Need-to-know | Me mātua mōhio#

July 2025 RS7 return#

Critical dates

On 1 July, we will pay the next instalment of ECE funding to licensed early learning services.

Key funding dates for the upcoming July 2025 payment are as follows:

If you submit your RS7 after 9 June, but before 8 July, you will receive funding on 21 July. An email acknowledging receipt of the RS7 return will be sent to your service’s funding contact from Pourato.

From 30 June, your funding contact will be able to access funding information in Pourato, our new online funding system. They’ll receive an email on 30 June with guidance on how to access and view funding information.

Any pātai, contact [email protected].

Pay parity opt-in scheme

Higher funding rates are available to education and care and hospital-based services who pay all employed certificated teachers | kaiako at or above the pay parity minimum salary steps.

Funding rates are available at:

ECE Funding Handbook: Appendix 1

The minimum salary scales are available at:

ECE Funding Handbook: Appendix 4

Changing your services minimum salary scale attestation for the advance funding months of the July funding period:

If you want to change your pay parity minimum salary scale attestation for the advance funding months of the July funding round, because you intend to pay your certificated teachers a different (higher or lower) parity minimum salary scale from 1 June, contact [email protected].
 
A reminder that such changes should be consistent with the employment agreements applying to your teachers.

Pay parity opt-in scheme

ECE Funding Handbook: Chapter 3-B-2

RS7 returns following a change of ownership

Following a change of ownership, the new owner may submit an electronic RS7 return for the period after the purchase and send a paper based RS7 for the period prior to the purchase. Alternatively, the new owner can send an entire funding claim using a paper-based RS7 return.

All funding following a change of ownership will be paid to the new owner. As we do not split payments, any payment to the previous owner will be actioned by the new owner.

RS7 returns following a change of SMS

If you have not been using your new system (SMS or ELI web) for the entire funding period, you can:

• submit the portion of your claim electronically, for the month/s you have been using your new system, and send the paper based RS7 form for the month/s before you began using this system, or
• submit your entire funding claim using the paper based RS7 forms.

Resubmissions

You are responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the data submitted. Resubmissions are available to correct genuine errors or oversights that emerge later:

• February to May period should be made electronically.
• June 2024 to January 2025 period should be submitted using a paper based RS7 form.

Resubmissions relating to any time before June 2024 will not be processed. Note that resubmissions may be audited by our monitoring team.

Accessing your funding notice

From 30 June, your funding contact will be able to access funding information in Pourato, our new online funding system. They’ll receive an email on 30 June with guidance on how to access and view funding information.  

The funding information in Pourato will not expire in six months, as it currently does in the Secure Data Portal (SDP)

Service open (SO) code

If your service is open on a day, where children were enrolled but no children attended, you can claim funding for that day by emailing [email protected], specifying the date your service was open, but no children attended.

Use the SO code in your RS7 form and input the ‘funded child hours’ enrolled for that day so that funding is paid correctly.

Discretionary hours reporting requirements

Teacher-led, centre-based, and hospital-based services could use up to 80 discretionary hours in the February to May 2025 funding period. A discretionary hour is an hour that a service can claim an unqualified teacher as a certificated teacher for the staff hour count.

• If your service used discretionary hours during the current funding period, you must submit a record of the total number of discretionary hours along with your RS7.
• If you use an approved SMS and require assistance providing the information, contact your SMS provider.
• If you submit a paper based RS7 or use Early Learning Information (ELI) web and have used discretionary hours, you must also send us the form below along with your RS7.

Discretionary hours report form: 80 Hours [PDF, 276 KB]

Note: Do not complete the form if your service has not used any discretionary hours.

Email your completed discretionary hours form and RS7 to [email protected].

For specific information on discretionary hours, visit:

3-B-2 Teacher-led education and care services

More information

For funding rules, refer to the ECE Funding Handbook:

ECE Funding Handbook

Electronic RS7 returns and ELI reports are available on the ELI homepage:

Early Learning Information (ELI) reports – Ministry of Education

Any pātai, contact us by phone on 0800 323 323 or email [email protected].

