Community housing data collection 2011–12 Data Quality Statement
Data Quality Statement Attributes
Identifying and definitional attributes | |
Metadata item type: | Data Quality Statement |
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METEOR identifier: | 526136 |
Registration status: | AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 25/07/2014 |
Data quality | |||||||||||||||||
Data quality statement summary: |
Description Data are provided annually to the AIHW by jurisdictions and are sourced from community housing organisations via survey and from the jurisdiction’s administrative systems. The annual data collection captures information about community housing organisations, the dwellings they manage and the tenants assisted. Limited financial information from the financial year is also collected. | ||||||||||||||||
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Institutional environment: | The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is a major national agency set up by the Australian Government under the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987 to provide reliable, regular and relevant information and statistics on Australia's health and welfare. It is an independent statutory authority established in 1987, governed by a management Board, and accountable to the Australian Parliament through the Health and Ageing portfolio. The AIHW aims to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians through better health and welfare information and statistics. It collects and reports information on a wide range of topics and issues, ranging from health and welfare expenditure, hospitals, disease and injury, and mental health, to ageing, homelessness, disability and child protection. The Institute also plays a role in developing and maintaining national metadata standards. This work contributes to improving the quality and consistency of national health and welfare statistics. The Institute works closely with governments and non-government organisations to achieve greater adherence to these standards in administrative data collections to promote national consistency and comparability of data and reporting. One of the main functions of the AIHW is to work with the states and territories to improve the quality of administrative data and, where possible, to compile national datasets based on data from each jurisdiction, to analyse these datasets and disseminate information and statistics. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Act 1987, in conjunction with compliance to the Privacy Act 1988, (Cth) ensures that the data collections managed by the AIHW are kept securely and under the strictest conditions with respect to privacy and confidentiality. For further information see the AIHW website www.aihw.gov.au. Data for 2011–12 were provided to the AIHW as part of the Housing Ministers Advisory Committee work program. The AIHW receives, compiles, edits and verifies the data in collaboration with jurisdictions, who retain ownership of the data and must approve any jurisdiction-level output before it is released. The finalised data sets were used by the AIHW for collation, reporting and analysis for all jurisdictions except New South Wales and Queensland, who have calculated their own figures using their own data collection processes. | ||||||||||||||||
Timeliness: | Data are collected annually. The reference period for this collection is the 2011–12 financial year and is mostly a 30 June 2012 snapshot, but also captures 2011–12 household activity. Limited financial information from the 2010–11 financial year is also collected. Data were due to be submitted to the AIHW on 24 August 2012. Queensland and the ACT were on time with their data submissions while the other jurisdictions did not make this deadline. The AIHW had received data from all jurisdictions by 8 October 2012. Finalised data was signed off by jurisdictions and made available for publishing on 7 November 2012. | ||||||||||||||||
Accessibility: | Annual data are reported in Housing Assistance in Australia, which will be available publicly on the AIHW website; the Report on Government Services 2013http://www.pc.gov.au/gsp/rogs/2013 and the COAG Reform Council’s NAHA Report http://www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au/reports/housing.cfm. Users can request additional disaggregations of data which are not available online or in reports (subject to jurisdiction approval) via the Housing Unit, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on (02) 6244 1000 or via email to [email protected]. Requests that take longer than half an hour to compile are charged for on a cost-recovery basis. General enquiries about AIHW publications can be made to the Communications, Media and Marketing Unit on (02) 6244 1032 or via email to [email protected]. | ||||||||||||||||
Interpretability: | Metadata and definitions relating to this data source can be found in the National Housing Assistance Data Dictionary (AIHW Cat no. HOU147) /content/index.phtml/itemId/236882. Supplementary information can be found in the housing collection data manuals available at /content/index.phtml/itemId/487037.
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Relevance: | Community housing, for the purpose of this collection, includes all tenancy (rental) units managed by a community housing organisation (excluding Indigenous community housing organisations). Additional jurisdiction-specific inclusions and exclusions also apply. The data collected by the jurisdictions conform well in terms of reference period; however, due to the jurisdiction-specific inclusions and exclusions, the data does not conform well in terms of scope and coverage. Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory supply unit record level data. These data include details on individuals, organisations, dwellings and associated tenancies of the organisations that responded to the survey. New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory submit finalised aggregate data, which includes dwelling- and organisational-level data, but not information on individual tenancies or persons. New South Wales and Queensland provide aggregated household data for most indicators, while the Northern Territory does not provide any household data. Scope rules are not consistently applied across jurisdictions. Jurisdictions variously include or exclude dwellings according to community housing organisations’ registration status, funding sources and programs, duration of tenancy, state and territory ownership of community housing organisation-managed dwellings and organisation size. The data are highly relevant for monitoring trends in the number of households assisted in community housing. The data are used for many purposes, including by policy-makers to evaluate both the living conditions of tenants in community housing dwellings, the amount of rent paid by tenants relative to their income, and to assess the efficiency of community housing organisations in providing dwellings. | ||||||||||||||||
Accuracy: | Data are subject to survey response rates and are incomplete for some jurisdictions. The information was sourced via a survey of community housing organisations and levels of accuracy are subject to the response rate achieved across the jurisdictions as outlined below. Data are not weighted for non-response, with the exception of data from NSW and Qld, who provide aggregated household and tenancy data to the AIHW which is weighted prior to submission.
