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Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

The regulatory requirements early childhood services must comply with at all times to keep their licence are outlined here in plain language in the My ECE Guide to the Regulations and Licensing Criteria.

Regulations Early Childhood Education - Regulatory Requirements and licensing
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Regulations and Licensing Criteria: A Guide for Parents

The "My ECE Guide to Early Childhood Service Regulations and Licensing Criteria for Parents." View the full guide here.
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hazards risk management early childhood education ECE
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements, Uncategorized

Definition of an Early Childhood Service (Or, When You Have to Get a Licence if You’re Caring for Children)

An early childhood service is defined in law as being “Any premises used regularly for the education or care of 3 or more children (not…
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Checklist of visiting and choosing an early childhood education centre or childcare.
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

When an ECE Breaches Regulations or Licensing Criteria – What happens?

When services break the rules, the Ministry of Education may choose to give it a written direction to make an improvement, or change its licence…
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Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Licences and Licensing

What a licence is, the classes of licence, details shown on the licence which must be displayed, and the requirement for the licence holder to…
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staff qualifications and person responsible requirements
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Ratios and Who Can be Counted in the Adult-to-Child Ratio

Adult-to-child ratios is the minimum number of adults necessary to have depending on the number of children. Get the details here.
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Qualified ECE Teacher Skilled Teaching of Young Children
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Qualified Staff and Person Responsible Qualifications

Here's the number of qualified staff, type and level of qualification required for working in different early childhood education settings.
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supervision of children in early childhood education NZ
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Supervision: Supervising Children, Staff, and having a Supervision Plan

Will your child always be within a sight of an adult? Are the adults caring for your child supervised? Here's the minimum legal requirements you…
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Many children, group size, class size.
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Child Number Allowed and Who is Counted as a Child in the Licence Size Maximum

The regulations on the maximum number of children allowed to attend, and when a child is counted or not counted as being in the ratios…
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Family and parent involvement in their child's learning and early childhood education
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Who Can Be Authorised to Collect a Child or Do Pick-Up

Can an older sibling pick up their little brother or sister from the centre or service? There are some specific rules on who can be…
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Dr Sarah Alexander visiting an early childhood centre
Regulations, Rules, and ECE Service Legal Requirements

Space Requirements and Layout – Indoors and Outdoors

Here's the space minimum requirements, design of space, layout, and use of space rules for early childhood centres and home-based ECE.
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Key

Community Ownership:
Parents likely have a strong say in how the service operates and what happens to children, all money earnt stays within it, and teachers may be paid better and childcare charges may be lower compared to most (but not necessarily all) private and corporate owned services. (Ask: Is it an Incorporated Society? Does it also have charitable status?)

Small Boutique Centre:
Centres with 50 or fewer children make it easier for staff to provide a warm and nurturing environment, for children to have their individual needs met and skills, knowledge, and competencies extended. (Ask: For continuity of care and relationships, do children stay with the same group of children and teachers throughout their time at the service?)

100% Qualified Teacher Funded:
All staff counted toward meeting the minimum adult-child ratio requirement must hold a practising certificate as a teacher if the service receives this level of Ministry of Education funding. (Ask: Does the service count teachers trained in the ECE of children birth to 5 years and not primary or secondary school trained teachers?)

Men Included on Teaching Staff (as at last year):
There are strong benefits of having both men and women on the teaching team for the quality of care and education a service provides to children. Additionally, gender bias in staff recruitment and employment is not generally acceptable in society today. (Ask: How many teaching staff are employed and what proportion are men?).

Clean Licence Record (last year and the year before):
To be licensed a service must comply with regulations that help ensure children’s safety, care, and a suitable standard of education. When requirements are breached the Ministry of Education may downgrade a service’s licence to provisional or issue a suspension. (Check the lists of services placed on a provisional or suspended licence https://oece.nz/public/information/standards/ published each year)

Recommended Highly by 80% or More Families:
At least 80% of families recommend the service and rate it as being very good to excellent on a range of aspects of quality. (Note that a response rate of at least 51% families on the OECE parent survey https://oece.nz/public/information/resources/parent-survey/ research instrument within the last three years is necessary here)

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