3-B-3 Hospital-based services

Introduction

Hospital-based services are teacher-led education and care services that provide education and care to children under the age of six who are receiving health services within premises under the control of the Ministry of Health.

This section explains:

• participation in hospital-based services
• notional rolls for hospital-based services
• adult:child ratios
• record keeping requirements for hospital-based services.

Participation

In hospital-based services, ‘participation’ is used instead of ‘attendance’ to reflect the different circumstances of the children that are accessing the service.

To be counted as participating in a hospital-based service a child must be admitted to the hospital, or be attending the hospital as an outpatient for visits following an admission; and

• be interacting with an adult providing education and care, or
• be taking part in an activity initiated by an adult providing education and care, or
• be in an activity room.

Children may not be counted as participating when they are in emergency attendance, in an operating theatre, in a neonatal unit or are taking part in an activity initiated by a person other than an adult providing education and care.

Notional rolls

Hospital-based services are entitled to a notional roll because of the fluctuations in roll that the service is likely to encounter.

See Section 7-4 – Notional Rolls - for further information.

Adult:child ratio

The required adult:child ratios are based on the number of children participating at any one time in the playroom.

For more information on the adult:child ratios refer to the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008.

Record keeping requirements

Hospital-based services must keep the same staff records as other teacher-led education and care services.

The nature of hospital-based services means that many of the other teacher-led education and care record keeping requirements may not work for them. The list below explains the records required by hospital-based services:

• Daily ward lists with a record of the names and ages of children eligible to participate.
• Attendance records which include the full name and age of each child that participated at any time during the day and the location of attendance (ward or playroom).
• Where sign-in/sign-out sheets are not used by a service, a snapshot of actual attendance in the playroom and ward (where appropriate) is recorded for an average week in March and July. Attendance time is marked in half hour slots noting the names of children participating in the playroom and the ward. A sample form can be found in Appendix 2.
• Ministry auditors must be provided access to hospital records for verification purposes.

For more information see Chapter 11.