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As a condition of licensing, staff in the position of ‘person responsible’ as set out in the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 are required to be appropriately qualified. More information on qualification for early childhood education teachers can be found on the Education Workforce website.
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 – New Zealand Legislation
Under Part 31 of the Education Amendment Act 2015, staff in the position of ‘person responsible’ must also be registered. The teacher registration regulations are administered by the Teaching Council.
Education Amendment Act 2015 – New Zealand Legislation
Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
Teacher registration and certification ensures the quality of teachers. Newly graduated provisionally certificated teachers must be supervised and supported through an advice and guidance programme once they begin teaching in an ECE service.
People and employment in early learning
To employ teachers for your ECE service
Create a staffing schedule to help you decide how many teachers you will need, and for what hours you will need them. This should be based on anticipated enrolments. This process will also help you decide how many of these staff must be qualified teachers.
Decide what other staff will need to be employed (for example, cleaner, administration staff, manager, cook, head teacher).
Develop job descriptions. It may be useful to look at job descriptions from other ECE services, where possible.
Decide what salary rates and conditions you will offer. It may be useful to find out about salaries paid and conditions offered in other ECE services in your area. (See ‘Help with employment issues’ and 'Pay equity and pay parity' below.)
Every employee must have a written employment agreement. It can be either an individual agreement or a collective agreement. Decide what form the draft employment agreement between staff and the service will take.
Develop employment documentation such as policies and procedures.
Advertise for staff.
Formalise the employment agreement between staff and the service prior to employment.
Look at Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 regulation 47 and licensing criterion GMA7 for what is required.
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, regulation 47 – New Zealand Legislation
GMA7 Human resource management
Refer to advertisements in the Education Gazette to help you. Consider employing at least one teacher prior to opening.
Pay equity and pay parity
Pay equity
Amendments to the Equal Pay Act 1972, which came into effect on 6 November 2020, introduce a new process for individual employees and unions to raise a pay equity claim directly with an employer for work, which may be subject to systemic sex-based discrimination.
An overview of pay equity and the framework, as well as a guide to good practice, are available on the Employment New Zealand website.
Pay equity claims – Employment New Zealand
Pay parity in Early Childhood Education
What the pay parity opt-in scheme is
The pay parity opt-in scheme seeks to address the disparity in pay between certificated kaiako | teachers working in Education and Care and Hospital-Based services and equivalent kaiako | teachers in kindergartens. The disparity is unfair and contributes to some of the workforce issues facing the sector, such as kaiako | teachers' shortages and retention difficulties.
The scheme provides higher funding rates to education and care and hospital-based services who pay all employed certificated kaiako | teachers at least the salary amounts described in the ECE funding handbook.
On 1 May 2023 NZEI applied to MBIE to initiate a Fair Pay Agreement for the early childhood sector.
The Fair Pay Agreement legislation means minimum pay standards can be negotiated and agreed for a whole sector or industry. NZEI Te Rui Roa will be using it to legally embed pay parity and better working conditions for ECE kaiako, and to seek a living wage for all other ECE staff.
They say that in bargaining, they will raise issues important to the ECE sector, taking a lead from the though it is likely to mean taking a stand on pay parity, non-contact time, ratios, professional development, and health and safety.
Help with employment issues
Employment New Zealand has information to support human resource management. This includes templates for letters to appoint staff, fact sheets, employment agreement guides and help calculating parental leave for your employed staff. There is also an ‘Ask a question’ feature.
Inland Revenue is a good starting point for finding out about obligations and entitlements concerning tax.
The Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand provides information about the process of teacher registration.
Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata | Human Rights Commission website provides information about equal opportunities, including a discrimination and complaints guide.
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata | Human Rights Commission
The New Zealand Education Institute (NZEI) is a union that negotiates collective employment agreements on behalf of many early childhood education teachers. As a condition of receiving higher levels of government funding, teachers must be paid at a rate that is at least as high as the lowest step on their ‘consenting parties' early childhood collective agreement’.
New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa
The Oranga Tamariki Action Plan website helps you in identifying, supporting and protecting vulnerable children.
Staffing schedules
Staffing schedules support the smooth operation of an ECE service.
They ensure that it is clear when staff are responsible for children and when they can take lunch breaks or 'non-contact' planning time, etc. Draft schedules should be developed by newly established services to work out:
- how many staff will be needed overall to ensure compliance with the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 (schedule 1)
- what hours each shift will need to cover and
- which shifts will need to be filled by registered teachers to ensure compliance with the Education (Registration of Early Childhood Services Teachers) Regulations 2004.
Qualification requirements and the persons responsible role
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, schedule 1 – New Zealand Legislation
You should also note that the Ministry of Education's ECE funding handbook requires records to be kept showing actual staffing levels and child attendance (as opposed to planned staffing levels). Your staffing schedule could be designed so that it can also be used as a staffing record for the purposes of funding. You can find an example in Appendix 2 of the funding handbook. Some software providers have packages available to assist services.
Minimum adult to child ratios and first aid
The Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 (schedule 2) set out how many children can attend with certain numbers of adults (adult to child ratio).
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, schedule 2 – New Zealand Legislation
Adult-to-child ratios in early learning services
The Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 also require there to be at least 1 staff member for every 25 children at the centre (at all times children are attending) who either holds a current first aid certificate, is a registered medical practitioner, is a nurse with a current practising certificate, or is a qualified ambulance officer or paramedic.
First aid qualifications for early learning services and kōhanga reo
Number of certificated teachers your ECE service needs
The Education (Registration of Early Childhood Services Teachers) Regulations 2004 require, in teacher-led services, the person acting as 'person responsible' to be a registered teacher.
The Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 (regulation 44 (1) (d)) require a 'person responsible' to supervise children, or the staff by whom the children are supervised, at all times.
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 – New Zealand Legislation
Developing a schedule
Developing schedules is quite tricky and you may need to try lots of versions before you find one that suits your service.
Use the example schedule below as a guide and carry out the following steps.
Step 1
- Fill in the number of children (over 2 or under 2) that you have planned will be at the service every half hour (right hand column). Note that, at the start and end of the day, there are often fewer children attending. If this is the case, fewer adults may be needed at these times.
- Work out how many adults you will be required to employ for the number of children (every half hour) and write this number in the planned staff column.
- Alternatively, write in the number of adults your service will need if you want fewer children per adult than is required by the regulation (note that you can have more adults working with children than required, but not the other way around).
- Shade the boxes to show when each adult will actually be working with the children.
- Count across the columns to ensure there are at least as many adults working as the number planned.
Check that at least 1 'person responsible' is on the premises supervising the adults and children at all times.
Step 2
Check each adult:
- has adequate breaks (for example, lunch)
- is not working for too long each day and
- has time to plan for children's learning and curriculum delivery.
Example staff recordJob descriptions
Job descriptions are statements written to describe the:
- position title
- duties/key tasks
- primary responsibilities, including intended outcomes of key tasks
- qualifications and experience required for the position
- personal professional qualities and skills
- position relationships, such as to whom the person is responsible, and to whom they relate
- a date that the job description was prepared – this is a good way to track when it needs updating
- names and signatures of the key people involved in its preparation and a review date.
(Note: see the Human Rights Act 1993 to ensure there is no discrimination in items listed in the person specifications.)
Human Rights Act 1993 – New Zealand Legislation
Job descriptions clearly identify the roles and responsibilities of a specific job, helping to promote positive relationships within a team of staff.
They help to:
- clarify the role and expectations of employees
- decide how work is allocated or delegated
- develop appraisal processes and procedures
- set goals and
- identify professional development needs and guide career developments.
The best job descriptions do not limit employees but enable them to use their experience, grow their skills and develop their ability to contribute within their organisation.
A staffing and appointments policy and the process adhered to should document the process for developing and changing a job description.
Suggested headings for job description
- Position.
- Introduction (including a description of the organisation).
- Profile (of the successful applicant).
- Responsible to.
- Primary responsibilities of the position.
- Key tasks.
- Date prepared.
- Signed.
- Review date.
Resources
How to hire – Guide for employers: This is a resource designed by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment to provide employers with information on good practice when recruiting and hiring employees, including information on job descriptions.
The hiring process – Employment New Zealand
CommunityNet Aotearoa provides practical ‘hands on’ resources to help organisations to get started and develop good practice in the voluntary sector environment.
