Preschool Education methodology

Latest release
Reference period
2023

Overview

Scope

Data on children aged 3 to 6 years enrolled in a preschool program, and service providers delivering a preschool program to these children.

Geography

Data available for:
 

  • Australia
  • States and territories
  • Remoteness areas
  • Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA)

Source

The NECECC is an administrative data collection sourced from commonwealth, state and territory education departments and the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn.

Collection method

Data on preschool education and service providers are collected from administrative data collections and collated by the ABS through the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection (NECECC).

Concepts, sources and methods

The NECECC is based on data collected from commonwealth and state preschool census collections. 

The annual census is held on the first Friday in August by each state and territory education department and commonwealth department of education systems.

History of changes

Not applicable for this release. 

Introduction

This publication contains statistics on preschool programs in Australia and includes data on children enrolled in and attending preschool programs, and information on service providers. The statistics were compiled from data collected through the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection (NECECC or the collection). 

The NECECC was established in 2010 to improve the quality of early childhood education (ECE) data required for reporting under National Partnership Agreements (Preschool Reform Agreement). Data from the NECECC also supports national ECE reporting through the Report on Government Services and Closing the Gap. The Australian Government and the state and territory governments share responsibility for ECE, and these ECE programs are administered through a range of government and non-government service providers. In delivering the NECECC, the ABS collects, processes, and disseminates the data, and appreciates the support and efforts from governments, education offices and ECE service providers in the production of this publication.

Data Collection

Scope and coverage

The scope of the NECECC consists of all service providers delivering a preschool program to children aged 3 to 6 years (inclusive) enrolled during the reference period.

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 or two before they commence full-time schooling (a preschool program) during the reference period.

Children who were aged 3 to 6 years (inclusive) at 1 July in the collection year and were enrolled in a preschool program during the reference period are in-scope. To be considered enrolled, the child must have attended the preschool program for at least one hour during the reference period (including attended an early childhood education program online or remotely, due to COVID-19 impacts), or be absent due to illness, or extended holiday leave, or due to COVID-19 impacts and expected to return.

To achieve comprehensive coverage, data were sourced from the Australian Government, state and territory education departments and the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. The data are sourced from administrative collections, supplemented where necessary to improve the coverage of service providers not otherwise captured due to funding, regulation or licensing arrangements. The coverage in each state and territory for the 2023 collection is described in Jurisdictional data quality statements.

Information on preschool programs delivered in centre based day care (CBDC) settings was provided by the Australian Government from the Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS), supplemented by jurisdictional CBDC data where provided. All services approved for administering Child Care Subsidy (CCS) must provide data.

Preschool program

For the purposes of the NECECC, a preschool program is defined as a structured, play-based learning program, delivered by a degree qualified teacher, aimed primarily at children in the year or two before they commence full-time schooling. A preschool program can be delivered in a variety of settings such as stand-alone preschools, preschools co-located as part of a school (both government and non-government), and centre based day care (CBDC) services. A child may attend both a preschool and a separate or adjoined child care facility, such as family day care, outside school hours care, vacation care, in-home care and occasional care services. Participation in preschool is not compulsory and is influenced by parental preference and other factors, such as school starting age in the particular jurisdiction.

Preschool programs are referred to by a variety of other terms across state and territories. Preschool age entry requirements also differ across states and territories. These differences are summarised in the following table:

Preschool programs in Australia
 Preschool programTransition to primary school Foundation year (year prior to year 1)
State/territoryProgram nameAge of entry - preschool program in
year before full time schooling (YBFS)
School yearAge of entry
New South Wales (a)PreschoolGenerally aged 4 and 5 Kindergarten5 by 31 July
Victoria (b)Kindergarten4 by 30 AprilPreparatory (Prep)5 by 30 April
QueenslandKindergarten4 by 30 JunePreparatory (Prep)5 by 30 June
Western AustraliaKindergarten4 by 30 JunePre Primary5 by 30 June
South Australia (c)Preschool

4 by 1 May (Term 1)

4 by 31 October (Term 3)

