Mini Me In-Home Childcare Service

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

Mini Me In-Home Childcare Service is a privately owned homebased service licensed for children from birth to six years of age. The service owner oversees day-to day operations of the service. Three coordinators visit homes fortnightly to provide curriculum guidance and support to educators.

This is the first ERO review of the service that opened in March 2019.

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 curriculum also acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua.

Educators nurture reciprocal relationships and engage in meaningful, positive interactions that enhance children’s learning and development. Parents have regular opportunities to be involved in decision making and communicate with educators and coordinators about their child’s learning and development. An ongoing process of self review helps the service maintain and improve the quality of education and care.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

• continuing to build educators’ understanding of Te Whāriki (2017) through more targeted professional learning and development
• increasing the opportunities children have, to hear and speak te reo Māori in meaningful learning contexts.

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

4 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.