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This story uncovers how a chemical‑burn incident at a Kindercare centre was not just a one‑off mistake but the result of systemic failures in safety, oversight, and regulation.

See how both WorkSafe and the Ministry of Education allowed these risks to go unchecked, and what it means for children’s safety in ECE.

The Problems Included:

1. Unsafe chemical storage: Industrial sanitiser was stored under the kitchen sink next to general dishwashing liquid, in similar‑looking containers with similar labels.

2. Poor activity planning: Staff began the activity without enough detergent, leading to trips back to the centre (where a teacher collected a container they believed was dishwashing liquid) and to the dairy (where the centre manager went to buy more).

3. No RAMS was completed: The water‑slide activity was known about the day before and parents were informed so children would bring clothing for wet play, yet the centre did not complete a risk assessment of the activity.

4. Use of unlicensed outdoor space: The centre routinely used a grass section outside the gate as an outdoor activity area, despite it not being licensed or approved.

5. No one questioned the container of industrial sanitiser: When the chemical was taken from the kitchen, and again when it was poured onto the slide, no staff member or the manager involved in the activity noticed or challenged the container.

6. Long‑term regulatory lack of oversight: The Ministry of Education had not conducted a full compliance assessment of the Kindercare centre since 2011.

A young child was left alone in a locked early childhood centre van for almost 50 minutes in December summer heat.

We asked the Ministry: “As the Government’s principal advisor on ECE policy and regulation and the agency responsible for ensuring licensed services keep children safe and meet regulatory requirements, does the Ministry accept accountability for child safety outcomes?” The Ministry responded:

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New figures show the early childhood education sector remained largely stable over the past year, with the number of teacher-led centres opening matching those that closed.

Waiting times for early childhood education have dropped across the country, with new figures showing families are generally getting faster access to services than they were two years ago.

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OECE chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander says that although the figures point to easier access, the shift is more likely to reflect a drop in demand than an increase in supply.

New ECE services are opening at pace across Aotearoa – but the story behind the growth is far more complex than the headline suggests.

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You can explore the full list of newly licensed ECE services in one place, here.

Children in early childhood education services have no legal protection against exposure to excessive heat, even though minimum indoor temperatures have long been regulated.

Current rules require indoor rooms to remain above 18°C, but the Office of Early Childhood Education has received reports of children experiencing discomfort and distress during periods of high summer temperatures.

A recent review of ECE regulations has confirmed that minimum indoor temperature requirements will remain in place, but no corresponding maximum temperature limit will be introduced.

OPINION/ANALYSIS – October 23, 2025

The Education Review Office considers more than half of 394 early childhood services it has visited in the last year to be “below the threshold for quality” on at least one of its four metrics.

In September 2024, ERO started using a new rating system for its quality assurance reports for ECE.

How did your service do? View our our interactive table and read full details.

The Office of Early Childhood Education’s chief advisor Dr Sarah Alexander says because ERO gives ECE services four weeks’ notice of reviews, it was concerning that so many services were still not measuring up to quality standards.

Moreover, because the Education Review Office no longer has the capacity or resources to review every licensed service it now assesses only a small selection from providers that operate 14 or more services. As a result, we have no way of knowing how many of these services fall below ERO’s threshold for quality.

OPINION/ANALYSIS – October 2, 2025

A gas leak from a fridge at an Auckland early childhood centre resulted in three teachers being taken to hospital.

The incident, which occurred on October 14, 2024 at an Auckland early childhood centre, was widely reported by mainstream media at the time.

But how it happened has never been publicly revealed until now.

This article looks at what happened, the Ministry of Education and Worksafe findings, and questions why teachers were cleaning a fridge, adult-child ratios, and what training the teachers had been given on fridge cleaning to prevent such an incident.

The Ministry of Education does not hold records of the early childhood centres on public land.

This means that there is no way of tracking which ECE centres could be at risk of eviction or closure if the school or council they are renting the land from decides not to renew their lease.

The problem was exposed recently when Longbeach Playcentre, near Ashburton, was informed by its landlord Longbeach School that from the end of the year it would not be able to continue operating in the building it has been based in for 20 years.

After news of the situation broke, the Office of Early Childhood Education asked the Ministry for the names of ECE services located on public land, including hospitals, tertiary institutes and public reserves, as well as schools.

Health and safety in ECE: What Worksafe and Ministry documents reveal about four serious harm incidents

ANALYSIS/OPINION – 5 September 2025

A child temporarily lost consciousness and was taken to hospital in an ambulance after choking while eating at an Auckland early childhood centre.

Details of the incident are being made public for th

A child’s neck became wedged in a fence and their breathing was restricted after they fell off a bike while attending early childhood education.

The injury was one of 244 serious incidents that ECE services notified to national health and safety regulator.

More than half of the injuries involved trips, slips or falls, the Office of Early Childhood Education’s analysis of the data, which we obtained under the Official Information Act, found.

What is a notifiable injury or illness? From the WorkSafe Website: All injuries or illnesses that require (or would usually require) a person to be admitted to hospital for immediate treatment are notifiable. A notifiable incident is an unplanned or uncontrolled work-related incident that exposes the health and safety of workers or others to a serious risk arising from immediate or imminent exposure to such dangers as a gas leak or explosion. A notifiable event is any of the following work-related events: a death, a notifiable injury or illness or a notifiable incident.

Incidents included:
– A child being given food they were allergic to.
– A child eating laundry powder after following a staff member into the laundry room.
– A child sliding down a piece of play equipment with a plastic tube in their mouth, leading to the tube hitting the back of their throat “with force” as they hit the ground. 

A free kindergarten association plans to make all of its kindergartens open year-round from the beginning of 2026, the Office of Early Childhood Education understands.

Multiple sources have told the OECE that the association’s management team has informed teachers employed by the kindergarten association, one of the largest ECE service providers in New Zealand, of the proposal, but parents and families have not yet been told.  

The move to year-round care and education may prove popular with parents in paid employment.

No public announcements have been made yet, so the OECE has chosen not to name the kindergarten association at this stage.

The Office of Early Childhood Education has compared how our submission, and that of the ECC, compared with the Ministry for Regulation’s final conclusions related to the review of licensing criteria and certain regulations for the sector.

This includes:
> all licensing criteria
> teacher qualification
> pay parity salary attestation
> person responsible
> door handle height
> MoE complaints process and visits.

We found that the Ministry’s recommendations lined up with those of the ECC for 55 of the 98 criteria/regulations.

We’ve put together the below searchable table so that you can compare the recommendations each party made.

After RNZ revealed last Friday that the Government intends to axe the pay parity scheme for education and care teachers, in part to give providers “greater autonomy… to negotiate” with teachers about pay, the Office of Early Childhood Education has been fact checking claims by ECE business lobbyists that pay parity has caused more services to close.

In our view, there is no evidence of this, based on the available statistics.

In a Cabinet paper from April, which was publicly released on July 17, the Ministry of Education wrote to associate minister of education David Seymour that: “The options in this paper begin the process of proactively moving away from the opt-in pay parity system and providing greater autonomy to providers to negotiate with teachers on matters of pay. The wider funding review you are seeking Cabinet approval for provides the opportunity to complete this process”.