Reception5 by 1 May
TasmaniaKindergarten4 by 1 JanuaryPreparatory (Prep)5 by 1 January
Australian Capital TerritoryPreschool4 by 30 AprilKindergarten5 by 30 April
Northern Territory (d)Preschool4 by 30 JuneTransition5 by 30 June
  1. New South Wales subsidises early access to community preschool for 3 year old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and 3 year old children from low-income families. In New South Wales, all licensed children’s services for under 6 year olds (who have not commenced Kindergarten) are required to offer programs that meet children’s educational and developmental needs.
  2. In Victoria, funded Thee-Year-Old Kindergarten was available statewide from 2022. This is in addition to Three-Year-Old Kindergarten already being available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and children experiencing vulnerability and disadvantaged. 
  3. South Australia provides early access to Department funded preschool for children who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or under the Guardianship of the Minister after their 3rd Birthday. The compulsory school starting age in South Australia is 6 years at the oldest. South Australia has introduced a mid-year intake into preschools from 2023.
  4. In the Northern Territory, children living in very remote areas can attend preschool from the age of three, provided a parent/guardian accompany the child and remain with them at each session until they reach the age of three years and six months.
    Source: Report on Government Services.

Collection date and reference period

The NECECC date is the first Friday in August each year. The census date for the 2023 collection was Friday 4 August 2023, with the 1 week reference period from 31 July to 6 August 2023. Some jurisdictions use a 2 week reference period that includes the census week. This means the permissible reference period spans 23 July to 12 August 2023 inclusive. In exceptional circumstances a different reference period may be used if agreed to by the Australian Department of Education, the jurisdiction and the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Collection dates and reference periods for 2023 are summarised in the table below.

Collection dates and reference periods
State/territoryCollection dateReference period
Australian Government4 August 202331 July - 6 August 2023
New South Wales4 August 202331 July - 11 August 2023(a)
Victoria4 August 202331 July - 5 August 2023
Queensland4 August 202331 July - 6 August 2023
South Australia4 August 202331 July - 11 August 2023(a)
Western Australia4 August 202331 July - 4 August 2023
Tasmania4 August 202331 July - 11 August 2023(a)
Northern Territory4 August 202319 June - 4 August 2023(b)
Australian Capital Territory4 August 202324 July - 4 August 2023(a)(c)
31 July - 11 August 2023(a)(d)
31 July - 11 August 2023(a)(e)
  1. Jurisdiction collected data for a fortnightly reference period to reflect their preschool delivery model.
  2. Reference period for NT did not apply for school holidays between 26 June 2023 - 16 July 2023. In addition, one remote school operates on different school terms. The reference period for this school is 5 June - 11 August.
  3. Reference period for ACT Catholic preschools.
  4. Reference period for ACT Government preschools.
  5. Reference period for ACT Independent preschools.

Processing the data

Data quality and comparability

To ensure national comparability, all jurisdictions were required to follow national data standards. The Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Data Set (ECEC NMDS) is a set of national data standards established by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) together with the ABS, the Department of Education, and state and territory departments responsible for ECE. More information on the ECEC NMDS can be found on the AIHW website.

Jurisdictional data quality statements details if and where jurisdictions were unable to align their collection methods with the ECEC NMDS. Issues affecting data comparability between the states and territories are included as footnotes and/or explanatory notes within this publication.

Statistics in this release may not be fully comparable across all jurisdictions or with previous releases due to differences in coverage and methodologies. Caution should therefore be used when comparing the data over time. 

Differences in the scope and counting rules for the NECECC mean that the data presented in the publication are not strictly comparable to data published in other national or state/territory publications.

Key methodology changes and impacts on data quality over time include:

From 2018, and previously from 2016, the ABS has improved the approach to data linkage in the NECECC to enhance the accuracy of child counts. Improvements were made to the way records were linked (when representing the same child), within data provided by a jurisdiction, or across CBDC data provided by both the Australian Government and jurisdictions. These changes reduced over-counts of children. Ongoing improvements to the data linkage methodology may continue over time.

