Latest news with #SarahAlexander
Scoop
07-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
FamilyBoost Changes A Boost For Higher Income Families – But They Fail To Even Out The Playing Field For All Whānau
Tweaks to FamilyBoost that will put more money back into the pockets of families with infants and young children in early childhood education will certainly be good news for many parents amid the cost of living crisis. But the changes to the scheme announced today fail to address some of the problems that have prevented uptake – such ECE service providers failing to provide parents with compliant invoices. The changes also seem to favour higher income families, who can afford higher fee-charging services, the Office of Early Childhood Education's chief advisor, Dr Sarah Alexander, says. On Monday, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the IRD estimated that around 16,000 more families would be eligible for rebates under the revised scheme, when the income threshold is raised from $180,000 to $229,000 on October 1, and that those who already qualify would now get up to 40% of their fees back (up from a maximum of 25%). Alexander says although she's pleased that more families will benefit from the scheme, she would've liked to see lower income families getting a higher proportion of ECE costs back. 'I would have liked to see the policy creating a more even playing field when it comes to affordability of childcare and supporting parental choice of ECE service.' Before advising the Minister on how to improve the scheme's uptake, Inland Revenue asked the Office of Early Childhood Education for ideas. In our submission, we outlined several key problems with the scheme in its original form. Based on our analysis, we suggested that the Government: Maintain the rebate of 25% of eligible fees for higher-income households, but increase the rebate to 50% or higher for lower-income households. Apply the rebate cap of $975 per quarter on a per child, rather than per family basis. Make claiming the rebate easier by reducing the amount of information that parents must input before they upload invoices. Require ECE providers to provide timely and correct invoices, and not place their own conditions on parents making a claim. Produce short videos for social media outlining how FamilyBoost works and how to make a claim (ensuring the messaging resonates with time-poor parents). The OECE's full submission to the IRD is on our website at While we're pleased to see the rebate amount raised, in the OECE's view, the process of claiming remains burdensome for parents and caregivers, and needs to be simplified to encourage more eligible whānau to take up the rebates.
The Sun
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
BBC star who rose to fame in 60s & dated Coupling's Sarah Alexander dies aged 96 as tributes pour in
A BBC star who rose to fame in the 60s and dated Sarah Alexander has died aged 96. Gerald Harper, who made his name on British TV, sadly passed away on Wednesday, his agent confirmed. 3 3 3 CDM Talent Agency posted on social media: "It is with great sadness that Gerald Harper has recently passed away - he was a valued client before he went to Spain to enjoy his retirement." It is unclear where the actor died or his cause of death. Gerald is best known for starring as the lead role in the adventure drama Adam Adamant Lives! and then as the main character in Hadleigh. Following his TV career, he returned to his main passion in theatre. His classical work includes playing on Broadway with the Old Vic company, playing Iago at the Bristol Old Vic and Benedick at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Gerald forged an illustrious career on the stage, featuring in various West End shows, including Crucifer of Blood and A Personal Affair at the Haymarket Theatre. The charismatic performer presented The Sunday Affair for Capital Radio in the 1970s. Gerald also hosted a series of Saturday afternoon shows for BBC Radio 2 in the early 1990s, in which he played classic songs from the past and gave away bottles of champagne and chocolates. The star will also be well remembered for his relationship with Coupling and Green Wing star Sarah Alexander. Sarah, 54, was only 25 when she was first spotted dating Gerald Harper, then 68, in 1996. Gerald was in his early 70s when Sarah, then aged around 30, became lovers. Sarah was at the height of her own fame at the time, as she was a regular in sitcom Coupling. A passer-by told the Sunday People of Gerald and Sarah at the time: "They were super-glued together! They were all over each other and didn't care who saw them. "Funnily enough, the young lady was making a lot of the running and kept grabbing him to French kiss him – it was quite a display." Friends said Harper was "absolutely bereft" when Sarah left him for Amandaland star Peter Serafinowicz in 2002. Before his relationship with Sarah, Gerald was married to Carla Rabaiotti, a former Pan American air stewardess. The pair, who later divorced in 1983, share a son. Harper was previously married to actress Jane Downs from 1957 until they divorced in 1975. They share a daughter. At the height of his fame Harper was TV's most eligible bachelor in ITV's Hadleigh, which ran from 1969 to 1976.
