Recruitment of staff and educators
Recruitment of staff and educators for your Home-based education and care service
Home-based service providers need to recruit coordinators and educators that fully understand the responsibilities that are associated with providing education and care to children in separate homes.
The Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 and the Early Childhood Funding rules allow for a licensed maximum number of 60 or 80 child places but many service providers choose to operate with less children attending. When deciding on the number of co-ordinators and educators required service providers will take into account their philosophical beliefs, perceptions of quality, workload of co-ordinators in meeting regulatory requirements and views about how quality home-based education and care can be ensured.
A. Prepare for recruitment and management of staff and educators
Policies and procedures for human resource management are required as part of the licensing process. Check the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, [Regulation 47, and the Home-based Criteria GMA 6] for what is required.
Resource: Developing policies
The coordinator is considered to be the ‘person responsible’ in the home-based service and has primary responsibility for overseeing the education and care, comfort, and health and safety of the children and for providing professional leadership and support to the educators within the service. Under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 the ‘person responsible’ is required to have an early childhood teaching qualification and be registered with the New Zealand Teachers Council. The co-ordinator must:
- contact each educator engaged in the service at least once per fortnight,
- visit each educator at least once per month, and
- take all reasonable steps each month to observe each child participating in the service while that child is receiving education and care.
Educators provide education and care directly to children in their care, and attend to the health and safety of those children. Most educators are self-employed and have independent contract agreements with the Home-based education and care services, or with parents, to provide education and care for children in a home environment. Educators are not required to be qualified and registered early childhood teachers, but they are required to have a current First Aid qualification. Service providers are required to have training plans for educators with little or no experience in early childhood education.
Home based service providers are also required to provide induction procedures for all new staff and professional development opportunities for all staff employed or engaged in the service. Professional development can be provided in-house, through external providers, or by supporting staff to gain recognised qualifications (educators) or upgrade qualifications (co-ordinators). Refer to the KiwiQuals website for a list of approved qualifications.
B. Clarify the positions you need to fill and the responsibilities and tasks associated with each position.
Write a job description for each position e.g. educator, co-ordinator, administration staff, manager. Well written job descriptions that clearly explain what is required and expected of individuals assist the service provider to engage the right person for the job.
Resource: Job descriptions
C. Decide what salary/wage/remuneration rates and conditions you will offer
The Early Childhood Education Collective Agreement of Aotearoa New Zealand (previously called Consenting Parties) includes rates for Home-based Coordinators/ Visiting Teachers and Home-based Team Leaders. Refer to the New Zealand Education Institute website.
Rates of payment for home-based educators tend to be on a per child per hour basis or by an employment agreement where the care is taking place in the home of the child. In some instances home-based educators who are self employed contractors will negotiate their own rates directly with the families. In other instances the payment rate is set by the service.
The rates of payment home-based educators are paid are likely to be influenced by the training they have completed or the qualifications they hold. Levels of training or qualifications can impact on the level of funding that home-based services can access. Refer to the Early Childhood Funding Handbook for more information on funding eligibility.
D. Write employment agreements or contracts for all staff
All employed staff must have written employment agreements. It can be either an individual agreement or a collective agreement. Decide what form the draft employment agreement between staff and the service will take.
The following links have information about collective employment agreements:
Home based educators who are self-employed contractors must comply with legislation required of a self employed contractor. This includes liability for tax with Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and payment of Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) levies.
As self-employed contractors or independent contractors, home-based educators will have an agreement which takes the form of a contract between themselves and the service provider, or in some cases between themselves and the families. The contract will vary depending on the model under which the service is operating. Contracts need to clearly state the roles, responsibilities and obligations of the parents, educators and service/company involved.
Educators' taxable incomes are their payments less costs associated with providing the service in their home Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has developed a policy to ensure that all home-based educators (unless they are employed by the service provider or family) have the same responsibilities for tax, regardless of which home-based service they are part of. This is contained in Determination DET 09/02 Standard-Cost Household Service for Childcare Providers. These standard-cost reimbursements are adjusted annually in line with the Consumer Price index and published in the New Zealand Gazette and Inland Revenue's Tax Information Bulletin in May of each year.
The requirement to pay ACC levies applies to self-employed educators in home-based services. After receiving a tax return, IRD forwards details to ACC, and ACC sends an invoice for ACC levies to the educator.
Note: This information is subject to change. Service providers and self employed educators must ensure they are compliant with current legislation.
