Circular 2007/08

Date: 1 July 2007
Circular Number: 2007/08
Category: Funding

Early Childhood Education Funding

This circular is about: The July 2007 ECE Funding payment.

This circular replaces: Circular 2007/03.

The action required is:

• Read this circular in conjunction with the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook (2007 update); and
• File this circular and funding advice notice for future reference.

It is intended for: All Early Childhood Education (ECE) services (in particular, the management of these services).

For further Information:
On funding matters (either ECE Funding or Equity Funding), please contact:
Resourcing Division Contact Centre, Ministry of Education, PO Box 1666, Wellington.
Phone: 0800 323-323 Fax: 04 463 8374
Email: resourcing@minedu.govt.nz [NO SPAM]

On licensing or general operational matters contact your local Ministry of Education Manager.

Introduction

This circular provides background information to support the 2 July 2007 Early Childhood Education Funding Payment. 

July 2007 Payment 

Date of Payment

Correctly completed RS7 forms returned by Wednesday, 6 June 2007 will be assured of payment overnight on Monday, 2 July 2007. Advice Notices outline how payments were calculated.

Funding Months

The recently submitted RS7 Early Childhood Funding Claims form data was used to calculate entitlements for the following months:>

June 2007

Services advance payments for June 2007 were paid in March 2007. The wash-up payment for June 2007 will be paid in November 2007.

Late Claims

Correctly completed claim forms received after 6 June 2007 but before 6 July 2007 will be paid overnight on Friday, 20 July 2007.

Return Dates of RS7 Forms

The Resourcing Division thanks all services who returned their RS7 forms to the Ministry by the due date. We understand that meeting this deadline can be difficult and places pressure on services.

• sufficient time to process RS7 forms, including checking and correcting errors on forms, and contacting services for the correct information (where applicable); and
• to guarantee funding to services who have their forms in on time.

RS7 Errors

Following the processing of the July 2007 RS7 Early Childhood Funding Claim Forms, letters were sent to centres that had made data errors. A copy of the original RS7 showing the errors made was also provided with the letter.

Note: any errors made on the RS7 Funding Claim Forms may result in differences between expected and actual payments and funding delays.

back to top

Copies of Practicing Certificates and ECE Qualifications

Teacher-led ECE services are required to retain copies of practising certificates and ECE qualifications of all staff, and to provide this information on the day a Resourcing Auditor visits to audit their funding claim.

• verify the registration status of teachers employed by the service; and
• verify the correct number of support grants for provisionally registered teachers has been claimed.

Certified copies of qualifications are used to verify that staff are ECE qualified.

back to top

Early Childhood Education Funding Rates

Early Childhood funding rates

The funding rates for all services are as follows:>

Wash-Up rates

The advance payment for the period July 2007 - October 2007 will be at the new rates as shown on the previous page. The wash-up for the period March 2007 - June 2007 will be paid at the old rates.

Support Grant Rates

The Support Grant for Provisionally Registered Teachers will increase from $313.50 to $327.83 per teacher per month (including GST) from 1st July 2007.

back to top

Equity Funding

General Information

For background information on Equity Funding (including guidelines for reporting and expenditure) please refer to the Early Childhood Education Funding Handbook (2007 update).

Equity Funding Calculations

The July 2007 Equity Funding payment is services actual entitlement for the February 2007 to May 2007 period. The total amount of Equity Funding paid to a service can be found at the bottom of the Advice Notice.

Equity Rates

The current Equity Funding rates per funded child hour are:

The current Equity Funding monthly grants are:

New Services and the Equity Index (EQI)

Community-based services that opened between 1 April 2006 and 30 September 2006 will have received a letter confirming their Equity Index. Services with an EQI of 1-4 will receive this funding in the July 2007 funding payment. Funding will be back-dated to when the service opened. Services that have opened since 1 October 2006 will be included in the Equity Index Reassessment address collection in August 2007.

Equity Index Reassessment

As 2006 Census Data becomes available, the Ministry of Education will be reassessing the Equity Funding Index for all chartered, community-based early childhood education services.

Collection packs will be sent to all eligible services in mid July 2007.  The collection week will be 6 - 12 August 2007 inclusive.  Services will be asked to provide a list of addresses for all children enrolled in the collection week. The due date for the addresses is 24 August 2007. More detailed information will be available in the packs. The new Equity Index will take effect in early 2008.

The annual review process which normally takes place in October will not happen this year due to the reassessment of Equity Funding for all eligible services.

back to top

Funding Changes Effective from 1 July 2007

Kindergarten: All Day or Mixed Operating Structure

Non-transitional Kindergartens that are licensed as All-Day for some or all of their days of operation will be required to complete the Staff Hour Count for the November 2007 funding round. This means that these services will continue to be funded in advance on the current 100 percent All Day and/or Sessional funding band in the 2 July funding payment, but will receive their wash-up funding (and all future funding) at the rate determined from their percentage of registered teachers on the Staff Hour Count.

