AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT

DATA QUALITY STATEMENT

In 2013, the Australian Government was responsible for two data collections in relation to preschool children, the Child Care Management System (CCMS) and the National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Census 2013 (the ECEC Workforce Census). The CCMS enabled a data extract to be provided at child unit record level (URL) for the 2013 Collection while the Workforce Census enabled URL worker data on preschools in Long Day Care services to be provided. Information from the Workforce Census on preschool services in Long Day Care was also used to adjust for known under-reporting of preschool children in the CCMS data in 2013.

Child Care Management System

Institutional Environment

The Department of Social Services (DSS) (formerly the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA)), the Australian Government Department of Education (formerly Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR)) and the Department of Human Services all share responsibility for the operation of the CCMS. Data for the CCMS are collected under A New Tax System (Family Assistance) (Administration) Act 1999 (Cwlth) and A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 (Cwlth). Preschool data from the CCMS for the purposes of the Collection are managed by the Australian Government Department of Education.

Relevance

The CCMS is a national child care administrative system that enables child care services to exchange child care information online with the Australian Government. It enables the payment of Child Care Benefit (CCB) fee reductions on behalf of parents, to approved child care services. It also provides for the collection of information about the supply and usage of child care across Australia. All CCB approved child care service providers are required by law to operate under CCMS.

Child care services use their CCMS registered software to record child demographic, enrolment and attendance information. Relevant data is then extracted by the Australian Government Department of Education to allow calculation and payment of CCB fee reductions on behalf of children in their service. Services need to supply this information regularly in order to comply with CCMS regulations.

While the CCMS was not initially designed to collect information about preschool programs in Long Day Care (LDC) centres, the CCMS provides an opportunity to gain such information. From June 2010, enhancements were deployed in the CCMS to capture information on whether a child is attending a preschool program in each LDC, and the hours per week of preschool attendance. Reporting capabilities for this data have been available since 1 September 2010.

Scope: The scope of the CCMS extract for the Collection included all children aged 3 to 6 years of age who were enrolled within the reference week at a LDC provider approved for the purposes of CCB. Three year olds are included on the same basis as older children. If they were enrolled in a LDC and preschool hours were recorded for them in CCMS then they were included in the data as attending preschool. There is no distinction made on the basis of the type of program or if attending with older children (this is not possible in CCMS regardless). If they were attending a preschool program, as per the definitions in the ECEC NMDS, then they were included as attending preschool in the CCMS data.

Coverage: All services approved for the purposes of CCB were required to provide data through the CCMS. However, LDCs delivering preschool programs were not mandated to complete the preschool program component of the CCMS, which has resulted in under-coverage due to levels of non-response. For the 2013 Collection, information from the ECEC National Workforce Census 2013, conducted by the Australian Government Department of Education in May 2013, was used to adjust for non-response in the CCMS data. The ECEC National Workforce Census 2013 provides detailed information on the types of services provided by LDC services (specifically preschool programs) and the workers in those services (including information on field and level of qualification and role). This information was used to identify LDC services that did not report children attending preschool in CCMS. Adjustments to the CCMS data were undertaken to include children in those services in the data provided to ABS. Service providers that were not approved for CCB purposes were not included in the CCMS.

Data collection methods: The 2013 preschool program component of the CCMS collected data using a URL data collection methodology for the following statistical entities:

• Child: data at the child record level
• Service provider organisation: data at the service provider record level
• Worker: In 2013, the Australian Government Department of Education provided data on workers in preschool in LDCs from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013. Coverage of workers is not complete as data comes from a survey. It should also be noted that the ECEC Workforce Census was conducted from 20 – 26 May 2013, which is a different time period to the child and service data reference week of 29 July to 4 August 2013.

The Australian Government Department of Education used information from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013 to adjust for under-reporting of children in preschool in the CCMS data. This is a self-report survey conducted at a service level. In 2013 the response rate of LDC services was 86.4%.

From the ECEC Workforce Census it is possible to determine which LDC service providers were providing a preschool program (using a range of service and worker variables) in the survey reference week (20 – 26 May 2013). This information, along with information on the aggregate number of children attending preschool and LDC were used to impute additional information on preschool attendance in the CCMS data.

The imputation improved the completeness of the CCMS data. However, as the imputation is based on data collected in a self-report survey, with a level of non-response, the resulting numbers should be considered as estimates and interpreted appropriately.

In 2013 worker data is available from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013. Data on workers from responding organisations in scope were provided to ABS.

Timeliness

The CCMS involves service providers uploading weekly attendance information for children enrolled at their service. Data were extracted from the system for a collection reference period of 29 July to 4 August 2013. Extraction of the data, enhancement based on information from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013, processing and validation took approximately 2 to 3 months from the collection date, at which time data were delivered to the ABS.

