Learn the difference between the documentation ECE services are required to have and the policies they often write unnecessarily.
Service leaders will benefit from understanding how to reduce paperwork, meet legal requirements efficiently, and free up time for what matters most – supporting children and staff.
Every early childhood service needs a clear Trauma Policy to protect children, families, and staff when the unexpected occurs.
Traumatic incidents can happen and having a well‑designed plan ensures your team responds safely, confidently, and in line with legal requirements.
Our comprehensive policy template and procedures give services the structure they need to act quickly, support wellbeing, and maintain a calm, coordinated response.
We provide a policy template as well as highlighting the main issues for your team to discuss and ensure your policy is practical, protective and aligned with the realities of social media use in New Zealand early childhood settings.
Make time to think through the key considerations, risks and decisions involved.
At the end of this article, you will find a Social Media Policy template that you can adapt and use to create a policy that suits your service’s needs, values and social media practices.
When used well, social media can strengthen communication, build community and serve as a powerful marketing tool. When used poorly, it can compromise privacy, blur professional boundaries and damage trust.
Social media refers to Internet based tools that allow users to publish information, opinions, images and other content. In New Zealand early childhood settings, the most commonly used platforms include
The Office of ECE provides this CCTV policy template and guidance to help services using indoor or outdoor security cameras meet their legal obligations under the Privacy Act, the Children’s Act, and other key legislation.
With camera use under increasing scrutiny, every service that operates CCTV in areas where children or staff may be present needs clear, transparent procedures to ensure lawful, ethical, and defensible practice. Gaps in your policy can put your service and the trust of families, at risk.
Log in with your member details to access the full guidance and template. If your service’s membership has lapsed or you’d like to join, get in touch and we’ll help you get set up quickly.
Home‑based providers may also use this template to develop a policy for educators who have security cameras operating in their family homes.
Updated April 2026 with the latest regulatory requirements.
A strong child protection policy isn’t just about meeting licensing standards – it’s a core safeguard for children, your team, and the trust families place in your service.
With new 2026 updates now in force, it’s essential your policy reflects current expectations and best practice.
Log in with your member details to read the full guidance. If your service’s membership has lapsed or you’d like to join, get in touch and we’ll help you get set up quickly.
On this page, we break down the latest regulatory changes, provide the most effective template to use, and share practical insights to help your service demonstrate a genuine, proactive commitment to child protection.
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A strong, up‑to‑date Privacy Policy is essential for every early childhood service because it protects the personal information of children, families, and staff while ensuring full compliance with the Privacy Act 2020.
With new sector‑specific guidance now in place, services must be confident that their policies reflect current legal expectations and best practice.
Our comprehensive policy template and procedures give services a clear, reliable framework to stay compliant, safeguard trust, and respond effectively to any privacy concerns.
Illness and infectious‑disease management is under closer scrutiny than ever, and every ECE service must have a policy that reflects current regulations and best practice. A weak or outdated policy can put children at risk, expose staff to preventable illness, and leave your service vulnerable during a licensing inspection, ERO review, or complaint.
This article shows you how to write a strong, compliant illness and infectious diseases policy for your centre or home‑based service – and provides a practical template you can use to update your current procedures immediately.
Log in with your member details to access the full guidance and template. If your service’s membership has lapsed or you’d like to join, get in touch and we’ll help you get set up quickly.
Centres and home‑based services play a vital role in safeguarding children’s health. Clear, well‑informed procedures are essential for preventing exposure to infectious illnesses and reducing the risk of outbreaks.
A clear and well‑structured Fees Policy helps early childhood services maintain fairness, transparency, and financial stability.
It supports families to understand how fees are set and applied, reducing confusion and strengthening trust.
By using the accompanying guidance and the template, your service can easily create a policy that is consistent, compliant, and tailored to the needs of your service and families in your community.
How to write a policy on anything or topic for your early childhood service.
What needs to be included in a written policy.
Answers to your questions such as how often you need to review policy.
Promoting Social and Emotional Competence Policy and Procedures.
Rationale:
This policy and accompanying procedures will help us to ensure our curriculum and teaching practice supports the development of children’s social competence and understanding of appropriate behaviour in our service.
Regulations and key references:
T
Use and adapt the following curriculum policy to suit your service and meet regulatory requirements.
Your curriculum policy must be consistent with the curriculum framework and be informed by assessment, planning, and evaluation (documented and undocumented) that demonstrates an understanding of children’s learning, their interests, whānau, and life contexts.
As well as providing a curriculum policy template for you, we’ve included the questions the Ministry of Education commonly asks and focuses on when it is checking an ECE service’s curriculum policy and implementation.
RATIONALE:
To ensure the process of planning, evaluating and delivering a localised curriculum is consistent with
Regulations require that certain groups of people, including parents, union staff, and public officials, have a right of entry to the early childhood service under certain conditions, and set out the responsibilities of the early childhood service.
Below is a Right of Entry Policy and a set of procedures for different situations. Adapt and re-w
Here is a policy and set of procedures for the Collection of Children that you may use and adapt for your early childhood service. Services are responsible for upholding children’s safety at all times. This includes responsibility for ensuring the safety of children leaving the premises.
Reflective questions
Considering reflective questi
Here is a sample emergency management policy template, covering different emergencies such as fire, flooding, terrorist or armed offender, and natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcanic activity, and tsunamis.
We also show you what you might put in a sample emergency plan, emergency procedures (including drills), and an emergency sup
Does your early childhood service have a well-written, well thought-out complaints policy? Getting it right is essential to support people to raise their concerns and avoid situations escalating and further problems.
Waiho i te toipoto, kaua i te toiroa. Let us keep close together, not far apart
Regulatory requirements and Te Whāriki
Policy and procedures for excursions and outings.
An excursion is when children are taken outside the licensed premises as part of the learning and teaching programme while attending the service. It does not include an outing for emergency evacuations, drills, or to receive urgent medical attention (we provide a separate policy template for leaving the premises for these reasons).
RATIONALE:
In the rationale section of your written policy some things you may wish to include are:
ECE Service Lockdown Policy Template and Procedures.
The terror incident in Christchurch in March 2019 prompted many ECE services to review their lockdown procedures, leaving us questioning whether we are well-prepared for situations where we may need to go into lockdown.
Some services in Christchurch found themselves unprepared, part
Prevent Child Escapes.
Having a child slip out of a gate un-noticed or being sent home with the wrong person is something that everyone would dread.
It is expected that children are safe in their ECE environment and cared for at all times.
So in terms of developing policy and involving parents and others to play their part in ensuring th
Separated Parents.
It can be tricky being caught between parents, new partners of parents, and lawyers and it’s never easy trying to determine what information if any you can and should share and where the line is between privacy rights and responsibilities and duties as a parent.
This article discusses key issues that have a
Early childhood service sun protection policy and guidance.
A few years ago I was a head teacher in a kindergarten. We prided ourselves on not allowing children outside without hats and sun screen. We deliberately created areas in the grounds that were shaded. One very hot February day we had a sprinkler out and the children had a wonderful
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