Managing Care and Work, New South Wales

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NAME OF ORGANISATION Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) OVERVIEW The New South Wales Managing Care and Work survey is a one-off survey conducted in October 2005 as a supplement to the Monthly Population Survey (MPS). The survey provides information on the relationship between people's unpaid caring responsibilities and their work situation during the six months prior to the survey. PURPOSE The data will be used to establish improvements to the workplace since policies were introduced following a similar survey in 2000 (Managing Caring Responsibilities and Paid Employment survey, New South Wales). The 2000 survey provided initial benchmark information on employment experiences and needs. The results will also assist in identifying where to focus future efforts to further improve the work/family balance for the NSW labour force. The main user of the data will be the NSW Department of Aging, Disability and Home Care. Other users will include the NSW Department of Commerce (Office of Industrial Relations); the NSW Department of Health; and the Premier's Department (Office for Women; and Office of Employment, Equity and Diversity). SCOPE All persons aged 18 years or over in NSW. The survey was conducted using seven-eighths of the full sample of private dwellings in NSW that were included in the MPS and excluded: members of the permanent defence forces; certain diplomatic personnel of overseas governments, customarily excluded from censuses and surveys; overseas residents in Australia; members of non-Australian defence forces (and their dependents) stationed in Australia; private dwellings containing visitors only; visitors to the household; residents of non-private dwellings such as hospitals, motels and prisons. For details of the design, scope and coverage of the MPS, refer to Information Paper: Labour Force Sample Design, 2002 (cat. no. 6269.0), and any recent edition of the ABS publication, Labour Force, Australia (cat. no. 6202.0). DATA DETAIL Conceptual framework The Managing Care and Work survey collected information about the relationship between unpaid caring responsibilities and the work situation of people aged 18 years or over living in NSW. The following diagram outlines the basic conceptual framework for the survey: Main outputs Persons in NSW aged 18 years or over: Whether provided care, by sex Carers: Frequency of care, recipient of care, relationship to carer, by sex Carers who are employees: Whether work arrangements used to care, access to work arrangements already used, access to work arrangements not already used, by sector of employment Employees who used work arrangements to care: Work arrangements used, by sex Employees who wanted to use more work arrangements to care: Work arrangements wanted, reasons unable to use work arrangements Employees who wanted to use work arrangements to care: Work arrangements wanted, reasons unable to use work arrangements Self employed carers: Whether became self employed to make caring easier, by sex Carers not looking for paid work: Whether caring was the main reason, by sex Carers not looking for paid work because of caring responsibilities: Main source of income Classifications Standard Classifications were used for variables sourced from the Labour Force Survey. Managing Care and Work data items from questions providing a 'yes' and 'no' response usually provided a 'Don't know' response category that is included in the associated classification as 'Not known'. For these and other data items, the 'Not known' category was often either collapsed into a total or the 'no' category for the publication. Other classifications from this survey include: Work arrangements Paid leave Unpaid leave Flexible working hours Rostered day off Working from home Shift work Casual work Part time work Informal arrangement with employer Other working arrangement None of the above Not known In the publication the 'Other working arrangement' category has been collapsed on one occasion. Type of care Not applicable Own child (under 15 years) living in household Other child (under 15 years) Person with a long-term health condition or disability (aged 15-64 years) Person with a short-term sickness or injury (aged 15-64 years) Person aged 65 years or over Changes made to working arrangements Not applicable Changed jobs Quit a job Permanently reduced the total number of hours usually worked Permanently changed usual start or finish work times Other None Not known Changes wanted to make to working arrangements Not applicable Change jobs Apply for a promotion Change total number of hours worked Change usual start or finish work times Other None Not known Frequency of care - How often looked after care recipient Not applicable Once only Occasionally Ongoing or continual Not known Types of paid leave including FACS leave Not applicable Carer's leave Parental leave Flex leave Annual, holiday or recreation leave Long service leave Sick leave Family and Community Services leave (FACS) leave Other Don't know Reasons unable to use working arrangements Not applicable Applied or asked but was refused Did not have adequate working arrangements Did not apply as thought would be refused Nature of work makes using flexible working arrangements difficult Work commitments Not paid for time off Subtle or other pressure from bosses or other workers Other reasons Not known In the publication, 'Not known' is collapsed into 'Other reasons'. Relationship type collected as collapsed by sex Not applicable Spouse/Partner Parent Step child Son or Daughter Brother or Sister Grandparent Grandchild Uncle or Aunt Nephew or Niece Other relative Not related Not known The 'Step child' category was collapsed into 'Son/Daughter' in the publication. Main source of income for carers not looking for paid work\ Not applicable Spouse or partner's income Other family members' income Centrelink payments Any other person's income Savings Borrowed money Other Not known The categories 'Other family members' income', 'Any other person's income', 'Savings', 'Borrowed money' and 'Not Known' were collapsed into the 'Other' category in the publication. Sector of employment Not applicable Government or public service Government