Tools and frameworks we use during review

ERO uses shared tools and frameworks to help services prepare for reviews, reflect on their practice, and understand how quality and compliance are considered during review activity. This page provides an overview of all tools, frameworks, and overview information you may need to support your review.

Methodology overview

Two Phase Review Methodology Overview
This overview has been written specifically for services and their team to understand the approach we use during the review, and how it connects indicators, domains, and tools.

Indicators, domains and sub domains

• Phase 1 Lead indicators

• Domains, sub domains, lead and supporting indicators

Indicators, domains and sub- domains help ERO, and services build a shared understanding of quality. They help us focus review discussions on the areas that have the greatest impact on children's learning, wellbeing and development, and provide a clear way to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement.

Early Learning Framework for Improvement | The ELFI

• ELFI with check boxes

• Guidance for ELFI for ECE Services

• Possible source of Evidence

The Early Learning Framework for Improvement (ELFI) has been developed with Te Ara Poutama: Indicators of Quality for Early Childhood Education – What Matters Most (2020), Te Whāriki (2017), and the Licensing Criteria at its core. It reflects the evidence and research base for early childhood education in Aotearoa New Zealand and supports services and ERO to evaluate quality, identify strengths, and consider next steps for continuous improvement.

The framework is the key tool that both ERO and services can use to gain a shared understanding of what is happening within a service. The ELFI is shared here along with guidance to support its use, and information to support evidence gathering.

The Quality in Our Service Tool

Quality in Our Service Tool
The optional Quality in Our Service tool supports the use of the ELFI - helping to synthesise judgements for each supporting indicator to make a sub domain judgement

Te Ara Poutama indicators of quality

Te Ara Poutama Indicators of quality for early childhood education: what matters most
Te Ara Poutama describes the conditions that contribute to quality early childhood education and the learning outcomes that matter for children. ERO has drawn upon Te Ara Poutama when creating the ELFI, and reading Te Ara Poutama in full can help further your understanding of ERO’s approach to quality review in early childhood education.

Other information and tools used during a review

ERO may also use information provided through the notification and exchange of information process, service records and documentation, onsite observations, discussions with service leaders and staff, and feedback from parents and whānau.

These different sources help the Review Officer test and bring together the evidence, understand the service’s context, and reach balanced findings about compliance, quality, and improvement.