Terms and Conditions of Membership and Website Use

Please make sure you review and understand the Terms and Conditions of membership and website use below.

This website oece.nz (the Site) is operated by the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) (We, us, our).

Contents

1. General Terms
2. Intellectual Property, Copying, and Use of Site Content
3. Memberships and Subscriptions – including Ts & Cs for renewal and cancellation
4. Credit Cards and Stripe Payments
5. Continuity of Online Access to Member or Subscriber Areas, Articles, Resources, Benefits
6. Corrections and Complaints
7. Third Party Adverts, Services, & Goods
8. Events
9. Site Access Method Obligations
10. Links To, Or With, Third Party Websites

1. GENERAL TERMS

1.1. Agreement to be bound: These terms and conditions of use (Terms and Conditions) and our related Privacy Policy apply to all subscribers, members, visitors to our Site and any other users of our Site. By subscribing, joining, and/or accessing and using the Site you will be deemed to agree to these Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy, then you must cancel your subscription and/or membership(s), and/or stop accessing and using the Site.

1.2. Liability for accuracy: The content of this website (including information, advice, materials and publications) and any correspondence you may receive from any persons associated with the Office of Early Childhood Education (OECE) is provided ‘as is’, and we accept no liability for its accuracy.

1.3. Liability for use of information and advice or guidance: Advice provided is general in nature only. It may or may not be relevant to your situation. No liability is accepted for the completeness and accuracy of any statement/s, articles, advice, information, and published materials on the Site or communicated to you via email, including newsletters. We do not give any representation or warranty as to the reliability, accuracy, or completeness of the Site content and communications. Independent and/or legal advice should be sought before taking any action in reliance of any information, advice, or resources provided. You indemnify and hold the Office of ECE, our team members, and independent advisors harmless and keep us indemnified from and against all loss, actions, proceedings, costs, expenses (including legal fees), claims and damages incurred or suffered from your access to and/or use of the Site and any associated correspondences including newsletters.

1.4. Right to amend the T&C: We reserve the right to amend these Terms and Conditions at any time. You are deemed to be aware of and bound by the amendments to the Terms and Conditions upon publication on the Site. 

1.5. Suspension or termination of access to the Site: You accept that if we consider you have breached any of the Terms and Conditions as stated here, we may immediately and without written notice to you, suspend or terminate your access to the Site. On suspension or termination, you must immediately cease using the Site and any materials and information you may have obtained from it, and any communications including newsletters that we may have sent to you, or your organisation or service.

2. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, COPYING, AND USE OF SITE CONTENT

2.1. Rights: All intellectual property rights in the Site, and in the material published on it, including photographs, videos, articles, blogs and comments (the Site Material) are owned by, or licensed to, the OECE. The Site Materials are protected by all relevant intellectual property laws and treaties around the world.

2.2.  Licence: Subject to these Terms and Conditions, we grant you a non-exclusive, limited, temporary and revocable licence to access, browse and use the Site (including the Site Materials).

2.3.  Use: The Site Material may not be used (including copied, republished, rewritten, resold, redistributed, communicated, transmitted or stored, whether by caching, framing or similar means), whether in hard copy, electronic or any other form, except:

• sharing an OECE page or post url link on a social media platform in accordance with the Privacy Policy;
• in accordance with any licence obtained from Copyright Licensing NZ Ltd (for articles published in the NZIRECE Journal), and/or the NZ Press Association Limited trading as Print Media Copyright Agency;
• where that use is for public or commercial purposes and you have first obtained a licence and permission from us at the OECE that allows your proposed use; or
• where that use is for personal study/research.

Accredited members of the media are welcome to cite any content, quotes, and comment provided in the ECE Newsroom by the OECE (this excludes comments added by readers/users to posts and articles). The source (The Office of Early Childhood Education) must be appropriately and correctly acknowledged. Online publication must also include the direct URL link when acknowledging the source.  

2.4. Licensing: If you want to to syndicate or licence any Site Materials from our Site, please contact us at [email protected] Your request needs to be in writing.

