4240.0.55.001 - National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection Manual, 2010

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 05/04/2011 First Issue

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Contents >> Collection Background and Governance >> Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Data Set

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION AND CARE NATIONAL MINIMUM DATA SET

A key activity under the NIA ECEC is the development and implementation of agreed data standards through the ECEC National Minimum Data Set (ECEC NMDS) (MCEECDYA, 2010). The AIHW has been commissioned to undertake this work within their existing data repository, the Metadata Online Registry (METeOR). The ECEC NMDS includes a set of national data standards and protocols for the purpose of reporting against the NP ECE performance indicators. The ABS is assisting the AIHW in working towards further development and implementation of the ECEC NMDS.

A detailed description of each of the unit record level (URL) and aggregate ECEC NMDS data elements is provided in Chapter 8, Data Element Collection Instructions. Further information is also available on the AIHW website:

The URL ECEC NMDS is available at: <http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/396792>.
The aggregate ECEC NMDS is available at:<http://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/388507>.

Each jurisdiction in Australia is currently at different stages of implementing improvements to their ECEC data collection mechanisms, so as to align with ECEC NMDS. For the 2010 collection no jurisdiction is currently achieving complete alignment with the national standards. As systems and procedures for collecting data to the necessary quality standards are still evolving, it will not be possible to produce statistics for all the performance indicators by each jurisdiction in the first year of the collection.

The extent to which jurisdictions meet the ECEC NMDS standards is summarised in Chapter 4, Jurisdictional Data Quality Statements.