What Incidents of Child Escapes from ECE Reveal
More than 50 incidents of children leaving early childhood education services without adult knowledge were recorded in 2025, but the true extent of the problem…
NZ Is Producing About Half as Many New ECE Teachers as It Did 15 Years Ago. Why?
NZ is producing about half as many new early childhood teachers as it was 15 years ago, and new government data suggests the sector is…
A Transfer That Wasn’t: Ministry of Education’s Entire ECE Regional Regulatory Workforce Disestablished
The transfer of early childhood education regulatory functions from the Ministry of Education to the Education Review Office did not include the transfer of any…
ECE Funding Approvals Now Routed Through ERO, Creating A Two Agency System
Associate Education Minister David Seymour said transferring regulatory functions from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to the Education Review Office (ERO) would create clearer education…
ERO’s Takeover of the Ministry’s SELO 1 Funding Contradicts Regulation Requiring Providers to Pay for Compliance Support
ERO has taken control of a key ECE support fund previously administered by the Ministry of Education, raising questions about how the funding will operate…
New Shoots Ltd–Educare Group Ownership Shift Highlights Regulatory Gap Allowing Companies to Acquire Large Numbers of Centres Without Change of Provider Checks
A major ownership change in New Zealand’s early childhood education (ECE) sector has highlighted a regulatory gap that allows companies to acquire large numbers of…
Kindercare Water‑Slide Chemical Burns: More Than a Detergent Mix‑Up
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,…
ECE Funding Review: What the MAG Wants to Axe, Where the Money Will Go, and Who Is Making the Decisions
The ECE funding review proposals shift money toward large commercial daycare, cuts pay parity, reshapes equity funding, and overlooks quality, affordability, and small service sustainability.
ECE Food Programme: Audit Confirms Procurement Failures but Bigger Problems Persist
The Auditor‑General has confirmed what the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) uncovered last year: the Government’s Free Food in Early Childhood Education Programme was…
Full Details of the New Compliance Enforcement Regime for Services
The Government’s promised “red tape reduction” is having the opposite effect in early childhood education the new compliance enforcement regime is longer, slower, and shifts…
Did Cabinet Act on Flawed Advice About ECE Regulator Actions and Provisional Licences?
Licence downgrades in early childhood education are set to become harder to apply. The change is driven by a claim that the Ministry of Education…
Child Left Locked in an Early Childhood Van for Almost 50 minutes
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:…
