How we do Education Reviews of Hospital-based education and care services

This page explains how we review your hospital-based education and care service. Find out what you need to do and what you can expect from us.

We plan to update our review approach for hospital-based services from 2021 and into 2022.

 

The framework and indicators we use

He Pou Tātaki explains the framework and how we do Education Reviews. He Pou Tātaki also explains the indicators we use when we are deciding our judgements.

Read the framework He Pou Tātaki: How ERO reviews hospital-based education and care services.

 

How we work with you during a Hospital-based Education Review

1.  We email you to tell you we’re doing a review

We email you around 4-6 weeks before we visit your service for the review. Our email includes all the information you need to prepare for the review.

 

2.  You prepare for the review

You’ll need to complete two things at least 2 weeks before our review visit.

  1. Send a letter to parents, whānau and kaiako telling them about the review.
  2. Send us the documents we need so we can prepare for the review. These documents help us understand the context and practices of your service.

Below are the documents you’ll need to complete these two steps.

We encourage you to let us know about any consultation your hospital-based service has done. We’re interested in any consultation that shows:

  • how the service works with parents and whānau
  • how hospital play specialists contribute to the service’s development and review.

 

3.  We will contact you before we visit

We will contact you, usually by phone or online, to explain what will happen in our review of your service and talk about arrangements for our visit.  You can ask any questions you have.

 

4.  We work with you to prepare the review

We work with you to decide what we focus on during the review. We use the information you provide to learn about the context of your service.

We focus on identifying strengths and possible improvements. Our reviews aim to help you create conditions that promote children’s learning and support their wellbeing.

In some services, we may focus on compliance, because of risks to children’s safety and wellbeing. We’re likely to do this where your systems for checking compliance could be better.

We use what you know from your internal evaluation to help design the review.

We share the design with you and decide who we need to talk with during the review.

 

5.  We talk with people, read and discuss documents and make observations at your service

During our review visit, we talk with your key people. These people may include:

  • hospital play specialists
  • the contact person or service provider
  • hospital leaders or managers
  • parents and whānau.

We ask questions and make observations after consultation with you. We read and discuss documents and records. We involve you in these activities where we can. We use the indicators and the information we gather to decide our findings and judgements.

 

6.  We check compliance

We start from the Assurance Statement and Self-Audit Checklist that you completed before our visit. We discuss this with you and check the following items because they have a potentially high impact on children’s learning, wellbeing and health and safety:

  • emotional safety including positive guidance, child protection including safety checking
  • physical safety including supervision, sleeping practices, accidents, medication, hygiene and excursion policies and procedures
  • suitable staffing including qualification levels, safety checking including police vetting, teacher registration and ratios
  • evacuation procedures and practices for fire and earthquake.

 

7.  We discuss our findings with you

We either:

  • share our findings throughout our review visit; or
  • meet with your key staff to discuss the findings at the end of our review visit.

Key staff include the service provider, the hospital play specialists and any others responsible for taking action as a result of our review.

 

8.  You give feedback on the draft report

We send you the draft report within 20 working days after our review visit ends. If we identify your service as ‘not well placed’, we send the draft within 10 days.

You have 15 working days from the date we email the draft report to do the following. If we identify your service as ‘not well placed’, you have 10 days to respond.

You can:

  • note anything that’s wrong or missing
  • comment on the findings
  • provide extra documents or evidence.

We’ll consider your response. If the evidence justifies a change, we’ll update the report

 

9.  We publish the report

We confirm the report and email a copy to you within 2 weeks.

We publish the report on our website 2 weeks after we email you the confirmed report.

The audience for ERO reports includes the public, parents and whānau, the Government and people in the early childhood education sector.

 

You can give us feedback about your review

We’re interested in your experience of the review. Please take the time to complete our questionnaire.

You can complete the questionnaire online or download it as a Word document to discuss and complete as a group. 

Send completed Word versions of the questionnaire to either:

  • info@ero.govt.nz 
  • Feedback Questionnaire, Evaluation Services, Education Review Office, Box 2799, WELLINGTON 6140.

Email info@ero.govt.nz if you have any questions about the questionnaire.

Published: 12 Apr 2021
Audience:
Early learning
Education
Topics:
Early learning
Hospital-based education