Nga Taonga Manako Early Childhood Centre

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

Nga Taonga Manako Early Childhood Centre is one of seven community-based centres that are part of the Taonga Education Centre Charitable Trust. A centre manager leads a team of five staff, including one other qualified teacher. Children enrolled are from diverse ethnicities, including Māori and Pacific heritages. This is the first ERO review of the service which opened in 2019.

Summary of Review Findings

The service curriculum acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Maori as tangata whenua. The curriculum respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture and encourages children to understand and respect each other.

Adults providing education and care engage in meaningful, positive interactions to enhance children’s learning, nurture reciprocal relationships and provide a language-rich environment.

An ongoing process of self-review helps maintain and improve the quality of education and care. Parents are provided with opportunities to communicate with teachers about the care of their child. A philosophy statement guides centre operations.

Key Next Steps

Next steps include:

• improving the extent to which assessment information shows children’s progress and learning
• increasing opportunities for parents/whānau to contribute to developing learning goals for children that align with the learning outcomes in Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

Compliance

During the onsite visit the service provided ERO with evidence to show it had addressed the following non-compliance:

• ensuring children’s workers who have access to children are safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act 2014, in particular, maintaining the records of safety checks for as long as the person is employed at the service (GMA7A).

Next ERO Review

The next ERO review is likely to be an Akarangi | Quality Evaluation.

Phil Cowie
Acting Director Review and Improvement Services (Northern)
Northern Region | Te Tai Raki

14 October 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 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 a service completed an ERO Centre 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.