From 2016, the Australian Government expanded the strategy for identifying children in the CCMS. As a result, all children at CBDCs (of the appropriate age) are recorded as attending a preschool program. This affected the count of children aged 3 years enrolled in a preschool program. Prior to 2016 the Australian Government imputed attendance data in the CCMS data extracted for the NECECC to factor for under reporting by provider.

From 2018, the Australian Government implemented the new Child Care Subsidy System (CCSS), replacing the older Child Care Management System (CCMS).

From 2018 fees for preschool programs delivered in centre based day care have been derived using data (fees and enrolled hours) supplied by the Australian Government in the CCSS dataset. This was to ensure that all preschool program fees provided were inclusive of government subsidies and that there was consistency between the numerator (fees) and denominator (enrolled hours) for the hourly fees to be derived.

Care should be taken when interpreting the results in this publication. COVID-19 restrictions were not in place when the NECECC was conducted during the census period 31 July to 6 August 2023. However, enrolment and attendance data may still be impacted in some states and territories by decisions of parents/guardians about sending children to early childhood education and care (ECEC) providers as well as ongoing impacts of COVID-19.

For more information, please see the Jurisdictional data quality statements in this release (and past releases). In addition to Jurisdictional data quality statements the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods publication provides detailed information from the early years of the NECECC (last released, 7 March 2014).

Measurement concepts

Jurisdictions collect and report data for the NECECC using a unit record level (URL) collection methodology. A URL methodology collects information for individual children and service providers. A URL collection is the most appropriate method for ensuring a child who is enrolled in multiple preschool programs is only counted once in child level estimates.

Episodes

For the NECECC, an episode is a single occurrence of a child enrolled in and/or attending a preschool program. When a child attends two different preschool programs, this is described as a child having two attendance episodes.

Unique child counts

The unique child count ensures that when a child attends two or more different preschool programs, the child is only counted once. In any given collection year, the number of unique children will be expected to be less than their number of preschool episodes.

Year before full-time schooling (YBFS)

The YBFS population considers the preschool and school entry provisions of the state in which the child usually resides and the child’s date of birth. As part of deriving the state-specific YBFS population, adjustment factors have been applied to certain cohorts for both New South Wales and Victoria to account for the rates at which children proceed from preschool to school education in those states. The adjustments are based on advice from the state education departments and are:

  • for NSW, children aged between 3 years and 11 months and 4 years and 6 months (at 1 July of collection year) are likely to proceed to school in the following year at a rate of 56%
  • for Victoria, children aged between 4 years and 2 months and 4 years and 6 months (at 1 July of collection year) are likely to proceed to school the following year at a decreasing rate (month of birth: January 74%, February 63%, March 52%, April 41%)
     

Preschool program fees

Fee schedules can differ between programs, organisations and jurisdictions. Fees may be charged daily, weekly, annually, per session or per term. If data is collected at any level other than weekly, the weekly fee is derived from the collected fee and fee schedule. Fees charged are usually based on the number of hours of a preschool program a child is enrolled to receive. Information on fees is collected at the episode level. Where a child has more than one preschool episode, their fees are calculated by summing the fees for all of their episodes. Data on fees are rounded to the nearest dollar for publication.

Hours

For URL data, information on hours is collected at the episode level. Where a child has more than one episode at a preschool program their hours are calculated by summing the hours for all of their episodes. Data on hours are rounded to the nearest hour for publication. Hours less than 1 but more than 0 are rounded to 1 hour.

Rounding

Hours and fees data have been rounded prior to being assigned to distinct ranges. Where estimates are rounded discrepancies may occur between components items and their totals.

Data release

Estimated resident population (ERP)

The preliminary ERP figures presented in this publication are based on the 2021 Census. The ABS has provided these numbers as indicative only. They are included here to support comparative reporting performed using the ERP time series. In the NECECC, children enrolled and attending preschool programs in Jervis Bay are included in statistics for the ACT. The Other Territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands are included in statistics for WA. Norfolk Island are included in statistics for Qld. Official ERP numbers for WA, ACT and NSW do not include Other Territories.

