Chief Executive
Early Childhood Council 

Simon has a public service background with various roles in the Ministry of Education, including early childhood education policy, charter schools and NCEA. At ECC, Simon leads the organisation to support early childhood providers to deliver the best services they can, while remaining financially viable. ECC is a not-for-profit incorporated society based in Wellington with nearly 900 members who operate 1,300 centres. The ECC is an association for employers and undertakes advocacy on issues of importance to the early childhood sector at large.

ECC brings strong industry expertise and experience to the NIAG. It monitors the ECE workforce and receives feedback from providers about concerns and opportunities to ensure the workforce is supported. Simon has held a large number of advisory roles.

ECC is increasingly concerned at the quality of graduates to the ECE workforce (overall). This could be caused by tertiary education organisations delivering lower-quality programmes with too little student support and assessment that is not rigorous and not consistent or grounded in both practice, care for children and the regulatory requirements in the industry.

Programmes of learning need to provide students to be able to enter the ECE workforce with practical skills and familiarity with the common tasks ECE teachers do. Working within a practice team is standard in ECE, so teachers need to be team-orientated, proactive and engaging with children. Adults who enjoy working with children are most suited to this work.