Step 1: Decide what type of service (consider community need, quality and finance)

ON THIS PAGE: We suggest you | Other information to help you: Quality

A.  Visit early childhood education (ECE) services in your area to find out what types of service already exist.

• Choices in Early Childhood Education is a publication that will help you understand the differences between ECE services.

B.  Carry out a community needs survey to find out what kind of service would best meet your community's needs, and be affordable for families. (See the information on quality and finances below.) It is important to undertake this work to ensure the service being proposed is likely to meet community needs and attract families to attend.

• Resource: Community needs survey

If you are a community group, you may apply to the Ministry of Education for a discretionary grant for capital works.

• Resource: Community-based ECE services

As part of a discretionary grant application, you must carry out a community need survey. (You can find out more about discretionary grants on the Ministry of Education website).

Talk to the network coordinator or your local Ministry of Education office - they'll have information about ECE services and the community need in your area.

C.  Use your community need survey to decide options for the type of service you could establish (eg, age range, operating hours etc).

D.  Develop a draft budget for the annual operating cost of each option. For help read the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook (2007 Update).

You may also find the resource 'Estimating your annual budget' useful. It helps you draft staff schedules and consider some of the other key costs that your service will face. This will help you estimate your fee levels. A download is provided at the top of this page.

It is strongly recommended that you seek professional financial advice early.

E.  To decide which option best meets your community need and will be affordable for your families, discuss the options and estimated fees with your community. Note that Work and Income will give some families help with childcare fees.

Most services need to charge parents fees to meet their full running costs. However, some kinds of service have higher costs than others. For example, if babies attend, a service is more expensive. This is because more teachers are needed. Also, if a centre operates for more than 6 hours per day, higher fees will probably be required. This is because current government subsidies apply for a maximum of 6 hours per day.

The government's policy of '20 hours free ECE for 3 and 4 year olds' was implemented in July 2007. This will have a major impact on the funding you receive and fees you can charge for some children. Read 'ECE funding changes' (on the Ministry of Education website) for more information.

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Other information to help you

The Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations 1998 are the minimum standards that must be met by a centre in order for it to hold a licence to operate. If a service is receiving government funding, it must also operate in accordance with the Revised Statement of Desirable Objectives and Practices (DOPs) for Chartered Early Childhood Services. The quality of interactions between adults and children, and between children, is the key ingredient in making a difference to children's experiences and subsequent outcomes.

To achieve high quality you will need to think about a range of issues, such as:

• adult:child ratios (below)
• group size (below)
• teachers' qualifications (below)
• curriculum (below)
• equipment (Step 5)
• space (Step 2).

The adult:child ratios and space requirements set out in the Education (Early Childhood Centres) Regulations (1998) are the minimum standards.

Research indicates that quality can be improved by improving adult:child ratios, group size and space.

• These issues are discussed in detail in the Ministry of Education's 2004 discussion document Review of Regulation of Early Childhood Education  (Ministry of Education website).
• You also can read about the second (2005) consultation on adult:child ratios (Ministry of Education website).

Teacher registration

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 Teacher's 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.

You can find out about Te Whāriki: He Whāriki Matauranga o nga Mokopuna o Aotearoa - the early childhood curriculum - on the Ministry of Education website. Copies can be ordered from the Ministry of Education Customer Services (phone 0800 660 662 or fax 0800 660 663).

Te Whāriki describes three overlapping age categories for infants, toddlers and young children. Each has specific developmental needs and characteristics.

Teachers in your service should be familiar with this document and with assessment and planning for children's learning.

The Ministry has also published some examples of good assessment and planning. These are called Te Kura o Te Pae/Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars.