TABLEBUILDER PRODUCT STRUCTURE AND CONTENT

PRODUCT STRUCTURE

The Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4240.0.55.003) product is structured as two separate databases or topics:

1. Children enrolled in a preschool program
2. 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 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, Indigenous Status, Fees per week – categorical, Fees per hour – categorical etc.
· Child geography, derived from the child’s usual place of residence, which includes: Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) of child, Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD) of child (Australia and State), Remoteness Area of child and the State/territory of the child, and
· Service provider details, which includes: State/Territory of main provider, Type of main provider, Maximum hours available per year at one provider, Sector and Provider funding overview.

2. Episodes of workers delivering a preschool program – this database contains records of episodes of workers delivering a preschool program 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: Sector, State/Territory of service provider, and Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) of service provider.

To navigate between the 2 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 2 databases or topics, can be accessed from the Downloads page.

Further information about the data can be accessed from Preschool Education, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4240.0) and 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, 2014 (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. It is also useful to refer to 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.

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


Replicating output with data published in Preschool Education, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4240.0)

To reproduce tables from Preschool Education, Australia, 2014 (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.

Special Codes

Most data items included in the TableBuilder file include special codes for 'Not applicable', 'Not stated', 'Inadequately described’ and/or 'Other' categories. These are shown in the data item list in the Downloads tab. TableBuilder does not include these codes when calculating sums, medians and means.

Continuous versus Categorical Data Items

The TableBuilder file 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 file, versions of continuous variables are available as categorical variables with values grouped into categories. For example below, Fees per hour is available as ‘Fees per hour – continuous’ and ‘Fees per hour – categorical’ with fees categorised into single dollar amounts.

'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 based on 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. If a user tries to create a custom range from these continuous items that is outside of the allowed ranges, the following error message is returned:

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 $2.70 per child enrolled.

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 309,185 children aged 4 or 5 years old enrolled in a preschool program in Australia of which 93 children reported that the tuition fees are unknown, not stated or inadequately described.

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. 309,092 children aged 4 or 5 years old enrolled in a preschool program, on average, were charged a fee of $2.70 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 and as the employer of each worker.

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 the Collection. 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:

· 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.

Worker

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

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. 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 enrolled.

Statistical Geography

For this product, child data is available classified to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), Statistical Area Level 2 (SA2) and by Accessibility/Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA). Accordingly, data may be output using aggregations of the ASGS at 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. Release of such data is generally dependent on confidentiality considerations.

The classes of ARIA in the Remoteness Structure are:

§ Major Cities of Australia
§ Inner Regional Australia
§ Outer Regional Australia
§ Remote Australia
§ Very Remote Australia

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.

To preserve confidentiality, a small number of child records have had their geography altered. This largely impacts SA2s with an ARIA classification of “very remote” and the ABS recommends caution when using data in this combination. Counts of children can be considered reliable at the SA3 level in these “very remote” areas or at SA2 level for areas with an ARIA classification of “major cities”, “inner regional”, “outer regional” or “remote”.

Further information about the geographical framework can be accessed from the Explanatory Notes page in Preschool Education, Australia, 2014 (cat. no. 4240.0).

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. 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 for the Collection is the Index of Relative Socio-economic Disadvantage (IRSD). Both state/territory and Australia level SEIFA are available on this file. Where a child's geography was not stated the SEIFA IRSD is published as Not stated.

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