Person (employed)—length of employment in current service, total years code N[NN]

DSS specific information:

In the Children's Services NMDS, this is the number of years that the paid contact worker has been employed as a contact worker in the service in which they are currently employed.

This data element provides an indication of the stability of the child care and preschool services workforce. It will enable a comparison of service/staff longevity across different variables such as worker age, qualification level and service type.

The length of time a worker has been employed by the current service should be measured by totalling the number of years the worker has worked as a paid contact worker with the current service, regardless of whether this was full-time or part-time work. Absences of more than 3 months should be subtracted from the total.

The total length of experience should be rounded down to completed years. So, for example, if a worker has worked 2 years and 11 months, this should be recorded as 2 years.