43603 (2025). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education

43603 (2025). Debbie Ngarewa-Packer to the Minister of Education: What measures, if any, are in place to prevent tamariki from missing critical developmental support because of early intervention learning support service delays?

Hon Erica Stanford: Reducing the time that young children wait for support is a priority. To support this, Budget 25 provides $266 million to strengthen the Early Intervention Service. This will fund more than 560 new early intervention specialists over the next five years, with 192 of these roles in place for 2026. My intent is for this additional resource to better meet growing demand, reduce delays, increase the intensity of support and extend the service into Year 1 at school. This is also my response to written parliamentary question 43607 (2025).