Prepare for an emergency or traumatic incident in early learning
Early childhood services must have an emergency management plan as part of their licencing requirements.
The emergency management plan must be kept up to date and made available to parents, whānau and caregivers.
See the emergency preparation licensing criteria for your type of service.
Making and maintaining an emergency management plan
An emergency management plan is a requirement under the Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016.
Your service must maintain and keep the emergency management plan up to date. It needs to be shared with parents, whānau and caregivers.
The emergency management plan must have:
emergency procedures
evacuation procedures
procedures for notifying emergency service organisations
medical treatment and assistance procedures.
The guide provides practical guidance and information for emergency management plans for early learning services.
Planning and preparing for emergencies Download PDF
Use this template to prepare an emergency management plan.
Pandemic plan
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, early learning services have to manage potential or real outbreaks of communicable disease. These include influenza, measles and COVID-19.
The Ministry of Health has information about the New Zealand pandemic plan.
New Zealand pandemic plan – Ministry of Health NZ
The below pandemic guide has more information about pandemic planning.
Pandemic guide for schools and kura Download DOC
Centre-based early learning services must take specific action if anyone (adult or child) is suffering from particular infectious diseases. This is set out in the licensing criteria.
Mataara
We use emergency contact tool Mataara to connect with early learning services as quickly and simply as possible.
We will text message and email your emergency cellphone number and email address if there is an emergency in your area. You must let us know if your contact details change.
The text comes from 8707. This number will only be used by us. You cannot text us first.
You can then reply to us with the status of your early learning service. The text message and email will have instructions on how to do this.
If we don’t hear back from you, we will quickly follow up to check on you.
States of emergency
When a state of emergency is declared, special authority to make public safety decisions is given to:
local Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) groups
the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
These groups will make decisions such as closing roads or public places.
Closing early learning services
The Secretary for Education also has powers to close schools and early learning services under the Education and Training Act 2020. The Secretary will usually only use these powers at the request of NEMA or CDEM groups, or on the advice of public health officials.
Powers for the Secretary for Education
What to do if a state of emergency is declared
A state of local or national emergency does not mean you need to close your service.
If a state of emergency is declared in your area and your service is not directed to close, you can decide to stay open if you can continue to meet all regulatory requirements. This decision will be based on your understanding of your local risk context and on advice from local emergency services.
In these situations, our role is to support you rather than assess or verify threats. We encourage you to follow your emergency management plans and any advice or direction provided by emergency services.
Managing threats
If your service receives a threat by email, post or phone, call NZ Police.
Police will assess the information you give them, determine whether it is credible, and tell you what actions you need to take. This may include a lockdown, evacuation or another safety measure.
Call 111 for emergency incidents.
Call 105 for non-emergency incidents.
You can also complete an online report for non-emergency events.
Funding for emergencies
If you need to close your service in the case of an emergency, you may be eligible to receive funding.
7-5 Emergency closure section – ECE Funding Handbook