What standalone services need to know

ERO reviews are an opportunity to celebrate what your service does well, reflect on your improvement journey, and share how you support positive outcomes for children, families and whānau. Reviews help identify strengths, recognise effective practice, and support ongoing improvement so that children continue to experience safe, high-quality education and care.

English and Pacific-medium standalone services can take many forms, from early learning services to childcare centres, to preschools, kindergartens, crèches and Pacific early learning services.

While every service is unique, ERO follows a consistent review process so that services know what to expect and how to prepare.

Services can expect the below review pathway:

Before the review

How services can prepare for their review

Preparing for a review is an opportunity to reflect on what is working well, identify areas for improvement, and consider how your service supports children’s learning, development, wellbeing and safety and a great opportunity to share what you know about how well you’re doing.

The review notification information you receive from ERO will explain the review process, key dates, information your service needs to provide, and the resources available to support preparation.

As part of your preparation, services will have actions to undertake:

Complete and return the requested information | Required

• The self-assessment using the Early Learning Framework for Improvement (ELFI).

  The self-assessment helps your team reflect on current practice, strengths, and opportunities for improvement before the review.

  For more information on how to use this tool visit our tools and frameworks page. 
  

• The Centre Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklists - Te Ara Whānui

  Use this assurance statement and self-audit checklist to provide ERO with key information about how your service meets regulatory requirements and supports quality learning, wellbeing and outcomes for children.
  

Use the quality in our service tool | Optional

• Use the Quality in Our Service tool.

  The tool is available to support services to reflect on their practice, identify strengths and areas for improvement, and prepare evidence to support their ELFI self-assessment.

Gather key service information | Recommended

You may wish to gather information that helps show how your service supports children’s learning, wellbeing, safety, and continuous improvement. This could include:

• strategic and annual plans

• internal evaluation or self-review information

• current improvement priorities and evidence of progress

• curriculum planning, assessment and evaluation information

• information about leadership, governance and management

• health and safety information and relevant records

• information that shows how families and whānau contribute to the service.

Inform your team and community | Recommended

• Let teachers, kaiako, educators, parents and whānau know that ERO will be reviewing the service.

  Explain how they may be involved and how the service will share information about the review.
  

Read your notification email in full and contact ERO with any questions | Recommended

Your notification email may contain information, requirements and timelines specific to your review, so please read it in full. If anything is unclear, contact the review team using the details provided.

Reviews will take place in two phases which are explained below.

Phase One: Understanding your service

Because compliance is the foundation for quality education and care, all services begin the review process with an assessment of how well they are meeting regulatory requirements.

During the onsite review, ERO will assess compliance against important regulatory requirements across five review domains

• Curriculum, teaching and learning.

• Leadership, governance and management.

• Qualifications, ratios and service size.

• Health and safety.

• Premises and facilities.

Phase Two: Quality or compliance focus

The outcomes of Phase One determine the focus of Phase Two.

In phase two the review will either be:

• A compliance pathway, where ERO undertakes a more detailed assessment of compliance when significant non-compliances have been identified.

• A quality pathway, where ERO evaluates how effectively a service is performing above the regulatory standard in areas that contribute to positive outcomes for children.

This allows ERO to take a proportionate, risk-informed approach while recognising that quality and compliance work together to support children's learning, wellbeing and safety.

What is the ELFI?

The Early Learning Framework for Improvement (ELFI) is a shared improvement tool that supports both services and ERO to understand quality practice, including meeting regulatory standards. The tool is currently in DRAFT, and we welcome your thoughts and feedback via ECEReviewprocess@ero.govt.nz

The ELFI helps services reflect on their strengths, identify opportunities for improvement and consider where they sit on a quality continuum. It is also used by ERO as part of the review process when evaluating quality.

The framework includes seven quality areas that focus on aspects of practice known to contribute to positive outcomes for children.

For more information about the ELFI, including guidance on how to use it, the Quality in Our Service Tool and sources of information please visit the review tools and frameworks section.