Certification criteria for playgroups

Section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020(external link) defines a playgroup as a group that meets on a regular basis to facilitate children's play and in respect of which—

  1. no child attends for more than 4 hours on any day; and
  2. more than half the children attending on any occasion have a parent or caregiver present in the same play area at the same time; and
  3. the total number of children attending on any occasion is not greater than 4 times the number of parents and caregivers present in the same play area at the same time.

Playgroups include Puna Kōhungahunga, cultural playgroups and community language playgroups.

Playgroups are certificated in accordance with the Education and Training Act 2020 under the Education (Playgroups) Regulations 2008(external link), which prescribe minimum standards that each certificated playgroup must meet. Certification criteria are used to assess how playgroups meet the minimum standards required by the regulations.

For each criterion there is guidance to help playgroups meet the required standards.

The publication of the criteria on its own can be downloaded as a PDF [PDF, 1.1 MB] and printed.

The certification criteria were last updated in September 2022.

MA4 Information shared

  • Criteria
    • Criteria

      Governance Management & Administration criterion 4

      Information is shared with the parents and caregivers of children attending, including:

      • financial information about the group’s operation; and
      • information received/sought from relevant agencies or services.
      Rationale/Intent

      The criteria aims to ensure that parents and caregivers are well informed about the playgroup’s financial management and have access to other information like other community and service agencies.

  • Guidance
    • Guidance

      Any examples in the guidance are provided as a starting point to show how services can meet (or exceed) the requirement. Services may choose to use other approaches better suited to their needs as long as they comply with the criteria.

      The Playgroup Funding Handbook sets out the conditions on which funding payments are made to playgroups. You can download this from the bottom of the page.

      Financial information about the group’s operation needs to be shared with parents and caregivers to assist the playgroup in making budget decisions and provide transparency and accountability. This includes keeping good financial records and having these available for anyone to see.

      Information to parents and caregivers can be provided in different ways such as parent information sheets, newsletters or on a notice board.

      Playgroups have access to a range of organisations that support families, like Plunket, Barnardos, MSD, REAP, local schools, councils and community networks such as churches. Information from these organisations could be made available to parents and caregivers.