Licensing criteria for home-based ECE services

Section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020(external link) defines home-based ECE services as the provision of education or care, for gain or reward, to children who are under the age of 5 years, or who are aged 5 years but not enrolled at school, in:

  • the children’s own home; or
  • the home of the person providing the education or care; or
  • any other home nominated by a parent of the children.

These services are licensed in accordance with the Education and Training Act 2020 under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008(external link), which prescribe minimum standards that each licensed service must meet. Licensing criteria are used to assess how the services meet the minimum standards required by the regulations.

For each criterion there is guidance to help services meet the required standards.

The publication of the criteria on its own can be downloaded as a PDF [PDF, 1.3 MB] and printed.

The licensing criteria were last updated in September 2022.

HS32 Smoking

  • Criteria
    • Criteria

      Health and Safety practices criterion 32

      No person on the premises smokes or vapes in any area which is available for use by children or for food preparation while children are attending the service.

      Rationale/Intent:

      The criterion aims to uphold the safety and wellbeing of children.

  • Guidance
    • Guidance

      Any examples in the guidance are provided as a starting point to show how services can meet (or exceed) the requirement. Services may choose to use other approaches better suited to their needs as long as they comply with the criteria.

      Educators must never smoke or vape in the home while children are attending the service at any time including while children are asleep. In addition, they must never smoke or vape whilst on an excursion with the children.

      If there is a smoker or vaper in the household, they must not smoke or vape while children are attending the service. This includes the outside area.