SCOPE OF THE COLLECTION
The collection scope of the National Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Collection consists of all service providers delivering a preschool program during a reference period that includes the first Friday in August. See Chapter 2: Collection Overview for further information on the collection reference period.
For the National ECEC Collection, a preschool program is defined as a structured, play based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, primarily aimed at children in the year before they commence full-time schooling. This is 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 or in association with a school. Terminology and definitions for preschool programs vary considerably across the jurisdictions. Further information on jurisdictional terminology and other key definitions for the collection can be found in Chapter 3: Concepts and Definitions.
For Long day care (LDC), information was collected from all LDC service providers that have children enrolled aged 3-6, however only data from those delivering a preschool program were considered in scope. More information about the collection date and reference period for the national ECEC Collection can be found in Chapter 2: Collection Overview.
The National ECEC Collection aims to compile service provider, child and worker statistics from all service providers delivering an in-scope preschool program. The following statistical entities are in-scope for the collection population:
Service provider
A service provider is considered to be in-scope if it was providing a structured, play based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, aimed at children in the year before they commence full-time schooling (a preschool program) during the reference period.
Child
All children who as at 1 July in the collection year were between 3 and 6 years of age (inclusive) are in-scope of the collection if they were enrolled during the reference period in a preschool program. To be considered as enrolled, the child must have attended the preschool program for at least one hour during the reference period, or be absent due to illness or extended holiday leave and expected to return.
Worker
All paid employees at an in-scope service provider during the reference period are in-scope of the collection. This includes both contact and non-contact workers, irrespective of whether the worker delivered a preschool program during the reference week.
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