CONTENTSLicensed services receiving the ECE Funding Subsidy must meet these conditions at all times.
Chapter 4 contains eligibility requirements for 20 Hours ECE.
Additional compliance
In addition to the rules in this handbook, ECE services must also comply with relevant legislation, such as:
- the Education and Training Act 2020
Education and Training Act 2020 – New Zealand Legislation
- the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 – New Zealand Legislation
- Inland Revenue legislation, rules and regulations
- health and safety legislation.
Failure to comply may in some cases affect your funding payments.
Eligible services
Early childhood education services are eligible for the ECE Funding Subsidy if they are both:
- licensed
- open for at least 1 continuous period (session) of 2.5 hours per week.
Sessional services operating a session of 2.5 to 3 hours will receive funding for 3 hours.
Eligible children
Funding can be claimed only for children who fill a child-place and are less than 6 years of age.
Funding cannot be claimed for:
- children enrolled in school
- conditionally enrolled children who do not attend
- casually enrolled children who do not attend.
Child-places
Each service is licensed to provide early childhood education to a maximum number of children at any one time.
This is called the number of ‘child-places’ that the service may provide.
Dual enrolments
Children may be enrolled at more than 1 early childhood education (ECE) service but funding cannot be claimed by 2 services for the same hours of attendance. Parents/guardians must attest that their child is not enrolled at another service for the same times (see Section 6-1 for more details on enrolment records).
In a dual enrolment situation, funding may be claimed only by the service at which the child was present.
Dual enrolments – Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (Te Kura)
Children enrolled at Te Kura may be funded at another ECE service for up to 8 hours per week.
ECE services must note this arrangement on the child’s enrolment agreement (see Section 6-1 for more details on enrolment records).
