Kia ora koutou,
As this is the first Playcentre Bulletin of 2024, ngā mihi o te tau hou, happy New Year! I hope everyone had a great break and time with friends and whānau to refresh you. With 2023 behind us and 2024 ahead of us, I would like to take a few moments to provide an update on our progress with our Big Rock strategy and some of the things we have coming up.
You will recall that our current strategy to build a sustainable future for Playcentre, following on from the Ki te pae tawhiti project, has been underway since mid-2022.
Big Rock #1 – The new Trust Deed
BIG tick in the box as this is DONE! The new Trust Deed is now our governing document and we completed the first Trustee elections under the new “one whānau, one vote” basis putting the control over the election of the Trustees in the hands of the whānau who have tamariki enrolled at our Centres. We also completed the first AGM under the new Trust Deed. Both were a great success and we will continue to refine the way we do things through to the elections and AGM this year.
Big Rock #2 – The co-design of a new funding model
I have been working with different Governments and Ministries for many years now and have learnt that the best way to achieve the best outcomes is not to discuss the process publicly along the way. What I can tell you is that a huge amount of mahi has been and is still being done on this Big Rock. Prior to the election last year, we engaged with various political parties as part of this process and since the election we have briefings lined up with various incoming Ministers. We have also developed a number of detailed financial models and the discussions on options are ongoing with the Ministry, who I must say is being very supportive.
Big Rock #3 – The new operating model
A substantial amount of work has already been done on Big Rock #3 including the development and roll out of a new finance system that will support the new operating model through a standardised approach to financial management and a detailed assessment of all the tasks necessary to support the framework we need around each Centre at the local, regional and national level.
I am pleased to announce that project planning to commence a pilot of the new centre support framework (operational model) for Playcentre is underway. The pilot will be designed to test the numerous scenarios on how this new centre support framework can be implemented.
The pilot phase will enable us to test needs and solutions for Centres across the motu and all the learnings from this pilot phase will then inform the final design before we move to a final decision and any subsequent implementation.
As a brief reminder, the purpose is to provide a support framework around each of our Centres to remove the burden of administration and compliance and enable our whānau to focus on the core of our Playcentre philosophy of parents as first and best educators of their tamariki through:
- The delivery of the curriculum
- Their own adult education
- The development of their local community
The new centre support framework is designed to do this. The pilot is designed to work through with Centres how we can best achieve this and make sure it all works as it should. We will keep you updated, as we progress through the pilot phase. If you have any questions or feedback relating to this, please send them through to [email protected].
Centre Whānau Survey
In all my Centre visits, I have always learnt so much by listening to whānau and asking questions. As a result, we have made changes and improvements in a number of areas including Education and Property with positive feedback as a result. Whilst I will continue with my Centre visits as a key part of my role, the reality is I can’t get to all our Centres every year but hearing as many voices as we can is critical to our success. So this year, we are launching out a new way of listening through the first of what will be our annual Centre Whānau Survey.
Using an annual survey enables everyone to have a voice and for us to track how we are doing because we always want to do better. The survey will allow everyone to express their opinion and for us to listen and make the best use we can of what we hear. If you have tamariki currently enrolled at Playcentre, then please take the time to share your feedback with us.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes to complete and is completely anonymous. All responses will be used generically to help us improve our support for Centres.
Thanks for sharing your ideas with us!
2024 is going to be a big year for us, with Big Rock #1 under our feet and delivery of Big Rocks #2 and #3 well underway. We are also working on Big #5 (New Revenue Streams) but as I close, I want to thank you all for your commitment to Big Rock #6 – Business As Usual. Whilst we are working on building a sustainable future for our organisation, we have to keep the shop open! We have whānau and tamariki to serve, we have communities to build and we have the curriculum to deliver. None of that is possible without the commitment, involvement, dedication and passion of each and everyone one of our volunteers and staff…ALL OF YOU!
So thank you! Thanks for all you are doing and if I may ask, please keep doing it because its what Playcentre is all about – whānau tupu ngātahi, families growing together.