Staff Hour Count Discretionary Hours and Teacher Breaks

After analysing the feedback received from a range of services and organisations, the rules about how teacher-led services may apply the "discretionary hours" in the Staff Hour Count have been made more flexible.

The Staff Hour Count already allows services to count unregistered adults as registered teachers when a registered teacher is absent, if certain conditions are met.  Under current policy services may count unregistered adults as registered teachers for up to five `discretionary situations' per funding cycle.

From 1 July 2007 services may:

• use up to 40 `discretionary hours' per funding cycle, instead of five situations of any duration
• choose when discretionary hours are used, instead of being required to use them the first five times
• disregard teacher breaks of up to 15 minutes (increased from 10 minutes).  This should reduce the number of breaks that need to be recorded in the Staff Record.

back to top

Further Advice

ECE Regulatory Requirements

For further information or guidance on the early childhood education regulatory requirements, please contact the local Ministry of Education office.

ECE Funding

For further information on the changes to the early childhood education funding system, please call the Ministry of Education's:
Resourcing Contact Centre:
Phone: (04) 463 8383
Fax: (04) 463 8374
Email: resourcing@minedu.govt.nz[NO SPAM]

Children with Special Education Needs

The Early Intervention Service within the Ministry of Education's Special Education group works with young children with special education needs, their families, and early childhood services. This service is available to children from birth until they are settled into school.

Teacher Registration

For further information or guidance about Teacher Registration, contact the:
New Zealand Teachers' Council:
Phone: (04) 471 0852
Fax: (04) 471 0870
Email: inquiries@teacherscouncil.govt.nz [NO SPAM]
Physical Address: 93 The Terrace, Wellington, New Zealand
Postal Address: PO Box 5326, Wellington, New Zealand.

Inland Revenue Business and Tax Advice Services

For advice on business matters, tax and/or record-keeping, contact the Inland Revenue Business and Tax Advice Services on 0800 377 774.

back to top

Issued by:

Kim Shannon
Senior Manager
Resourcing Division
Te Wāhanga Whakarato Rawa
National Office
45 - 47 Pipitea Street, Thorndon
P O Box 1666, Wellington, New Zealand
Phone: 0-4-463 8000
Fax: 0-4-463 8001

back to top

Ministry of Education Local Office Contact Numbers

Whangarei
Bronwyn Ward, Manager, Whangarei Office, The Money Factory, Awaroa River Road
Postal Address: Private Bag 9015, Whangarei 0101
Phone: (09) 436 8900 Fax: (09) 436 8901.

Auckland
Jilly Tyler, Manager, Auckland Office, Eden 5 Bldg, 12-18 Normanby Road, Mt Eden
Postal Address: Private Bag 92644, Symonds Street, Auckland
Phone:(09) 632 9400 Fax:(09) 632 9401

Hamilton
Christine Dew, Manager, Hamilton Office, 136-150 Victoria Street
Postal Address: Private Bag 3011, Hamilton
Phone: (07) 858 7143 Fax: (07) 858 7131.

Rotorua
Joanne Allen, Manager, Rotorua Office, Level 4, 1144 Pukaki Street
Postal Address: P O Box 1749, Rotorua
Phone: (07) 349 7399 Fax: (07) 349 7398.

Napier
Graeme Kitto, Acting Manager, Napier Office, Bower Building, 19 Bower Street
Postal Address: P O Box 147, Napier
Phone: (06) 833 6730 Fax: (06) 833 6731.

Wanganui
Anne Devonshire, Manager, Wanganui Office, 116 Victoria Avenue
Postal Address: Private Bag 3012, Wanganui
Phone: (06) 349 6300 Fax: (06) 349 6301.

Lower Hutt
Merren Dobson, Manager , Lower Hutt Office
Levels 2 & 3,
19 Market Grove, Lower Hutt
Phone: (04) 463 8699 Fax: (04) 463 8698.

Nelson
John MacDuff, Manager, Nelson Office, Level 2, AON House, 241 Hardy St
Postal Address: P O Box 282, Nelson
Phone: (03) 546 3470 Fax: (03) 546 3471.

Christchurch
Coralanne Child, Manager, Christchurch Office, 39 Princess Street
Postal Address: P O Box 2522, Christchurch
Phone: (03) 378 7300 Fax: (03) 378 7308.

Dunedin
Kathryn Palmer, Manager, Dunedin Office, 414 Moray Place,
Postal Address: P O Box 1225, Dunedin
Phone: (03) 471 5200 Fax: (03) 471 5201.

Invercargill
Kathryn Palmer, Manager, Invercargill Office, 78 Doon St
Postal Address: Private Bag 90 122, Invercargill
Phone: (03) 211 3610 Fax: (03) 211 3611.