VICTORIA


DATA QUALITY STATEMENT

In 2011, Victoria (Vic.) was responsible for two data collections in relation to preschool programs, both of which collected data using a Unit Record Level (URL) data collection methodology:

• the Confirmed Kindergarten Funding Data Collection conducted in April (the ‘April Data Collection’)

• the August Data Collection.

Confirmed Kindergarten Funding Data Collection & the August Data Collection

Institutional Environment
The organisation responsible for both data collections was the Vic. Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD). Data were collected in accordance with Funding and Service Agreement requirements. Vic. DEECD is authorised to fund services under the Children’s Services Act 1996 (Vic.).

Relevance
Data from the 2011 collections enabled reporting across the Victorian ECEC sector for a variety of reporting requirements. The information collected through the April collection was used by Vic. DEECD to make decisions about the level of funding each organisation was eligible to receive for each preschool child enrolment (per capita funding) and the number of children eligible to receive the Kindergarten Fee Subsidy. The August data collection was conducted primarily to support national reporting requirements.

Scope: The scope of both collections included all children aged 3 to 6 years of age who were officially enrolled during the reference period in Vic. DEECD funded preschool programs delivered by service providers with a current Vic. DEECD Service Agreement.

The scope for data provided on workers included all paid primary contact teachers and teaching assistants who were employed in Vic. DEECD funded preschool programs delivered by service providers with a current Vic. DEECD Service Agreement.

Coverage: Services with a current Funding and Service Agreement were licensed and funded by Vic. DEECD and therefore for these providers, participation in the collections was a mandatory requirement. Full coverage was achieved of preschool programs delivered through these service providers. A small number of Long Day Care (LDC) centres operating a preschool program were not funded or licensed by Vic. DEECD and as a result, no data were collected from these services by Vic. DEECD.

Data collection methods:
The 2011 August Data Collection collected data using a URL data collection methodology for the following statistical entities:

• Child: Data at the child record level

• Service provider organisation: Data at the service provider record level

• Worker: Data for workers were provided from the April Data Collection only.

The 2011 April Data Collection collected data using a URL data collection methodology for the following statistical entities:

• Child: Data for children were provided from the August Data Collection only

• Service provider organisation: Data for service providers were provided from the August Data Collection only

• Worker: Data at the worker record level.

Timeliness
The April Data Collection is an annual collection and in 2011 was conducted 4 April to 6 May 2011. The August Data Collection was conducted for the first time in 2011, between 1 August and 26 August, with a reference period of 1 to 6 August 2011.

In Victoria, it is a condition of preschool funding that organisations provide accurate information to Vic. DEECD by the due date of the data collections. The timeliness and accuracy of data provided by each organisation in April is reviewed annually as part of a service agreement. If an organisation fails to provide accurate information or to submit on-line forms by the required date, Vic. DEECD may decide to delay or cease payments of funding.

Completion of the data processing and validation stages for the August Data Collection took approximately 2 to 3 months after the collection date, at which time data were delivered to the ABS.

Data sourced from the collections for the purposes of the National ECEC Collection are published by the ABS in Experimental Estimates of Preschool Education, Australia, 2011 (cat. no. 4240.0).

Accuracy
Organisations with a current Vic. DEECD Service Agreement, who continue to meet the eligibility requirements for funding, were required to submit data to their regional office via an on-line survey. There are two data collections each year and organisations are required to provide data for both collections.

In the April Data Collection, service providers were required to confirm the number of enrolled children eligible for per capita funding, and the number eligible for the Kindergarten Fee Subsidy. Information on service provider characteristics and worker details was also required to be confirmed. For the August 2011 Collection, service providers in receipt per capita funding were required to provide enrolment, attendance and fees paid data for each child enrolled at the service.

Victoria adopted the principle of equivalency and considered teachers as qualified if they were deemed as having appropriate qualifications and/or experience as early childhood teachers by Early Childhood Australia. Victoria also used the principle of equivalency for some primary school teachers.

Victoria carried out data validation in response to missing fields of data as well as cross checking data for accuracy. With on-line data collection, fields were entered via drop-down boxes containing only valid options where possible. Intermediate totals were system calculated rather than manually entered. Vic. DEECD staff performed verification checks on every preschool service submission, ensuring that no blanks occurred in data records and comparing enrolments across years.
 
