Licence actions against early childhood centres fell from 320 to 80 in two years, and ERO is now the regulator
Action against early childhood centres' licences fell from 320 cases in 2023 to 80 in 2025, according to the advocacy group OECE. The Education Review Office took over regulating the sector on 1 September.
OECE's annual list counts services put on provisional or suspended licences, or whose licences were cancelled. Its yearly totals are:
- 223 in 2021
- 241 in 2022
- 320 in 2023
- 185 in 2024
- 80 in 2025
OECE says the fall reflects changes in policy and enforcement, not better quality or safety. It says regulators started tolerating more non-compliance in 2024, influenced by Associate Education Minister David Seymour.
The dates fit OECE's argument. The rules designed to rely less on licence downgrades took effect only on 29 June 2026, but most of the fall had already happened by the end of 2025. But a count of enforcement actions can't show whether centres got better or inspections got lighter, and none of the sources gives a quality measure to compare.
How ERO got the job
According to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry for Regulation began reviewing early childhood education in June 2024, working with the Education Ministry and ERO. The review's final report came out in December 2024, and the Government accepted all 15 recommendations. Funding was not part of the review.
The review found the existing enforcement tools were "limited, blunt and not proportionate".
Changes to the Education and Training Act took effect on 23 February 2026. They created a Director of Regulation in the Education Ministry, responsible for issuing licences and enforcing compliance, including investigations and prosecutions. The Government had already announced in 2025 that it planned to move these functions, including the Director's role, to ERO.
The Ministry's review page gives 1 September 2026 as the date ERO would take over, "subject to the legislation". A separate Ministry news release says Parliament confirmed that date at the Education System Reform Bill's second reading. ERO also took over regulating school hostels and private schools from that date. Neither Ministry page nor OECE's list includes any figures for ERO's first month as regulator.
What changed on 29 June
The amended regulations raised the bar for reclassifying or suspending a licence, the Ministry says. They also added new compliance tools and allowed the regulator to publish notices of non-compliance. Where appropriate, parents can now be told about investigations into high-risk complaints or incidents, rather than seeing a centre's licence downgraded.
The Ministry says relying less on changes to a provider's licence status will mean fewer disruptions for services, children, parents and whānau.
OECE describes the steps in more detail. It says services first get warnings, improvement plans or support. A licence can be downgraded only if a service fails to respond to those steps, or builds up several enforcement actions within 12 months.
OECE's case against the monitoring
OECE says centres are still told in advance when ERO plans a compliance check, and that New Zealand early childhood education has no regular unannounced spot checks. Providers are also asked to assess their own compliance. It also says ERO checks only a few licences within large organisations, so many centres are never directly observed, and that unlike Australia, New Zealand doesn't fine providers directly.
The group also says enforcement falls mainly on smaller, community-based centres. Very few mid-sized or large corporate chains appear on its list.