Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
1. What’s defined as an early childhood centre?
2. Are there rules and regulations for early childhood centres?
3. I want to set up an early childhood centre - where do I start and what help can I get?
4. How do we become a licensed early childhood centre?
5. How do we become a chartered early childhood centre?
6. Can anyone be a licensee and/or set up a centre?
7. Do all the staff need to be trained?
8. What's the difference between the ECE Funding Subsidy (commonly known as 'bulk funding') and '20 Hours Free'?
9. Who sets fees?
10. Is there an early childhood curriculum?
11. What policies do we need?
12. Does our centre need to be different if we license for infants and toddlers?
13. How much indoor space will we need?
14. What outdoor equipment do we need to get licensed?
15. What indoor equipment do we need to get licensed?
16. Which is better: a centre that mixes age groups or keeps them separate?
- All links on this page to Acts and regulations take you to the Knowledge Basket website. The Desirable Objectives and Practices are accessed via the Ministry of Education website.
1. What is defined as an early childhood centre?
An early childhood service is legally defined by the Education Act 1989 as
“premises used (exclusively, mainly, or regularly) for the education or care of 3 or more children (not being children of the persons providing the education or care) under 6 -
(i) By the day or part of a day; but
(ii) Not for any continuous period of more than 7 days”.
When a service meets these criteria it must be licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 unless specifically exempted from this requirement by the Minister of Education. Consult Section 308 of the Education Act for further information on what is an 'early childhood centre'.
Back to top
2. Are there rules and regulations for early childhood centres?
Yes. The government has legislation and regulations covering the operation of early childhood centres. The Education Act 1989 requires all early childhood services to be licensed by the Secretary of Education. It is illegal to operate any premises as an early childhood centre without a licence, unless specifically exempted from this requirement by the Minister of Education. Exemptions include community playgroups that have high levels of parent involvement and specific rules governing their operation.
The regulations covering early childhood centres are called the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998. You can buy these regulations from any bookshop that stocks government publications. Other education legislation relevant to early childhood centres is sections 312, 318 and 327 of the Education Act.
Legislation such as the Employment Relations Act 2000 and Building Act 2004 also applies.
Back to top
3. I want to set up an early childhood centre - where do I start and what help can I get?
Setting up a licensed early childhood centre takes planning, time and money.
The Ministry of Education has resources to help both community and private groups. You'll find a lot of information in the Seven Steps.
Community groups can apply for a discretionary grant from the Ministry of Education to help with setting up costs. Ministry of Education early childhood coordinators in your area will give advice and support to help you put together an application for a discretionary grant.
- You can contact your local early childhood coordinators through your regional Ministry of Education office.
- Learn more about discretionary grants (Ministry of Education website).
- Learn more about community groups.
Back to top
4. How do we become a licensed early childhood centre?
Licensing is a complex task and will take time. Centres need to comply with the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998.
There are two stages to the licensing process:
1. The Ministry of Education grants a probationary license for the centre's first year of operation. A license is granted if the premises, equipment, intended programme, staffing levels, policies, and intended practices comply with the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998.
2. A full license application must be made within 12 months of gaining a probationary licence. If compliant, the centre is granted a full license by the Ministry of Education.
The licensee of the early childhood centre is the person named on the licence. The licensee is ultimately responsible for ensuring the centre complies with the Education (Early Childhood Centre) Regulations 1998 at all times. If the centre is operated by a community group, the licensee is named on behalf of that group or organisation.
Centres can choose to license but not charter (for information about chartering, see Question 5).
Back to top
5. How do we become a chartered early childhood centre?
Centres can choose to become chartered. It is not compulsory. However, signing a charter agreement with the Ministry of Education allows a centre to become part of the state-funded education sector. The service is then eligible to receive bulk funding from the government.
A charter is an undertaking by a centre to the government, through the Ministry of Education. The Ministry has specified 12 statements called the Desirable Objectives and Practices 1996 [PDF 79 KB] (known as DOPs). Centres must include the DOPs in their charter. Centre management must then show how the centre will meet these objectives through management plans, policies and practices.
Because centres receive government funding to provide education, many of the DOPs focus on management responsibilities to community, staff and children through quality, equity and accountability issues. The DOPs aim to ensure a quality, culturally appropriate curriculum, equity for children and their families, and accountability for money spent.
Signing a charter can occur at the time of licensing. Basic management plans, which show how the service intends to meet the DOPs, should be developed by then. Community consultation must have occurred.
