He Pānui Kōhungahunga
Update - 13 April 2022
He Pānui Kōhungahunga
Tēnā koe i tēnei ahiahi,
This afternoon the Government announced that New Zealand will move to Orange from 11:59pm Wednesday 13 April.
The decision to move to Orange has been made based on public health advice and reflects that New Zealand is showing clear signs that Omicron has peaked. As case numbers come down and our health system is more able to cope, it is appropriate to move to less restrictions.
One of the challenges that you may continue to face is working with those parents and whānau who continue to have concerns about their child being at an early learning service.
In this bulletin, we’ve included a letter template you may wish to send to whānau to let them know what the move to Orange means.
You’ll also find information on how to opt out of receiving more RATs.
Thank you again for your mahi throughout what has been another challenging time. I deeply appreciate your resilience and leadership.
Ngā mihi nui,
Iona
Guidance for moving to Orange
With the move to Orange, your early learning service can lessen restrictions.
COVID-19 Protection Framework – Te Mahau
As always, encourage your service community to continue to maintain good hygiene and stay home if you are sick. Please also continue to use well-ventilated indoor spaces.
Additionally, we recommend that you consider the risk for your service and your community when considering the mitigations you choose to retain at Orange.
Risk assessment and planning for COVID-19 – Early Learning Bulletin 7 April
Visitors
There are no restrictions on numbers of visitors on site at Orange and they should be captured in a visitor register as per your normal practice.
Visitors, including parents and caregivers, are encouraged to wear a mask when indoors.
Letter template for parents and whānau
Here is a letter template to support your communications with your community on moving to Orange. This can be edited to meet your needs.
Letter template for parents and whānau: Moving to Orange – English [DOCX, 14.4 KB]
Letter template for parents and whānau: Moving to Orange – te reo Māori [DOCX, 15.5 KB]
Additional rapid antigen tests
We will distribute additional rapid antigen tests (RATs) to those early learning services that have already opted in to testing. You do not need to contact us.
If you do not want your service included in the distribution for RAT this time, please email rapidantigen.testordering@education.govt.nz.
You will need to opt out by Wednesday 20 April.
We will not proactively provide RATs to early learning services that have not opted in to the first round of testing.
If you have not yet opted in to testing and would like to do so, please complete the form at the link below:
Network management consultation
We invite your feedback on the final network management policy proposals for licensed early childhood services. This is part of tranche two of the Early Learning Regulatory Review.
Find a detailed discussion document as well as a short summary and survey here:
Early Learning Regulatory Review – Kōrero Mātauranga
Public consultation on the priorities for the national and regional statements and the policy for new regulations will launch at 3pm on Thursday 14 April and close on Thursday 2 June.
Your feedback will be critical to next steps and will inform final decisions.
Online hui
As part of the public consultation, we will be holding public online hui to discuss these proposals with you and to answer your questions. Once the consultation is launched you will be able to register for the following sessions:
- Wednesday 27 April: 12pm-1:15pm
- Tuesday 3 May: 7pm-8.15 pm
Event: Implementing the new network management function – Eventbrite
We invite you to submit your feedback through the surveys for the above proposals. More detailed submissions can be made to either:
earlylearning.regulatoryreview@education.govt.nz
or
Early Learning Regulatory Review
Ministry of Education
PO Box 1666
Wellington 6140
For more information about network management please visit our dedicated web page:
Network management for licensed early childhood services – Ministry of Education
2020 Complaints and Incidents Report now available
An early learning services complaint is any communication we receive from a person who is unhappy, concerned or not satisfied with a situation, process or decision at a licensed early learning service or certified playgroup. We receive complaints from a range of people, including whānau, early learning staff and members of the community.
In 2020, we received:
- 409 complaints from parents, whānau and kaiako (similar to the previous year), we investigated 353 complaints and upheld 188
- 454 incident notifications from licensed early learning services that were a mixture of mandatory (57%) and voluntary (43%) incident notifications.
2020 early learning services Complaints and Incidents Report – Ministry of Education
Managing complaints and incidents
The release of our data report is a good opportunity for a few reminders. We encourage you to share this with your early learning community – staff, parents and whānau.
Making complaints
Anyone can make a complaint about a service – parents and whānau, staff (both past and current) or members of the public. All services must display a complaints procedure that people can see and follow.
We encourage complainants to raise their concerns with their early learning service in the first instance. Most complaints are resolved this way and don’t require our intervention.
However, if someone has made a complaint to a service and is concerned or unsatisfied with the process or outcome, they can contact us. This includes teachers and staff, particularly if they have concerns about regulated standards not being met and these cannot be resolved directly with the service provider.
Responding to complaints
It is important that you follow up all complaints in good faith. A robust complaints procedure, along with open and clear communication, will help you resolve concerns promptly and minimise the need for our intervention. We can support you if you require help, contact us.
Read more about responding to complaints and developing a complaints procedure:
Licensing criteria for centre-based services – Ministry of Education
Licensing criteria for hospital-based services – Ministry of Education
Licensing criteria for home-based services – Ministry of Education
There’s more about what to expect when we receive complaints on our website:
Incidents
If you’re required to notify another agency of an incident, you must notify us at the same time. This includes notifying WorkSafe, the Teaching Council, Oranga Tamariki or health authorities.
If you aren’t sure how to respond to an incident, or what the notification threshold is, contact us and we can provide advice and support.
Local Te Mahau offices – Ministry of Education
Read more about incident notifications on our website:
Balancing minimum ratios with children’s health, safety and wellbeing
Under the current regulations, ratio calculations apply at service level, rather than on a room-by-room basis.
However, ratios do not work in isolation from other regulatory requirements. Services must meet all regulations and criteria to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of children. Supervision is a key aspect of this.
Room-by-room ratios
Ratios apply across the licensed premises rather than room-by-room because children should not be restricted in their choice of learning space or activity.
We value the importance of child-initiated play and the contribution this provides to their learning. That’s why we give teachers, as trained professionals, the flexibility to use their judgement to decide how to safely supervise children.
Large groups of children
We expect children’s health, safety and wellbeing to be a key consideration when services arrange rosters, deploy staff and make supervision decisions.
It is not appropriate for staff to be organised in a way that has large groups of children supervised by only one teacher.
Adults that are not in contact with children cannot be included in regulated ratio calculations – this includes those on breaks or working on administrative tasks. Breaks of less than 15 minutes do not need to be recorded in your student management system and will not affect funding calculations.
Regulation requirements
Ratio requirements are specified in the regulations, and we can also impose additional supervision requirements as necessary. This could include directing a service to exceed minimum ratios if this is in the best interests of children.
Please see the following website for more information on the current ratio requirements:
Schedule 2 Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 – NZ Legislation
Contact us if you are concerned about how ratios are being met at a licensed service.
Recently updated advice for early learning services
