On July 5th I had the privilege of joining the Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative (NECC) as the founding Chief Executive Officer. NECC is a new organization that uses a shared-services model to maximize efficiencies and raise the quality of early childhood education programs. At NECC we believe shared services are a good business strategy for Nebraska’s babies because:
- It’s a tough business. Taking care of Nebraska’s youngest children is a tough business. Finding qualified staff who are dedicated to providing high-quality care for the wages the industry offers is hard work for a team of seasoned human resources professionals, a luxury few providers can afford. And, for providers who access multiple funding streams to support the enrollment of children from low-income families, the complexity of the financial operations is also challenging. Yet, not unlike any other business, these back-office operations are critical to quality of service provided.
- Quality matters. Like anything you purchase, quality matters. Decades of research support the fact that access to high-quality early learning opportunities matters. Not only are children more likely to enter school prepared for success, high-quality early learning improves their chances for success later in life. While providing care for young children allows their parents to work, providing high-quality early care and education can do a lot more than that. In fact, access to high-quality early learning experiences can change the trajectory of a child’s life.
- Shared services can contribute to better quality. Shared services—human resources, fiscal management and professional development—for early learning providers can be part of the solution to providing cost-effective, high-quality care. NECC employs experts in these back-office areas that we “share” with our clients, allowing them to focus more of their resources and their time on what they do best … providing high-quality early learning programs for Nebraska’s youngest children.
While NECC is relatively new to the Nebraska landscape, shared services have been gaining momentum across the nation for a while. Visit the Opportunities Exchange to learn more about how shared services are helping the early learning field achieve financial sustainability and strong outcomes.
Shannon Cotsoradis
Chief Executive Officer
Nebraska Early Childhood Collaborative
