Skip to main content
Ministry of Education New Zealand
On this page

Funding continuity

Funding will continue where a service was forced to close for a short time, in an emergency only when funding approval for the emergency closure is obtained from the Ministry regional office.

Regional offices

Example: emergency

The following are examples of emergencies where funding will continue:

  • extreme weather conditions
  • interruptions to essential services
  • non-controllable health and safety issues
  • civil defence emergencies.

Example: non-emergency

The following examples are not emergencies:

  • lack of staff, including home-based educator absence (except when this is due to a non-controllable health and safety issue)
  • person responsible is absent
  • funerals in the community 1
  • A&P show.

The Ministry will not fund closures caused by these circumstances.

1 There may be exceptions to this. Contact your Ministry regional office for more details.

Regional offices

Approval required

If your service is forced to close in an emergency:

  1. Contact your Ministry regional office at the first available opportunity.

  2. The Ministry regional office will approve/not approve funded emergency closure and confirm this to the service by letter.

Record keeping requirements

If your service was given Ministry regional office written approval for an emergency closure confirmed by letter or email and you are submitting an electronic RS7 Return:

  1. Keep the approval letter or email for your records.
  2. Record the emergency closure in your system.
  3. Record all children as absent for the day of the emergency closure. Funding may be claimed for the hours that children have a permanent enrolment subject to the funding maximums of the ECE Subsidy and 20 Hours ECE.
  4. Calculate the FCH claim using the actual booked hours for the day(s) of emergency closure.

If a service was given Ministry regional office written approval for an emergency closure confirmed by letter or email and you are submitting a paper-based RS7 Return:

  1. Keep the approval letter or email for your records.
  2. Record all children as absent for the day of the emergency closure. Funding may be claimed for the hours that children have a permanent enrolment subject to the funding maximums of the ECE Subsidy and 20 Hours ECE.
  3. Note the Emergency Closure on your RS7 Return using the code “EC” in the Staff Hour Count column on the day of closure.
  4. Calculate the FCH claim using the actual booked hours for the day(s) of emergency closure.

If your service was not given Ministry regional office approval for an emergency closure funding cannot be claimed during the closure. Record the days of closure as “Service Closed” in your RS7 Return.