Bill drops police vetting of parents

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Playcentres have welcomed changes that drop the need for police checks to be made on all parents looking after children at the centres.

The revised Education Amendment Bill, tabled in Parliament last week, repeals a plan for compulsory police vetting of parents and volunteers who had unsupervised access to children.

The previous Labour-led government had argued there were "inadequate safeguards" to protect children from unvetted people who might be in a school or preschool.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said the plan was widely criticised by sector groups because it created a barrier that would stop parents from volunteering at schools and early-childhood centres.

"The new legislation is a balanced and sensible approach that recognises that these volunteers operate in controlled and supervised environments," Tolley said. Police checks would remain for part-time staff and contractors.

The Playcentre Federation, which has nearly 500 early-childhood centres nationwide, said the change was a "sensible result".

"Our members were concerned that police vetting might be applied to any parent who wanted to bring their child to a playcentre," president Marion Pilkington said.

Playcentres relied on parent volunteers to run their half-day sessions, with about 90 per cent of adults on duty working as volunteers.

"We bring parents together into community groups to support each other in educating all of their children. We are pleased that a potential barrier to the involvement of new families has been removed," Pilkington said. J

- © Fairfax NZ News