Coherence
For the purposes of the National ECEC Collection, data collected through the August 2011 Collection were not directly comparable with 2010 published data because the base-year was collected using an Aggregate level data collection methodology.

Specific data elements which were collected using methods which did not align with the ECEC National Minimum Data Set (ECEC NMDS) specifications are outlined below and should be taken into account when analysing the data collected. An analysis of the coherence of this collection with other jurisdictional collections should be undertaken on an individual basis, taking into account any data elements that are not consistent with the ECEC NMDS specifications, outlined below.

Data Element	Details of Deviation
Fees charged (Child)	Data were not available for preschool programs in LDC as the preschool program component of the fee could not be separated from the total LDC fee.
Preschool program enrolment hours (Child)	Data were not available for LDCs. Attendance hours were used as a proxy measure for enrolment hours for these services.
Preschool program repeater indicator (Child)	Data were based on whether the child was approved for a second year of preschool. A child could attend a second year of preschool delivered by a different service provider without applying for approval, and therefore the second year would not be classified as a matching record across time.
Maximum preschool program hours available (Child)	Data were based on the number of hours the child was enrolled.
Worker data	Teacher data were collected in the April collection and not updated in the August collection, as it was assumed that teachers that were present in April were still present at the same location at the time of the August collection. As service provider data from August were matched to the worker data collected in April, there were a number of workers that were not attached to any service providers. It is likely that the services that these workers were employed with in April have closed down or undergone business restructure between April and August. There is also no information on workers in new services that began trading between April and August. Only data on teachers and teaching assistants were available.
Level of highest qualification relevant to ECEC (Worker)	The highest level of ECEC related qualification was not collected. Only the qualification that related to the funding eligibility of the service was available.
Delivery of preschool program indictor (Worker)	This data element was not available as data were collected in April. Therefore there was no ability to determine which teachers delivered a preschool program in the reference period.
Hours worked in preschool program delivery (Worker)	Data were only provided for teachers, not teaching assistants. The data provided were the hours of employment as collected in April, which may not accurately represent the number of hours the teacher actually worked in delivering the preschool program during the reference period.
Management type (Service provider)	The legal entity status of the funded organisation reported by each service provider (excluding Independent schools) was used as a proxy measure for management type. This may not have resulted in the reporting of a correct management type for all service providers. Independent schools were identified using ‘funding status’ flag in the Vic. DEECD funding system and assigned a management type of Code 6: Independent school, regardless of the legal entity status of the funded organisation.

Counts of Children:
In the collection reference period, it is possible for a child to be concurrently enrolled in and attending two or more preschool programs. In order to address collection requirements, it is important to be able to collate all matching child records.

Children in a Preschool Program in 2011:
For Vic., counts of children enrolled in and attending preschool programs in 2011 were able to be derived as data were collected using a URL data collection methodology.

Children in a Preschool Program in the Year before Full-time Schooling:
Vic. did not have two years of comparable data collected using a URL methodology or have a child/client database, and therefore counts of children enrolled in and attending preschool programs in the year before full-time schooling were not able to be derived.

Interpretability
Extensive explanatory information was provided in the on-line collection instrument. Information such as a 'frequently asked questions' fact sheet on the data collection process was available from Vic. DEECD. If service providers required clarification about the collection, they were also able to contact a Children’s Service Adviser in their regional office.

The Vic. DEECD provide information on funding criteria and data collection responsibilities in the publication 'Victorian kindergarten policy, procedures and funding criteria 2010–12', which is available on the Vic. DEECD website at: http://www.eduweb.vic.gov.au/edulibrary/public/earlychildhood/childrensservices/kindergartenpolicycriteria.pdf.

Accessibility
Data sourced from the Vic. DEECD Collection for the 2011 National ECEC Collection are published at the state and territory level in Experimental Estimates of Preschool Education, Australia, 2011 on the ABS website.

Information Source
The information contained in this report has been sourced from Vic. DEECD in consultation with the ABS. Further information is available at the Vic. DEECD website http://www.education.vic.gov.au.

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