Back to top
6. Can anyone be a licensee and/or set up a centre?
Regulation 4 of the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 describes a licensee as someone who is deemed to be a “…fit and proper person".
Regulation 4 also outlines things that may be taken into consideration by the Secretary of Education, when deciding if a person is ‘fit and proper’.
A licensee does not need to have an early childhood qualification. This means that community groups can choose someone from the community to be the licensee. Also, an unqualified private operator can be licensee to their own business.
The licensee is responsible for ensuring that the regulations are complied with. In community groups the licensee acts on behalf of the management group, but responsibility rests with the whole management group - including the licensee.
Back to top
7. Do all the staff need to be trained?
Regulations 36 and 39 of the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 state that at least one educator, acting as a ‘person responsible’, must be involved in the supervision of the centre at all times. Educators must be qualified to act as persons responsible.
The Ministry of Education may require a centre to have more than one 'person responsible' if:
- the centre is licensing for more than 25 children
- the centre is hard to supervise because it is big or has rooms that are hard to see into
- there are other reasons (at the Ministry of Education’s discretion).
To make sure that one qualified educator is working with the children at all times, more than one qualified educator will need to be employed. (See Staffing schedules for more on this.)
In addition, under the Education (Registration of Early Childhood Services Teachers) Regulations 2004 (Knowledge Basket website), staff acting in the position of 'Person Responsible' must also be registered teachers.
The teacher registration regulations are administered by the New Zealand Teachers Council.
Teacher registration ensures the quality of teachers. Newly graduated teachers must complete a suitable teacher education programme and be supervised and supported through an advice and guidance programme when they begin teaching in an ECE service.
Improving quality by ensuring that more adults working in ECE services are registered teachers is the aim of the government's teacher registration targets. TeachNZ provides information about these targets, and how teachers can gain registerable qualifications.
Back to top
8. What's the difference between the ECE Funding Subsidy (commonly known as 'bulk funding') and '20 Hours Free'?
ECE Funding Subsidy
The Funding Subsidy is the primary form of government funding for early childhood education (ECE) services.
Early childhood services include both parent-led services (eg, playcentres, kōhanga reo and licence-exempt services) and teacher-led services (eg, education and care services, kindergartens and home-based care).
All ECE services receiving the Funding Subsidy must meet certain eligibility and funding conditions.
All ECE services are eligible for up to 6 hours per day and 30 hours per week of Funding Subsidy for each licensed child place. This funding offsets the cost of providing ECE, so that parents do not need to pay the full amount.
Early childhood services receive this funding directly from the Ministry of Education.
The Funding Subsidy rates are determined by service type (because the costs faced by different service types vary).
Services are grouped into the following three types:
- Teacher-led, centre-based services.
- Home-based ECE services.
- Parent/whānau-led services.
Within each group there are separate rates for
- children aged under two
- children aged two and over
- the qualification levels of the adults working with the children (for teacher-led services, the percentage of registered teachers).
20 hours free
The government's policy of '20 hours Free ECE for 3 and 4 year olds' was implemented in July 2007. All three and four year olds attending a teacher-led service or eligible kōhanga reo that offers Free ECE can get up to 6 hours per day, up to 20 hours per week, of free early childhood education.
Free ECE funding rates are based on 100 percent of the average cost of ECE provision to the regulated standard. ECE services cannot require parents to pay fees for the Free ECE hours a child receives - however, they can require parents to pay fees for a child's other hours of enrolment.
As with the ECE Funding Subsidy, the rate a service is eligible for depends on the type of service they are and the percentage of registered teachers working with the children.
Where a child is eligible to receive Free ECE and is attending a participating Free ECE service, the service will receive the higher Free ECE funding rate instead of the ECE Funding Subsidy rate.
Where the child attends for additional hours over and above the Free ECE hours, the Free Subsidy will be paid (up to a maximum of 6 hours a day and 30 hours per week). The Free Subsidy will be paid at the same rate as the ECE Funding Subsidy.
- You can learn more about '20 Hours Free' on the Ministry of Education website.
- You can read details of funding rates, criteria and method of payment in the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook - 2007 Update.
Back to top
9. Who sets fees?
The centre management is responsible for setting any fees for hours outside of the 20 free hours.
The centre management is required by DOP 11c (Desirable Objectives and Practices 1996 [PDF 79 KB]) to implement “…financial management policies that include budgeting to ensure that policies and objectives are met”.