Daily Mail
04-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Coupling star Sarah Alexander's former lover Gerald Harper dies aged 96 as tributes pour in for Hadleigh actor
Coupling star Sarah Alexander's former lover Gerald Harper had died aged 96. The actor was well-known to 60s and 70s TV audiences as the suave star of Hadleigh, and before that Adam Adamant Lives!, an Edwardian gent who finds himself propelled into London in the swinging sixties. CDM Talent Agency confirmed the sad news in a statement on social media on Friday. They wrote: 'It is with great sadness that Gerald Harper has recently passed away - he was a valued client before he went to Spain to enjoy his retirement.' Sarah, 54, was only 25 when she was first spotted dating Gerald Harper, then 68, in 1996. A passer-by told the Sunday People of Alexander and Harper: 'They were super-glued together! They were all over each other and didn't care who saw them. 'Funnily enough, the young lady was making a lot of the running and kept grabbing him to French kiss him – it was quite a display.' When Sarah, whose big TV break would come in Coupling with Jack Davenport in 2000, moved in with Harper in his large Notting Hill house, friends' eyebrows were raised, especially as she is eight years younger than her new boyfriend's daughter, confusingly also named Sarah. But they refused to allow the generation gap to get in their way. Friends said Harper was 'absolutely bereft' when Sarah left him for Amandaland star Peter Serafinowicz in 2002. Before his relationship with Sarah, Gerald was married to Carla Rabaiotti, a former Pan American air stewardess. The pair, who later divorced in 1983, share a son. Harper was previously married to actress Jane Downs from 1957 until they divorced in 1975. They share a daughter. At the height of his fame Harper was TV's most eligible bachelor in ITV's Hadleigh, which ran from 1969 to 1976. He was perfectly cast as urbane English toff James Hadleigh, a wealthy, handsome playboy who lived in a mansion in the West Riding and ran the local newspaper. He told the Express in 2006: 'There wasn't that much to watch back then, so we had huge audiences. 'The top brass at Yorkshire Television didn't think Hadleigh would work, though, and placed us very late at night. 'When they realised they were wrong, they apologised. I tore up my contract and said: 'Shall we start again?' 'Not only did I get more money, I was given the loan of a country estate for a year complete with staff. I lived like a lord. It was very glamorous. 'I was a TV star on my own terms and for the best part of 20 years I virtually didn't have a day off.' Following his TV career, he returned to his main love, the theatre. His classical work includes playing on Broadway with the Old Vic company, playing Iago at the Bristol Old Vic and Benedick at the Chichester Festival Theatre. Age never held Harper back, and when he was approaching his 75th birthday, he flew to the Masai Mara in a light aircraft and rode horseback across Kenya's Masai Mara game park. On the return leg, the plan crashed through a hedge and ended up on its side. He recalled: 'I turned to the pilot and said: 'Do not bother with the next venue, my good man. Just get me the hell out of here to Nairobi and civilisation!' Enough was enough.' A former pupil at Haileybury public school, he originally planned to become a doctor, but caught the acting bug while doing his National Service and won a place at RADA.
Scoop
28-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Teachers Are Paying The Price For Lack Of ECE Funding In The Budget
The Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) fears sweeping – and sudden – changes to the pay parity scheme, allowing most ECE centres to pay graduate teachers, teachers coming from overseas and those moving from primary schools to ECE lower salaries, will seriously harm the sector's ability to attract new talent. Today, the Ministry of Education has announced that from July 1, education and care centres will only have to pay newly certificated teachers and certificated teachers who are new to working in New Zealand ECE centres at step 1 of the salary scale, which is $57,358 per year ($27.58 an hour) for at least the first year. Previously, services were required to take into account whether teachers held additional and higher qualifications, such as an honours degree or Masters degree of teaching, when working out what their starting salary should be. They also had to recognise any prior relevant work experience and any experience in the primary school system when assessing teachers' level of experience. The OECE's chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander says the message this sends to educators and employers alike is clear: 'ECE teachers and their families are the ones that must self-sacrifice to keep ECE service financial margins up'. 'It also sends out a message that higher qualifications and experience for teachers count for nothing. This is devastating news for ECE teachers and the future of our profession.' Although ECE employers will be required to honour existing pay rates with teachers, it is not entirely accurate for the Ministry to claim that currently employed certificated teachers should not be affected by the change. That's because under the new rules, services that have opted to pay their permanently employed certificated teachers according to the parity or extended pay parity scale amounts won't be able to opt in to attest to paying higher salary scales after the July 2025 funding payment, for a period of 2 years. This could effectively equate to a pay freeze for many teachers employed at more than 1000 ECE services across Aotearoa because the service providers they work for won't be able to access increased funding to improve pay for staff. In Alexander's view, the government is doing this to try to limit its expenditure on ECE sector funding – because each funding round the number of centres opting in to paying extended and full pay parity goes up. (Under the pay parity scheme, services get more funding if they agree to pay certificated teachers according to one of four increasing salary scales.) The changes come just days after Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced the cost adjustment for ECE in the 2025 Budget would be just 0.5%. This was miles behind inflation, which is at 2.5%, so is effectively a funding cut. (See The Ministry has said in documents detailing the changes that the rationale is to 'support the sustainability of education and care… alongside the cost adjustment to subsidy rates announced as part of Budget 2025.' Alexander says: 'In other words, the Ministry is saying ECE teachers must pay the price for the lack of investment in the sector in Budget 2025. This is a way of keeping the cost of ECE centre funding down for the Government, while also not affecting service providers' bottom lines.'
