Welcome, karakia and introduction#

• Andy Jackson chaired the meeting.
• Andy welcomed the group and Emily Dakin opened the meeting with a karakia.
• Apologies and member movements were noted.
• Andy acknowledged the passing of some key figures in the early learning sector: Tilly Reedy and Wayne Wright.
• December minutes were confirmed.

What's on top#

Andy Jackson

• Main concerns for the sector include the fuel situation, the regulatory review of ECE, and the proposed change of regulatory functions to ERO.
• A member brought up a concern regarding notional rolls managed at the regional level, and inconsistent approaches. This will be followed up with an offline conversation around the member organisation’s particular context.

Update on fuel situation#

Andy Jackson, Geoff Short

• Andy introduced Geoff Short, new Hautū | Deputy Secretary of Te Mahau | Education Services. Geoff introduced his role.
• An update on the fuel situation was provided in the last Early Learning Bulletin, and these will continue. These updates are based on the government’s fuel response plan.
• The government is clear that New Zealand is not currently challenged by supply; New Zealand is in Phase 1 of the government’s fuel response plan: watchful.
• The government is currently planning for what may be needed if we move to further Phases in the future – we have time to plan. This is the consultation stage. The Ministry is contributing to the All of Government planning sessions.
• The Ministry is contacting schools and early learning services to understand concerns and how to best support. We are keen to hear views, concerns and ideas.
• The Ministry is considering incentives, supports and opportunities to reduce regulation barriers to help services.
• Members expressed concerns about fuel cost impacts now, to:
  • teachers, providers and student teachers on practicum. This affects the ability of staff to get to services.
    • Home-based services have visiting teachers driving to each home. May want to consider what can be achieved online, while maintaining child safety as a priority.
    • Reports of difficulty finding relievers as they don’t want to drive far.
  • whānau/parents. This affects the ability of children to get to services. As early learning services are not zoned, whānau/parents may travel further for their child to attend a particular service (eg. Kōhanga Reo, Puna Reo).
    • Reports of whānau keeping tamariki at home as they can’t afford petrol.
    • Comments that services are losing visibility of vulnerable children, as these are the children who have stopped attending now.
  • Early Intervention Services: all providers are NGOs who have increased operational costs. The Ministry will have conversations with contracted services.
• Members suggested the Ministry look at:
  • frequent absence rules and ratios.
    • ECE children (and parents) using school buses
    • allowing isolated/rural students to attend Te Kura/Correspondence School.
• If supply is restricted, education (compulsory and early learning) will be considered prioritisation band C (within bands A to E).
• The Ministry has been looking at daily and weekly school attendance data, which is similar to last year. We need this for early learning also.
• Unlike Covid, children and teachers can be together in the learning environment. A core government message is that onsite education provision is very important.
• Weekly operational ECAC hui focused on fuel have been set up.

Action: Provide email address for feedback on impacts and ideas for support, based around structured questions (Geoff Short).

Funding review update#

John Brooker, Sarah Hogan (MAG member)

• Linda Meade, Ministerial Advisory Group Chair, sent her apologies. A written update was provided to ECAC members last week, along with a summary of the funding review engagement report, and some FAQs with answers. These can be shared with members’ organisations and networks and is on the MAG website.

Ministerial Advisory Group – early childhood education funding system review

• FAQs were provided as feedback as questions from the engagement indicated some misunderstanding of aspects of early childhood education funding. The MAG hopes that addressing these will aid people’s understanding of the funding system and thereby help generate the best inputs when the MAG goes out for consultation mid-year.
• For in-person and online engagements, five enquiry areas were used as themes for the feedback, drawn from the Terms of Reference.
• The views expressed in the report reflect the perspectives of those who participated. There is no MAG commentary on the views expressed.
• The timeline has been updated to allow for more time to consider the material and perspectives received, and then to develop options and consult on these. Consultation is now expected mid-year. The final report will be provided to the Minister at the end of the year.
• The MAG will provide an update to ECAC members via email.
• John confirmed that the parent survey had responses from parents and whānau from a range of socio-economic statuses, ethnicities and regions. The results of this survey and the other 2 IPSOS surveys will be released in due course.
• Any questions can be sent to [email protected].

