The ECE Census
Common terms
| Terms | Description |
|---|---|
| ECE | Early Childhood Education |
| ELI | Early Learning Information system |
| NSN | National Student Number |
| SMS | Student Management System |
| Ministry | Ministry of Education |
The ECE Census is an electronic collection of information from early learning services that focuses on service activity during a particular week as advised by the Ministry. The information collected by the ECE Census provides information on staff at the service, contact hours of staff in teaching roles during the ECE Census week, teaching languages and wait times.
This information contributes to a comprehensive information base on ECE in New Zealand and is used by the Ministry to monitor and forecast ECE expenditure and design new policies.
Annual ECE Census Return – Education Counts(external link)
Which services should submit an ECE Census?
Each licensed early childhood service must submit an electronic ECE Census to the Ministry. Playgroups, casual and hospital-based services that are not connected to the ELI system complete an online survey. Kōhanga Reo submissions are managed by Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust. Submitting the ECE Census is a mandatory requirement of the ECE Funding Handbook, and funding may be withheld in part or in full, if a service does not submit a complete and accurate ECE Census by the due date.
How to submit your ECE Census
How often is the ECE Census submitted
The ECE Census is required to be submitted annually. The Ministry will advise early learning services of the dates for ECE Census in advance.
Where to find the date for the ECE Census week
The date of the ECE Census week for which data is collected, will be confirmed in advance by the Ministry in the Early Learning Bulletin.
He Pānui Kōhungahunga - The Early Learning Bulletin(external link)
How to know when the Ministry has received your ECE Census
Once you have submitted your ECE Census through ELI Web or an alternative approved SMS, a message is displayed on your screen acknowledging that your ECE Census has been submitted to the Ministry. You can also download an ECE Return Report to see the data that was sent to the Ministry. This report will be available the next day in ELI Reports. Alternatively, you can check with your SMS provider.
Why the Ministry might contact you about the ECE Census
The Ministry may contact early learning services that have submitted an ECE Census in order to check the data it is complete and accurate. This is an important part of the ECE Census process; to ensure that the information we use for reporting purposes is reflective of sector activity during the ECE Census week.
Correcting a mistake with your ECE Census submission
It is recommended that you print your ECE Census for your records before editing or creating a new version.
- In ELI Web, if you’ve made a mistake in your most recently submitted ECE Census, you can edit it and resubmit. This version will then become the current ECE Census displayed in ELI Reports for your service.
- Through your SMS, you can edit your most recently submitted ECE Census and resubmit it to the ELI system.
- For Casual Education & Care and Hospital based services that are required to submit the RS61 Return, if you need to edit anything, email your changes to ece.statistics@education.govt.nz.
ECE Census information sent to the Ministry does not influence funding for services
The information in your ECE Census provides the Ministry with a snapshot of service activity for a single week of operation. However, submitting the ECE Census is a mandatory requirement of the ECE Funding Handbook, and funding may be withheld in part or in full, if a service does not submit a completed and accurate ECE Census by the due date.
Definition of 'contact hours'
Contact hours are the actual child-contact start and finish times for all teachers who were teaching during the ECE Census week. This does not include non-contact time and breaks of 15 minutes or more.
'Contact hours' for home-based coordinators
The 'contact hours' for home-based coordinators are equivalent to being 'on duty', which means that coordinators are:
- mainly focused on, and involved in, supervising quality environments for educators and children in their service, and
- able to instantly respond to educators and parents in their service in person or over the phone.
Please note that 'on duty' does not include times when the coordinator cannot respond instantly to educators and parents in person or over the phone. The contact (on duty) start and finish times should be recorded for the specified days of the ECE Census week.
Staff information
The ECE Census does not collect staff names, nor does it identify individual staff members.
Your service should keep staff records up to date during the year so that you won't have to spend time loading staff details when an ECE Census is due. If your staff records are up to date, you will be able to select from the list of any teaching staff that worked at your service and add contact hours.
ALL staff working at your service in teaching roles, including relievers, and non-teaching roles, should be recorded.
In particular, please make sure staff qualification, certification status and demographics are up to date.
Staff information for people who have left the service is showing in my current ECE Census
The ECE Census collects information on all teaching staff who have worked at your service since the last ECE Census week.
This information gives the Ministry more insight on changes in the ECE teaching workforce for monitoring and reporting purposes. By including the start and end dates for staff in teaching roles at your service, the Ministry will be better able to determine the numbers of teaching staff in the ECE sector at any point in time.
Please make sure those teaching staff that worked during the ECE Census week have their contact hours recorded.
Relievers in a teaching role and with contact hours during the ECE Census week should be included
All staff in a teaching role that had child contact hours during the ECE Census week, including relievers, must be accounted for in the ECE Census.
Please make sure your staff qualification, certification and demographics are recorded/entered for your relieving staff.
What it means to be a teacher certificated by the Teaching Council
A teacher certificated by the Teaching Council holds a practising certificate marked:
- Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Tōmua | Provisional Practising Certificate.
- Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Tūturu | Full Practising Certificate (Category One).
- Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Pūmau | Full Practising Certificate (Category Two).
- Returning to Teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand (RTTANZ).
When you are completing your ECE Census, any teacher who is certificated (whether marked category one, category two, or provisional) should be recorded as a teacher certificated by the Teaching Council. Services should only select “not certificated” if the teaching staff member does not fall within one of these three categories.
When a staff member is considered qualified
For the purpose of the ECE Census, a qualified staff member has an ECE teaching qualification or a primary school qualification that is recognised by the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Please make sure these are recorded correctly in your SMS.
When a staff member is considered permanent
A permanently employed staff member is an employee in an established position in a non-relieving capacity.
When a staff member is considered full-time
A person working in a particular role for a minimum of 25 hours per week is considered full-time.
Non-teaching staff roles
A person working at an ECE service can hold up to three non-teaching roles. Staff with non-teaching roles can also hold one teaching role.
Senior management staff
Senior management staff includes service managers, directors, senior-staff professional leaders, parent liaison, curriculum planning staff, etc. These staff are not usually involved in the teaching of children but may be available to work in a teaching capacity if necessary. A person in this role working 25 hours per week or more is considered full-time.
Support staff
Support staff are primarily engaged in maintenance, cleaning, food preparation or administrative support. A person in this role working 25 hours per week or more is considered full-time.
Specialist staff
Specialist staff are primarily engaged in the care and education of children, e.g. psychologists, physiotherapists, etc. A person in this role working 25 hours per week child contact time is considered full-time.
New information collected from the 2023 ECE Census onwards
Majority age worked with
To calculate and report on Adult:child ratios, all ECE Teachers with contact hours during the census week will be asked to provide the age range of children that they spent the majority of their time working with.
Arrived from another service
For permanent ECE Teachers and Home-based Coordinators who have started working at a service since the last census week, services will be asked if a new teacher has arrived directly from another ECE service.
Previously worked in ECE sector
For permanent ECE Teachers and Home-based Coordinators who have started working at a service since the last census week, services will be asked if a new teacher has previously worked in the ECE sector.
Leaving destination
For permanent ECE Teachers and Home-based Coordinators who have left a service since the last census week, services will be asked for the leaving destination of the teacher, for example, if they have moved to a different ECE service.
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