4240.0.55.003 - Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia, 2013  
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 30/04/2014   
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TABLEBUILDER PRODUCT STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

PRODUCT STRUCTURE

The 2013 National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection (NECECC) Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.003) product is structured as three separate databases or topics:

1. Children enrolled in a preschool program
2. Episodes of children enrolled in a preschool program
3. Episodes of workers delivering a preschool program

These databases contain information on children, service providers, episodes of children and episodes of workers delivering a preschool program.

1. Children enrolled in a preschool program – this database contains records of children enrolled in and attending preschool disaggregated by:

      · Summation options, which includes: Fees per week – continuous, Fees per hour – continuous, Hours enrolled per week and Hours attended per week,
      · Child demographics, which includes: Sex, Age, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, etc.
      · Child geography, derived from the child’s usual place of residence, which includes: Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) of child, Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) of child, Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) of child and the State/territory of the child, and
      · Service provider details, which includes: State/Territory of main provider and Type of main provider.
2. Episodes of children enrolled in a preschool program – this database contains records of episodes of children enrolled in and attending preschool programs disaggregated by:
      · Summation options, which includes: Fees per week – continuous, Fees per hour – continuous, Hours enrolled per week and Hours attended per week,
      · Child demographics, which includes: Sex, Age, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status, etc.
      · Child geography, derived from the child’s usual place of residence, which includes: Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) of child, Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) of child, Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) of child and the State/Territory of the child, and
      · Service provider details, which includes: State/Territory of main provider and Type of main provider.
3. Episodes of workers delivering a preschool program – this database contains records of episodes of workers disaggregated by:
      · Worker demographics, which includes: Role of worker, Type of work activity, Field of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care and the Level of highest qualification relevant to early childhood education and care.
      · Service provider details, which includes: State/Territory of main provider, Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) of provider and Provider type.

To navigate between the 3 databases or topics click on the ‘Select database or topic’ link, located in the header or under the ‘Customise Table’ tab. See the image of TableBuilder screen below.



A complete data item list, covering all data items from the 3 databases or topics, can be accessed from the Downloads page.

Further information about the populations can be accessed from the Explanatory Notes page in the publication Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0). For further information on the Concepts, Sources and Methods used in collating the Collection, please see National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.001).

FILE CONTENT

Introduction

The following section provides information about some of the key data items and populations specific to the Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.003) product. The data is complex and it is recommended that users reference this section when producing tables to ensure data is interpreted correctly. Referencing the data item list in the Downloads tab which contains the complete detail for each data item including the full output classification and any special codes used is also useful.

For general information and a guide to using the TableBuilder product, please reference the User Manual: TableBuilder.

Feedback

As this is the first release of preschool data using the TableBuilder product, the ABS welcomes feedback as to the structure, content and useability of this product. Please provide feedback via education.statistics@abs.gov.au.

Comparing output with data published in Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0)

In general, data reported in both sources will be identical. However, there is one small discrepancy between the output in this product and the published output in 4240.0 arising from the way that child records with 'not stated' responses to the hours attended data item have been treated. In the publication, children with this characteristic have been included in national totals of children attending preschool, however, in TableBuilder they have been excluded. This only affects a small number of children in Victoria and the Northern Territory.

To reproduce tables from Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0), the State and Territory selected should be 'State/Territory of main provider' from the 'Service provider details' folder in each database. See the image of TableBuilder screen below.
    Image: State/Territory of main provider data item

Not applicable, Not stated, Inadequately described and Other Categories/Special Codes

Most data items included in the TableBuilder file include a ‘Not applicable’, 'Not stated', 'Inadequately described’ and/or 'Other' category and, where relevant, these are shown in the data item list in the Downloads tab.

Each continuous data item has a value reserved as a special code to represent records with ‘Not applicable’, 'Not stated', 'Inadequately described’ and/or 'Other' for that data item (e.g. code 9999). TableBuilder does not include these values when calculating sums, medians and means.

Continuous Data Items

The NECECC TableBuilder contains a number of continuous data items that are available for selection from 'Summation Options' in the 'Customise Table' pane. Continuous data items are those data items that are not collected or reported in discrete categories (such as sex) but can take on a very large (or potentially infinite) range of values. Continuous data items include fees paid and hours enrolled and attended.

In the TableBuilder, databases for Children enrolled in a preschool program and Episodes of children enrolled in a preschool program, two fees paid variables are available. For example below, Fees per hour is available as ‘Fees per hour – continuous’ and ‘Fees per hour – categorical’.
    Image: Data items - 'Fees per hour - continuous' and 'Fees per hour - categorical'

'Fees per hour – continuous' can be summed or used to calculate medians and means. 'Fees per hour – continuous' has the special code of '9999' for children who did not have hourly fees stated or available. When calculating medians and means for 'Fees per hour – continuous', these special codes are automatically EXCLUDED from calculations.

'Fees per hour – categorical' on the other hand can be used for creating tables and these discrete categories. This variable can be further categorised by the user into defined ranges for the purpose of producing tables (e.g. $0-$4, $5-$9, $10-$14, $15+, Not stated).

As fees per hour and fees per week are released as both categorical and continuous data items, this is specified in the data item name.

