ECEs Breaching Minimum Standards in 2024

The Early Childhood Education Services Breaching Regulations in 2024

Transparency in Licensing Actions

To support transparency and accountability in the early childhood sector, the OECE publishes an annual list of ECE services that, at any point during the year, operated under a downgraded licence, were suspended, or were permanently shut down due to regulatory breaches. These lists allow families and communities to identify whether non-compliance was a one-off incident or part of a pattern – such as multiple licence downgrades over recent years.

How Licensing Decisions Are Made

The Ministry of Education does not take licensing action lightly.

• Every decision made by Ministry advisors is peer-reviewed by senior officials.
• Licence changes are typically issued only for major or serious breaches, often involving multiple violations that cannot be quickly resolved.
• Services are rarely caught off guard; they usually receive several days or weeks’ notice following communication, site visits, and requests for evidence of compliance.

If a health or safety breach can be fixed within 10 working days, the Ministry may issue a written direction instead of changing the licence. Because written directions don’t have to be publicly displayed or reflected in a service’s licence status, they allow non-compliance to remain hidden from parents and the community—in effect silencing serious safety and health concerns.

Unequal Influence and Enforcement Challenges

Some ECE service owners and their representatives hold significant financial and political influence, which can complicate regulatory enforcement. There have been instances where owners have contacted the Ministry directly to pressure officials to withdraw licensing action. Threats of legal proceedings—potentially costly for the Ministry and taxpayers—can deter intervention, even in cases of serious non-compliance.

These dynamics highlight the urgent need for consistent, transparent enforcement and public access to compliance histories.

A deeper issue is the lack of regular inspections across the sector. There is no prevailing culture of continuous compliance, where services expect to be checked at any time. Once a service is licensed, it may never receive another inspection unless triggered by a specific event—such as a change in ownership, a serious incident, or a complaint. This means services with serious breaches can operate for years without scrutiny, unless something goes wrong.

Most services are only ‘caught’ breaching regulations due to:

• Complaints from parents or staff
• Serious incidents involving children
• Ownership changes that prompt a licensing review
• Negative reports from the Education Review Office (ERO)

Self-reporting of non-compliance is rare. One notable exception is Playcentres, which have shown a willingness to notify the Ministry when they struggle to meet qualification requirements for supervising adults or the designated person responsible.

To care for children and receive public funding, ECE services must be licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The Ministry of Education has the power of entry or legal authority to enter and inspect any licensed service. Under the Education and Training Act 2020 (Sections 29, 626, and 627), it is an offence—punishable by a fine of up to $2,000—for any person at the service to obstruct, hinder, resist, or deceive an authorised Ministry official during an inspection.

However, unlike in countries such as Australia, ECE services and managers in New Zealand do not face direct fines or financial penalties for non-compliance. Licensing actions the Ministry can take are:

• Downgrading to Provisional Licence The service continues operating and receiving funding while working toward compliance. The licence must be displayed, but there is no requirement to personally inform parents of the change.
• Suspending the Licence The service is temporarily closed and funding is withheld during the suspension. To regain its licence, the service must meet the conditions outlined in the suspension notice and demonstrate satisfactory improvements.
• Cancelling the Licence The licence is permanently withdrawn, and the service must close.

Links to Regulations and further information on minimum standards 

• Regulations & Licensing Criteria – a plain language guideline to the regulations
• Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 (SR 2008/204)
• Raising concerns and how to make a complaint

The 2024 list of ECE Services on a downgraded licence or whose licence was cancelled

The complete 2024 list is provided below – scroll down this page to see the list of names.
If you would like to learn more – go to the news story: Substantial decline in number of early childhood education services downgraded or closed for non-compliance with regulations, Why?

Provisional figures for 2024 show that 185 ECE services were operating on a downgraded licence or had their licence cancelled due to non-compliance at any time during 2024.

• 177 provisional licences were held by 170 ECE services. Six services were operating on provisional licences who had their full licence reinstated but were then found sometime later in the year to be breaching standards again. A seventh service was operating on a provisional licence, then received a suspension, then allowed to re-open on a provisional licence.
• 20 ECE services had their licences suspended due to serious breaches in minimum standards.
• 17 ECE services had their licences cancelled due to non-compliance.

Any errors or omissions? Let us know so any errors can be quickly corrected. Please provide evidence for any changes or corrections such as a copy of your service licence. You may wish to also contact your local Ministry of Education office to check their records for your service.