Estimated resident population(a), single year of age - as at June 2023
NSWVic.QLDSAWATas.NTACTAust. (b)
3 yr old94,42776,57761,27119,43434,1925,8323,2915,217300,285
4 yr old96,28578,58362,94619,85535,2565,9513,4145,345307,687
5 yr old96,49179,54663,88120,23335,9085,9903,3675,307310,777
6 yr old98,89381,05965,28420,58336,7206,1763,4915,701317,961
  1. Estimated resident population (ERP) by state/territory and age as published on 14 December 2023 in National, state and territory population. The Census base for ERP is 2021
  2. Australia total includes Other Territories
     

Classifications

Statistics in this publication are presented according to Sector, Statistical Geography and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA).

Sector

The sector classification used in this publication is a combination of the service provider characteristics, Service activity type and Management type, which are part of the ECEC NMDS. Where a child is enrolled in multiple preschool programs, the child’s sector is determined by the characteristics of all the providers at which the child was enrolled.

Tables presented with this classification assign episodes and unique child counts to states and territories according to the geographic location of the service provider.

Statistical geography

For the 2023 collection, data have been classified to the 2021 Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS). The ASGS is based on results from the 2021 Census, including SEIFA and remoteness area (RA).

The digital boundaries, codes and labels for each of these regions can be downloaded at Statistical geography on the ABS website free of charge.

The remoteness structure within the ASGS divides each state and territory into areas on the basis of their relative access to services. The classes of RA are:

  • major cities of Australia
  • inner regional Australia
  • outer regional Australia
  • remote Australia
  • very remote Australia
     

For more information please refer to the online publication: Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Edition 3 - Remoteness Structure.

There are two sets of statistics presented using RAs in this publication. The RA of the child’s main service provider is used, and the RA of the child’s usual residence. Where a child’s usual residence is not stated, their main service provider’s geography is used as a proxy. If the service provider’s geography is also not stated, the child’s RA may be imputed where possible and otherwise included only in the totals. It is possible for states or territories to have a zero count in a certain RA class; Tasmania does not contain a major city, the Northern Territory does not contain a major city or an inner regional classification, and ACT does not contain remote or very remote classifications.

The quantity of records for which RA was derived, using service provider geography, can be identified from the not stated SEIFA Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) data.

The ASGS Local Government Areas are an ABS approximation of gazetted local government boundaries as defined by each state and territory local government department. The 2023 edition of the local government areas structure has been used in the NECECC. For more information, see Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Edition 3 - Local Government Areas.

The ASGS Indigenous Structure provides a geographical standard for the publication of statistics about the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of Australia. The 2021 edition of the Indigenous Structure has been used in the NECECC. For more information, see Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Edition 3 - Indigenous Structure.

The ASGS Commonwealth Electoral Divisions are an ABS approximation of Australian Electoral Commission electoral division boundaries. The 2021 edition of the Commonwealth electoral divisions structure has been used in the NECECC. For more information, see Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Edition 3 - Commonwealth Electoral Divisions.

The ASGS State Electoral Divisions are an ABS approximation of the respective state and territory electoral commission's state electoral districts. The 2022 edition of the State electoral divisions structure has been used in the NECECC. For more information, see Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS): Edition 3 - State Electoral Divisons.

Socio-economic indexes for areas

The SEIFA is a product developed especially for those interested in the assessment of the welfare of Australian communities. SEIFA is a suite of four summary measures that have been created from 2021 Census of Population and Housing information. For each index, every geographic area in Australia is given a SEIFA number which shows how disadvantaged that area is compared with other areas in Australia. Quintiles are calculated by ordering the scores for all areas from lowest to highest, with the lowest 20% of areas given a quintile number of 1 and so on, up to the highest 20% of areas which are given a quintile number of 5. The indexes provide more general measures of socio-economic status than is given by measuring, for example, income or unemployment alone. The SEIFA index used for the NECECC is the IRSD. Where a child’s geography was not stated, the SEIFA IRSD is published as not stated.

For more information on SEIFA please see Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas.