As in previous years, the Northern Territory did not survey its community housing sector for 2011–12. National outputs and indicators were calculated using only those jurisdictions where complete information is available and valid. Household and dwelling information from those community housing organisations that received Australian Government funding as one-off grants in the past is generally not available, and may be excluded from reporting. Applicants may appear on waiting lists of more than one community housing organisation, with the exception of Queensland and South Australia where consolidated waiting lists are in operation. Queensland and South Australia have integrated wait lists for all social housing. Thus, using wait list figures for these jurisdictions to report against community housing alone leads to an overestimate of the number of households waiting to be allocated a community housing dwelling. New South Wales, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory were unable to provide National Rental Affordability Scheme properties due to data quality issues. Specific state/territory issues: New South Wales The proportion of low income households is based on those households in receipt of Centrelink benefits as their main source of income, and has been applied to survey responses. NSW is unable to provide gross income so assessable income has been used to calculate equivalised ‘gross’ income used in determining low income status. In April 2010, NSW implemented an integrated social housing waiting list, combining public and community housing into a single list. Waiting list data are now reported as public housing. This has resulted in data not being available for all community housing providers at 30 June 2012. Financial activity data for the year ending 30 June 2012 are sourced from quarterly submissions from providers’ administrative data. Victoria Due to data quality issues identified with data returns, a number of households previously flagged as Indigenous now have a status of unknown. Waiting list data for Victoria are collected at the organisational-level, but include households also on the public housing waiting list. Using these figures to report against community housing alone may lead to an overestimate of the number of households waiting to be allocated a community housing dwelling. Queensland Queensland has one waiting list for all social housing. Using this list to report against community housing alone leads to an overestimate of the number of households waiting to be allocated a community housing dwelling. Western Australia The number of households at 30 June 2012 may be an overestimate due to underlying data quality issues. This may affect measures of occupancy. Occupied tenancy (rental) units used to provide additional housing support are not included. South Australia A centralised community housing waitlist was implemented in March 2010 and most organisations use this waitlist. In the 2011–12 community housing survey, a number of organisations also provided separate waitlist figures. These figures have been added to the centralised community housing waitlist figure, which may overstate the waitlist figure. Australian Capital Territory The number of households at 30 June 2012 may be an underestimate, whilst the number of tenancy (rental) units may be an overestimate due to underlying data quality issues. This may affect measures of occupancy. Northern Territory It is assumed that all dwellings are tenantable.
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Coherence: | Care is required when comparing outputs within a jurisdiction with results from previous reporting periods, or when comparing data across jurisdictions due to variability in survey response rates of community housing organisations and differences in data collection practices. National performance indicator results were calculated where complete data were available and valid (i.e. both numerator and denominator were available and valid). Some Indigenous households may be under-reported as data are based on Indigenous self-identification. There were changes in the methodology used in 2010-11 onwards for collecting data on community housing waiting lists in all jurisdictions, which has affected the numbers reported for ‘Total new applicants with greatest need’ and ‘Total applicants on waiting list’. In May 2009, Housing Ministers agreed to integrate public and community housing waiting lists in all jurisdictions by July 2011. NSW, Queensland, WA, the ACT, and the NT, each have integrated waiting lists. South Australia has a register that integrates multiple community housing waiting lists into a single housing register and Tasmania uses a manual integrated system. Victoria has an integrated approach involving a referral process but does not yet have a common waiting list. Specific State/Territory issues: Queensland The number of Indigenous households and households with a disability and households with a non-English speaking background has increased due to improvements in the data collection methodology. The number of new Indigenous household allocations has risen due to ongoing refinements in the data collection methodology. There have been changes in the methodology used in 2010-11 onwards to collect data on allocation of new households which may affect the number of new households. Properties managed under the National Rental Affordability Scheme and the Nation Building and Jobs Program were included in 2010-11 for the first time. Data for 2010-11 were not weighted for non-response, however data for previous years and 2011-12 were weighted for non-response. Changes in the methodology used in 2010-11 onwards may have affected the results for total net recurrent costs. South Australia A centralised community housing waitlist was implemented in March 2010. Category 1 need is used as a proxy for greatest need for the centralised waitlist. Category 1 need includes those who are deemed to be in urgent housing need with long term barriers to accessing or maintaining private housing options. Improvements in data quality may have significantly increased the number of newly assisted households; the increased number of newly assisted households that were in greatest need at time of allocation, and the increased number of disability households may be due to improvements in data collection methods. Total untenantable tenancy (rental) units in 2009–10 included work in progress properties that were nearly completed. Work in progress properties that were nearly completed were not included in 2010–11. Western Australia For the 2011-12 collection, only 29 registered community housing providers were surveyed. Unregistered providers and registered providers that dealt only with crisis accommodation properties were excluded. These exclusions did not apply for previous collections. This represents a significant scope change relative to the 2010-11 collection, in which 182 housing providers were surveyed. | ||||||||||||||||
Data products | |||||||||||||||||
Implementation start date: | 17/06/2013 | ||||||||||||||||
Source and reference attributes | |||||||||||||||||
Submitting organisation: | Australian Institute of Health and Welfare | ||||||||||||||||
Relational attributes | |||||||||||||||||
Related metadata references: | Supersedes Community housing data collection 2010–11 Data Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 14/08/2013 Has been superseded by Community housing data collection 2012–13 Data Quality Statement AIHW Data Quality Statements, Superseded 05/06/2015 |