Educators need to consider insurance requirements such as indemnity, house, contents and vehicle, income protection and health insurance. For more information on the availability of a group insurance scheme tailor-made for educators in home-based education and care services refer to New Zealand Home Based Early Childhood Education Association website.
Resource: Employment agreement. This is part of the Department of Labour website. This includes information about the rules governing employment relationships in New Zealand under the Employment Relations Act 2000 from the start of the relationship, through to how it is formalised in an employment agreement and how it can end. This site also includes a guide on writing employment agreements/contracts which you may find useful (Also see Help with employment issues below).
E. Advertise for personnel
Advertisements in the Education Gazette and local newspapers can be used to provide you with ideas on how to design your advertisements for co-ordinators and/or educators. Websites are also a useful way to promote your service, as is 'word of mouth' within your community.
Resource: How to hire guide for employers. This is written by the Department of Labour and is designed to provide employers with information about good practice when recruiting and hiring employees.
F. Interview and select personnel
The positions of both co-ordinator and educator involve high levels of trust and responsibility. It is therefore essential for the welfare of the children attending the service that care is taken in the selection of high calibre personnel to fulfil these positions.
Educators are a key resource in a home-based education and care service. You may look for the following in potential educators:
- Do they enjoy children?
- Do they have good relationship skills?
- Are they respectful of diversity?
- Do they interact with children in a positive manner? Are they ‘in-tune’ with children?
- Do they have good communication skills?
- Are they reliable, honest and trustworthy?
- Are they a good role model?
- Do they have plenty of energy, sense of humour, positive attitude to learning, creative thinking?
- Does their home meet all standards of health and safety, as well as having the ability to provide for all legislative requirements?
- Are all members of their family comfortable with opening their house and privacy to other people?
- Do they hold a first aid certificate? Are they willing to gain this qualification?
- Do they have a criminal record?
The responsibilities and tasks identified in the job description can be used as a guide for assessing the capability of the potential coordinator/educator.
Service providers and educators are required, under section 56 of the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, to ensure that children do not come into contact with people who have physically ill-treated or abused or committed a crime against children. In response to this requirement police vetting of everyone involved in the provision of the home based education and care has become a common practice throughout the sector. This includes not just co-ordinators and educators but also all adults that live in the educator’s home.
The home-based service needs to be recognised as an organisation that is approved as a user of the Police Vetting Service. Requests for police vets are made directly by the early childhood service to the New Zealand Police Licensing and Vetting Service Centre. Refer to the New Zealand Police website for information on how to become an approved user and how to apply for police vets.
The Education Act 1989 (as amended in the Education Act 2010) includes a requirement that all usually resident members 17 years of age or older in the home where the home-based service is being provided will be police vetted. This applies where the children attending the service are being cared for in a home other than their own. The Act also requires that police vetting is completed before any unsupervised provision of care and education commences.
It can take some weeks before the results of a police vet are available and Service Providers would need to take this delay into consideration when arranging start dates for new staff.
Help with employment issues
The Employment Relations Service website has information to support human resource management that service providers may find useful. This includes templates for letters to appoint staff, fact sheets, employment agreement guides and help calculating parental leave for your employed staff. There is also an ‘Ask a question’ feature.
The Inland Revenue Department is a good starting point for finding out about obligations and entitlements concerning tax.
The New Zealand Teachers Council website provides information about the process of teacher registration.
The State Services Commission website has a section on Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO), including EEO documents produced for the New Zealand public service.
The Human Rights Commission website provides information about equal opportunities, including a discrimination and complaints guide.
The New Zealand Home-Based Early Childhood Education Association provides information of current news and events relating to home-based education as well as tax, ACC and insurance obligations. Members have access to a tax calculator, newsletters and a discussion forum among other things.
The New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI) is a union that negotiates collective employment agreements on behalf of many early childhood teachers.
Literature you may find useful
Couch, J. & Firth, J. (1999). Involving parents in planning for children in family day care. Paper presented at the 1999 Early Childhood Convention, Nelson, New Zealand.
Foote, L. & Davey, P. (2003, 19-23 February). Training for home based educators – an empowering experience. Paper presented at the International Family Day Care Conference, Wellington, New Zealand.
Foote, L. & Davey, P. (2001). Training for home based educators – does it make a difference? Paper presented at the Pacific Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference: Growing Together, Christchurch, New Zealand.
Hooker, T., Peters, S., Biggar, S., & Bleaken, F. (2008). Training on the job—how do home-based co-ordinators support carers to notice, recognise, and respond?. Teaching and Learning Research Initiative.
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