For any licensing or general operational matters, or if you require any updates to your service’s contact details, contact your local Te Mahau office: 

Regional offices

Safety checking tools and resources#

All early learning service providers are responsible for ensuring that all children’s workers they employ or engage are safety checked before they have access to children and are rechecked every three years.

Information on the requirements of the Children’s Act 2024 can be found here:

Safety checking for child protection in early learning – Ministry of Education

We have developed guidance and tools to support you to undertake these safety checks and recently added a cover sheet for periodic safety checking of children’s workers. More information can be found at:

Safety checking: Tools and resources – Ministry of Education

Heads-up | He kupu puaki#

Preparing for the ECE Census 2025#

The Early Childhood Education (ECE) Census week this year is 23 June to 29 June.

All early childhood services need to submit their completed ECE Census to us by 17 July.

The ECE Census collects information on children’s enrolment and attendance, staff, teaching languages and wait times at each early childhood service.

This information contributes to a comprehensive information base on ECE in New Zealand and we use it to monitor and forecast ECE expenditure and design new policies.

Find more information about the ECE Census 2025 and a link to the ECE Census guidelines on:

Annual ECE Census return week – Education Counts

Thank you to everyone who completed last year’s ECE Census. You can find the published information on Education Counts.

Statistics – Education Counts

Pourato preview sessions – reminder to register#

If you’re the funding contact for your early learning service, you should have received an email inviting you to register for one of our Pourato preview sessions in June. Please remember to register.

If you haven’t received this email, please check your spam or junk folder for a message from [email protected] and move the message to your inbox so that you can receive future emails from this address. If you still haven’t received our invitation, get in touch via email [email protected].

Pourato is our new online funding system. On 30 June, funding contacts will be emailed a link to Pourato and guidance on how to access funding and licensing information for their services.

In our preview sessions, we’ll demonstrate how Pourato works and how to access your funding information. The content will be tailored to focus on the interests of providers with one or two services or those providers with multiple services.

For more information visit:

Pourato for Early Learning – Applications and online systems

Infectious diseases resource#

The National Public Health Service (NPHS) are working on reviewing and updating the
Infectious Diseases information and exclusion list:

Infectious Diseases A4 card – HE1215 – HealthEd

As part of this process, they want to hear any feedback from you – teachers and other early learning staff, parents – as the users of this resource. They want to know how you think this can be improved for those who use it.

Please send your feedback (along with your role and brief details of when/how you use the resource) to the NPHS communicable disease team at [email protected] by 30 May.

Digital early learning child protection resource#

There is a free digital child protection resource specifically for the early learning sector available on our website that we want to remind you about.

The resource will help build awareness and confidence in:

• recognising, responding to, and reporting suspected child abuse and neglect
• working with whānau and tamariki in a culturally responsive way
• implementing policies to embed a culture of child protection.

If you haven’t already, we encourage staff working in the early learning sector to access this tool to help build your confidence in being able to support the wellbeing of tamariki.

Accessing the resource

To access child protection training you are required to have an Education Sector Logon (ESL) as there is a formal acknowledgment of completion. To get an ESL account, please contact your organisation’s ESL delegated authoriser.

If you already have an education sector logon (ESL), you can access this course by logging to the Education LMS using the following link and select ‘Login with education sector logon (ESL)’.

Logon – Education Learning Management System

Once you have logged in, select ‘catalogue’ from the top-menu and type ‘Child Protection’ in the search bar.

If you would like to know more about having an Education Sector Login (ESL) to access the Education Learning Management System, please refer to:

Education Sector Logon (ESL) – Applications and online systems

Ministry-wide information security classifications policy#

We have adopted a new Information Security Classifications Policy as part of Government-wide protective security requirements.

All Ministry emails and documents will now include protective markings (for example, unclassified, in-confidence – release external, sensitive – release external) so that information is appropriately handled.

You may see markings added to information we receive from you or be contacted so we can check what we receive from you is necessary.

While no action is needed from you, we encourage considering the sensitivity of any information you share with us.

For more details about protective markings, visit:

Overview of the classification system – Protective Security Requirements