The charter (of which the DOPs are a part) also require centres to publicise fees and conditions of payment.
Back to top
10. Is there an early childhood curriculum?
Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Matauranga o nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa (1996) is New Zealand’s early childhood curriculum document. It was developed by the Ministry of Education and is available from Learning Media, Box 3293, Wellington. Te Whāriki is part of New Zealand's seamless curriculum for education but is less prescriptive than the school curriculum.
Te Whāriki has four key principles and five interlinking strands, with associated goals. Because these strands and goals are included in the Desirable Objectives and Practices 1996 [PDF 79 KB], Te Whāriki is mandatory for chartered centres.
Te Whāriki offers a framework of curriculum objectives only. How each service develops programmes to implement these objectives will differ. Documented programme planning (including assessment, planning and evaluation) should be evident in all chartered early childhood centres. Parents/whanau should have opportunities to share this information and give input into the planning for their child (refer to DOPs 2, 3 and 8a).
Back to top
11. What policies do we need?
Prior to a license being granted to an early childhood centre, some compulsory policies are required by the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 and other legislation.
When chartering, other policies need to be developed in response to the Desirable Objectives and Practices 1996 [PDF 79 KB].
- You'll find the resource Developing policies useful. It provides a list of required policies and advice on how to develop policies.
|
Back to top
12. Does our centre need to be different if we license for infants and toddlers?
Yes some requirements are different, especially in relation to nappy changing areas, sleeping arrangements and equipment.
Creating spaces for very young children requires careful planning. While it is likely that centres will want to provide plenty of opportunities for younger and older children to mix, there should be generous amounts of ‘dedicated’ space for infants and toddlers.
Back to top
13. How much indoor space will we need?
The Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 specify 2.5 square metres, per child, of indoor activity space. It is important to note that this is a minimum standard.
To deliver a quality programme, the overall number, the age range and centre type need to be considered.
If a centre is catering to a large age range, more space will be needed to support developmentally appropriate activity areas for children of a wide age range.
Back to top
14. What outdoor equipment do we need to get licensed?
The probationary licensing process allows a centre to develop over its first year. However, once the centre has a probationary license it could be full to capacity (even if the intention is to operate with few children at the start). So there is a balance between what is expected at the time of full licensing and what is acceptable for probationary licensing.
To be granted a probationary license, centres usually need a sandpit, a storage shed, space, equipment for large muscle play (such as climbing and throwing) and an appropriate safety surface. There should be space and equipment for activities such as art, carpentry and water play, and some quiet and restful space.
If the centre is catering to infants and toddlers, it is likely that some areas will be ‘duplicated’, so there are developmentally appropriate opportunities for all children.
- For more information, see Step 2.
- The suggested Equipment list, covering basic requirements for indoor and outdoor activity areas may also be useful.
|
Note: Centres where children attend for less than 2 hours each day (eg, fitness centre crèches) are the only exemptions to outdoor space requirements (refer to Regulation 17 (8) of the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998). |
Back to top
15. What indoor equipment do we need to get licensed?
The probationary licensing process allows a centre to develop over its first year. However, once the centre has a probationary license it could be full to capacity (even if the intention is to operate with few children at the start). So there is a balance between what is expected at the time of full licensing and what is acceptable for probationary licensing.
- For more information, see Step 2.
- The suggested Equipment list, covering basic requirements for indoor and outdoor activity areas may also be useful.
Back to top
16. Which is better: a centre that mixes age groups or keeps them separate?
This is a hard question. There are positives and negatives for both. However, whichever combination you choose, it is important that children at different developmental stages have access to equipment and experiences which meet their needs, are challenging, and do not require adults to constantly prevent them from trying out new challenges because of safety concerns.
Some services offer large separate spaces for infants and toddlers, as well as spaces that mixed age groupings can use from time to time. This way the overall group size may be quite large (eg, up to 50 children) but the children are working in smaller groups.
For example, in a 37-place centre, 12 children may be infants and toddlers while the remaining 25 are older (3-5 yrs old). There may be space dedicated to the two main groups and space for shared experiences. Other services may choose to have more children but create spaces for three main groups: infants, toddlers and young children. Alternatively, a large centre may have spaces for two smaller, mixed age groups.
Research indicates small group sizes are an important feature of quality. This issue is discussed in detail in the Ministry of Education's 2004 discussion document Review of Regulation of Early Childhood Education (Ministry of Education website).
Back to top
