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COLLECTION METHODS

Jurisdictions collect and report data for the National ECEC Collection through either a unit record level (URL) collection or an aggregate collection. A jurisdictional URL collection contains confidentialised child, teacher and service provider level data. An aggregate methodology supports the collection of information on child and teacher data at the service provider level. Those jurisdictions that were only able to provide aggregate ECEC data for 2010 are working towards collecting URL statistics for future cycles of the National ECEC Collection. Those jurisdictions that were able to provide URL data for 2010 are also working to enhance and expand the information that is collected and/or provided.

The collection of URL statistics for the National ECEC Collection is required to provide statistical functionality including spatial analysis. In order to accurately report on the number of children who have received early childhood education, an important goal of the collection is to count each child once. Given the complexity of the service delivery model for ECEC across Australia, it is a statistical challenge to ensure that duplicate records in these data sets are identified. URL collections with appropriate methodologies and protocols, assist in the identification of potentially different circumstances where duplicate records may exist. Further appropriate statistical methodologies can only then be applied to accurately derive and report broader child level information. Aggregate collection methodologies are often limited in capacity to accurately identify duplicate records. All data from jurisdictions with a collection process that produced aggregate data for the 2010 National ECEC Collection can only be presented in terms of episodes of preschool service provision. An episode is the count of the occurrence for a specific characteristic. For the National ECEC Collection, an episode refers to a preschool program provided to a child. When one child attends two different preschool programs, the child is attending two episodes of preschool. The following table shows the collection methodology used by each jurisdiction in 2010.