ECE Census 2025 results#

Riley Clough and Oindrila Bhattacharya

• 6 fact sheets of key trends from the ECE Census 2025 were presented. These fact sheets are participation, services, teaching staff, Te Reo Māori services, Pacific language services, and Asian language services. These are available on Education Counts

Annual ECE Census 2025: Fact Sheets – Education Counts

• 2 new measures, Occupancy and Capacity, were created in 2025 to replace the old occupancy measure. These give a better overview of the ECE sector Occupancy rate (how many children are attending) and Capacity rate (how long children are attending). The more licensed places increase, the more occupancy and capacity will decrease if participation stays the same.
• Analysis on the availability of early learning was presented. The number of services has fallen but the number of licensed places has increased. As such, the availability across the system for services to take on children has been fairly consistent.
• In participation, the proportion of children attending an early learning service in 2025 was steady. However, there was a decrease in the number of 2-year-olds attending. This is likely due to fewer births in 2022/2023. Members commented that services will need to think about how to respond to this.
• A question was asked about waitlists for under 2-year-olds. Data is collected for each age band. The data sets are on Education Counts, specifically time series table for general overviews and the pivot table for deeper level data. The general trend is a decrease in services with wait times.

ECE services – Education Counts

Time series: ECE waiting times (2014-2025) – Education Counts

Pivot table: ECE waiting times (2002-2025) – Education Counts

• A question was asked about children aged 5 at ECE. While this information is not in the fact sheet, it can be found on Education Counts, specifically the time series dataset for general figures, and the pivot table for more detailed analysis.

Early learning participation – Education Counts

Time series: Participation in ECE (2000-2025) [xlsx, 61 KB]

Pivot table: Participation in ECE 2007-2025 [xlsx, 8.2MB]

Associate Minister of Education#

Hon. David Seymour

• Minister Seymour summarised some upcoming changes: changes to licensing criteria (20 April), changes to a stepped response (1 September), and changes to ERO as the regulator, pending Cabinet approval. The changes to licensing criteria mean there are fewer rules, but child safety is still at the centre.
• The new rules, new regulator and new ways of working are intended to take away stress for providers and put the focus back on helping children find their potential and prepare for the world.
• The MAG will report back on the ECE funding review at the end of the year. The intention is for a simpler funding system.
• The Budget is 28 May. The Minister is aware of pressure on the sector and that the 0.5% increase in funding last year didn’t cover inflation.
• Fuel situation: the Minister is aware of the cost impacts on workers and families. Around 140,000 families, many using early learnings services, will benefit from the extra $50 per week tax credit. This has cost $200 million of the government’s capped spending of $2.3 billion per year and puts pressure on what the government can further do.
• A member expressed concern that vulnerable families affected by cost pressures, but not eligible for the tax credit, are becoming invisible, and this puts pressure on services and the child protection system trying to support them. The Minister advised that providing data showing an effect on attendance over the last month is useful for the government to make decisions.
• A member suggested triangulating between government agencies, such as emergency housing, to identify those at most risk. The Minister will speak to Hon Karen Chhour, Minister for Children, about this.

