STATISTICAL ENTITIES

Within each jurisdiction’s collection, data were collected for the following statistical entities:

• Child level data

• Worker level data

• Service Provider level data.

Child Level Data

Child level data contains data for each individual child in the data set. Data at the child level includes personal characteristics, enrolment and attendance information for each child.

The primary aim of collecting data at the child level is to enable reporting of numbers of children who have received a preschool program in the year before full-time schooling. Child level data that includes a non-unique identifier, such as a statistical linkage key, assists to ensure that for child counts, each child is counted only once. The importance of child counts is explained further in Chapter 3: Data Processing and Reporting Concepts.
 
Age Reference Date:
The National ECEC Collection age reference date for all child data is 1 July of the collection year. Jurisdictions that utilised an aggregate data collection methodology for any part of their collection were required to derive children’s ages as at 1 July 2012. Jurisdictions that utilised a URL data methodology collected and supplied the date of birth for every child episode record. The ABS then derived the age of each child as at the 1 July 2012 reference date.

Worker Level Data

Worker level data contains confidentialised data for each individual worker at each service provider within the data set. Data at the worker level includes educational qualifications, role and type of work activity, and information on whether the worker delivered a preschool program. It is possible for a single worker to be employed across multiple service providers. Worker level data did not include a unique identifier and as a consequence it can only be output as episodes of workers delivering preschool programs. See the Glossary, for further information on the concept of an ‘episode’.

Service Provider Level Data

Service provider level data contains information for each individual service provider delivering a preschool program within the data set. Data at the service provider level includes location information, management type, activity type and service delivery setting, as well as aggregate information on preschool programs. Service provider data are also available from child URL data sets (preferred collection method). In a child URL dataset, a service provider’s characteristics are replicated for every child episode associated with that service.

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