Ministry of Education hautū (leader) Te Tai Whenua (Central) Jocelyn Mikaere said the ministry received a report on November 20 about a child leaving Learning Adventures Te Puke unattended.
“According to the report, ‘the child climbed a fence that was higher than the minimum standard’,” Mikaere said.
“The child was found by a member of the public and returned to their home where the parent notified the service by phone.”
According to the report, the incident spanned about 15 minutes, Mikaere said.
The ministry visited the centre on December 6. The centre had commenced a risk assessment of its outdoor environment and increased the fence height, which it noted was already above the minimum standard before the incident, Mikaere said.
The centre had also reviewed its supervision plan, she said.
Mikaere said early learning services were not required to advise the ministry of children leaving the premises unsupervised.
“Early learning services should notify parents as stated in their policies and procedures of incidents involving their children.”
Evolve Education Group is a provider of more than 90 early learning centres across New Zealand and operates the centre.
An Evolve Education spokesperson said a tamariki “managed to leave our Te Puke Centre without the knowledge of our team” towards the end of last year.
“For privacy reasons, we are unable to provide specific details related to this incident.”
‘Gradual increase’ of reported incidents
Ministry of Education operations and integration hautū (leader) Sean Teddy said there had been a “gradual increase of incidents of this nature” reported in recent years which did “not necessarily” indicate more incidents were occurring.
Of the 191,602 children that attended early childhood education in 2023, 69 children were reported leaving premises without adults knowing in 2023, he said.
The 2024 data was not yet available.
He reiterated services were not required to report when children left the premises.
“However, services understand the benefit of reporting and working with the ministry to ensure the health and safety of children.”
Teddy said regulations stated the minimum standards that all licensed service providers must meet.
This included taking all reasonable precautions to prevent accidents and steps to ensure premises and facilities were kept in good repair, maintained regularly, used safely, and kept free from hazards, he said.
The licensing criteria further specified the requirements to have outdoor activity space that was enclosed by structures and/or fences and gates designed to ensure children could not escape.
Requirements also included checking the premises and facilities daily for hazards so they could be eliminated, isolated, or minimised.
Teddy said the Ministry of Regulation had recently completed a review of the early learning regulations which were being considered.
The Ministry of Education website said the review - published in December - assessed whether regulations were achieving the right outcomes for early childhood educationand examined the regulatory systems for education, health, safety, child protection, food safety, buildings, and workplaces.
Regulation Minister David Seymour accepted all 15 of the review’s recommendations and would progress these to Cabinet.
Recommendations included risks and issues of “serious non-compliance” being detected earlier, giving whānau the choice to participate in the labour market and offering more choices in services, a review summary said.
Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.