Accuracy

Under A New Tax System (Family Assistance) Act 1999 (Cwlth), approved child care services are required to submit certain records such as weekly enrolments and attendance record reports for each child to the Australian Government Department of Education electronically, using an approved software. To ensure there are no duplicate enrolments, the Australian Government Department of Education checks dates of birth and Child Reference Numbers as well as Service Client IDs so there can only be one current enrolment at a service for the same parent/guardian and child combination.

The CCMS has a high level of accuracy in reporting information on child demographics (such as name, date of birth and address information) and children’s attendance in child care services, as this information contributes to the provision of CCB. However, some service provider characteristics and information on children’s attendance in preschool programs was subject to a level of service non-response, as the provision of this data by service providers was not mandatory. Furthermore, as not all services use the same software to record the information into CCMS, the various interfaces used to input to CCMS can influence what is recorded.

The Australian Government Department of Education used information from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013 to adjust for under-reporting of children in preschool in the CCMS data. This is a self-report survey conducted at a service level. In 2013 the response rate of LDC services was 86.4%.

From the ECEC Workforce Census it is possible to determine which LDC service providers were providing a preschool program (using a range of service and worker variables) in the survey reference week (20 – 26 May 2013). This information, along with information on the aggregate number of children attending preschool and LDC and the hours of teaching provided were used to impute additional information on preschool attendance in the CCMS data. The imputation improved the completeness of the CCMS data. However, as the imputation is based on data collected in a self-report survey, with a level of non-response, the resulting numbers should be considered as estimates and interpreted appropriately.

In 2013, worker data is available from the ECEC Workforce Census 2013. Data on workers from responding organisations in scope was provided to ABS.

Coherence

In 2012 the under reporting of preschool attendance in the CCMS was adjusted through information collected by following up with individual organisations who were identified as likely to be providing a preschool program (but who did not report children attending preschool in CCMS). This boosted preschool children numbers by around a third in 2012. In 2013 a similar approach was used as under-reporting of preschool attendance is still an issue. However, rather than a direct follow up with service providers after the reference week, information collected in the National ECEC Workforce Census 2013 was used to identify service providers who reported providing a preschool program (according to the ECEC NMDS specifications) in the survey reference week in May 2013.

Despite this, data sourced from the 2013 CCMS were of sufficient quality and comparability for use as a supplement to state and territory data, thereby improving 2013 coverage of preschool programs delivered in the LDC sector
Deviations between the 2013 ECEC NMDS and data collected from the CCMS, are outlined in Table 6.1.

Data Element	Details of Deviation
Preschool program fees charged	Data on preschool fees are not separately collected. Preschool fees are derived from out of pocket Long Day Care fees, pro-rata on preschool hours enrolled/LDC hours enrolled.
Preschool program received from a qualified teacher	In CCMS it is not possible to determine who delivered the preschool program. It is assumed that all preschool programs were received from a qualified teacher (or equivalent).
Preschool program	From the ECEC Workforce Census, a preschool program is derived using a combination of variables on service delivery and worker roles and qualifications, in accordance with the ECEC NMDS.

Counts of Children:
It is possible for a child to be concurrently enrolled in, and attending, two or more preschool programs and attend preschool across years. In order to address collection requirements, it is important to be able to identify matched episode records for a child accurately, both within a collection cycle and between years.

Children in a Preschool Program in 2013:

• For data sourced from the Child Care Management System (CCMS), counts of children enrolled in and attending preschool programs in 2013 were able to be derived as data were collected using a consistent URL data collection methodology.

Children in a Preschool Program in the Year before Full-time Schooling:

• Two years of comparable data collected using a URL methodology and a child/client database were available for data collected from the CCMS.

As CCMS data was imputed using supplementary data from two different sources (a directed follow up of service providers in 2012 and the National ECEC Workforce Census in 2013) the identification of individual children attending in both 2012 and 2013 will be subject to some error.

Interpretability

A newsletter prompting providers to complete the preschool component of CCMS and outlining the definitions as per the ECEC NMDS were sent to LDC providers and CCMS software providers prior to the reference week. Extensive explanatory information was provided in a handbook and a telephone enquiry help desk was available to assist users with queries about how to report information under the CCMS. The CCMS handbook is available for download from the Australian Government Department of Education website, along with other instruction sheets and explanatory materials, at <http://education.gov.au/help-using-child-care-management-system>.

Accessibility

Data sourced from the preschool program component of the CCMS for the 2013 Collection are published at the state and territory level in Preschool Education, Australia, 2013 (cat no. 4240.0) on the ABS website.

Selected data from the CCMS are available on the Australian Government Department of Education website: <http://education.gov.au/child-care-management-system>.

Information Source

The information in this report has been sourced from Australian Government Department of Education in consultation with the ABS. Further information is available from the Australian Government Department of Education website: <http://education.gov.au/early-childhood>.
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