A range restriction has been applied to 'Fees per hour - continuous' and 'Fees per week - continuous' to protect confidentiality of the data. These restrictions preventing any custom ranges from being created from these items so that when a user tries to create a custom range from these continuous items the following error message is returned:
    Image: Fees per week - continuous range restrictions

To avoid confusion, it is highly recommended that when producing and interpreting a table of sums, medians or means of a continuous data item, the corresponding categorical data item is also used in a separate tabulation for a complete understanding of all ‘valid’ and ‘invalid’ responses.


Example:

The following two tables display the types of results obtained when using a continuous data item from the Summation Options and the corresponding categorical version of the data item.

In this output, the mean or average fees per hour has been tabulated from the continuous data item in Summation Options. This shows that the average fees per hour (Australia total) was estimated at around $2.50 per child enrolled.
    Table: Example of mean fees per hour - continuous

When the corresponding categorical data item is cross-tabulated by Australia, the results display the total population relevant to each category. This shows there were 288,052 children aged 4 or 5 years old enrolled in a preschool program in Australia of which 212 children reported that the tuition fees are unknown, not stated or inadequately described.
    Table: Example of fees per hour - categorical

Consequently, when interpreting these tables together, it shows the size of the population to which the above estimate of the average fees per hour applies – i.e. 287,835 children aged 4 or 5 years old enrolled in a preschool program, on average, were charged a fee of $2.50 per hour.

    National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection populations

    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 or two before they commence full-time schooling (a preschool program) during the reference period. In this product, information is available on the service provider attended by each child (on the child and episode files) and as the employer of each worker (on the worker file).

    Child

    All children who as at 1 July in the collection year were between 3 and 6 years of age (inclusive) and were enrolled during the reference period in a preschool program are in-scope of NECECC. The scope of the TableBuilder file includes enrolled 3 to 5 year old children only. 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.

    In this product data for children are reported as:
      · Episodes – counts of a child’s enrolment in a preschool program. As a child may be enrolled in more than one preschool program, a child can have multiple episodes.
      · Children – counts of persons, a child can only be counted once.
      · Children in the year before full-time schooling (YBFS) – as with children above but with a further filter (available for selection in ‘Child demographics' options) applied to remove any children who have been enrolled in a preschool program in previous years. The presented YBFS population within this publication is an estimate of a single year cohort for the population that will transition to full-time schooling in 2014. This population does not reflect the true YBFS population. Please see the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection Concepts, Sources and Methods, 2013 (cat. No. 4240.0.55.001) for more information.
    Episode

    Where children are enrolled in multiple preschool programs, they will have an episode recorded for each of those experiences.

    Worker

    A worker is considered to be in-scope if the worker is paid contact employee who has delivered, or assisted in delivering, a preschool program at an in-scope service provider, during the reference period.

    OTHER CLASSIFICATIONS

    In this product, Remoteness Area (RA) and Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFAs) Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) are provided for classification. Values/classifications are based on 2011 Census data.

    STATISTICAL GEOGRAPHY

    For this product, child and episode data is available classified to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS) Statistical Area Level 3 (SA3) and by Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA). Accordingly, data may be output from the 2013 NECECC using aggregations of ASGS SA3s and higher statistical areas. Worker data is available classified to State and Territory and ARIA.

    Lower levels of geographic output (e.g. at the ASGS Statistical Area Level 1 (SA1)) may also be available through special data services.

    Further information about the geographical framework can be accessed from the Explanatory Notes page in the publication Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat. no. 4240.0).

    Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia/Remoteness Areas

    ARIA divides Australia into broad geographic regions that share common characteristics of remoteness for statistical purposes.

    The classes of ARIA in the Remoteness Structure are:
      § Major Cities of Australia
      § Inner Regional Australia
      § Outer Regional Australia
      § Remote Australia
      § Very Remote Australia
      § Other or not stated
    For databases Child enrolled in a preschool program and Episode of child enrolled in a preschool program, ARIA categories are derived using the child's usual residence. Where a child's usual residence is not stated, the main service provider's location is used as a proxy. For Episodes of workers delivering a preschool program, ARIA is derived from the service providers location.

    This methodology makes it possible for counts of children to be classified into a RA that isn't applicable to their State or Territory. For example, according to ARIA, the Northern Territory (NT) does not contain a Major City or an Inner Regional classification, however child records on the TableBuilder file may report an NT location and a Major City ARIA value.

    The quantity of records for which ARIA was derived, using service provider location, can be determined by filtering child or episode data to only include records with an IRSD classification of Not Stated or not available.
      Image: ARIA of child data item

    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 the 2011 Census of Population and Housing information. The indexes can be used to explore different aspects of socio-economic conditions by geographic areas. 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. 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 in this collection is the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD).

    Where a child's geography was not stated the SEIFA IRSD is published as Not stated. No alternative SEIFA is applied if a child record has a Not stated SEIFA IRSD.

    Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage: The IRSD summarises a range of information about the economic and social resources of people and households within an area. Unlike other indexes, this index includes only measures of relative disadvantage.

    For more information on SEIFA please see the Information Paper: An Introduction to Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), 2006 (cat. no. 2039.0).