corporation Private company or business Community based (non-profit) organisation Other Not known In some cases, only the 'Government or public service' and 'Private company or business' categories were published. In other cases, 'Government corporation', 'Community based (non-profit) organisation' and 'Not known' were collapsed into 'Other'. Other concepts (summary) Carer For the purposes of this survey a carer is any person in NSW aged 18 years or over who: is a parent (or partner) with a child aged 14 years or under on the Labour Force household form or, who, in the last 6 months looked after someone including: any child aged 14 years or under (excluding own children in the household) a person aged 65 year or over a person aged 15 to 64 years with a long term health condition or disability which limited their everyday activities a person aged 15 to 64 years with a short term sickness or injury. This survey did not include care that was done as part of paid work, volunteer work, or a study program. It is possible for a carer to provide care to more than one person. This supplementary survey uses a definition of 'carer' that is slightly different to that used in the previous state supplementary survey Managing Caring Responsibilities and Paid Employment, NSW, October 2000 (cat. no. 4903.1). The main differences in the definitions are: This supplementary survey defines elderly persons to be those aged 65 years or over, whereas the NSW state supplementary survey from 2000 only refers to 'an elderly person' with no further age definition. Both this supplementary survey and the NSW state supplementary survey from 2000, measure caring that is not done as part of paid work, however, this survey also excludes care that is done as part of volunteer work or a study program. Estimates from this supplementary survey are not comparable with estimates from the Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers, 2003 (SDAC) (cat. no. 4430.0). This is due to differences in the definition of 'carer' . Differences in the carer and recipient of care populations for each of the two surveys are set out below: Other Carer Managing Care and Work: Carer must be 18 years or over; SDAC: Carer may be of any age, however, a primary carer must be 15 years or over. Length of care Managing Care and Work: There is no limit to the length of care. Care may be: a one off event such as minding a child; short term, such as taking care of a person with a short term sickness or injury; or ongoing, such as taking care of someone with a long term health condition or disability; SDAC: Care must be ongoing, or likely to be ongoing, for at least six months. Recipient of care Managing Care and Work: Recipient of care can be a: child aged 14 years or under person aged 15 to 64 years with a short term sickness or injury person aged 15 to 64 years with a long term health condition or disability which limited their everyday activities, or person aged 65 year or over; SDAC: Recipient of care can be: a person with a disability a person with a long-term condition, or older persons (i.e. aged 60 years and over). Long term health condition or disability An impairment, limitation or restriction which limits certain everyday activities. It includes restrictions due to diseases, disorders, or damage from injuries or accidents. This includes: loss of sight; loss of hearing speech difficulties; shortness of breath or breathing difficulties causing restriction; chronic or recurrent pain or discomfort causing restriction; blackouts, fits or loss of consciousness; difficulty with learning or understanding; incomplete use of arms or fingers; difficulty gripping or holding things; incomplete use of feet or legs; nervous or emotional condition causing restriction; restriction in physical activities or in doing physical work; disfigurement or deformity; mental illness or condition requiring help or supervision; long-term effects of head injury, stroke or other brain damage causing restriction; receiving treatment or medication for any other long-term conditions or ailments and still restricted; any other long-term conditions resulting in a restriction. Own child A child of either the carer or the carer's partner, aged 14 years or under, living in the same household. Other child A child aged 14 years or under who does not live in the same household as the carer. A carer could be a child's parent, but if the child lives in a different household to that parent, then the child would be counted as an 'other child'. Parent A person with a child aged 14 years or under who lives in the same household, or a person whose partner has a child aged 14 years or under who lives in the same household. Provided Care For the purposes of this survey providing care involves helping, assisting or supervising a child or adult with everyday activities that they were not capable of doing themselves, because of age (a child or elderly person), disability or other health condition. Care could be provided either full time, occasionally or once only, and for more than one person. Not included in this survey was care that was done for payment, through a voluntary organisation, or as part of a study program. Also excluded was support that was only financial, such as paying for someone else to care for a person. Short term sickness or injury Includes any illness or injury that causes a person to require care. Some examples are: looking after someone who has the flu, picking up a child from school who has broken their arm, taking someone to an emergency dental appointment. Excludes disabilities or long term health conditions. GEOGRAPHIC DETAIL New South Wales Major Statistical Region Statistical Region Part of State Metropolitan Part of State Extra-Metropolitan Comments and/or Other Regions None COLLECTION FREQUENCY Adhoc Frequency comments A similar survey was run in October 2000, Managing Caring Responsibilities and Paid Employment, NSW (cat. no. 4103.1). Results from Managing Care and Work are not directly comparable with the 2000 survey. COLLECTION HISTORY One-off state supplementary survey. DATA AVAILABILITY Yes Data availability comments Additional data is available to clients on request. DATE OF LAST UPDATE FOR THIS DOCUMENT 28/07/2006 01:15 PM Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.