Privacy and confidentiality

Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 and the Privacy Act 1988. Some figures in this publication have been perturbed in order to prevent the disclosure of information that may allow the identification of individuals or organisations.

General acknowledgement

This publication draws on information provided by the Australian Government, state and territory governments, and the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. Their continued cooperation enables the ABS to publish a wide range of education statistics. Information received by the ABS is treated in strict confidence as required by the Census and Statistics Act 1905 .

Additional information

For more information on the NECECC measurement concepts see the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods.

For more information on data collection instructions and guidelines see the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection: Data Collection Guide (available on request).

Additional statistics are available from Microdata: Preschool Education using the TableBuilder and/or DataLab facilities.

For more information on estimated resident population and population projections, see National, state and territory population, Regional Population by Age and Sex and Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Enquiries

For enquiries about these and related statistics, contact the Customer Assistance Service via the ABS website Contact Us page. The ABS Privacy Policy outlines how the ABS will handle any personal information that you provide to us.

Service provider coverage

Table A1 shows the number of service providers from which data were collected for the 2023 collection. All service providers that delivered an early childhood education and care (ECEC) program by a qualified teacher to children between the ages of 3 and 6 years are included in the counts.

A1 Number of early childhood education and care service providers delivering an ECEC program to children aged 3 to 6 years, sector(a)
   NSWVic.Qld(b)SAWATas.NTACTAust.
Preschool 
 Government155265201340682150116771,986
 Non-government         
  Community6268143723----1,815
  Private for profit(c)45------9
  Independent schools207631101242623292
  Catholic schools--259131283-196
  Total non-government6508954282225554532,312
 Total preschool8051,160629362937204121804,298
Preschool program within a centre based day care 
 Government21811423601512123457
 Non-government3,2161,8731,805438792126981818,529
 Total centre based day care(d)3,4341,9871,8284988071381101848,986
Total service providers with a preschool program delivered by a qualified teacher4,2393,1472,4578601,74434223126413,284

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. State/territory is derived from the provider's location.
  2. Queensland data includes a small number of occasional care services providing a preschool program.
  3. Includes 'Other'.
  4. Some preschools are reclassified to centre based day care due to collection methodologies.
     

The counts were developed by processing service provider information from state and territory submissions and the Australian government’s CCSS submission. Where the same service provider was identified across two data sources, the service provider has been counted only once.

Information from the multiple data sources was compared and service provider data characteristics were updated to make use of the best available data. This resulted in reclassification of service activity type for some service providers in order to reflect the predominant activity occurring there. For example, where a service provider was categorised as ‘preschool’ within a state or territory collection but was also categorised as ‘centre based day care with a preschool program’ within the CCSS submission, the service activity type ‘centre based day care with a preschool program' was adopted for that service provider.

Table A2 shows the number of service providers which had enrolments of 4 and 5 year old children. The category 'Total service providers with a preschool program' in this table corresponds to the child statistics reported in this publication.

A2 Number of service providers with an early childhood education program delivered to children aged 4 and 5 years, sector(a)
   NSWVic.Qld(b)SAWATas.NTACTAust.(c)
Delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher 
Preschool 
 Government15526419334068215083771,944
 Non-government         
  Community6208123703----1,805
  Private for profit(c)35------8
  Independent schools207631101222623290
  Catholic schools--229131283-193
  Total non-government6438934232225354532,296
 Total preschool7981,15761636293520488804,240
Preschool program within a centre based day care 
 Government21611421601412103450
 Non-government3,1851,8591,794436777125961818,453
 Total centre based day care(d)3,4011,9731,8154967911371061848,903
Total service providers with a preschool program delivered by a qualified teacher4,1993,1302,4318581,72634119426413,143
Not delivered by a qualified early childhood teacher 
Service providers with a preschool program not delivered by a qualified teacher(e)6314---33-56
Total 
Total service providers with a preschool program4,2053,1332,4458581,72634122726413,199

- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)

  1. State/territory is derived from the provider's location.
  2. Queensland data includes a small number of occasional care services providing a preschool program.
  3. Includes 'Other'.
  4. Some preschools are reclassified to centre based day care due to collection methodologies.
  5. Includes not stated.

