Licensed home-based early childhood education (ECE) services provide education and care for up to 4 children under the age of 6 in either a caregiver/educator’s home, the child’s own home or a home nominated by the child’s parent.

This section explains:

• funding rates for home-based ECE services
• funding conditions related to educator and persons responsible
• record keeping requirements.

Note: Funding conditions for licensed home-based services previous to 1 January 2025 are available for reference on the ECE Funding Handbook updates page.

Funding rate

From 1 January 2025 there will be one funding rate for home-based ECE services, this will be the quality funding rate.

Licensed home-based services must meet the requirements specified in the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 and the Licensing Criteria for home-based ECE services.

From 1 January 2025, the qualification requirements for educators in every licensed home-based education and care service have been updated, and are set out in the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, regulation 3 and Schedule 1A.

Note: Funding conditions for licensed home-based services previous to 1 January 2025 are available for reference in Appendix 5.

Funding claim exceptions

Funding must not be claimed for:

• an educator’s own children
• children who are present in the home but not enrolled in the home-based service or
• children enrolled at school.

If an enrolled child is absent from a home-based service and the educator, by contractual agreement, is not paid for absent children, the service provider cannot claim funding for that child for that day.

If, however, the caregiver/educator, by contractual agreement, is paid for absent children, the service provider can claim funding for an absent child and the absence rules will apply.

See Section 6-4 for more information on the absence rules.

Section 6-4

For funding purposes, an educator’s ‘own’ children include children living with the educator in the educator’s home.

‘Own’ children do not include children who are placed with the educator as part of an Oranga Tamariki care arrangement, where the Chief Executive Officer of Oranga Tamariki is their legal guardian, and where Oranga Tamariki have referred the children and/or educator to a home-based service provider.¹

¹ For audit purposes service providers must retain a copy of the referral letter from Oranga Tamariki to show that the care arrangement has been approved and that funding can be claimed.

Family members as educators

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:

1. the educator is part of a licensed home-based service, and
2. the home is available for use by children who are not part of the educator’s family, and
3. 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 for the child who is a family member for the hours a child who is not a family member attends the home.

For example: If a child who is not a family member attends the home for education and care for 15 hours per week, then the home-based service may claim 15 hours per week for each child who is a part of the educator’s family. Other children who are not part of the educator’s family may attend at different times in order to claim up to a maximum of 30 hours per week per child providing that the maximum number of children in home is not exceeded.

Note: In exceptional circumstances, in isolated communities, (3) may be waived by the Ministry regional office.

Definition of family members

A family member is any member of the family other than the parent or caregiver of the child. Please refer to the section Funding Claim Exceptions for more information.

Home-based education and care declaration

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.

Appendix 2

Educator absences

When an educator is not available (for example, due to illness), funding cannot be claimed if no care is provided. If there is a replacement educator, funding can be claimed only for the educator who provided alternative care. Funding cannot be claimed:

• for the educator who was not available
• if the parent/guardian chooses not to place their child in the care of the alternative caregiver/educator.

Note: Where an educator is not able to provide education and care due to a non-controllable health and safety issue stemming from an infectious illness, home-based services can apply to their local Ministry office for emergency closure approval to use absence funding. This only applies to the educator, not other residents in their household. If approved, then normal absence funding rules apply.

Chapter 7-5 Emergency Closure

Educator qualification requirements

From 1 January 2025, the qualification requirements for educators in every licensed home-based education and care service have been updated, and are set out in the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, regulation 3 and Schedule 1A.

Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, regulation 3 and Schedule 1A – New Zealand Legislation

Record keeping for licensed home-based services

All home-based services must retain appropriate documentation as evidence of educator qualifications: Refer to Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, regulation 28(1)(e).

Certified copies of qualifications are required. These can be certified by:

• The service's ECE professional leader, (ie, the person responsible).
• Ministry of Education staff.
• The authority that originally issued the document.
• A Justice of the Peace.
• A solicitor.
• A notary public.
• A registrar.

For teaching qualifications where the specialisation is not identified on the certificate itself (that is, it does not state an early childhood or primary specialty), academic transcripts or similar to show the course content must be kept as evidence that the qualification meets the requirements for home-based education.

Evidence of name change or use of an alternative name must be retained, where qualifications are in an alternative name (eg, maiden name).

A record of enrolments of educators in a home-based service qualification must be kept by the service provider. This must clearly show the date of enrolment.

All services must keep educator timesheets (attendance records) that are signed and dated by the educator.

Further record keeping requirements are set out Chapter 11.

Chapter 11

Christmas coverage: Options for all services

There are 3 service delivery options for home-based ECE services during the Christmas period.

The options are identified below.

Option 1

Service closes over the Christmas period.

Option 2

Service continues to operate as normally organised over the Christmas period.

Option 3

Local services can be ‘reconstituted’ to make up a single service for up to 2 weeks if:

• all parents, educators, and persons responsible associated with the affected services are given 2-week notice of the change taking place
• the requirements of the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 are still met by the service
• the total number of children in the reconstituted service does not exceed the maximum service size of 80
• persons responsible are on duty for all hours children are receiving education and care
• all parents and educators that will be associated with the reconstituted service are provided with accurate contact information for the rostered persons responsible at least 2 weeks before the service starts operating
• clear records are kept that include:
  • the names of rostered persons responsible
  • the actual times and dates each person responsible worked
  • names of educators and the children for whom they provided education and care
  • the actual dates and times that each child was cared for over the period that the service was reconstituted.

Record keeping

All home-based ECE services must keep records for audit purposes and in a place where they can be easily accessed by the coordinator.

The relevant records must be provided at the site of the audit when an audit is taking place.

For information regarding what records your service needs to keep see Chapter 11 of this Handbook.

Chapter 11

More record keeping information

If you would like more information about record keeping and financial reporting requirements check the following sections:

Information on 20 hours ECE: Chapter 4

Record keeping requirements for 20 hours ECE: Section 4-4

An overview of the record keeping requirements for all services: Section 11-1

Information on funding claim audits and record keeping audits: Section 11-2

Information or instructions for financial reporting: Chapter 12