academic and physical well-being.
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE Link to this
The extra funding will be used to increase the pool of funding available to providers to assist with the establishment and development of programmes, to raise the average grant to each provider for such purposes—currently $11,000 but increasing to $13,500—to strengthen the approval process for providers, to establish a quality review group to safeguard and improve the standards and the quality of care, and to establish 12 leading activity-based extended service programmes in low-decile schools. We are working closely with the sector over the implementation of these initiatives to assist them to continue to improve the quality, affordability, and availability of out-of-school services to New Zealand families.
Rt Hon Winston Peters Link to this
In the interests of healthy comparison, I seek to table that provision of the 1998 Budget showing that New Zealand First gave $38 million to out-of-school care for the first year, which somewhat puts this figure of 4 years into—