Estimates of 3 and 6 year old children in a preschool program

Table A3 contains counts of 3 and 6 year old children who were enrolled in and attended a preschool program in 2023. Since 2016, the NECECC has included all children enrolled at a CBDC centre for which data was supplied in the CCSS, contributing to increased coverage of 3 and 6 year old children. However, for some of the other jurisdictional data sources, the reporting of 3 and 6 year olds enrolled in a preschool program is not mandatory and as a consequence the NECECC does not have complete coverage.

The 3 and 6 year old preschool data were also influenced by the different service delivery models that exist throughout Australia. For some states and territories, and within some sectors, 3 year old preschool programs are only available for children who meet special preschool program early entry requirements. Enrolments for 6 year olds differ according to primary school starting age (see Data collection section).

Due to the limitations associated with 3 and 6 year old preschool data, care should be taken when interpreting and using the table below for statistical analysis or comparison to other data. The presented data is incomplete and does not provide an accurate and consistent view of the 3 year old population within or across states and territories. The data is presented with the aim of continuing to improve the coverage in future collections.

A3 Estimates of 3 and 6 year old children in a preschool program(a)(b)
  NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Children aged 3 years 
 Attending a preschool program70,31058,38942,72313,38720,4333,1711,7204,078
 Enrolled in a preschool program70,61962,17442,86313,48820,6793,1711,7974,086
Children aged 6 years 
 Attending a preschool program8585081,6109174724217130
 Enrolled in a preschool program8585131,6109174724221130
  1. Cells in this table have been randomly adjusted to avoid the release of confidential data.
  2. Due to the data limitations associated with 3 and 6 year old preschool data, care should be taken when interpreting and using the table for statistical analysis or comparison.

Jurisdictional data quality statements

The 2023 NECECC brings together data from a range of stakeholders. The 2023 NECECC was conducted to support performance based reporting for the Preschool Reform Agreement. To do this, it aims to compile child and service provider statistics from all service providers delivering an in-scope preschool program within Australia.

The NECECC uses standards to ensure the quality and consistency of data submitted. The 2023 Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Data Set (2023 ECEC NMDS), sets the NECECC standards for data collected in 2023.

The jurisdictional data quality statements allow for quality and consistency assessment across the data submissions that contribute to the NECECC. The statements have been informed by the ABS Data Quality Framework and have been developed, in consultation with the ABS, by the stakeholders responsible for submitting data for the NECECC. 

The jurisdictional data quality statements also inform the publication, Preschool Education.

Jurisdictional data quality statements have been provided by the following organisations:

  • Australian Government - Department of Education (Australian Government DoE)
  • New South Wales - Department of Education (NSW DoE)
  • Victoria - Department of Education (Vic. DE)
  • Queensland - Department of Education (Qld DoE)
  • South Australia - Department for Education (SA DfE)
  • Western Australia - Department of Education (WA DoE)
  • Tasmania - Department for Education, Children and Young People (Tas. DECYP)
  • Northern Territory - Department of Education (NT DoE)
  • ACT - Education Directorate (the Directorate)
  • ACT - Catholic Education


To enhance readability across the data quality statements, the term ‘preschool’ has been used in place of where some jurisdictions may otherwise use the term ‘kindergarten’ or ‘early childhood education program’ (see the glossary for more information).

Australian Government

In 2023, the Australian Government Department of Education (Australian Government DoE) submission to the NECECC included child care administrative data.

Child care administrative data

Child care administrative data is information, collected in the CCSS, on child care services and the children and families that use Australian Government approved child care. The CCSS is the Australian Government's primary mechanism for managing child care payments. Child care administrative data contains payment and related data on centre based day care (which includes the former long day care type care) services related to the delivery of early childhood education programs (ECEP) - also referred to as 'preschool' or 'kindergarten'.

