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.

GMA9 Annual budget

  • Criteria
    • Criteria

      Governance Management and Administration criterion 9

      An annual budget guides financial expenditure.

      Documentation required:

      An annual budget setting out the service’s estimated revenue and expenses for the year. The budget includes at least:

      • staffing costs, including leave entitlements;
      • professional development costs;
      • equipment and material costs for the ongoing purchase of new equipment and consumable materials; and
      • provision for operational costs (such as electricity, telephone, food purchases and other day to day items) and maintenance of the premises as appropriate.
      Rationale/Intent:

      The criterion will provide Ministry of Education with evidence of the service's ability to continue to meet regulatory standards and criteria and afford the financial costs of providing a quality licensed ECE service.

  • 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.

      An annual budget should be prepared once a year in conjunction with the hospital’s Business Analyst or equivalent, and then reviewed every six months, or more frequently throughout the financial year.

      Hospital managers should consult with and engage the ECE service in any budget development that may impact on the service and senior service staff should be consulted on how MOE funding is used.

      While the service falls under the hospital’s budgeting process, there are certain requirements for reporting on how ministry funding is spent. This includes equity funding. See section 12-2 of the Funding Handbook

      When setting and reviewing the budget, the service can:

      • develop criteria for allocating resources
      • identify priorities for expenditure
      • establish clear procedures for monitoring income and expenditure.

      A budget of income and expenditure should be broken down on a monthly basis.

      The annual budget should be developed at the same time as the annual plan.