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• The Government plans to simplify early childhood education regulations and strengthen enforcement against non-compliant providers.
• The review found “excessive and confusing” regulations and recommended scrapping about a fifth of the rules.
• David Seymour said “graduated enforcement tools” would be introduced from mid-2026 to address breaches proportionately.

The Government wants to strip back early childhood education licensing criteria but beef up enforcement powers to target providers that don’t comply.

It follows the release of the Government’s review of the early childhood education (ECE) sector that found “excessive and confusing” regulations, outdated settings limiting service supply and “weak pressure on low-quality” providers to improve.

The review, led by the Ministry of Regulation, highlighted what Regulations Minister David Seymour described as 98 “calcified, high-stakes licensing criteria” that could lead to an ECE centre being shut down if breached.

While consultation on any changes would begin “shortly”, the review recommended scrapping about a fifth of the 98 rules. They would either be completely removed or transformed into “good practice guidelines”.

They included criteria that ensured a service’s curriculum “acknowledges and reflects the unique place of Māori as tangata whenua” and “respects and supports the right of each child to be confident in their own culture”.

The proposed changes would also remove criteria that outlined how centres needed to provide hygienic facilities designed to help prepare or clean up paint materials, a “tempering valve” for hot water taps and an adult-suitable toilet.

Act leader David Seymour has long campaigned for reducing regulation. Photo / Mark Mitchell

It’s understood centres would still need to provide an adult-suitable toilet but the requirement to do so would sit under the Building Act.

Seymour, in a statement, advocated for changes that would remove the requirement for centres to maintain a constant indoor temperature of 18C “when common sense says a minor deviation from 18 degrees won’t hurt anyone”.

He also supported centres no longer holding immunisation records for children over 15 months of age, given the Ministry of Health already did so.

Ministry of Regulation officials agreed, encouraging the Government to “revoke it at the earliest opportunity”.

“The regulation’s primary purpose was for outbreak management; however, an alternative non-regulatory mechanism now exists for that purpose that does not rely on ECE service providers holding immunisation records,” the review said.

Seymour, also the Act Party leader and a long-time campaigner for deregulation, said “graduated enforcement tools” would be used from mid-2026 to respond to breaches of the remaining criteria.

“The only enforcement tools previously available were the granting or removal of ECE licences, which is too blunt a tool for managing minor breaches and enabling early intervention.

“Graduated enforcement will give the regulator a range of enforcement measures. They will be able to respond proportionately to breaches, changing the sector’s culture from a punitive approach to promoting quality.”

He promised the proposed changes would “reduce unnecessary compliance costs, remove duplication and streamline operational requirements”.

To make the changes, the Government would introduce the Education and Training (Early Childhood Education Reform) Amendment Bill. Seymour expected the bill, likely to land in the House in July, would be passed by the end of the year. 

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for ob�����ӿ� since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.