Licensing criteria for hospital-based ECE services

Section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020(external link) defines hospital-based education and care service as the provision of education or care to 3 or more children under the age of 6 who are receiving hospital care.

ECE services operating from hospital premises that provide education and care to siblings of patients or children of hospital staff or patients are centre-based ECE services, not hospital-based ECE services.

Hospital-based services are licensed in accordance with the Education and Training Act 2020 under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008(external link), which prescribe minimum standards that each licensed service must meet. Licensing criteria are used to assess how the services meet the minimum standards required by the regulations.

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

The publication of the criteria on its own can be downloaded as a PDF [PDF, 1.2 MB] and printed.

The licensing criteria were last updated in September 2022.

GMA3 Information provided to parents

  • Criteria

    • Criteria

      Governance, management and administration criterion 3

      Information is provided to parents about:

      • how they can be involved in the service
      • any fees charged by the service;
      • the amount and details of the expenditure of any Ministry of Education funding received by the service; and
      • any planned reviews and consultation.

      Documentation required:

      Written information letting parents know:

      • how they can be involved in the service;
      • any fees charged by the service;
      • the amount and details of the expenditure of any Ministry of Education funding received by the service; and
      • about any planned reviews and consultation.

      Related to clause 47(1)(d) of standard.

      Rationale/Intent:

      The criterion aims to ensure that parents are well informed about the service's operation and their child's education, and are made aware of the input they are able to have.

  • 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.

      Providing information to parents could take a variety of forms. This information could be:

      • included as part of a a handout for parents, which may be specific to the ECE service and/or as part of brochures of information about the children’s ward
      • in the annual plan
      • in meetings with parents
      • notices on the wall of the activity room
      • on the hospital website.

  • Things to consider

    • Things to consider

      Services may want to consider how information is shared so it is culturally appropriate for the audience. Things to consider include:

      • Parent’s first language
      • Communal decision making practices
      • The topic or subject.

      Resources that can be used are:

      Kei Tua o te Pae/Assessment for learning: Early Childhood Exemplars, a best practice resource developed to help educators understand and strengthen children’s learning and to show how children and parents can contribute to this assessment and improve parental awareness of teacher intentionality around ongoing learning.

      Te Whatu Pōkeka: Kaupapa Māori Assessment for Learning: Early Childhood Exemplars a resource that explores cultural contexts and methods that contribute significantly to nurturing all aspects of children’s growth and development. It provides guidance for the assessment of Māori children in a Māori early childhood setting.

      However services are also able to use other resources that they may have developed in-house for this purpose.

      If parents wish to gain information related to a child’s participation in ECE that has been documented in clinical notes they will need to follow hospital policy for reading these notes.

      There will be hospital policy covering adults who may not have access to a child. Unless a court order rules otherwise, all parents and guardians are entitled to:

      • Reports about their child’s participation in ECE and learning experiences
      • Participate in the opportunities provided by the ECE service to engage with parents
      • Have access to any official records held at the service related to their child’s participation in that service.

      There will be hospital policy covering adults who may not have access to a child. Unless a court order rules otherwise, all parents and guardians are entitled to:

      • Reports about their child’s participation and learning experiences in ECE
      • Participate in the opportunities provided by the ECE service to engage with parents
      • Have access to any official records held at the service about their child’s participation in that service.
      Professional practice regarding separated parents/guardians 

      If parents wish to gain information related to a child’s participation in ECE that has been documented in clinical notes they will need to follow hospital policy for reading these notes.

      Note too, staff of hospital-based services may be strongly discouraged from retaining information about individual children on file separately from the clinical notes, as clinical notes are the official record of all aspects of a child’s stay. One way of dealing with this is by documenting "Learning stories" or similar during the child’s stay then giving them to the family when the child is discharged.

      Related downloads:

      Professional Practice regarding Separated Parents/Guardians [PDF, 181 KB]