Voluntary temporary closures
If your service is unable to operate for a short period of time, you may need to apply to temporarily close the service.
| Level of compliance | Main audience | Other |
|---|---|---|
|
Required
|
|
|
Please read and follow this information if you need to temporarily close your service.
A temporary closure of a service can be granted upon application, under regulation 19 of the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008.
The intent of the regulation is to allow a service to cease operating for a period where there is a genuine reason to close and there is an intention to reopen.
If you are intending to close your service permanently, please read the following information.
Permanent Closure of a Service
- Reasons for closure
- Applying for a temporary closure
- Length of temporary closure
- Extending a temporary closure from 3 to 6 months
- Further extending a temporary closure from 6 to 12 months
- Reopening a temporarily closed service
- Follow up assessment visit
- The service doesn’t reopen
- Key things to note
- More information
Reasons for closure
Examples of when your service may close temporarily include:
- major renovations to service premises or facilities that make it unsafe for children and adults to be there while the work takes place
- low enrolments
- inability to meet adult:child ratios or
- inability to meet other staffing requirements, including not having a person responsible
You do not need to apply for a voluntary temporary closure when your service is closed due to:
- statutory or provincial holidays
- community events
- teacher only days
- if your service does not normally open during school holiday breaks
- emergency closures outside of the control of the service (normally 1 or 2 days)
If your service needs to close because of an emergency, funding may be available.
Funding Continuity for Emergency Closures(external link)
Temporary closure cannot be used to:
- give a service operating on a probationary licence time to comply beyond their 12-month probationary period
- avoid reclassification of a licence to provisional
- avoid the suspension of a licence
- avoid the cancellation of a licence
If your service is operating on a probationary licence, a temporary closure can be granted, but you must comply with all regulatory requirements for a full licence before the expiry of the probationary licence.
If your service has had its licence reclassified to provisional, a temporary closure can be granted, but you must still comply with all the conditions of the provisional licence by the compliance date(s) on the licence.
If your service’s licence has been suspended or is likely to be suspended a temporary closure cannot be granted (Reg 19(2)).
The reason(s) for temporary closure should be remedied within 3 months.
You must apply for a temporary closure
If you want to temporarily close your service, you must apply to us.
To apply, please complete an EC4 – VTC application and submit it to your local Ministry of Education office.
EC4 – Temporary closure application form
Local Ministry Offices(external link)
Applications for temporary closures will be prioritised for assessment, however applications must be complete to be progressed.
You will be notified when the temporary closure is granted. The notification will include:
- the temporary closure expiry date
- any conditions that must be complied with before the service reopens, and
- any evidence required to be provided to the local Ministry office before the service can reopen
Length of temporary closure
A temporarily closure can be granted for a period that is no longer than 3 months.
The reason(s) for temporary closure should be remedied within this time.
If the service is not ready to reopen by the temporary closure expiry date and you have not contacted us , we may consider the service has permanently ceased to operate and will notification you of our intention to cancel the licence.
Extending a temporary closure from 3 to 6 months
If your service has been unable to reopen by the end of the 3-month temporary closure, you can apply to extend the closure for another 3 months (no longer than 6 months in total from the initial temporary closure being granted).
An extension for an additional 3 months must be applied for before the temporary closure expiry date using an EC4- VTC application form.
When you apply to extend the temporary closure, you will need to provide us with:
- confirmation of your intention to reopen the service
- the steps you have taken to address the reasons for the initial closure
- how those steps will assist the service to reopen within the extra 3-month timeframe
The application to extend the temporary closure must be complete to be assessed.
You will be notified when the temporary closure extension is granted.
The notification will include the temporary closure extension expiry date and the conditions that must be complied before the service is able to reopen.
Further extending a temporary closure from 6 to 12 months
If your service has been unable to open by the end of the 6-month timeframe granted, you may, under certain circumstances, apply for a further (and final) extension of the closure.
This further closure period must be no longer than 12 months from the date the service was granted temporary closure.
A further extension from 6 to 12 months will only be considered if the service has been granted an extension from 3 months to 6 months (under Reg 19(1)(b)).
You will also need to:
- confirm your intention to reopen the service before the expiry date
- demonstrate that you are not able to be granted a temporary relocation licence under Regulation 18 (not available to home-based services)
A further (and final) 6 month temporary closure must be applied for before the extended temporary closure expiry date, using an EC4- VTC application form.
If you are applying to extend the temporary closure for another 6 months, you will need to provide the following as part of the application:
- evidence that new staff will be employed, or existing staff will return to the service once it reopens,
- evidence that children will attend the service once it is open
- details of progress with building works or premises redevelopment if the temporary closure has been granted for such
- reasons why a service cannot relocate, such as the service does not have the required staff to deliver the service or any children attending or is a home-based service
- steps taken to look for suitable alternative premises to temporary relocate to, and/or
- why potential premises are not suitable, this could include correspondence about potential premises (that have subsequently proven to be unsuitable).
You will be notified if the further (and final) extension is granted.
The notification will include the temporary closure extension expiry date and the conditions that must be complied before the service is able to reopen.
You will be contacted if the further extension to the temporary closure is not granted and you will be advised of the consequences if the service does not reopen.
Reopening a temporarily closed service
Contact us when you are ready to reopen your service.
You will need to provide us with evidence you have met the conditions required to reopen.
Conditions required to reopen are outlined in the Notice of Voluntary Temporary Closure letter, or the Notice of Extension of Temporary Closure letter sent by the regional office.
To give time to assess all information and confirm whether the service can reopen, please provide the evidence by the date stated in the notice.
You will be notified when the service can reopen.
Follow up assessment visit
A visit to the service to check all regulatory requirements are being met will be scheduled to take place approximately one month after the service has reopened.
If the service doesn't reopen
If you notify us during time the service is temporarily closed, or at the end of the closure period that you have decided not to reopen the service i.e. it will permanently cease to operate, we are required to cancel the licence (Regulation 32(1)(da)).
We may also notify you of our intention to cancel the licence if the service does not reopen because evidence for the conditions required to reopen was not provided, or we assessed the evidence provided did not meet requirements.
If a Notice of Intention to Cancel is issued, you will be provided with the opportunity to make representation and any representation received will be considered before a final decision is made.
We will also endeavour to contact you in advance of the temporary closure expiry date to discuss progress and explain the consequences if the service does not reopen.
Key things to note
Children must not attend while the service is temporarily closed.
Your service will not be eligible to receive funding when it is temporarily closed.
A home-based service is not eligible to apply for a temporary relocation licence (Regulation 18).
Failure to notify us the service is not operating is a breach of Section 28(1) of the Education and Training Act 2020 and of the ECE Funding Handbook.
Last reviewed: Has this been useful? Give us your feedback