Australian Bureau of Statistics
Celebrating the International Year of Statistics 2013

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NATIONAL COMPARABILITY

National Minimum Data Set

The Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Data Set (ECEC NMDS) is a set of national data standards which has been established by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), in conjunction with the ABS, to guide jurisdictions in the collection of ECEC data. Compliance with these standards will mean ECEC data is consistent and comparable between state and territory jurisdictions. More information on the ECEC NMDS can be found on the AIHW website, <http://meteor.aihw.gov.au>.


Key methodological differences

For 2010, there were a number of different data collection methodologies employed by each jurisdiction. This has resulted in data not being as comparable as it would be if the collection methods were aligned across jurisdictions. In addition, some jurisdictions were not able to provide the ABS with certain data elements for the 2010 collection.

Data limitations for the 2010 collection include:

• Lack of comprehensive coverage of the preschool sector, for example limited non-government / long day care (LDC) coverage.
• URL data not currently available for all jurisdictions.
• Duplicate records not identifiable within all jurisdictions.
• Differences in data element collection methodologies across jurisdictions.
• Differences in collection dates, reference weeks and age reference dates across jurisdictions.