Empowering Early Education: Juniorlogs Revolutionises Preschool Management in New Zealand
October 2, 2024Excerpt from Issue 92 of 12 October The Early Learning Bulletin
October 17, 2024Empowering Early Education: Juniorlogs Revolutionises Preschool Management in New Zealand
October 2, 2024Excerpt from Issue 92 of 12 October The Early Learning Bulletin
October 17, 2024Extended funding settings
We have extended the following funding settings that have been used in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as they were set to lapse on 30 November 2022:
- The Emergency Closure funding can continue to be accessed by services who are unable to open due to the impact of COVID-19 on staffing until 31 December 2022.
- The Absence Exemptions can be accessed for children who are unwell with COVID-19 until 31 December 2022.
You can find details of these funding settings on our Te Mahau website:
2023 calendar of key dates for ECE funding
Key dates for ECE funding in 2023 have now been published on our website along with a PDF version: Funding and data – Ministry of EducationECE funding key dates 2023 [PDF, 525KB]
Recording holiday season closures
Services are reminded to check the absence rules on our website for the upcoming holiday period and to ensure that absences are accurately recorded.
ECE Funding Handbook 6-4 Absence rules – Ministry of Education
If the following conditions apply during the holiday period, services are entitled to funding and should use the SO code:
- parents have confirmed their children will attend
- teachers are present
- no children attend the service that day.
Evidence of booked enrolments must be maintained for auditing purposes. ‘Holiday’ refers to a day that an early learning service would not normally operate on but have agreed with parents to open. For example, on a statutory holiday or during the Christmas and New Year holiday period. This code cannot be used on a normal operating day. You can only claim funded child hours for the hours your staff are present for that day. For example, if the teacher starts at 9am and closes the service at 12pm (instead of 3pm), you can only claim funded child hours for the half day.
Upcoming changes for home-based early learning services
The home-based service qualification requirements brought about by the Education (Early Childhood Services) Amendment Act (No 2) 2021 will change on 1 January 2023.
After this date, 30% of educators working in a standard-funded licensed service must hold a home-based service qualification. This percentage is calculated based on educators who work at least four days in a calendar month. Detail on what counts as a home-based service qualification can be found on our website.
Home-based staff qualification changes – Ministry of Education
Additionally, quality-funded services must have 70% qualified educators who hold a home-based service qualification from 1 January 2023. You will need to continue to keep records showing you meet the requirement for each month.
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Standard funded licence requirements |
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Minimum percentage of fully qualified educators |
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1 June 2022 |
10% |
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1 January 2023 |
30% |
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Quality funded licence requirements |
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Minimum percentage of fully qualified educators |
Maximum percentage of educators in training or induction (no credits achieved) |
Educators with at least five credits towards an ECE qualification at Level 4 or above |
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1 June 2022 |
50% |
20% |
All remaining educators on the licence (0–50%) |
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1 January 2023 |
70% |
20% |
All remaining educators on the licence (0–30%) |
Our website has more information on these changes, including what qualifications you need to be counted as ‘qualified’ for these calculations.
We continue to update our website to ensure it reflects the current qualifications requirements of both standard and quality funded home-based service licences.
Home-based staff qualification changes – Ministry of Education
It is important for services to ensure that they continue to meet the requirements, including those that relate to the record keeping requirements. This includes those that relate to master staff records, monthly records and certified qualifications.
Privacy statement FAQs
We have received questions regarding the 3 November issue of the Early Learning Bulletin where we updated the wording of the privacy statement.
Early Learning Special Bulletin – 3 November 2022
Our decision to no longer recommend the retention of documents used to verify the identity of children has been made in line with advice from the Privacy Commissioner.
Questions about the mandatory wording, managing children’s identification documents and meeting your responsibilities under the Privacy Act 2020 are detailed on our website:
