ECE Funding Handbook

Welcome to the ECE Funding Handbook. This handbook is issued under section 548(5) of the Education and Training Act 2020.

Funding of certain services and certified playgroups – NZ Legislation(external link)

The funding paid to licensed services is paid subject to the terms and conditions set out under this handbook and must be complied with. The terms used in this handbook are based in the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008.

This handbook is designed to be a 'one-stop-shop' of everything you need to know about early childhood funding, including:

  • the ECE Funding Subsidy
  • 20 Hours ECE funding
  • equity funding
  • the annual top-up for isolated services

This information does not apply to certificated playgroups

The information in the Funding Handbook does not apply to certificated playgroups.

These services should contact their Ministry regional office for further information.

Local Ministry offices

Download the ECE Funding Handbook

If you would like to print a copy of this handbook, refer to the list of downloads in the contents section where you will find downloadable PDF versions of each chapter.

ECE Funding Handbook downloads

9-6 Attestation of certificated teachers’ salaries

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  • Policy
    • Higher funding rates are available to education and care services who pay all employed certificated teachers at least the minimum salaries described in Appendix 4.

      Base funding rates which reflect the proportion of certificated teacher hours used are available to services that agree to pay all employed certificated teachers at least the amount specified at Step 1 of the salary scale.

      Parity funding rates are available to education and care services who agree to pay all employed certificated teachers according to Step 1 to 6 of the Parity Salary Scale.

      Extended parity funding rates are available to education and care services who agree to pay all employed certificated teachers according to Step 1 to 11 + Management Step of the Extended Parity Salary Scale.

      Full Parity funding rates are available to education and care services who agree to pay all employed certificated teachers according to Steps 1 to 11 + Management steps of the Full Parity Salary Scale.

  • Rationale
    • Ensuring that certificated teachers are fairly recognised and rewarded for their qualifications and experience in alignment with certificated teachers in kindergarten. This will, among other things, assist with increasing the number of certificated teachers working in early childhood education.

  • Attestation on the RS7 Return
    • The Attestation of Certificated Teachers’ Salaries is used to determine the funding rate an education and care or hospital-based service is paid.

      In this section respondents will be answering the following question:

      What salary scale described in the ECE Funding Handbook is your service using to determine the minimum salaries paid to all employed ECE and primary qualified certificated teachers?

      To answer this question respondents will choose one of four options:

      • No Salary Scale (No step)
      • Base Salary Scale (Step 1)
      • Parity Salary Scale (Step 1-6)
      • Extended Parity Salary Scale (Partial Step 1-11 + Partial Management Step)
      • Full Parity Salary Scale (Full Step 1-11 + Full Management Steps)

      When selecting an option, the respondent must ensure that their service has paid all employed certificated teachers at least the minimum salary for the period of the RS7 return.

      Services are not required to offer the terms of the Kindergarten Teachers, Head Teachers and Senior Teachers' Collective Agreement.

  • Attestation Period
    • When completing the Attestation of Certificated Teachers’ Salaries section of the RS7 return, a service is confirming what funding conditions they have met for the RS7 return period.                        

      Funding Period Attestation Period
      March October - January
      July February - May
      November June - September

      A service’s funding rate will be adjusted if they are found to have not met the necessary funding conditions for the entire funding period. Any funding recoveries resulting from this change in funding rates will be made during the next funding payment.

      Note: For the November 2023 funding round the attestation period for funding conditions related to Full Parity Salary Scale Steps 1 to 11 + Full Management steps start from November 2023.

  • Example
    • An example of the required attestation is shown below:

       Example of Attestation of Certified Teachers form.