An early childhood education and care centre is defined in the Education and Training Act 2020 as "premises used regularly for the education or care of 3 or more children (not being children of the persons providing the education or care, or children enrolled at a school being provided with education and care before or after school) under the age of 6:

• by the day or part of a day, but
• not for any continuous period of more than 7 days."

Home-based education and care services are defined in section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020 as those that provide “education or care, for gain or reward, to children who are under the age of 5 years, or who are 5 years of age but not enrolled in school, in:

• the children’s own home or
• the home of the person providing the education or care or
• any other home nominated by the parents of the children

and includes the provision of education or care to any child of the person providing the service who is:

• under the age of 5 years or
• years of age but not enrolled in school."

Education and Training Act 2020, section 10 – New Zealand Legislation

‘Gain or reward’ means that educators must be paid or receive some quantifiable benefit for the service they provide.

The use of volunteer or unpaid educators excludes the service provider from holding a licence as the service provider does not meet the definition of a home-based ECE service under the Education and Training Act 2020.

Section 19 of the Education and Training Act 2020 outlines the number of children who can be present in a home at any neo1 time:

• a licensed home-based education and care service may be provided to no more than 4 children per home
• while children are participating in the service, the total number of children present in a home in which the service is provided (including those receiving the service) may not be more than 6 (aged 13 years or younger, excluding the educators’ own children who are enrolled at school).

Education and Training Act 2020, section 19 – New Zealand Legislation

Hospital-based early childhood services provide education and care for 3 or more children under the age of 6 who are receiving hospital care.

These services operate on hospital premises and support children while they are in hospital. Services based in hospitals that provide education and care for siblings of patients or children of hospital staff or patients are not considered hospital-based services. Instead, they are classified as centre-based early childhood education (ECE) services and are subject to the requirements that apply to centre-based services.

Hospital-based services must be licensed under the Education and Training Act 2020 and comply with the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. These regulations set the minimum standards that licensed services must meet. Compliance with these standards is assessed against licensing criteria, which help determine whether a service meets the regulatory requirements.

Kōhanga reo run a total immersion te reo Māori whānau | family programme for mokopuna | young children from birth to 6 years of age to be raised within its whānau Māori, where the language of communication will be Māori.

The operation and decision making of each kōhanga reo are the responsibility of the whole whānau within the guidelines set down by Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust Board. The trust and the kōhanga reo whānau administer the kaupapa to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the mokopuna and the whānau and to ensure the survival of te reo Māori.

Kōhanga reo are currently chartered to Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust and licensed by the Ministry of Education under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008.

The Education and Training Act 2020 (The Act) allows for the service provider (organiser) of a playgroup to be an individual or a group of people. In many cases this will be a parent or groups of parents.

The Act defines a playgroup as a group that meets on a regular basis to facilitate children’s play and in respect of which:

• no child attends for more than 4 hours on any day, and
• more than half the children attending on any occasion have a parent or caregiver present in the same play area at the same time.

This ensures playgroups have a high ratio of adults present while children are learning. It also limits the length of time a child can attend on any 1 day to 4 hours maximum.

The main aim of a playgroup is to provide a learning environment that is varied and responsive to the interests and learning needs of individual children. In addition to providing ECE opportunities for children, playgroups provide an informal support network for parents.

Playgroups encourage and support parents to learn about the education needs of children and acknowledge the significance of their role in their child’s early education.

There are different types of playgroups in New Zealand. Some have a primary focus on maintaining culture, language or philosophical approaches, such as ngā puna kōhungahunga | Māori language playgroups, Pasifika, Montessori or Steiner playgroups.

Establishing a certified puna kōhungahunga

Playgroups

Playgroups are the only ECE service that are certified rather than licensed. This means that there are fewer regulatory requirements that need to be met. Playgroups are:

• run by parents and cater for groups of children from birth to school age and their parents
• typically meeting for 1 to 5 sessions each week to provide play, social and learning opportunities for children
• can be certified and may be less formal than other kinds of ECE services.

Some playgroups operating in rural areas may only have 1 session per week, while others may run up to 5 mornings a week. A playgroup may be the only facility in an area that focuses on early childhood education.

Pasifika playgroups

In addition to the above playgroup requirements, Pasifika playgroups focus on developing and maintaining Pasifika languages and cultures.

Ngā puna kōhungahunga

In addition to the above playgroup requirements, Māori language and tikanga is reflected in the structure and content of the ngā puna kōhungahunga sessions.

To receive funding and support from us, playgroups are required to be certified.

Certification is optional and it is possible for playgroups to operate without a certificate. But if a playgroup is not certified, it will not receive funding and support from us even though it must operate within the definition of a playgroup in the Education and Training Act 2020.

The ECE Funding Handbook has more information.

ECE Funding Handbook