He Pānui Kōhungahunga
COVID-19 update - 1 March 2022
He Pānui Kōhungahunga
Ngā mihi o te ahiahi,
Welcome to the first day of autumn.
As expected, cases of Omicron have grown exponentially. I know that this will be placing additional pressure on you, your staff, tamariki and communities. Thank you for your leadership in volatile times.
Please continue to let your regional Te Mahau teams know when you are informed of positive cases of children, whānau who are volunteers and staff in your service. This information provides all important context for policy and practice responses.
Despite the rise in numbers of cases it is really important that all children who need to, can come to their early learning service. Your leadership and management to enable this is highly valued – thank you.
Ngā manaakitanga,
Iona
Testing positive for COVID-19
If you test positive for COVID-19, everyone else in your household becomes a household contact and you need to isolate together for at least 10 days.
The information covers:
• managing symptoms
• rapid antigen tests (RATs)
• steps to take if you test positive
• what to do when isolating
• support that is available in isolation.
Find further information about testing positive in this brochure:
What type of contact are you?
This graphic will be helpful in identifying whether you are a household contact and what steps you should take:
Recent High Court case regarding vaccination mandates
You may have seen, last week the vaccination mandates for the New Zealand Police and Defence Force personnel were set aside by the High Court.
The Court’s decision applies only to affected people who work in these sectors.
The mandates requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for all education staff who may interact with children and students remain in place and are not affected by this judgment.
A claim challenging the education sector mandates will be heard in March and we will let you know when the outcome of that challenge is known.
There is no change for schools, kura, hostels and licenced early childhood services.
Everyone who works for an early learning service who may have contact with children or will be present at a time when children are also present continues to be covered by the mandatory vaccination requirements.
COVID-19 Public Health Response (Vaccinations) Amendment Order (No 3) 2021 – New Zealand Legislation
They will need to continue to have their booster by today (1 March 2022) or 183 days after their second shot, whichever is later.
Reminder: EAP services
A reminder that we have extended centrally funded counselling services through EAP Services. All teachers, relievers and support staff in early learning services are able to access these services.
The centrally funded counselling services apply to staff who register as new users from 24 August 2021, and this funding arrangement will continue through to June 2022.
If your service has questions about invoices for services delivered through EAP Services, in the first instance email accountmanagement@eapservices.co.nz.
You’ll find further information about these EAP services on our website:
COVID-19 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) – Ministry of Education
Or if you any questions call 0800 327 669/1800 726474 or visit the their website:
Help for whānau who are self-isolating
If you know any whānau who need extra support while they are self-isolating because of COVID-19, Work and Income may be able to help.
Many people will be able to self-isolate with help from whānau, family and friends, but there is help available for whānau who need it.
If help is needed, they may be able to get:
- money to pay for urgent and essential costs, like food, medicine, and some bills
- things that are needed to be delivered.
Let them know how they can help by using their online form.
Discretionary situations
A reminder for services and whānau-led kōhanga reo that use discretionary situations: the number of available discretionary situations has increased from five to 10 for each funding period for the November and the March funding periods (October 2021 to May 2022).
For more information, visit the Funding Handbook:
3-C-2 Quality funding rates for parent/whanau-led services – Ministry of Education
NELP criteria and how we can help
As you know, the National Education and Learning Priorities (NELP) licensing criteria came into effect on 1 January 2022. This included adding new criteria to strengthen the quality of teaching our learners receive, ensuring a safe and inclusive environment that is free of bullying and takes account of learners’ needs, identities, language and cultures among others.
We understand there have been a number of changes in the COVID-19 Protection Framework impacting services, and that you may not have had time yet to fully engage with the NELP.
At this stage, the Ministry is taking an educative approach to assessing the NELP licensing criteria given these are a recent change.
We know that all the things you do normally to implement Te Whāriki and engage with families to understand what is important for them will have set you up well in terms of the NELP.
You will likely be taking actions under many of the priorities without necessarily making that connection. The criteria change requires you to make the links between your practice and planning and the NELP more visible. A good starting point is to review how the NELP can be woven into your self-review and internal evaluation processes, systems, professional growth cycles and annual plans.
Over time your service will be able to show more in-depth documentation on how you have regard for all NELP that are relevant to early learning.
The Ministry is currently working on developing a suite of resources to assist services to meet the NELP criteria that is likely to include PLD webinars.
Resources to help
Financial reporting due 30 June 2022
Licensed ECE services that have received income of over $80,000 (including GST) from the Ministry of Education during the financial year ending 2021 and have operated for a full financial year, need to submit audited financial statements along with a copy of the Declaration Form.
Declaration Form [PDF, 1.54 MB]
Financial reporting requirements [PDF, 204 KB]
Send by Thursday 30 June to:
Resourcing Division
Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666
Wellington 6140
or email resourcing@education.govt.nz
Home-based educator qualification regulations
We have published a summary of the feedback on the regulations for home-based educator qualification.
We carried out consultation on these regulatory changes from 27 August to 27 September 2021. Thank you to all who submitted responses to the proposals. The report summarises the survey and written submissions received during consultation and highlights key themes that emerged from responses.
You can read this report hosted on Kōrero Mātauranga:
Summary of feedback on regulations for home-based educator qualifications [PDF, 711 KB]