Scoop
18-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Early Childhood Education Sector Confidence Survey Results 2025
Press Release – Office of Early Childhood Education The results of the 2025 confidence survey, which the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) conducts annually in the last few weeks before the Budget is released, show that the sentiment in the sector is at an all-time low. Confidence in where the early childhood education sector is heading falls to all-time low – 82% of those at the coalface say it's going in the wrong direction. 1.6 stars out of 5. That's the average rating that 1000 professionals and experts in early childhood education (ECE) have given the Government's track record on improving the sector. The results of the 2025 confidence survey, which the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) conducts annually in the last few weeks before the Budget is released, show that the sentiment in the sector is at an all-time low. The vast majority of respondents (82%) said they felt the Government was taking the sector in the wrong direction. Just 9% said things were headed the right way. That put net confidence at -77% – the worst result since the survey started in 2018. The outlook for the future of the sector was equally dire, with 83% of participants expecting the situation to get worse and just 6% predicting that things would improve. The OECE's chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander says the findings should be a wake up call to politicians. 'Alarm bells should be ringing loudly. The message from teachers in our services and sector veterans alike is abundantly clear: we need urgent and drastic change.' More than half of respondents had been pessimistic about the direction the sector was going in for five consecutive years. During the last 12 months, the Government has introduced sweeping changes to how the sector operates. These have included removing restrictions for opening new services, Cabinet accepting recommendations by the Ministry for Regulation to to strip back regulations, and the scrapping of requirements for centre employers to pay relievers in line with pay parity scales. The Coalition Government has also recently announced it will waive fees for teacher registration and the renewal of teacher practicing certificates for the next three years. While a small group of respondents, mostly owners of private for-profit centres, were supportive of these shifts, overall the sector was dissatisfied with them, the OECE's research found. 'The new policy changes (teacher registration fees free for the next three years) are just a front for the lack of other things that should be addressed: funding and staff salaries and teacher-child ratios,' one respondent said. Another respondent described being 'devastated that striving for best practice can be wiped out by those who have no appreciation of the importance of the early years and do not listen to the concerns of the sector'. Low pay, insufficient ratios and resourcing, and funding issues continued to be some of the biggest pain points of the sector, the survey revealed. One educator said they have a Bachelors degree, yet their husband, who works as a lifeguard, earns more than they do. A respondent who gave the Government a one-star rating said they were deeply dissatisfied: 'There's been a lot of talk, but not enough meaningful action. Quality ECE requires sustained investment in kaiako, fair pay, manageable ratios, and a genuine understanding of what tamariki and whānau need. 'Right now, it feels like the sector is being asked to do more with less, and that's not sustainable.' Alexander, the OECE's chief advisor, is calling on the Government to properly listen to what those in the sector have to say and respond with policies that will enhance the quality of the care and education the sector provides. 'Will there be anything in Budget 2025 to reverse the grim situation the ECE sector is perceived to be in? Seeing these problems, will other political parties actively call out the Government on decisions and changes that have potential to, or will, make things worse still?,' she says. The full report can be viewed at: About the Office for Early Childhood Education The Office for Early Childhood Education advocates for best practice in the sector, based on what research tells us about what is best for tamariki. We are not a lobby group and we represent all parts of the sector. As well as being the national body for ECE, the OECE advises the Ministry of Education and other relevant agencies on early childhood education and care. We are non-partisan.
