Circular 2008/08 - Early Childhood Education Funding

Date: 1 July 2008
To end date: 1 December 2008
Circular number: 2008/08
Category: Funding

Early Childhood Education Funding - July 2008 ECE Funding Payment

This Circular is about: The July 2008 ECE funding payment.

This Circular replaces: 2008/02

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 contact:
On funding matters (either ECE Funding or Equity Funding), please call the Resourcing Division Contact Centre, Ministry of Education, PO Box 1666, Wellington. Phone: 0-4-463 8383, Fax: 0-4-463 8374, Email: resourcing@minedu.govt.nz [NO SPAM]

On licensing or general operational matters contact your local Ministry of Education manager, contact details below.

Introduction

This circular provides background information to support the 2 July 2008 Early Childhood Education Funding Payment.

Early Childhood Funding Subsidy: July 2008 payment

Date of payment

Correctly completed RS7 forms returned by Wednesday, 4 June 2008 will be assured of payment overnight on Tuesday, 1 July 2008. 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 2008

Services advance payments for June 2008 were paid in March 2008. The wash-up payment for June 2008 will be paid in November 2008.

Late claims

Correctly completed claim forms received after 4 June 2008 but before 4 July 2008 will be paid overnight on Monday, 21 July 2008.

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.

These deadlines are in place to allow the Resourcing Division:

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

RS7 errors

Following the processing of the July 2008 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.

Some of these specific errors were repeats of errors made in previous funding periods. Please refer to past claim form errors and check all calculations carefully to ensure the same errors are not repeated before submitting the RS7.

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

Copies of practising 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.

Copies of practising certificates are used by the ministry to: 

• verify the registration status of teachers employed by the service 
• 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.

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Early childhood education funding rates

Fund rate increases

Funding rates for all services have increased as a result of Budget 2008.

Government also increased funding rates for some services from 1 February 2008, to recognise increased salary costs as a result of the kindergarten Collective Agreement.

All rates are shown in the following table. Rates effective from 1 February 2008 to 30 June 2008 were used to calculate the 1 July 2008 wash-up payment. Rates effective from 1 July 2008 were used to calculate the payment for 1 July 2008 advance period.

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Equity funding

General information

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

Equity funding calculations

The July 2008 Equity Funding payment is services’ actual entitlement for the February 2008 to May 2008 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:

Review of the updated Equity Index (EQI)

The Ministry of Education has reassessed the Equity Index (EQI) for all chartered, community-based early childhood education services using newly collected children’s addresses and 2006 Census data. The first Equity Funding payment using the updated EQIs was made on 1 March 2008.

All services that applied for a review of their updated EQI would have received a letter confirming the outcome of their review. Successful applicants have had their new equity index used in the calculation of their equity funding in the July 2008 ECE funding payment.

Annual review of Equity Index (EQI)

Chartered, community-based services may apply to have their EQI reviewed in October each year. Application forms will be available from 1 September 2008 and can be obtained by contacting the Resourcing Division Contact Centre or by downloading a copy from the Ministry of Education’s website www.minedu.govt.nz (keyword: equity funding). Applications close on 7 November 2008.

New services and the Equity Index (EQI)

If you are a community-based service that opened between 1 June 2007 and 30 September 2007 you would have received a letter confirming your Equity Index. If your service has an EQI of 1, 2, 3 or 4 then this funding has been paid in the July 2008 ECE funding payment. Funding is back-dated to when your service opened. Services that opened after 1 October 2007 will be sent a ‘new services’ pack in September 2008.

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Equity funding - rate changes effective from 1 July 2008

General information

Following the Budget 2008 announcements, all Equity Funding rates have been adjusted for inflation.

Equity rates

The new Equity Funding rates per funded child hour are:

The new Equity Funding monthly grants are:

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Computer software programmes that produce electronic RS7 bulk funding forms

Information for services

The last two funding rounds have seen a high number of services submit incorrect computer-generated RS7 information.

In response the ministry has:

• contacted providers of the computer software programmes used to generate these RS7 reports. Each provider contacted has assured the ministry that the systems issues have been rectified.
• notified services that submitted a computer-generated RS7 report with incorrect data to advise them of this issue, requesting the service ensure correct data is provided in future.

Process

Due to the high number of services providing incorrect RS7 data in the last two rounds:

All RS7 forms received with system-generated errors will be returned to the service for correction.

Refer to the list of system generated errors below.

Note: As in the past, the ministry is unable to guarantee funding will be paid on 1 July 2008 where a service has submitted an RS7 with incorrect data. Only services that have provided a correct or corrected RS7 by 4 June 2008 will be assured of payment on the due date.

Where RS7s have been returned to services for correction and the corrected RS7 is received by the ministry between Wednesday, 4 June 2008 and Monday, 7 July 2008, payment will be made overnight on Monday, 21 July 2008.

Types of system generated errors

The types of system-generated errors that were most prevalent in the RS7s over the last two payments were:

• wrong months advised for Advance Days section
• wrong months advised for Support Grant section
• wrong months advised for Entitlement Period
• Staff Hour Count (SHC) = zero, on days where Funded Child Hours have been claimed but the service did not operate

Please ensure these sections, in particular, are checked to ensure the information is correct.

Note: It is the responsibility of each service to ensure that their RS7 returns are completed correctly and returned within the timeframes notified.

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Update - Services that choose to start offering Free ECE from 1 July 2008 onwards

Information for services opting into Free ECE

During the implementation of Free ECE, services were entitled to receive their first funding advance for Free ECE on the first working day of the month following notification to the ministry.

This implementation phase, and advance funding process, will cease on 30 June 2008.

The last monthly advance payment for Free ECE of this type will be made on 1 June 2008. After this date the normal RS7 bulk funding payment process will apply.

This means that Services that begin to offer Free ECE after 1 July 2008 will receive a funding advance for Free ECE on normal payment dates (1 July, 1 November and 1 March). Services that begin offering Free ECE may only claim and receive any funding advance for Free ECE through the RS7 funding round following their introduction of Free ECE.

The EC20 Transitional Advance form will still need to be completed in the normal way.

New services offering Free ECE will continue to complete the RS3 Form, now adapted to include Free ECE.

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Futher advice

ECE regulatory requirements

For further information or guidance on the early childhood education regulatory requirements, please contact your 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  
Postal Address: PO Box 1666, Wellington, New Zealand.

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  
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.

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Issued by

Paul Burke
Acting 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

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Ministry of Education local office contact details

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
Melissa O'Carroll, 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, 19 Haven Road, Nelson
Postal Address: P O Box 282, Nelson
Phone: (03) 5463470 Fax: (03) 539 1501

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) 4715200 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