The Ministry of Education has revoked the licence of a Tauranga daycare attended by Malachi Subecz, who died in 2021.

The five-year-old died on November 12, 2021 following prolonged and horrific abuse at the hands of Michaela Barriball, whom his imprisoned mother had entrusted with his care.

Barriball, who was charged with the boy's murder, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years on June 30.

In sentencing, Justice Paul Davison admonished those who could have acted to try and prevent the child's abuse.

'Adults could have taken steps to intervene and report what was happening, this is the clear lesson,” he said.

According to the court summary of facts, Barriball 'was spoken to by staff at the daycare and told them that the deceased had fallen off his bike and had also fallen in the weekend”.

'The staff asked the deceased if he had fallen off his bike, to which he replied ‘no'”.

Malachi also told daycare staff twice when attending to his injuries that Michaela Barriball 'was going to be mad at him”.

Malachi was meant to be at daycare until October 15 last year, but his last day was September 29, after which 'he never returned”.

'Daycare staff reported that he was a normal child, was not accident prone,” the summary of facts noted.

Following Malachi's death, the Ministry of Education put a provisional licence on Abbey's Place, the childcare centre the Te Puna five-year-old attended.

'The service was put on a provisional license on May 17, 2022, and required to meet specific conditions by July 22, 2022,” says the ministry's central deputy secretary Jocelyn Mikaere.

'Those conditions, relating to regulation 47 of the Regulations, have not been met.”

The regulation 47 condition on the licence imposed on May 17, 2022, was as follows:

-Provide evidence of a formal review of this incident and a review of the child protection policy and procedure, including the identification of failures in the process and areas for improving the policy and procedure.

-Provide evidence that in the absence of key persons, there is an alternate procedure for staff to escalate concerns about suspected abuse to another senior manager and the service provider, seek professional advice and/or make a report to an external agency.

-Provide evidence that the centre manager has received sufficient support to understand and fulfil their role in ensuring the service's child protection policy and procedure are followed by all staff.

- Provide evidence that additional training and support has been provided to all staff, managers, governance members to identify and respond to concerns about child abuse.

Mikaere says as these have not been met, the ministry has issued Abbey's Place with a Notice of Decision to Cancel the Provisional Licence.

This will take effect from 5pm on Friday, October 7, 2022.

'Children must no longer attend the service from this date,” she says.

'We have contacted all the parents and are supporting them to enrol their children at a new service.”