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SERVICE PROVIDERS

In 2012, there were 7,594 service providers delivering a preschool program in Australia. Delivery models of preschool in Australia were comprised of 'Preschool' service providers and 'Long day care' (LDC) service providers that delivered a preschool program.

A LDC can be responsible for delivering multiple preschool programs within the same location. These multiple programs may be delivered under different management structures even though the programs operate from the same location. In this publication, some government funded preschool programs at LDCs have been classified as 'LDC with a preschool' to reflect the integrated nature of preschool delivery models that operated in 2012 better. More information is provided on service provider classification concepts in the National ECEC Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2012 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.001).

In 2012, of all service providers that delivered a preschool program, 4,307 (56.7%) were a Preschool (either stand-alone or as part of a school), and 3,287 (43.3%) were a LDC with preschool.

In New South Wales there were 2,128 service providers operating a preschool program (875 preschools and 1,253 LDCs), Victoria had 2,007 (1,164 preschools and 843 LDCs) and Queensland 1,536 (561 preschools and 975 LDCs). There were 495 service providers in South Australia (384 preschools and 111 LDCs) and Western Australia had 927 (881 preschools and 46 LDCs). Of the 232 service providers in Tasmania, 222 were preschools and 10 were LDCs. In the Northern Territory there were 148 service providers (141 preschools and 7 LDCs) and the Australian Capital Territory had 121 (79 preschools and 42 LDCs).

Nationally, 28.0% of total preschool providers were located in New South Wales, 26.4% were in Victoria and 20.2% were in Queensland. Together, Western Australia and South Australia accounted for 18.7% of preschool providers while the remaining 6.6% were in Tasmania, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory. (For more information, see Appendix Table A1)

The distribution of preschools and LDCs with preschool was not uniform across the states and territories. This reflects the different service delivery models and funding arrangements within each state and territory.

Within the states and territories, Queensland had the highest proportion of LDCs with a preschool program compared to the total number of service providers delivering a preschool program (63.5%), while Tasmania had the lowest proportion (4.3%). New South Wales was the only other state or territory where more than half of all preschool programs were represented by LDCs with a preschool program (58.9%). (For more information, see Appendix Table A1)

Government/ Non-Government within the Preschool activity type

Nationally, there were 1,885 (43.8%) government preschools and 2,422 (56.2%) non-government preschools within the preschool service activity type. All service providers in the Australian Capital Territory with the activity type, Preschool, were government managed. There were a number of non-government service providers in the Australian Capital Territory however all were classified as LDC. Northern Territory had the next highest proportion of government preschools (93.6%), followed by South Australia (92.4%) and Western Australia and Tasmania both with 72.1%. These were in contrast to 17.9% government preschools in New South Wales, 19.9% in Victoria and 24.1% in Queensland. (For more information, see Appendix Table A1)


CHILDREN

Preschool Enrolments

In 2012, there were 273,297 episodes of children enrolled in a preschool program in Australia. Of all enrolled episodes, 82.5% were aged 4 years while 17.5% were aged 5 years. Of the total number of enrolled episodes, 62.8% were delivered at a preschool service provider while 37.2% were delivered at a LDC with a preschool program.

Of the 171,729 enrolled episodes at a preschool, 40.2% were in Government preschools and 59.8% were in Non-Government preschools.

Based on the main provider for a child (particularly where the child had more than one episode of enrolment), New South Wales had the highest proportion of children enrolled in LDC with a preschool program whereas the Northern Territory had the highest proportion of children enrolled in government preschools. The distribution presented below reflects the different delivery models in each state and territory.

Preschool Attendance

In 2012, there were 265,691 episodes of children attending a preschool program in Australia. The distribution of children attending a preschool program in 2012, by age, varied between states and territories. The distribution is also consistent with enrolments by state and territory. These variations largely reflect the different primary school starting age applicable in each state and territory. For more information on both preschool and primary school starting ages, please refer to the National ECEC Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2012 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.001).

Preschool Hours

All states and territories, other than Victoria, recorded the highest proportion of child enrolments in a preschool program in the 'Enrolled 15 hours or more' range. The highest proportions of children in a preschool program in the 'Enrolled 15 hours or more' range occurred in Tasmania (91.2%), the Northern Territory (87.0%) and South Australia (84.0%) while the lowest proportion was in Victoria (33.5%). Victoria recorded the highest distribution of children in a preschool program in the 'Enrolled 10-14 hours' per week range (63.9%).

The highest distribution of children attending a preschool program in the 'Attended 15 hours or more' per week range occurred in Tasmania (67.3%), New South Wales (56.1%), South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory, both with 55.2%. The highest distribution of children attending a preschool program in the 'Attended 10-14 hours' per week range occurred in Western Australia (93.8%) and Victoria (51.9%).

ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDERS

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, 80.8% of child enrolment episodes were delivered at a preschool while 19.2% were delivered at a LDC with a preschool program. In comparison, 62.8% of total child enrolment episodes were delivered at a preschool and 37.2% were at a LDC with a preschool program.

By remoteness, the numbers of Indigenous children enrolled in a preschool program were highest in Remote and Very Remote areas for the Northern Territory, while in South Australia the highest number of Indigenous children were in the Major Cities area. Indigenous child enrolments were more evenly spread in Western Australia across Major Cities, Inner/Outer Regional and Remote/Very Remote areas.

WORKERS

In 2012, no worker information was available from the Child Care Management System (CCMS), which was the primary source of information for the LDC sector in the majority of states and territories. The worker numbers presented are an underestimate of actual worker population because of the LDC sector worker undercount.

In 2012, there were 24,008 episodes of workers delivering a preschool program within Australia. Of all episodes of workers delivering a preschool program, 9,427 were workers who had a 'Three year bachelor degree or above' in a field relevant to Early Childhood Education.