Eligibility for funding

Licensed ECE services with an Isolation Index of 1.65 or greater qualify to receive funding.

The isolation index

Eligibility for Component D is based on the Isolation Index. This index rates a service’s ‘relative isolation’.

A service’s Isolation Index is worked out by measuring the service’s distance from towns/cities of 3 different population sizes (5,000, 20,000, and 100,000).

Your service's isolation index

Your service’s Isolation Index is found on your service’s Early Childhood Education Funding Notice.

How is funding calculated?

Funding is a fixed monthly grant. There are currently 3 payment bands, which reflect different levels of isolation. This means that more isolated services receive a higher rate of funding.

Funding is not based on the size of a service, nor the number of funded child hours claimed.

Applications

Applications for Component D are not necessary. The Ministry of Education calculates the Isolation Index for each new service, using census information and the physical location of the service.

Services do not need to provide additional information.

Isolation index review

In general, a service’s Isolation Index can only be changed when new data from the census has been obtained.

This is because the Index is based on a service’s distance from population centres of different sizes. The Ministry requires population data from the census to determine the population sizes.

If you believe there has been a significant error in the value of your service’s Isolation Index, contact the Ministry’s Data Management Unit, National Office on 04 463 8000.

Is this different to the ATIS?

Yes. The ATIS is available to licensed ECE services, with an Isolation Index of 1.65 or greater, which also meet certain income requirements.

It is possible for services to receive both Component D equity funding and the ATIS.

Further details on the ATIS are available in Section 5-1.

Section 5-1

Expenditure

All Equity Funding is ‘tagged’ and must be spent with the equity objectives for participation and quality in mind.

Below are some suggestions for uses of Component D funding:

• provide assistance to attend the service (for example, transport assistance)
• provide more professional development opportunities for staff
• upgrade resources
• introduce staff recruitment and retention initiatives
• assist in meeting the additional costs of service delivery.

These are just some of the ways Component D Equity Funding can be used.