Learning support update#

Rachael Vink

• Rachael summarised the Learning Support initiatives from Budget 2025. She also outlined the drivers for the newly established business group focused on Learning Support, led by Hautū | Deputy Secretary Bridget White.
• Rachael addressed a member question about whether the Ministry can provide data on Learning Support provided in each service type.  Providing this would depend on more capability infrastructure.
• Members were reminded of the Budget 2025 Learning Support roadmap, which is a multi-year plan funded from January 2026. 
• There are 447 schools who are now funded for Learning Support Coordinators (LSC) this year, who didn’t have one last year.
• Induction materials for LSC have included helping schools and principals to understand the legal framework for a child’s right to enrol in school from age 5 and to attend full time.
• Expansion of Early Intervention Service (EIS) onto Year 1 has occurred from Term 1 this year.
• There have been 2 procurement activities:
  • Early Intervention Specialist Services (EISS): An increase in places in alternate provision by 338 places. RFP closes today. The new contracts will work with children to the end of Year 1 unless they become ORS verified at school entry. (For Term 2, current providers continue. Comms will come out around who the new providers are).
  • Early Intervention Specialist Panel: New procurement on GETS website yesterday. For children with more discrete needs, from early years to the end of Year 1 and provides up to 1000 places per calendar year. This is intended to give quicker access to support, eg. Speech Language Therapists and Educational Psychologists.
• Term 2 2026 will focus on upskilling LSC for working in school environments, and for building a digital platform.
• A question was asked about the relationship between MoE and Ministry of Health It’s important to note that MoE support is based on need and doesn’t require a diagnosis. MoH is more therapies. Sometimes the distinctions can be complex.
• A question was raised around lack of early learning support kaimahi who can work effectively with kura, Puna Reo, Kōhanga Reo environments, and whether wananga could train people. The service exists but the approach doesn’t always work. The Ministry has had conversations on workforce planning in Māori Medium and Kura Kaupapa. There’s a need to work with the Ministry’s Te Pou Tuaronga | Māori Education business group. Rachael can come back to the member on this.
• 5- and 6-year-olds in ECE were discussed. The issue is known but the drivers are not, just hunches. Guidance to regional teams is needed. Some of this will be mitigated by expansion of EIS into year 1, which supports children’s transition to school.

Update on regulatory review of ECE#

Paul Scholey

• Paul summarised progress in implementing the recommendations, with the first phase prioritised by government almost complete.
• The ECE reform bill is now enacted, with the Director of Regulation established.
• Revised licensing criteria come into effect on 20 April 2026.
• Amendments to ECE regulations: expecting Cabinet to consider amendment regulations this month, and plan to gazette as soon as possible and allow reasonable time for sector and MoE to prepare for implementation – probably mid-year.
• Members mentioned that despite this longer lead in time, it still feels tight for sector readiness. Paul talked about Ministers balancing time to prepare with progressing the work and delivering positive changes for the sector.
• The proposed shift of ECE regulatory functions to ERO is part of the System Reform Bill, with Select Committee due to report back in May.
• A question was asked about Recommendation 10: Allow greater flexibility in workforce qualifications to support access and quality across all areas and service types and what problem this recommendation was trying to solve. The member was concerned about any moves to minimise qualifications and wanted more focus on developing a workforce strategy.

Check in on licensing criteria changes#

Jo George-Scott

• This session is to support the sector to move to the new licensing criteria on 20 April.
• The purpose of the changes is to reduce compliance burden and to simplify regulations.
• There has been positive feedback on the changes to the criteria, and on the website updates.
• Workshops were held by regional Ministry offices with the sector in their regions to deepen confidence ahead of implementation.
• The Ministry is working with Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust to undertake a review of licensing criteria for Kōhanga Reo.
• The website and Early Learning Bulletin are the main communication tools for the changes. The website has a comparison table with old and new criteria. Key changes have been highlighted in the Early Learning Bulletin of 19 March 2026.

2026 changes to licensing criteria

• Guidance has been updated to make it clearer how to demonstrate compliance.
• A member commentated that although the streamlining is good, there is a lot going on in the sector (eg. fuel impacts and workforce). It takes time for service providers to realise what’s different day to day. 
• A member asked for clarification: does everything have to be in place by 20 April, or just the process in place? Jo stated that services will need to follow the new criteria after 20 April, so there is an expectation to engage with the criteria.
• If a service is currently compliant, it is likely they will still be compliant after 20 April. 
• The Ministry and ERO are working together to have a joined-up approach post 20 April.

Reflections and wrap up#

Andy Jackson

• Andy thanked members for their engagement and participation throughout the day.
• Emily Dakin closed with a karakia.