2010 National Early Childhood Education and Care Workforce Census

June 2011

Contents

1	Executive summary
1.1	Background
1.2	Overview of ECEC workforce
2	Introduction
2.1	Methodology
2.2	Response summary
2.3	About the data presented in this report
3	ECEC workforce
3.1	ECEC workforce overview
3.2	Workforce demographics
3.3	Highest relevant qualifications of paid contact staff
3.4	Levels of teaching qualification in ECEC
3.5	Experience and tenure of child care workforce
4	Selected characteristics of child care services
4.1	Hours of operation
4.2	Children participating in child care
4.3	Children participating in preschool programs in long day care
5	Selected characteristics of Preschool Programs
6	Preschool and child care Staff Survey highlights
6.1	Overview
6.2	Job satisfaction and career in ECEC sector
6.3	Retention
6.4	Recognition of prior learning
6.5	Current study
Abbreviations
Glossary

List of tables and figures

Table 2.1.1:	Collection dates
Table 2.2.1:	National ECEC Workforce Census response summary 
Table 3.1.1:	Size of ECEC workforce in the National ECEC Workforce Census 
Table 3.2.1:	Age, Gender and Indigenous status by service type 
Figure 3.2.2:	Hours worked by service type 
Table 3.3.1:	Highest level of ECEC-related qualifications of paid contact staff, by service type 
Table 3.4.1:	Highest level of ECEC-related qualifications of paid contact staff in a teaching field, by service type
Table 3.5.1:	Years of experience in the ECEC sector of paid contact staff, by service type
Table 3.5.2:	Tenure as a paid contact staff in current service, by service type
Table 4.1.1:	Median and quartile weekly opening hours by service type
Table 4.2.1:	Number of children attending child care in the reference week, by service type
Table 4.2.2:	Number of children attending per week by age and service type
Table 4.2.3:	Indigenous children aged 0 to 12 attending child care, by service type
Table 4.2.4:	LOTE children aged 0 to 12 attending child care, by service type
Table 4.2.5:	Children aged 0 to 12 with disabilities or underlying long term health conditions attending child care, by service type
Table 4.3.1:	Access to preschool programs from approved LDC services, by State and Territory
Table 5.1.1:	Number and proportion of services with a Preschool Program or Other program by service type and State and Territory
Table 5.1.2:	Number and proportion of workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program, by qualification level, service type and State and Territory
Table 5.1.3:	Number of workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program, by hours worked, qualification level and service type
Table 6.2.1:	Agreement with attitude statements
Figure 6.3.1:	Expectation of being employed by the same service in 12 months time
Table 6.3.2:	Main reasons why staff may finish their current job in the next 12 months
Table 6.4.1:	Proportion of staff who received RPL for qualifications in current job, by service type
Table 6.5.1:	Level of study for staff currently studying in an ECEC-related field, by service type
Table 6.5.2:	Agreement with statements about future study for those not currently enrolled in education
Figure 6.6.1:	Income distribution of paid full time workers by service type
Figure 6.6.2:	Income distribution of paid part time workers by service type

1	Executive summary

1.1	Background
The National Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Workforce Census 2010 (‘The National ECEC Workforce Census’) is part of a range of Australian Government initiatives designed to improve the quality of information used in developing and measuring early childhood policy and programs.  The National ECEC Workforce Census was conducted in partnership with state and territory governments.  
It is the latest in a series of large-scale collections which address information gaps in administrative data sources.  Predecessors include the Australian Government Census of Child Care Services (AGCCCS) and the 2008-09 Child Care Provider Survey (CCPS), commissioned by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) to collect data to supplement the administrative data available from the Child Care Management System (CCMS).
Preschool services were included in the National ECEC Workforce Census, but were not included in the large-scale collections noted above.
The National ECEC Workforce Census was developed specifically to address information gaps in existing administrative data sources, with respect to the ECEC workforce, participation in and provision of preschool programs and children with additional needs in child care.
National ECEC Workforce Census data will assist policy makers to better understand the challenges of providing quality education and child care, assess the capacity in the workforce to meet future demand and formulate strategies to support early childhood development policies.
Aggregated information will also be used to inform DEEWR contributions to the annual Report on Government Services, the DEEWR Annual Report, and Portfolio Budget Statements. National ECEC Workforce Census data will assist the Commonwealth and state and territory governments in implementing the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care, the National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education and in developing the National Early Years Workforce Strategy.
Subject to the data protocol, which sets out the principles, rules and procedures governing data access, use and dissemination of the National ECEC Workforce Census, data may also be released to external stakeholders, other government departments and researchers.

