Gaining accreditation or approval
Eligibility check form
Before you can apply for accreditation or approval, you must complete our online eligibility check.
Eligibility check form external
We’ll review the information you give us and confirm your eligibility within 10 working days. If you’re eligible, we’ll invite you to start the initial assessment application process.
You will need a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) to complete the online eligibility check. We use the NZBN to identify your organisation and confirm your legal status. Under the NZBN Act 2016, anyone who supplies services is a business and can therefore have an NZBN number, and this includes providers of social services.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible, you must meet at least one of these criteria:
- You have an outcome agreement (contract) with one of our six partner agencies that requires accreditation.
- You run an out of school care and recreation (OSCAR) programme.
- You provide intercountry adoption services.
- You are a community service provider for the purposes of the Oranga Tamariki Act.
- You are an Oranga Tamariki care partner or are in the process of becoming one.
Outcome agreement that requires accreditation
You must have an outcome agreement with one of our six partner agencies that requires accreditation as a condition of receiving funding. If you've recently been successful in a procurement process, you can submit your eligibility check before you receive your outcome agreement, if you expect that agreement to be signed soon.
Our six partner agencies are:
- Department of Corrections - Ara Poutama Aotearoa
- Ministry for Pacific Peoples - Te Manatū mō ngā Iwi ō te Moana-nui-ā-Kiwa
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Development - Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga
- Ministry of Justice - Tāhū o te Ture
- Ministry of Social Development - Te Manatū Whakahiato Ora
- Oranga Tamariki - Ministry for Children
OSCAR programmes
You must receive income from parent or caregiver fees and operate between 6:30am and 7:00pm. OSCAR approval applies to each site, so if you run programmes at multiple locations, you need to tell us where they all are, so we can assess each one.
OSCAR providers are approved under section 45 of the Social Security Regulations 2018.
Some OSCAR programmes operate camps or overnight stays outside of the 6:30am – 7:00pm hours. We’ll also use the Outdoor Pursuits and Camp Programmes for Children and Young People specialist standard if this is the case.
Home-based OSCARs cannot apply for approval using the online eligibility check form. You must use the paper application form found on our OSCAR resources page.
Intercountry adoption services
You must provider intercountry adoption services.
Intercountry adoption providers are approved under section 17 of the Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997.
Adoption (Intercountry) Act 1997 external
Community service providers
Oranga Tamariki must have confirmed that you need approval as a community service provider under the Oranga Tamariki Act. You can’t self-identify as a community service provider.
Community service providers are approved under section 403 of the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989.
Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 external
Care partners
You must be an Oranga Tamariki care partner or be working with them to become one.
Oranga Tamariki approves care partners under section 396 of the Oranga Tamariki Act, but they also require you to have Level 1 accreditation from us. For more information on care partners, refer to Oranga Tamariki’s website.
Initial assessment process
Step 1: Check your eligibility
Before you apply, check that you're eligible. Once we confirm your eligibility, we’ll email you a unique link to set up your Te Kāhui Kāhu Online account.
Step 2: Set up your account
You’ll need a smart phone and a computer with internet access.
Click the unique link in your welcome email and follow the steps to create your account.
Once your account is set up, you'll gain access to your personalised application form - tailored to the service(s) you're seeking accreditation/approval for.
Step 3: Complete and submit your application
You have 20 working days to complete and submit your application. This includes confirming your organisation’s details, answering questions about how you meet the standards, and uploading the required documents.
You can save your progress anytime and finish the application later.
Step 4: A Te Kāhui Kāhu assessor is assigned to your application
We’ll assign an assessor to your organisation. They’ll contact you directly and can answer any questions about your assessment or the process.
Step 5: Assessor does a desk-based assessment
Your assessor will review the information and documents you submitted as part of your application.
Step 6: Assessor visits your sites (levels 1-3 only)
Your assessor will visit your sites to see how your organisation operates. During the visit, they will:
- talk with staff and observe the service in action,
- check facilities, equipment, and documents they can’t view online (like staff files), and
- give you feedback.
If your assessor identifies any actions, they will tell you at the end of the visit what to fix and the deadline. If they can’t tell you then, they will notify you as soon as possible.
Step 7: Assessment outcome
We will usually provide your assessment outcome within 30 working days of your site visit (for single site organisations) or 50 working days from the last site visit (for multi-site organisations). We’ll email you a link to log in to the Te Kāhui Kāhu Online provider portal, where you can view your assessment report and any actions you need to take.
For more information on different assessment outcomes refer to the accreditation and approval overview page
The initial assessment process takes approximately 3 months to complete.