Licensing criteria for hospital-based ECE services

Section 10 of the Education and Training Act 2020(external link) defines hospital-based education and care service as the provision of education or care to 3 or more children under the age of 6 who are receiving hospital care.

ECE services operating from hospital premises that provide education and care to siblings of patients or children of hospital staff or patients are centre-based ECE services, not hospital-based ECE services.

Hospital-based 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, 1.2 MB] and printed.

The licensing criteria were last updated in September 2022.

GMA11 Participation records

  • Criteria

    • Criteria

      Governance, management and administration criterion 11

      A record is maintained for children participating in the service. Records are kept for at least 7 years.

      Documentation required:

      An attendance record that meets requirements outlined in the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook for children participating in the service, and children who have attended in the previous 7 years.

      Rationale/Intent:

      The maintenance of participation records is an indicator of good management and administration practices and supports the accountability of service providers to the community and government.

  • 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.

      Participation records for all children who participate in the service are required and these records must be kept for seven years. Records could include ward records or lists and can be either paper based or electronic. Records should be stored in a way that they can’t get corrupted or altered.

      The hospital records including the ward list will give the dates and times that a child is admitted and discharged and this will be signed by the child’s parent/guardian.

      Chapter 6 of the Funding Handbook details what is required in keeping attendance records. Attendance records may be kept in a form to suit the service.

      After 7 years, records can be disposed of. This needs to be done so that unauthorised access to the information is not possible.

  • Things to consider

    • Things to consider

      Hospital services are entitled to use Notional Rolls to calculate their Funded Child Hours (FCH). Please contact your local Ministry Office to discuss or apply to be on a Notional Roll.

      Section 7-4 of the Early Childhood Funding Handbook gives more information about Notional Rolls.