Institutional environment

While Australian Government DoE has portfolio responsibility for child care, responsibility for the operation of the child care administrative data is shared with Services Australia, an agency of the Australian Government Department of Social Services.

Child care administrative data is collected for the purposes of administering Child Care Subsidy (which replaced the Child Care Benefit (CCB) under A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Cwlth), A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 (Cwlth) and Family Assistance Legislation (Jobs for Families Child Care Package) Act 2017. Payments are administered by Services Australia.

Relevance

The CCSS is the national system that enables child care services to exchange child care information online with the Australian Government to enable the payment of Child Care Subsidy, on behalf of parents, to approved child care services. It also provides information about the national supply and usage of child care. All approved child care services must use the CCSS, but for the purposes of this Data Quality Statement, reference will be confined to centre based day care services required to meet the National Quality Framework (NQF).

Centre based day care services must regularly submit data to the CCSS, through software developed by registered third-party software providers, or directly via a web portal, and record child demographic, enrolment and attendance information.

Scope: In 2023, the scope of the child care administrative data extracted for the NECECC included:

  • all children aged 3 to 6 years from all approved centre based day care providers that operate in accordance with the NQF
  • the primary source of hours data (enrolled and attended) was drawn from centre based day care providers standard data, in some cases jurisdiction data was used for hours (enrolled and attended) where it is available

Coverage: All approved centre based day care services are required to provide data related to the administration of Child Care Subsidy (such as enrolments and attendances) through the CCSS. Centre based day care providers approved for Child Care Subsidy but which do not operate in accordance with the NQF and services not approved for Child Care Subsidy (such as state-run preschools) have been excluded, where possible, from child care administrative data.

Data collection methods: The 2023 child care administrative data used a unit record level (URL) collection methodology for children and services and is drawn from the Services Australia Enterprise Data Warehouse.

Timeliness

The 2023 child care administrative data for the reference week Monday 31 July – Sunday 6 August 2023 was extracted in October 2023. The Australian Government DoE processed and validated the data before submitting it to the ABS in November 2023.

Accuracy

Centre based day care services are required by A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 (Cwlth) and Family Assistance Legislation (Jobs for Families Child Care Package) Act 2017 legislation, to submit certain records (weekly enrolments and attendance records etc.), for all children in attendance at the service. Record details, such as child dates of birth and reference numbers as well as service client IDs, are checked and cross-referenced. This ensures there can only be one current enrolment at a service for the same parent/guardian and child combination.

This results in:

  • high accuracy for child demographic details such as name, date of birth and address information etc. and the child's associated attendance records
  • high accuracy for children's attendance as it is assumed that all children attending a quality centre based day care service are receiving a preschool program

Data on families' Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin is captured within the Services Australia data warehouse.  Within the Services Australia data collections, families may identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander or choose not to provide this information. Those children whose families choose not to identify are classified as having neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander origin rather than origin being ‘unknown/not stated’ for the publication as per previous years.

Coherence

The collection of child URL data ensures duplications are minimised and the total child count is as robust as systematically possible. Deviations between the NECECC standards and child care administrative data collected are outlined in the table below:

Deviation from the NECECC standards
Data ElementDetails of Deviation
Preschool program fees chargedData on preschool fees are not collected separately, and centre based day care services fees are used as a proxy. Preschool program fees are calculated by deducting Child Care Subsidy and Additional Child Care Subsidy from the charged fee.
Preschool program received from a qualified teacherThe CCSS does not record which staff member delivered a preschool program or where centre based day care services may have waivers in place. It is assumed that all centre based day care services are delivering a preschool program in accordance with requirements contained within the National Quality Framework.
Service operating weeksIn some cases the service operating weeks was not stated. It is a legal requirement that centre based day care services must operate for at least 48 weeks per year, so not stated was imputed to be 48 weeks.
Hours attended and offeredThe Child Care Subsidy was introduced on 2 July 2018, and it was not mandatory for services to start reporting hours attended until the fortnight ending 14 January 2019. However, as attended hours is relatively new data, hours enrolled has been used as a proxy for attended and offered hours.

