About reviews in English-medium and Pacific-medium standalone centre-based services
Early childhood services play an important role in supporting children’s learning, development, wellbeing, and safety. ERO reviews standalone English-medium and Pacific-medium centre-based services to understand how effectively they provide safe, high-quality education and care, meet regulatory requirements, and support positive outcomes for children.
From 1 September 2026 standalone services will be reviewed in a new way, which brings quality and compliance together in one integrated review process, helping ERO build a more complete picture of what is working well, where improvement may be needed, and how services are supporting children and their whānau.
This review approach replaces Ngā Ara Whai Hua: Quality Framework for Evaluation and Improvement. Reviews now take place across two phases and are guided by ERO’s Early Learning Framework for Improvement (ELFI), which draws on Te Ara Poutama, Te Whāriki and the Licensing Criteria to support evaluation, improvement and quality judgements. Read more about the ELFI here.
Whether you own, lead or work in a service, or are a parent or whānau member, use this section to find out what to expect before, during and after an ERO review.