Early Childhood Education and Care: Unit Record Level NMDS 2015
Data Set Specification Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Set Specification |
|---|---|
| METEOR identifier: | 602247 |
| Registration status: | Early Childhood, Superseded 24/07/2018 |
| DSS type: | National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) |
| Scope: | This data set has been developed to support the collection of data under the National Information Agreement on 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:
Service provider organisations for the purposes of this collection are agencies directly providing services to children at a specific location. This includes organisations providing early childhood education programs and other early childhood education and direct care services. Organisations may provide multiple services, however for the purpose of reporting against the NP ECE, NP UAECE and NP UAECE—2015, only early childhood education programs are included. The scope of the data set is therefore all service providers delivering an early childhood education program to children enrolled aged 3 to 6 (inclusive) during the reference period, noting that coverage of 3 year olds varies across jurisdictions. Within this scope, an early childhood education program is a structured, play-based learning program, delivered by a 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 early childhood education programs which are subject to the NP UAECE—2015 in states and territories are:
An early childhood education 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 NP UAECE—2015 is a commitment to joint Commonwealth, State and Territory action to provide universal access to quality early childhood education programs. Universal access means that every child, in the year before they commence full-time schooling, has access to:
To apply the requirements of the NP UAECE—2015 to the data set, a 'quality' early childhood education program is a program which is delivered in the year before full-time schooling by a qualified early childhood teacher, in accordance with the Early Years Learning Framework and the National Quality Standard. Monitoring information is to be maintained for the previous NP ECE and NP UAECE where possible. However, specific data elements, data definitions and terminologies in the data set conform to those used in the NP UAECE—2015. 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 to enable comparison with schools' data collected in August each year. |
Collection and usage attributes | |
| Statistical unit: | Child Service provider organisation Person (employed) |
|---|---|
| Implementation start date: | |
| Comments: | The glossary items supporting this national minimum data set include:
Please note that the National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education—2015 uses the word 'programme' where the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education and the National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education used the word 'program'. Throughout the ECEC DSS, aggregate NMDS and unit record level NMDS, all references to ‘program’ should therefore be taken to read ‘programme’ as appropriate. This reflects a change in nomenclature in the National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education—2015 and does not alter the interpretation of the dataset specifications. |
Source and reference attributes | |
| Submitting organisation: | Early Childhood Data Sub Group (ECDSG) |
| Steward: | Early Childhood Data Sub Group (ECDSG) |
| Origin: | National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education National Partnership Agreement on Universal Access to Early Childhood Education—2015 |
| Reference documents: | National Information Agreement for Early Childhood Education and Care 2009-2013. |
Relational attributes | |
| Related metadata references: | Supersedes Early Childhood Education and Care: Unit Record Level NMDS 2014 Early Childhood, Superseded 01/06/2015 Has been superseded by Early Childhood Education and Care: Unit Record Level NMDS 2016 Early Childhood, Superseded 24/07/2018 See also Early Childhood Education and Care: Aggregate NMDS 2015 Early Childhood, Superseded 24/07/2018 |
| Implementation in Data Set Specifications: | Early Childhood Education and Care DSS 2015 Early Childhood, Superseded 24/07/2018 |