3. MEMBERSHIPS AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

3.1. Please take care not to take out a membership or subscription that is not applicable to your circumstance or role. Should it come to the OECE’s attention that you have taken out a membership that does not apply to who you are (teacher or student, or service provider) your membership will be cancelled and any money you may have paid will not be refunded . However, should your membership or subscription be new and not approved then we will refund the payment you have made less any credit card processing or bank fees. If you are not certain what type of membership or subscription you are eligible for, please contact us and ask first.

• Teacher membership is available to individuals only who are studying or working in a teaching position within a licensed early childhood service.
• Service provider membership is available only to licensed early childhood services. The membership belongs to the provider or manager. Should you hold more than one licence then you must take out membership that includes all the ECE service licences in your group or organisation.
• Newsroom subscription is at the individual rate must only be taken out by individuals who are not part of an organisation, and who will not be using the subscription as part of their work or role. Organisations including news agencies and ECE services can take out an organisation newsroom subscription please contact us for rates and to set up full access for your group or organisation.

3.2. Upgrading or transferring one membership or subscription to another: You may cancel at any time a membership or subscription you do not want. But no credit is due. Any new membership or subscription must be paid in full. The only exception is to Newsroom subs and Research User fees when paid by a Teacher Member or Service Provider, because Newsroom and Research User access is provided as a benefit to teacher and service provider members. No refund is due, but a member can have additional months added to their membership in lieu of any money they may have paid for Newsroom or Research User access after becoming a Teacher or Service Provider member.

3.3. Right to decline membership, subscription applications: We reserve the right not to approve membership or subscription for any person, ECE service, and organisation without explanation. Should payment have been made online for a membership or subscription application that has been declined, we will refund the payment in full.

3.4. Right to remove membership or subscription: Where a member or subscriber passes on information (verbally, electronically, in writing, or printed copies) from the restricted areas of the Site to any other person or organisation (not withstanding point 2.3 above on use of Site material), we reserve the right to cancel the member’s or subscriber’s access without notice, to name and shame, and refuse any future applications for membership or subscription. 

3.5. Prohibited users/ members: Membership services are not available to ECE services and individuals who do not support the OECE’s goal of promoting better quality early childhood education and care, who attempt through their actions or words to undermine the safety and quality of ECE, or who have caused damage in any way to us, threatened, undermined or taken any form of legal action against the OECE or any of our writers. Membership/s or subscription will be cancelled and no refund will be due.
This includes the Early Childhood Council business lobby (ECC), its past and current staff, past and present members of its executive, and life members. Exceptions may be possible, and you are advised to contact us to discuss and disclose your involvements. If your association or involvement with the ECC is not disclosed to us, we reserve the right to cancel any memberships and subscriptions you or your group may hold, without notice, and no refund will be due.
Any subsequent attempt to become a Registered User or take out a subscription or membership without our prior written consent will be declined, and any fees paid online will not be refunded.

3.6. Change of ECE Service Ownership: Service provider memberships are not transferable to new owners. You agree to inform us immediately when you sell your service or are no longer be in charge of a service. We will then cancel the membership on your behalf and no further fees will be payable. The new owner or operating group must take out a new membership under its name.

3.7. Responsibilities of subscribers and members:

• you agree to use your real name when taking out a membership or subscription and in any comments you may post on the Site.
• you agree not to share, give, or transfer your membership or subscription to another person, group, or organisation.
• you agree not to keep your password secure and not let anyone else have access to your membership or subscription.
• you agree to quickly contact us should you become aware of any unauthorised use of your membership/subscription or your login details.
• you agree as a member/ subscriber that you will inform us of any misuse of the Site or membership/subscription that you may notice or that may come to your attention, including membership-only information being shared with third parties and breaches in copyright. 

3.8. Duration and Renewal: Your membership or subscription commences on the day that it is activated and ends when you have cancelled your account or have requested cancellation. When you do not cancel your account, fees continue to be payable and we reserve the right to pursue this debt if it remains unpaid. Password access to the applicable member or subscription area of the Site will be suspended if the renewal fee has not been paid by the date that the membership or subscription runs to.

3.9. Refund for cancellation before expiry date: Membership and subscription fees are non-refundable once the membership or subscription is activated. Should a member wish to cancel membership before expiry date for whatever reason, no refund is payable.

