Aroha Connect for Education
Relief and permanent education staffing, sorted before the bell
Fill relief bookings in minutes instead of working through a phone tree, and recruit permanent kaiako from the same pool. Practising certificates and safety checks are verified before a booking is ever confirmed.
- Practising certificates and safety checks tracked with expiry alerts
- Ratio-critical cover reached across your whole reliever pool at once
- A staffing record that stands up when you prepare an RS7 return
Why it is urgent
A single sick call can put a centre under ratio
Education staffing has a deadline the other industries do not. Cover is not needed today — it is needed before the doors open.
Minimum adult-to-child ratios for licensed centre-based services are one adult to three children under two and one adult to ten children aged two and over. Those ratios have to hold at all times — not on average across the day. They apply while staff take their breaks and while children are on excursions.
Regulations also require at least two adults on site whenever children are present: one holding a recognised ECE qualification or working toward one, and the other at least 17 years old with a current first aid certificate.
So a 7am phone call is not an inconvenience to be absorbed. It is a compliance problem with a fixed deadline, and the traditional answer — working down a printed list of relievers hoping someone answers — has never matched the urgency.
Minimum ratios
- 1 : 3
- Children under two years
- 1 : 10
- Children aged two and over
Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008, Schedule 2. Ratios must be maintained at all times, including during staff breaks and excursions.
Compliance
Registration, vetting and qualification, verified up front
Every reliever completes verification before they can be booked. Nothing is chased after the fact, and nothing expires quietly.
- Practising certificates
- A teacher needs an approved qualification, New Zealand registration and a current practising certificate from the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand to be employed as a teacher. Every certificate we hold carries its expiry date, and alerts fire well before it lapses.
- The 20 half-days rule
- A registered teacher whose practising certificate has expired may still relieve, provided they do fewer than 20 half-days of relieving in a calendar year. That is a running total per person per year — exactly the kind of threshold that gets lost in a spreadsheet. We count it for you.
- Limited Authority to Teach
- For people who are not qualified teachers but work in a teaching role, a Limited Authority to Teach (LAT) is required. LAT holders are flagged distinctly from registered teachers, so you always know which you are booking.
- Children's Act safety checks
- Children's workers must be safety checked before they start, and re-checked every three years. It is an offence to engage a children's worker without completing a full safety check first. We hold the check date and schedule the three-year re-check automatically.
- Qualified-staff percentage
- At least 50% of the teaching staff needed to meet ratios at your licence maximum must hold a recognised ECE teaching qualification. Qualification status is visible at the point of booking, so cover does not quietly push you under that threshold.
- Police vetting and fitness to teach
- Police vetting is coordinated by the Teaching Council as part of certification, alongside good-character and fitness-to-teach requirements. Vetting status forms part of a reliever's profile before they appear in your available pool.
RS7 returns
Staffing records that support an accurate RS7 return
The RS7 Early Childhood Funding Return is a condition of funding for every licensed early childhood service. Accurate returns depend on records that agree with what actually happened.
The RS7 is submitted three times a year through ELI, and reports the funded child hours your service is funded for along with the rate each is funded at. Paper-based returns have an earlier deadline than electronic ones, because they take longer to process.
None of that is difficult in principle. It becomes difficult when the underlying staffing record is a mixture of a wall planner, a group chat and someone's memory of which reliever covered which room in week four.
Aroha Connect keeps a complete, timestamped record of every booking: who worked it, what they were qualified to do, and the hours you approved. When a return comes around, you are reconciling against real data.
To be clear about scope: Aroha Connect does not prepare or submit your RS7 return, and your service remains responsible for it. What it does is make sure the staffing side of the evidence is complete and accurate.
What we can evidence
- Every booking, with date, duration and room
- Who worked it, and their qualification status at the time
- Approved hours, as submitted and approved
- Certificate and safety-check currency on the day worked
- A full change history, including cancellations
Preparing a return now? Use our plain-English RS7 checklist.
How it works
From a 7am phone call to confirmed cover
- 01
Post the booking
A half-day or full-day relief booking, or a permanent role. Takes under a minute, and past bookings can be duplicated.
- 02
Reach your pool at once
Matched, available and currently compliant relievers are notified simultaneously — no ringing down a list in the dark.
- 03
Confirm and brief
The first suitable acceptance confirms the booking instantly. Room, year level and notes go with it.
- 04
Approve and export
Hours come in from the reliever's phone, you approve, and the record is ready for payroll and for reporting.
Questions
Education staffing questions, answered
How fast can I find a reliever?
A booking is broadcast the moment you post it. Every reliever in your pool who matches the role, is available that day and holds current compliance is notified at the same time, and the first suitable acceptance confirms the booking automatically. That replaces the phone tree entirely — you are not waiting on one person to pick up before trying the next. Because acceptances come back through the app, you can post a booking at 7am and watch it fill while you deal with everything else the morning is throwing at you.
Are relief teachers registered with the Teaching Council?
Relievers on Aroha Connect hold a current practising certificate from the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand, or a Limited Authority to Teach where they are not a qualified teacher, and the two are labelled distinctly so you always know which you are booking. Certificates are recorded with their expiry date and monitored, so a reliever whose certificate has lapsed stops appearing as available rather than turning up unregistered. We also track the 20 half-days allowance that lets a registered teacher with an expired certificate keep relieving, so that limit is not accidentally exceeded.
How does Aroha Connect help with RS7 compliance?
The RS7 Early Childhood Funding Return is a condition of funding for every licensed early childhood service, submitted three times a year through ELI, and it reports the funded child hours your service is funded for and the rate each is funded at. Accurate returns depend on your staffing and attendance records agreeing with what actually happened. Aroha Connect gives you a complete, timestamped record of every booking, who worked it, their qualification status and the hours they were approved for — so when you prepare a return you are reconciling against real data rather than reconstructing a term from memory. It does not submit the return for you, and your service remains responsible for it.
Can you help with adult-to-child ratios?
Minimum adult-to-child ratios for licensed centre-based services are one adult to three children under two, and one adult to ten children aged two and over. Those ratios must be maintained at all times — including while staff take breaks and while children are on excursions. That is why a single sick call is urgent rather than inconvenient: it can put a centre under its required ratio for the whole day. Aroha Connect is built for that timeframe, and shows you each candidate's qualification status so cover keeps you compliant on both count and qualification.
Do you place permanent staff as well as relievers?
Yes. The same pool covers day relief, long-term relief and permanent placement, which means a reliever who has already worked well in your centre or classroom is a known quantity by the time you consider them for a permanent role. Their compliance documentation is already verified and already current, so a permanent appointment does not start with a fresh paperwork chase.
Which parts of the education sector do you cover?
Primary and intermediate schools, secondary schools, kura, and licensed early childhood services including education and care centres and kōhanga reo. Aroha Connect's roots are in early childhood education, so ECE is the strongest ground rather than an afterthought.
Regulatory detail on this page reflects the Teaching Council of Aotearoa New Zealand certification requirements, the Children's Act 2014 safety checking regime, the Education (Early Childhood Services) Regulations 2008 and the Ministry of Education ECE Funding Handbook. It is provided as general information, not legal advice. Aroha Connect tracks, verifies and evidences compliance; the employer or service provider remains the responsible party.
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