COLLECTION DATE AND REFERENCE PERIOD

In 2010, the recommended collection date for the National Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Collection was the first Friday in August (6 August), with a reference week of 2-6 August 2010. However, not all jurisdictions were able to provide data for the first Friday in August and some jurisdictions preferred to incorporate different reference periods, to better reflect their attendance schedule. Jurisdictional collection dates and reference periods for 2010 are summarised in the table below.

2.1 Jurisdiction Collection Dates and Reference Periods - 2010
Jurisdiction		Collection Date	Reference Period
New South Wales
	Community Services, Dept of Human Services	20 August	9 August-20 August(a)
	Dept of Education and Training	6 August	2 August-6 August
Victoria		na(b)	12 April-7 May
Queensland		17 September	30 August-17 September(a)
South Australia		6 August	2 August-6 August
Western Australia		6 August	2 August-6 August
Tasmania		6 August	26 July-6 August(a)
Northern Territory		6 August	2 August-6 August
Australian Capital Territory		6 August	2 August-6 August
na not available
(a) Jurisdiction collected data for a fortnightly reference period.
(b) Victoria did not have a specific collection date.

For the National ECEC Collection to be comparable across jurisdictions, it is necessary for all jurisdictions to have a comparable reference period and a consistent collection date. All jurisdictions are working towards collecting ECEC statistics on the first Friday in August for future collection cycles. Due to the different collection dates and reference periods used in 2010, data is not comparable across all jurisdictions. As a result, some jurisdictions are presented separately in the publication Experimental Estimates of Preschool Education, Australia, 2010 (cat. no. 4240.0).

Use of the recommended collection date of the first Friday in August will align the National ECEC Collection with the National Schools Statistics Collection, allowing jurisdictions to combine their data collection activities. Alignment of the collection date and jurisdictional collection reference periods will also increase the consistency and interpretability of jurisdictional ECEC statistics.

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