Definition
This data set has been developed to support the collection of data under the National Information Agreement for Early Childhood Education and Care. Responsibility for early childhood learning and care is shared between the Australian Government and the state and territory governments, and involves a wide range of service providers including government, local government, community, schools and the private sector.
The Agreement provides a framework for cooperation between the Commonwealth, state and territory jurisdictions and information agencies to develop the early childhood education and care (ECEC) information base required for the Council of Australian Government (COAG) early childhood reform agenda.
Data and information in scope of the Agreement include:
- Activity under the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE)
- ECEC information required to support the information needs of other National Agreements and National Partnerships, including the National Partnership Agreement on Indigenous Early Childhood Development and the National Indigenous Reform Agreement
- Outcomes in relation to the COAG Participation and Productivity Agenda
- Other national reporting purposes, including but not limited to the Report on Government Services, Overcoming Indigenous Disadvantage, Report to COAG Reform Council, and National Headline Indicators on Children’s Health, Development and Wellbeing
- Monitoring, research and evaluation related to children, families and early childhood development services under the Early Childhood Development Strategy (ECDS).
Service provider organisations for the purposes of this collection are agencies directly providing services to children at a specific location. This includes organisations providing preschool, and other early childhood education and direct care services.
Organisations may provide multiple services, however for the purpose of reporting against the NP ECE, only preschool programs are included.
A preschool program is a structured, play based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher aimed at children in the year or two before they commence full-time schooling, irrespective of the type of institution that provides it or whether it is government funded or privately provided. Programs may be delivered in a variety of service settings including separate preschools or kindergartens, long day care centres, in association with a school etc.
The terms most commonly used to describe preschool programs in states and territories are:
- Kindergarten – Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania
- Kindergarten or Preschool – Victoria, South Australia
- Preschool – New South Wales, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory
A preschool program may or may not be delivered in such a way that meets the Universal Access goal. The requirements for Universal Access are listed below.
The National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education is a commitment to joint Commonwealth, State and Territory action to deliver universal access to quality early childhood education in the year before formal schooling.
Universal access means that every child, in the year before they commence full-time schooling, has access to a preschool program that is:
- delivered by a four year university qualified early childhood teacher in accordance with the National Early Years Learning Framework
- available for at least 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year
- delivered across a diversity of settings that meets the needs of parents and at a cost that does not present a barrier to participation.
The unit record level collection supports information to be collected at the child, teacher and service provider organisation level.
The information is to be collected within the reference period in August 2012 to enable comparison with schools' data collected in August each year.
Note: Queensland services not funded by the state government to deliver approved kindergarten programs will be collecting the ECEC Aggregate NMDS for 2012.
Metadata items in this Data Set Specification
Below is a list of all the components within this Dataset Specification.
Each entry includes the item name, whether the item is optional, mandatory or conditional and the maximum times the item can occur in a dataset.
If the items must occur in a particular order in the dataset, the sequence number is included before the item name.
| Reference | Data Element | Data Type | Length | Inclusion | # |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Address: Australian Postcode, (Postcode datafile) NNNN
Specific Information:
This item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service. Child Should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the post office box postcode or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian. Early childhood education and care service Should be reported for the physical location at which the preschool program is delivered. |
Number | 4 | mandatory | 2 | |
|
Address—statistical area, level 1 (SA1) code (ASGS 2011) N(11)
Specific Information:
This item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service. Child Should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the post office box, suburb/town/locality name or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian. Early childhood education and care service Should be reported for the physical location at which the preschool program is delivered. |
- | - | mandatory | 2 | |
|
Address—suburb/town/locality name, text X[X(45)]
Specific Information:
This item should be collected twice: once for the child and once for the early childhood education and care service. Child Should be reported for the usual residence of the child’s parent or guardian. Do not report the post office box, suburb/town/locality name or other non-residential address of the child’s parent or guardian. Early childhood education and care service Should be reported for the physical location at which the preschool program is delivered. |
- | - | mandatory | 2 | |
| Child—maximum preschool program hours available, total hours N[N] | Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Child—preschool program attendance indicator, yes/no code N
Specific Information:
Attendance in a preschool program should be reported for the specified reference period. Record 'Yes' if the child attended a preschool program for at least one hour during the reference period. Record 'No' if the child did not attend a preschool program during the reference period due to illness or extended holiday leave. |
Boolean | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Child—preschool program enrolment indicator, yes/no code N
Specific Information:
Enrolment in a preschool program should be reported for the specified reference period. |
Boolean | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Child—preschool program fees charged per week, total Australian currency N[N(8)] | Currency | 9 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Child—preschool program hours attended (per week), total hours N[N] | Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Child—preschool program hours enrolled (per week), total hours N[N] | Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Child—preschool program received from a qualified teacher indicator, yes/no/not stated/inadequately described code N | Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Child—preschool program repeater indicator, yes/no/unknown/not stated/inadequately described code N | Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Organisation—organisation name, text X[X(199)]
Specific Information:
This item should be used to report the operating or trading name of the early childhood education and care service which delivers a preschool program to children. The registered business name should not be used if it is different from the name of early childhood education and care service that it manages or owns. A campus name or satellite school name (e.g. where the service provider organisation operates preschool programs at multiple geographical locations using the same service provider name) may also be used. Each service provider must have a discrete service provider organisation name to allow identification of each individual location for provision of a preschool program. The organisation name type data item is not required. |
String | 200 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person—Australian state/territory identifier, code N
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the usual residence of the child's parent or guardian.
|
Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person: Date of Birth, DDMMYYYY
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the child. For components of the Date of birth which are unknown, 00 should be recorded, for example if a child was born in July 2007 but the day of birth is unknown record 00072007. |
Date/Time | 8 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Person—estimated resident population of Australia, total people N[N(7)] | - | - | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person—Indigenous status, code N
Specific Information:
The parent or guardian should be asked to declare the child’s Indigenous status on their behalf.
|
Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person—letters of family name, text XXX
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the child only, i.e. information not required for teachers.
|
- | - | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person—letters of given name, text XX
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the child only, i.e. information not required for teachers.
|
- | - | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Person: Sex, Code N
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the child only, i.e. information not required for teachers.
|
Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Record—linkage key, code 581 XXXXXDDMMYYYYN | - | - | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Service provider organisation (address)—address line, text X[X(179)]
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the physical location at which the preschool program is delivered only.
|
String | 180 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Service provider organisation—management type, early childhood education and care, code N[N]
Specific Information:
The legal or social entity responsible for managing the delivery of early childhood education and care services is the entity responsible for the day to day running of early childhood education and care services, including task such as the design and the delivery of the preschool program, the hiring and firing of staff, the care of the children, etc. |
Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Service provider organisation—number of preschool program service operation weeks (calendar year), total NN | Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
|
Service provider organisation—organisation identifier, X(15)
Specific Information:
Should be reported for the location at which the preschool program is delivered. A discrete identifier should be supplied for each preschool program operated as a separate campus or ‘satellite’ of a parent service provider organisation.
|
String | 16 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Service provider organisation—service activity type, early childhood education and care, code N[N] | Number | 2 | mandatory | 1 | |
| Service provider organisation—service delivery setting, early childhood education and care, code N | Number | 1 | mandatory | 1 |
Comments
National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education
References
This content Based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material. Attribution provided as required under the AIHW CC-BY licence.
Related content
| Relation | Count |
|---|---|
| As a numerator in an Indicator | 0 |
| As a denominator in an Indicator | 0 |
| As a disaggregation in an Indicator | 0 |