How to Make a Complaint or Raise Concerns

How to Make a Complaint or Raise Concerns about an Early Childhood Education Service or Childcare (‘early learning’)

Contents:

1. How to make a complaint to your service
2. Reporting an incident (child harm or potential for child harm)
3. The kinds of concerns and complaints you can make to the Education Review Office
4. How to make a complaint to ERO about an early childhood service
5. How to escalate to the Ombudsman
6. Who is ultimately accountable to parents and families?
   • ECE service owner
   • Director of Regulation and ERO
7. The Fair Trading Act
8. The Consumer Guarantees Act
9. Children’s Rights in ECE and Code of Early Childhood Service Conduct
10. Further information

1. How to make a complaint to your service

Every early childhood service is legally required to have a complaints procedure. You are not required to follow the service’s internal procedure – and there may be good reasons why you choose not to – such as fear of retribution from the service against you or your child or that the complaint concerns possibly illegal practices that the service won’t want known.

Government has removed the requirement for services to prominently display their complaints procedure on their noticeboard for parents. Even so, it should be readily accessible and you shouldn’t have to ask the service for its internal complaints procedure. If it is not, this is a regulatory breach, and you have the right to report that breach.

If the issue is small or something that you feel you don’t need to report or seek support on, you can make your complaint directly to the person in charge or the manager. Avoid raising it with other staff because they may not have the authority to act, and your concern may not be recorded properly. You can use our My ECE parent complaint form to print, complete, and give to the service manager. If the concern comes from your child, use the child complaint form instead. Making the complaint in writing is important. It means the service must give you a response, and it prevents them from later claiming that you never made a complaint or it it didn’t need to be acted on.

If you are not satisfied with the service’s response or if you don’t want to complain directly to the service, you can inform the Education Review Office. You are welcome to use the email template (see below) – just copy/ paste and fill in details.

2. Reporting an incident (child harm or potential for child harm)

If your concern involves child harm or the potential for child harm, you should not only make a complaint to ERO but also make sure it is reported through the correct channels. Incident reporting helps protect children, ensures risks are taken seriously, and creates a formal record that agencies must act on.

Go to our article on “Reporting an Incident” to view clear information on what counts as an incident, how to report it quickly and easily, and why it’s vital that you report it.

3. The kinds of concerns and complaints you can make to the Education Review Office

The Education Review Office (ERO) has taken over responsibility for responding to complaints that previously went to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry used to only deal with complaints about minimum regulatory standards and ERO did not investigate or respond to complaints at all. That has now changed.

ERO must now respond to any concern about the quality of care, education, safety, or how the service treats families not just whether it meets the bare minimum rules in return for receiving public funding.

This shift is important for parents because it means:

• services are now accountable for meeting the rules and regulations and more
• your concerns cannot be dismissed as “not a regulatory issue”
• ERO must consider the actual experience of children and families, not just paperwork and policies
• you now have a pathway to raise issues about quality, culture, safety, trust, learning, and relationships – and to demand that these concerns are taken seriously and that actual consequences follow when a service fails to meet expectations

4. How to make a complaint to the Education Review Office about an early childhood service

Put your complaint in writing

Never phone or raise it informally. A written complaint gives you:

• an official record
• protection from being fobbed off or minimised
• evidence if nothing improves
• protection if the service reacts badly (for example, withdrawing your child’s enrolment or treating your child unfairly)

Send your written complaint to the Education Review Office (ERO): enforcement@ero.govt.nz

You’re welcome to use this email template –

If you want your identity protected

If you do not want ERO to reveal your name or any identifying information to the service, state this clearly in your email. Write something like: “I require ERO and the Director of Regulation to keep my name and any personally identifying information strictly confidential.” This is important because ERO and the Director of Regulation are not legally obligated to protect your identity unless you explicitly ask or can show you have evidence of asking for this in writing.

If you do not feel comfortable making a complaint to ERO or want extra privacy

If you do not feel comfortable contacting ERO yourself, you can ask My ECE to pass on your complaint on your behalf. My ECE acts on behalf of parents as a neutral go‑between. My ECE does not investigate complaints, take sides, or make judgments.

You can use our My ECE online confidential form here. My ECE will pass your complaint to ERO and provide your name and contact details, while requesting that ERO does not tell the service you made the complaint unless ERO has your explicit permission. You can also request that ERO protect your identity and not reveal who made the complaint during or after its investigation.