Accessibility

Privacy and confidentiality requirements within family assistance law limit the publication of child care administrative data at certain granularities. De-identified aggregate data (which includes child care administrative data) are published as part of Preschool Education and Microdata: Preschool Education on the ABS website. A selection of child care administrative data is published quarterly and is available on the Australian Government DoE website www.education.gov.au.

Information source

The information in this report has been sourced from the Australian Government DoE in consultation with the ABS. Further information is available from the Australian Government DoE website www.education.gov.au.

New South Wales

Victoria

Queensland

South Australia

Western Australia

Tasmania

Northern Territory

Australian Capital Territory

State-specific year before full time schooling

Background

In 2016, a new state-specific year before full time schooling (YBFS) definition was developed to better reflect the YBFS concept needed for national reports by government. This state-specific YBFS definition uses the preschool and school age entry provisions of the state or territory in which the child usually resides.

The state-specific YBFS definition has been created mainly to assist with the Report on Government Services (RoGS) and Closing the Gap.

Statistics for the state-specific YBFS definition have been included in Preschool Education since 2016 and replace the original YBFS definition based statistics published in prior years. The original YBFS definition included all children enrolled and attending a preschool program aged 4 years and only children aged 5 years who had not previously attended a preschool program as a 4 year old.

Calculating state-specific YBFS cohorts

Table A4 shows the state-specific age ranges for children in their year before commencing school. For six jurisdictions, children born over a specified interval of 12 months are included. However, for New South Wales and Victoria the interval is slightly broader with adjustment factors applied to account for the rates at which the youngest children in the interval proceed from preschool to school education in those states.

A4 State-specific YBFS age cohorts based on months and years of birth
State or TerritoryAge cohorts by month and year of birth
NSWAll children born 2 July 2017 - 31 December 2018 and adjusted counts for children born in the interval 1 January 2019 - 31 July 2019 (56%)
VicAll children born 2 July 2017 - 31 December 2018 and adjusted counts for children born in January 2019 (74%), February 2019 (63%), March 2019 (52%), April 2019 (41%)
Qld, WA, NTAll children born 1 July 2018 – 30 June 2019
SA and ACTAll children born 1 May 2018 – 30 April 2019
TasAll children born 1 January 2018 – 31 December 2018

The preschool education statistics for the state-specific YBFS cohorts can be found in Tables 28 to 31 of the datacube in Preschool Education, 2023. These statistics are presented by the child’s state or territory of usual residence, which aligns with the place of usual residence basis for ABS population estimates and projections.

Population estimates for state-specific YBFS cohorts

Population estimates for the state-specific YBFS cohorts were created to allow reporting of population proportions within RoGS and Closing the Gap with greater accuracy than would otherwise be possible.

The state-specific YBFS population estimates in Table A5 for all children were created by:

  • distributing each state/territory’s estimated resident population (ERP) for children aged 3 to 6 years across individual months of birth according to birth statistics for the same time interval - the data used in these calculations were sourced from National, state and territory population and Births, Australia  
  • the distributed ERP was then aggregated according to the state-specific YBFS cohort age ranges in each state/territory. The same adjustment factors were applied for NSW and Victoria as highlighted in Table A4
  • finally, a deduction was made for the number of children aged 4 and 5 years of age in the state-specific YBFS cohorts that were attending school in each state/territory, this deduction was based on counts reported in Schools, Australia


For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, the same process was used but with population projections from Estimates and Projections, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians instead of ERP. This is because ERP for 30 June 2023 by single year of age are not currently available for this population.

A5 Population estimates in state-specific YBFS cohorts
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACT
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders6,8631,4185,7391,0182,3366131,386184
Non-Indigenous(a)99,84279,39556,89018,84832,7945,2881,9955,104
Total106,70580,81362,62919,86635,1305,9013,3815,287

a. Calculated as the total less Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children

Glossary

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Post-release changes

28 March 2024

'A5 Population estimates in state-specific YBFS cohorts' table updated following a minor correction.

Revision to the population estimates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and Non-Indigenous children. Totals remain unchanged.

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