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The Compliance Register is built around the Licensing Criteria for Early Childhood Education and Care Centres 2008, as amended on 20 April 2026. These criteria are the Ministry of Education’s minimum standards that every licensed early childhood centre must meet. There are 80 criteria in total, organised into four standards. Each criterion has a unique code — your register is organised around these codes, and your policies, evidence, and corrective actions are all tagged to them.

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The four standards

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Curriculum (C101–C113)

13 criteria covering how your service delivers its curriculum. Sub-groups within this standard:
  • C101–C104 — Professional practice (planning, assessment, evaluation, teaching practice)
  • C105–C106 — Culture and identity (Te Tiriti o Waitangi, Māori as tangata whenua)
  • C107–C110 — Children as learners (play, exploration, behaviour, self-regulation)
  • C111–C113 — Working with others (families, whānau, transitions, community)

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Premises & Facilities (PF101–PF129)

29 criteria covering your physical environment. Sub-groups within this standard:
  • PF101–PF113 — General (layout, supervision, building compliance, storage, lighting, ventilation)
  • PF114–PF116 — Food preparation and eating spaces
  • PF117–PF119 — Toilet and handwashing facilities
  • PF120–PF123 — Other sanitary facilities (nappy change, body-wash)
  • PF124–PF129 — Sleep spaces (design, cots, mattresses, under-2 ratios)

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Health & Safety (HS101–HS128)

28 criteria covering safe and healthy practice. Sub-groups within this standard:
  • HS101–HS103 — Hygiene (laundering, nappy change procedure)
  • HS104–HS106 — Emergencies (emergency plans, supplies, drills)
  • HS107 — Sleep monitoring
  • HS108–HS114 — Hazards and excursions
  • HS115–HS117 — Food and drink
  • HS118–HS124 — Child health and wellbeing (illness, medications, sun safety)
  • HS125–HS127 — Child protection
  • HS128 — Notification (serious incidents, child protection notifications)

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Governance, Management & Administration (GMA101–GMA110)

10 criteria covering how your service is managed and documented. Sub-groups within this standard:
  • GMA101–GMA103 — Parent involvement and information
  • GMA104–GMA106 — Professional practices (complaints, staff qualifications, police vetting)
  • GMA107–GMA110 — Planning and documentation (philosophy, policies, self-review, pay parity)

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Criterion codes

Each criterion has a unique code — for example, HS128 or GMA106. These codes appear throughout the platform: on policy tags, evidence links, and corrective actions. They’re also used in ERO evidence packs so reviewers can match your evidence to specific criteria.
The April 2026 criteria updated the numbering from the previous system. Old codes (C1, C2, PF1, HS1 etc.) are no longer used anywhere in the platform. All codes are in the April 2026 format.

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Working through your register

When you first open the Compliance Register, all 80 criteria are set to Under Review. This is your starting point — work through each standard section by section, opening each criterion to review its requirements, record your status, and link or upload evidence. You don’t need to complete the whole register at once. The progress bars on each standard section show how far through you are, and the summary pills at the top give you an at-a-glance count of where things stand.