3.10. Refund for unwanted renewal: It is your responsibility to manage your account and check or uncheck if you want automatic renewal and payment by credit card or choose the manual payment option. Should you decide not to renew after an automatic renewal has taken place, contact us within 48 hours of the renewal being processed and we will refund money paid for the renewal less the credit card (Stripe’s) processing fee.

4. CREDIT CARDS and STRIPE PAYMENTS

Credit/debit cards are processed securely via the STRIPE Site. Credit card details will not be available to any OECE staff member. Users credit card details are not stored on our website (OECE). There is a token which links into the Stripe site. Credit Card details may be stored by Stripe. Please visit https://stripe.com/nz for further information.

5. CONTINUITY OF ONLINE ACCESS TO MEMBER or SUBSCRIBER AREAS, ARTICLES, RESOURCES, BENEFITS

We reserve the right to modify, change or discontinue what we offer to you as a member or subscriber and without notice. This includes the right to withdraw access to a membership benefit/s or changing the benefit/s provided to you.

We do not guarantee that your use of our service and/ or access to our website or to any content on it, will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error-free. We cannot guarantee that the website will not go down at any time, that it will not be hacked, or that a server may go down either through human error or an act of God.

Under our Terms and Conditions, you expressly agree that your use of, or inability to use, the website and access any materials or OECE service is at your sole risk.

6. CORRECTIONS AND COMPLAINTS

While we make every attempt to ensure that no content on the Site is offensive, abusive, libellous, obscene, incorrect, or false – we are only human and may miss something. You agree to contact us immediately and tell us should you see, read, or find anything on the Site that is offensive, abusive, libellous, obscene, incorrect, or false. By notifying us immediately, we will be able to take timely action and avoid or reduce any potential for harm. Please use the Contact Us form on the Site or email us directly. Sometimes electronic mail can get caught up in Spam or may not be received by us, so should there be no response or change within 72 hours of emailing your notice of correction or complaint, please try emailing again or send to our postal address: The OECE, PO Box 58-078, Porirua 5245, NZ.

Please note that information, statements or material that is the reported experience of a person/s, group/s, or party/parties will not be removed from the site unless sufficient and strong reason is provided by the complainant. Information, statements or material that is in the public interest to know will not be removed from the site. Should you disagree or dispute our decision, we reserve the right to seek mediation by a third independent party. The cost of the mediator’s fees will be equally shared between both parties.

7. THIRD PARTY ADVERTS, SERVICES, & GOODS

Where the Site and/or our newsletters contain third party advertisements and/or information, materials and documents relating to or provided by third parties, we do not recommend or endorse the products or services of those third parties. Any offers made by third parties are not made by the OECE or by anyone in our team, and the third party is solely responsible to you for the quality and delivery of any goods or services you access from the third party.

8. EVENTS 

Cancellation: We reserve the right to cancel any event and all fees will be refunded. We accept no responsibility for other costs (e.g., travel, accommodation bookings) incurred by the registrant. No refunds will be given if a registrant for whatever reason, is unable to attend the event booked.

Transfer: The registrant may choose to give his/her place to someone else from his/her organisation or service; and this will be accepted if the registrant informs us before the day of the event as to who will be his/her replacement.

Venue change or change to virtual : We reserve the right to change the venue or to change an in-person event to a virtual event. If this is necessary, we will undertake to email all registrants of the change of venue or mode at least one week prior to the event date. In extraordinary circumstances, such as flooding and fire at the venue, advance notification of a change of venue or mode may not be possible.

9. SITE ACCCES METHOD OBLIGATIONS

You may access the Site through a standard web browser.  You must not access the Site using any other method, including: deep-linking, data mining, use of a robot or spider, or any similar data gathering, extraction or other monitoring method. 

10. LINKS TO, OR WITH, THIRD PARTY WEBSITES

No responsibility is taken by us for the contents of links in the Site to other websites. Hyperlinks are provided to you as convenience only. You link to any such linked website entirely at your own risk. We do not provide any guarantees or representations as to the content and reliability of any such linked website.  We will not be liable for any loss or damage suffered by you from accessing, using, relying on, or trading with third parties. 

LAST UPDATED – 17 April 2025.