If you want to make the complaint completely anonymously, you can do so – but please note that anonymous complaints may not be investigated as fully. To stay anonymous, untick the box that allows your name and contact details to be passed on to ERO.

This is especially helpful for:

• parents who fear backlash
• staff (current or former) who want to report concerns safely

Your rights

You have the right to:

• request an investigation
• ask for an unannounced visit to observe actual practice
• ask for copies of all records held by the service, Police, or ERO
• have your identity protected (or escalate to the Privacy Commissioner if it is not)
• involve a lawyer to represent your interests
• take a private prosecution if you believe the matter warrants it

You do not have to navigate this alone.

5. How to Escalate to the Ombudsman

Escalate your complaint to Ombudsman if you believe:

• your complaint was refused because you did not want to personally raise it with the service first
• you weren’t listened to
• your complaint wasn’t properly investigated
• the action taken against the service wasn’t strong enough
• the outcome feels unfair for example, the service quickly produced paperwork that contradicts your experience, leaving you feeling powerless or dismissed
• no official record of your complaint was made, leaving other parents and the public unaware that a complaint existed and the issues
• the matters you raised were not documented for future monitoring

Use the Ombudsman’s online complaint form to request an independent investigation into how ERO and the Director of Regulation handled your complaint.

6. Who Is Ultimately Accountability to Parents and Families

You pay fees, and the service receives public funding. That means you have rights and you or your family deserves clear accountability.

The Education Review Office with the Director of Regulation

The Education Review Office (ERO) and the Director of Regulation who is Ray McMillan (based in ERO) hold ultimate responsibility for how licensed ECE services operate. This includes:

• approving service licences
• approving services to receive taxpayer funding
• enforce compliance by service providers with applicable requirements under this Education and Training Act 2020 (clause 27B), including by undertaking investigations and prosecutions
• overseeing what happens inside licensed ECE services including checking compliance with minimum regulatory standards, assessing and responding to complaints and incidents, assessing whether services meet ERO’s expectations for practices and policies that go beyond those minimums, and ensuring services maintain strong, respectful partnerships with parents for the care and education of their child

All complaints that once went to the Ministry of Education now go to ERO.

If you’re unhappy with ERO’s response, you have the right to take your concern to the Ombudsman and request an investigation into ERO’s actions or decisions.

It’s also a good idea to confidentially inform the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) – go to the online contact form. OECE independently monitors how well the ECE system is functioning and can push for improvements. While this may not change the outcome of your own complaint, it can help protect other families in future.

The Owner (legal accountability for the service)

The owner is legally responsible for the entire service even if you never meet them. This includes:

• individual owners
• company directors
• private equity funds or fund‑management companies
• incorporated societies or boards

Even if the owner is “hands‑off” and hires another company to run everything, they still receive funding and fees, may retain profits, and carry ultimate legal responsibility.

If your service won’t disclose who the legal owner is, you can find out by searching:

• Companies Register
• Incorporated Societies Register

7. The Fair Trading Act

It is illegal for any business (including an early childhood service) to give false and misleading information in the promotion and sale of goods and services (this includes fees charges). Report to the Commerce Commission by emailing contact@comcom.govt.nz, or call 0800 943 600. 

8. The Consumer Guarantees Act

Does the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 apply to an early childhood education and care service?  The answer is yes. To explain: by virtue of the Consumer Guarantees Act, there is a guarantee that educational services will be delivered by the ECE service with reasonable skill and care.  You may be able to ask for compensation to reflect the lower value of the service you have received.  Contact the consumer protection hotline at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
Freephone: 0508 426 678 (0508 4 CONSUMER), Email: cpinfo@mbie.govt.nz

9. Ethics and Best Practices

Click on the following titles for: 

• Code of Conduct Early Childhood Services
• The Code of Children’s Rights in ECE

10. Further Information

Guide to reporting a serious incident – child harm or potential harm

Regulations on first aid and injury management

Regulations on hazards and health and safety management

Requirement for services to have a complaints procedure

Harder to Speak Up, Harder to Check: The End to Rules Requiring Display of a Complaints Procedure, Key Regulations, and Teacher Name and Qualification Info