ECE Safety and Standards Enforcement Drops Sharply
ANALYSIS/NEWS – 9 April 2025
New data shows a dramatic decline in regulatory action against early childhood education services. The 2025 list of services with licences downgraded, suspended, or cancelled for breaching minimum standards includes just 80 services – down from 185 in 2024 and 320 in 2023. This amounts to a 57% drop in one year and a 75% decline over two years.
View the Names of ECE Services with Compliance Failures and Regulator Actions
The scale and speed of the fall have raised questions about what is driving the change.
| Year | Number of Services on provisional or suspended licence – or licence cancelled |
|---|---|
| 2021 | 223 |
| 2022 | 241 |
| 2023 | 320 |
| 2024 | 185 |
| 2025 | 80 |
What Is Not Behind the Change
Not Changes to the Regulatory Settings
Cuts to licensing criteria and softening of several remaining criteria do not take effect until 20 April 2025. New preliminary steps that must be taken before a licence can be downgraded also have not yet come into force. Enforcement fell sharply sharply before the new regulatory settings took effect.
Not improved Ministry of Education staff capability
The Ministry for Regulation’s 2024 review recommended workforce training to support consistent, effective regulatory decision‑making and and improve regulatory effectiveness and consistency. But an Official Information Act response in early 2026 confirmed that no such training had been delivered. The decline is not the result of a more skilled or better‑supported regulatory workforce.
Not reduced monitoring of ECE services
The Ministry does not conduct routine annual or biannual compliance checks. It intervenes when a serious incident or complaint occurs, or a service changes ownership. Many services operate for years – sometimes their entire lifespan – without a proactive compliance visit. Because regular scheduled inspections do not exist, the decline cannot be explained by fewer visits.
Not a sudden improvement in sector compliance
There is no evidence of a sector‑wide lift in meeting minimum standards. Serious incidents continue. For example, in December 2025, children at a Christchurch early childhood centre suffered chemical burns from a harmful substance used on a slide. Despite widespread media reporting, the Ministry did not immediately conduct a full compliance check or place the service on a provisional licence. Instead, it asked the centre to investigate itself. This raised questions about the consistency of enforcement under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations. Under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations, services must take all reasonable steps to keep children safe, prevent accidents, and ensure equipment is hazard‑free.
What Seems to Have Driven the Decline
1. Public scrutiny of Ministry decisions
The Minister’s public comments on cases such as the “Country Kindy” decision in Manawatū have put Ministry actions under the spotlight. In that case, he questioned the Ministry’s decision‑making, even though internal records showed breaches of licence conditions. High‑profile challenges like this could make Ministry of Education staff more cautious about taking enforcement action.
2. Political criticism of ECE rules
Ongoing criticism of the regulatory framework, including claims by the Associate Minister that rules are applied too harshly may also be affecting staff confidence. This can lead to hesitation when deciding whether to take compliance action, even when breaches are identified.
3. Regulatory and Administrative Flux
Since Associate Minister David Seymour took over the early childhood education portfolio, ECE became the first sector reviewed by the new Ministry for Regulation, diverting significant Ministry of Education time and focus into reform work. Then, in July 2025, the Minister announced that regulatory functions would shift from the Ministry of Education to the Education Review Office – a change not recommended in the Ministry for Regulation’s review of ECE report. Although the transfer has not yet occurred, the announcement has created disruption and uncertainty, which may make staff hesitant to take firm compliance action when responsibility for those decisions could soon move to another agency.
What Comes Next?
Oversight of ECE compliance with minimum standards is now weaker than at any point in recent years. The decline in enforcement began well before the new “graduated approach” to managing non‑compliance came into force. This timing suggests a broader shift was already underway – a move away from using strong penalties such as licence downgrades, suspensions, and cancellations as deterrents.
The new graduated approach now formalises this shift. It requires the Director of Regulation to prioritise keeping services open and operational, beginning with support‑focused steps such as issuing warnings, allowing services to seek specialist help, or demonstrating that they are developing an improvement plan.
Whether oversight remains with the Ministry of Education or moves to the Education Review Office, the direction is clear: a shift toward greater leniency and away from firm accountability for services operating in breach of minimum legal requirements.
💬 Add your comment: Have you noticed changes in how ECE standards are monitored or enforced?
Tell us what you’re seeing on the ground – and what you think might explain the sharp fall in enforcement.
