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 – New Zealand 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 more 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
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for 555-555-0199@example.com
Kristen is enrolled to attend an early childhood service five days a week.
Below is the August attendance register for Kristen:
The Frequent Absence problem is...The early childhood service must...Funding may be claimed for...Funding may not be claimed for...
Kristen was absent for more than half of the Fridays in August.
monitor Kristen’s attendance in September and if Kristen is absent for more than half of the Fridays in September, her enrolment agreement will need to be reconfirmed at the…
Every permanent certificated teacher employed by and teaching in a licensed service that receives PITA is eligible for this allowance.
The allowance is irrespective of the language competency of individual certificated teacher or the children attending the service.
Certificated teachers are eligible to receive their allowance while on paid leave for their usual days worked.
If a certificated teacher is on extended leave without pay for their usual days worked, they cannot claim the allowance…
The Ministry may, subject to any conditions and for any period, determine that no funding is payable either in full or in part for any service(s) where:
the service has temporarily closed and for the period of that closure; or
the service’s licence has been suspended and for the period of that suspension; or
the service’s licence has been cancelled or revoked; or
the service provider has not met any of the conditions set out in the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook or in any other docu…
A home-based education and care service can claim funding for a child where the educator is a member of that child’s family and is living with the child in the child’s home only if all of the following requirements are met:
the educator is part of a licensed home-based service, and
the home is available for use by children who are not part of the educator’s family, and
at least one child who is not a member of the educator’s family attends the home.
A home-based service can only claim funding f…
The following table shows the number of FCHs that may be claimed for children with different enrolment agreements:
Name Hours enrolledTotal hours enrolled per weekHours claimed (FCHs)Total FCHs per week
Kathy
8 hours per day
40
6 hours per day
30
David
4 hours per day
20
4 hours per day
20
Tama
8 hours on Monday and Tuesday
4.5 hours on Thursday and Friday
25
6 hours on Monday and Tuesday
4.5 hours on Thursday and Friday
21
Use the key below to understand the shading and letters used in the example:
Days the child was not enrolled to attend.
Days the child was enrolled to attend.
Days the child attended his or her normal enrolled hours.
Days the child attended for fewer hours than enrolled (and the number of hours the child attended).
Days in the previous or following month.
Requirement
Purpose
Relevant section
Template example
Enrolment records
Enrolment agreements are used by the Ministry to verify the days/sessions that each child is enrolled for and expected to attend.
6-1
Yes
Attendance records
Attendance records are used by the Ministry of Education to verify that the children have attended the service as claimed and to identify when a child is absent, and to verify that the absence rules have been applied correctly.
Hospital-based services have slig…
Record the FCH for the substitute session on the day on which it would normally have taken place. See the following example in which an afternoon session which normally takes place on a Friday (180 FCH) is run on the Thursday afternoon as an approved substitute day. The 180 FCH is still recorded on the Friday as usual.
Week days
Session no.
Funded child hours (ie. 2 and over)
Monday
1
180
Tuesday
2
180
Wednesday
3
180
Thursday
4
90
Friday (Letter of approval to show this day was closed and…
The following page provides an example of how to estimate your proportion of certificated teachers.
Contact your Ministry regional office for further assistance.
Use this example to see how you can estimate the proportion of certificated teachers for your service:
If your service operates a mixture of All-Day and Sessional days, you will have to estimate the proportion of certificated teachers for both separately.
StepActionExampleExample Calculation
1
Calculate the number of staff your se…
The following table shows the number of 20 Hours ECE hours and Plus 10 ECE hours per week that may be claimed for children with different enrolment agreements:
NameHours enrolledTotal hours enrolled per week20 Hours ECE hours claimedPlus 10
ECE hours
claimed
Erin
8 hours per day
40
20
10
Melanie
4 hours per day
20
20
Hayden
8 hours on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday
4.5 hours on Thursday and Friday
33
20
7
On 1 September, Kowhai Street Childcare Centre had five children enrolled and receiving 20 Hours ECE.
On 1 September, Kowhai Street Childcare Centre had three children under the age of two enrolled in their service. One child under the age of two attended casually.
For services applying for a first advance of 20 Hours ECE:
Under Twos will remain unchanged
Count as Two and Over hours all hours you would claim for two year olds
and any three-year-old, four-year-old or five-year-olds that will not receive 20 Hours ECE at your service (for example children who are already receiving their 20 hours of 20 Hours ECE at another service)
20 Hours ECE hours are the hours you would claim for three-year-olds, four-year-olds and five-year-olds. The signed attestation p…
Services are required to have a signed declaration for each child to indicate whether the educator who will be providing education and care for the child is a member of that child’s family.
This declaration is part of the enrolment agreement example and can be found in Appendix 2.
Follow the steps below to calculate the daily actual Certificated Teacher Hours for your service:
StepAction
1
For the first day of the funding period, use your Staff Record to total the actual hours worked by ECE qualified certificated and New Zealand qualified certificated primary teachers who were being counted towards regulated (ratio) staff.
2
Round the total to the nearest hour.
For example: 68 hours and 30 minutes would be rounded to 69 hours whereas 68 hours and 29 minutes would be…
ECE Services may use electronic means of verification of attendance records to satisfy the requirements of this handbook.
If using electronic means to verify attendance records you must meet the criteria below. How the criteria are met is up to each individual service.
Security1. Authorised signatories are linked with only one electronic signature. The means of creating each individual electronic signature is linked only to its authorised signatory or any system administrators and to no other…
Sione is enrolled to attend an early childhood centre for four hours a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Below is the number of hours Sione attended each day during November:
The Frequent Absence problem is...The early childhood service must...Funding may be claimed for...Funding may not be claimed for...
Sione has attended for fewer than 4 hours a day on more than half of his enrolled days in November.
monitor Sione’s attendance in December and if Sione attends for fewer than 4 hours on m…
The following table shows how funding can be claimed for children who attend a service on a casual basis:
Name BookingHours attendedTotal hours attendedTotal claimable FCHs
Sione
8:00am – 11:00am
8:00am – 11:00am
3
3
Pania
8:00am – 4:30pm
8:00am – 4:30pm
8.5
6
Aaron
12:30pm – 3:30pm
Did not attend
0
0
Sarah
9:00am – 1:00pm
9:00am – 4:00pm
7
6
Services that do not operate for a period of two weeks or more may extend the Frequent Absence rule where a child has already been frequently absent in the previous month.
The Frequent Absence Rule must be continued from the next full month of operation after the period of non-operation.
For example, if a pattern of frequent absence first occurred in the month of December, this would be month one. If a service did not operate in January for a period of 2 weeks or more and February was the next…
The example below illustrates how the Three Week Rule Extension for Extended Non-Operation can be applied to a child enrolled for one session or day per week:
