Services connected to the ELI system

• Information for services connected to the ELI system [PDF 496kB]

Contact your student management system (SMS) provider for detailed instructions on how to complete the ECE census in your SMS.

Casual and hospital-based services

• Information for casual and hospital-based services [PDF 788kB]

If your service needs a link to complete the ECE census, please email ece.statistics@education.govt.nz

Playgroups

• Information for playgroups [PDF 573kB]

If your playgroup needs a link to complete the ECE census, please email ece.statistics@education.govt.nz

Helpful information and definitions for the ECE census

The ECE census is an electronic collection of information from early learning services. It focuses on service activity during a particular week as advised by us. The ECE census collection provides information on staff at the service, contact hours of staff in teaching roles during the ECE census week, teaching languages and wait times.

This information contributes to a comprehensive information base on ECE in New Zealand and we use it to monitor and forecast ECE expenditure and design new policies.

Which services should submit an ECE census

All licensed early learning service must submit ECE census information to us. Kōhanga Reo submissions are managed by Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust. Submitting the ECE census is a mandatory requirement of the ECE Funding Handbook, and funding may be withheld in part or in full, if a service does not submit a complete and accurate ECE census by the due date.

How to submit your ECE census

Each licensed early learning service connected to the ELI system needs to complete and submit an electronic ECE census through their SMS or ELI Web. Playgroups, casual education and care and hospital-based services are emailed a link to complete their census return via an online survey (RS61).

The ECE census has fewer questions than the online RS61 survey, as information about children's enrolment and attendance is already being collected through the ELI system. The ECE census collects staff information that is not collected elsewhere. Submitting electronically is a more efficient way of sending the required information to us.

How often is the ECE census submitted

You are required to submit ECE census annually. We will advise early learning services of the dates for ECE census in advance.

Where to find the date for the ECE census week

The Annual ECE census return page will be updated with the dates for the ECE census week. We will also confirm the date of the ECE census week in He Pānui Kōhungahunga / Early Learning Bulletin. This date is published in advance.

How to know when we have received your ECE census

Once you have submitted your ECE census through ELI Web or your SMS, a message is displayed on your screen acknowledging that your ECE census has been submitted to us.  You can also download an ECE Return Report to see the data you sent to us.  This report will be available the next day in ELI Reports.  Alternatively, you can check with your SMS provider.

Why we might contact you about the ECE census

We may contact early learning services that have submitted an ECE census in order to check the data it is complete and accurate.  This is an important part of the ECE census process to ensure that the information we use for reporting purposes is reflective of sector activity during the ECE census week.

Correcting a mistake with your ECE census submission

We recommend you print your ECE census for your records before editing or creating a new version.

If you made a mistake in your ECE census submission and:

• you are using ELI Web, you can edit your most recently submitted ECE census and resubmit it.  This version will then become the current ECE census displayed in ELI Reports for your service.
• you are using an SMS, you can edit your most recently submitted ECE census and resubmit it to the ELI system.
• you are a casual education and care or a hospital-based services and submitted the online survey (RS61 Return), email your changes to ece.statistics@education.govt.nz.

Completing the ECE census is mandatory

The information in your ECE census provides us with a snapshot of service activity for a single week of operation.  Submitting the ECE census is a mandatory requirement of the ECE Funding Handbook. Funding may be withheld in part or in full, if you do not submit a completed and accurate ECE census by the due date.

Definition of 'contact hours'

Contact hours are the actual child-contact start and finish times for all teachers who were teaching during the ECE census week.  This does not include non-contact time and breaks of 15 minutes or more.

'Contact hours' for home-based coordinators

The 'contact hours' for home-based coordinators are equivalent to being 'on duty', which means that coordinators are:

• focused on and involved in supervising quality environments for educators and children in their service; and
• able to instantly respond to educators and parents in their service in person or over the phone.

Note 'on duty' does not include times when the coordinator cannot respond instantly to educators and parents in person or over the phone. The contact (on duty) start and finish times should be recorded for the specified days of the ECE census week.

Staff information

The ECE census does not collect staff names, nor does it identify individual staff members.

We recommend keeping staff records up to date throughout the year to save time when the ECE census is due. If your staff records are up to date, you will be able to select from the list of any teaching staff that worked at your service and add contact hours.

You should record allstaff working at your service in teaching roles, including relievers, and non-teaching roles.

In particular, ensure you update staff qualification, certification status and demographics.

Staff information for people who have left the service is showing in my current ECE census

The ECE census collects information on all teaching staff who have worked at your service since the last ECE census week.

This information gives us more insight on changes in the early learning teaching workforce for monitoring and reporting purposes. By including the start and end dates for staff in teaching roles at your service, we will gain a better ability to determine the numbers of teaching staff in the early learning sector at any point in time.

Ensure you record the contact hours of all teaching staff who worked during the ECE census week.

Relievers in a teaching role and with contact hours during the ECE census week should be included

All staff in a teaching role who had child contact hours during the ECE census week, including relievers, must be accounted for in the ECE census.

Ensure your staff qualification, certification and demographics are recorded/entered for your relieving staff.

What it means to be a teacher certificated by the Teaching Council

A teacher certificated by the Teaching Council holds a practising certificate marked:

• Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Tōmua | Provisional Practising Certificate.
• Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Tūturu | Full Practising Certificate (Category One).
• Tiwhikete Whakaakoranga Pūmau | Full Practising Certificate (Category Two).
• Returning to Teaching in Aotearoa New Zealand (RTTANZ).

When you are completing your ECE census, you should record any teacher who is certificated (whether marked category one, category two, or provisional) as a teacher certificated by the Teaching Council. You should only select “not certificated” if the teaching staff member does not fall within one of these three categories.

When a staff member is considered qualified

A staff member is considered qualified for the purpose of the ECE census, if they hold an ECE teaching qualification or a primary school qualification recognised by the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Ensure you record these correctly in your SMS.

When a staff member is considered permanent

A permanently employed staff member is an employee in an established position in a non-relieving capacity.

When a staff member is considered full-time

A person working in a particular role for a minimum of 25 hours per week is considered full-time.

Non-teaching staff roles

A person working at an early learning service can hold up to three non-teaching roles. Staff members with non-teaching roles can also hold one teaching role.

Senior management staff

Senior management staff includes service managers, directors, senior-staff professional leaders, parent liaison, curriculum planning staff, etc.  These staff members are not usually involved in the teaching of children but may be available to work in a teaching capacity if necessary.  A person in this role working 25 hours per week or more is considered full-time.

Support staff

Support staff are primarily engaged in maintenance, cleaning, food preparation or administrative support.  A person in this role working 25 hours per week or more is considered full-time.

Specialist staff

Specialist staff are primarily engaged in the care and education of children, e.g. psychologists, physiotherapists, etc. A person in this role working 25 hours per week child contact time is considered full-time.

Majority age worked with

To calculate and report on Adult:Child ratios, all early learning teachers with contact hours during the census week should provide the age range of children they spent the majority of their time working with.

Arrived from another service

When a permanent teacher or home-based coordinator has started working at a service since the last census week, we ask the service if the new staff member has arrived directly from another early learning service.

Previously worked in ECE sector

When a permanent teacher or home-based coordinator has started working at a service since the last census week, we ask the service if the new staff member has previously worked in the early learning sector.

Leaving destination

When a teacher or home-based coordinator has left a service since the last census week, we ask the service for the leaving destination of the staff member, for example, if they have moved to a different early learning service.