A report by the Education Review Office shows around half of early childhood centres are not meeting care standards for under two-year-olds.

The report advises parents of early-childhood education options. Seventy-four centres were checked and questions were raised about the quality of care in relation to 33 centres. Areas of concern include the monitoring of sleeping children, fire and earthquake safety provisions, record keeping for excursions and hazardous management systems.

The report also raises issues about a lack of teacher interaction at meal times, due to focussing on cleaning tasks.

In centres where routines are not well managed, children often spend too long waiting for food, to be put to bed or have nappies changed.

Overall, the ERO report finds that 23 percent of toddlers enrolled in early childhood centres are receiving good, to high quality education.