He Pānui Kōhungahunga
Special bulletin – 3 November 2022
He Pānui Kōhungahunga
Kia ora koutou,
In this special bulletin we detail updates to the ECE Funding Handbook, privacy statement in your enrolment agreement and ELI principles of use.
We are also taking the opportunity to let you know about an extension to some of the COVID-19 funding settings until the end of November.
Ngā mihi,
Iona
Update to the ECE Funding Handbook: Chapter 14 – Collection of Information
A new chapter has been added to the ECE Funding Handbook to describe the funding conditions related to the collection of information from licensed early childhood services. This chapter covers:
- what data licensed ECE services must provide to be eligible for funding
- what the minimum frequency of this data must be provided
- how this data will be used by the Secretary for Education and/or the Minister of Education
- how services can use the Early Learning Information (ELI) system to submit this data.
Chapter 14: Collection of information [PDF, 142 KB]
Many services will already be meeting these data submission requirements when they confirm the accuracy of their enrolment and attendance data submitted to the ELI system and when completing the ECE Census.
Please see our website for a summary on all the changes made to the ECE Funding Handbook as part of the introduction of Chapter 14:
Updating the privacy statement in your Enrolment Agreement
All services should include a privacy statement on Enrolment Agreements that meet the requirements of the Privacy Act 2020.
Your privacy statement must include our exact privacy statement wording, which we have updated for better clarity and transparency. Update your Enrolment Agreements and begin using the new wording as soon as possible (that is, for parents completing any new Enrolment Agreements).
You can view the updated Enrolment Agreement template in Appendix 2 of the ECE Funding Handbook:
Enrolment Agreement template – Ministry of Education
We have also updated our advice on retaining children’s identification documents, which we now advise should be returned once sighted.
Copies of children’s identification documents already held at your service can be recorded as sighted and then destroyed.
Further advice is available on the Privacy Commissioner’s website:
Photocopying proof of identity – Office of the Privacy Commissioner
Updates to the ELI Principles of Use
We recently consulted on changes to the ELI Principles of Use. These changes have now been finalised.
The ELI Principles of Use wording is updated to clarify the use of data we have collected and includes:
- a reference to the Ministry’s authority to set funding conditions under section 548 (5) of the Education and Training Act 2020.
- updated language to be gender inclusive in response to feedback received from the sector.
The updated document can be downloaded from our website:
Extended funding settings
We have extended the following funding settings that have been used in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to Wednesday 30 November.
The extended funding includes:
- Emergency Closure funding can continue to be accessed by services who are unable open due to the impact of COVID-19 on staffing
- Absence Exemptions can be accessed for children who are unwell with COVID-19.
You can find details of these funding settings on our Te Mahau website:
