Kakapa Atu Home Base

ERO’s Akanuku | Assurance Review reports provide information about whether a service meets and maintains regulatory standards. Further information about Akanuku | Assurance Reviews is included at the end of this report.

ERO’s Judgement

At the time of the review, ERO found the service was taking reasonable steps to meet regulatory standards.

Background

Kakapa Atu Home Base is a Tongan home-based service licensed for children from birth to school age. The service owner, who is also the coordinator, provides curriculum support and guidance to the educators. This is the first ERO review of the service that opened in 2017.

Summary of Review Findings

The service curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect other cultures. The unique place of Māori as tangata whenua is acknowledged and respected. The home premises support the provision of different types of indoor and outdoor experiences.

Regular opportunities are provided for parents to communicate with adults providing education and care about their child and to share specific evidence of the child’s learning. An ongoing process of self review helps the service maintain and improve the quality of its education and care.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

• further coaching and mentoring of educators to strengthen their understanding of children's learning, and knowledge of learning dispositions
• documenting the support provided to educators in implementing curriculum planning, assessment and evaluation.

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Steve Tanner
Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

19 February 2021 

Information About the Service

General Information about Assurance Reviews

All services are licensed under the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008. The legal requirements for early childhood services also include the Licensing Criteria for Education and Care Services 2008.

Services must meet the standards in the regulations and the requirements of the licensing criteria to gain and maintain a licence to operate.

ERO undertakes an Akanuku | Assurance Review process in any centre-based or home-based education and care service:

• having its first ERO review – including if it is part of a governing organisation
• previously identified as ‘not well placed’ or ‘requiring further development’
• that has moved from a provisional to a full licence
• that have been re-licenced due to a change of ownership
• where an Akanuku | Assurance Review process is determined to be appropriate.

Management Assurance on Legal Requirements

All early childhood services are required to promote children’s health and safety and to regularly review their compliance with legal requirements. Before the review, the staff and management of the service completed an ERO Home-based Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist. In these documents they attested that they have taken all reasonable steps to meet their legal obligations related to:

• curriculum
• premises and facilities
• health and safety practices
• governance, management and administration.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO assesses whether the regulated standards are being met. In particular, ERO looks at a service’s systems for managing the following areas that have a potentially high impact on children's wellbeing:

• emotional safety (including positive guidance and child protection)
• physical safety (including supervision; sleep procedures; accidents; medication; hygiene; excursion policies and procedures)
• suitable staffing (including qualification levels; police vetting; teacher certification; ratios)
• evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

As part of an Akanuku | Assurance Review ERO also gathers and records evidence through:

• discussions with those involved in the service
• consideration of relevant documentation, including the implementation of health and safety systems
• observations of the environment/premises, curriculum implementation and teaching practice.