1.2	Overview of ECEC workforce 
Key results from the Service Survey
Size of the workforce
It is estimated that 139,187 staff were employed in the ECEC sector during the reference week (although this may include some double counting of staff with more than one part-time position).
Most workers in the sector were engaged by long day care services (48.8%), with preschool (18.3%), outside school hours care (11.7%), vacation care (10.1%) and family day care (9.8%) also employing a large number of workers.
Overall, 88.6% of the workforce was engaged in a contact role, with 78.1% in a ‘primary contact’ role and 10.4 % in an ‘other contact’ role.  A small proportion of the workforce (1.1%) were working in a voluntary capacity.
Workforce demographics
The majority of the workforce (94.4%) were female, with males most strongly represented amongst outside school hours care (15.4%) and vacation care (17.3%) services.
The median age was 25 for men and 36 for women.
Whilst over half of the workforce in outside school hours care (52.2%) and vacation care (56.7%) services were aged 15 to 29, almost two thirds of the workforce in preschools (65.6%) and family day care services (63.3%) were over 40 years of age.
Indigenous workers comprised 2.1% of the total ECEC workforce.
Hours of work
Across the ECEC sector the hours worked were evenly distributed between full-time (35 to 40 hours, 33.6%), long part-time (30 to 34 hours, 29.3%) and short part-time hours (up to 19 hours, 29.6%).  Few services reported staff working long hours (41 or more hours, 7.5%).
Qualifications
Over two thirds (69.8%) of paid contact staff had an ECEC-related qualification, of which 14.0% had a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or above.
Over one third (36.7%) of paid preschool contact staff had a bachelor degree or higher qualification. 
Years of experience 
Over one quarter (26.6%) of paid contact staff in child care services had ten or more years experience.  Occasional care services, in particular, had a high proportion (44.1%) of staff with this level of experience.
Almost one in ten (9.2%) paid contact staff in child care had less than one year’s experience.

Job tenure
Almost one in ten (9.4%) paid contact staff had worked in that capacity for their current service for over ten years.  A high proportion of the family day care workforce (24.7%), in particular, has ten or more years of service as a contact worker with their current service.  
45.0% of paid contact staff have worked in that capacity in their current service for one to three years.

Key results from the Staff Survey
Job satisfaction and career in ECEC sector
88.0% of all respondents to the Staff Survey agreed that they were satisfied with their current job.  
Just over half (51.7%) of respondents were satisfied with their pay and conditions.
Some two thirds (69.2%) of respondents would recommend a career in the sector to others.
Retention
Most Staff Survey respondents (80.3%) expected to still be employed with the same employer or business in twelve months time.
Of those who indicated that they might not or would not be with the same employer in twelve months time, 27.7% indicated they were seeking employment outside the sector, 27.6% expressed dissatisfaction with their pay and conditions and 23.9% were returning to study or leaving for travel / family reasons.
Recognition of prior learning
Just over one third of Staff Survey respondents (37.4%) had received some recognition of prior learning, most commonly on the basis of study at TAFE (50.1%% of all those who received recognition of their prior learning) or assessed skills and experience (29.9%).
Current study
Just under one third (30.8%) of Staff Survey respondents were studying in an ECEC-related field.
Amongst those not studying, the main barriers to study included time (48.9%), cost (45.3%) and the wage increase resulting from investment of time and money in further study being too small (44.9%).

2	Introduction 

2.1	Methodology
National ECEC Workforce Census data was collected in two parts.
The first part involved the collection of site level information from preschool services and approved child care services (‘The Service Survey’).
Child care services provided information on usage and the number of children with additional needs in child care.  All services provided information on the delivery of and participation in preschool programs, and information about their workforce (‘Staff information collected from services’).
The week in which services were surveyed is referred to as the ‘reference week’.  Table 2.1.1 provides details of the reference week by service type and jurisdiction.
Table 2.1.1:	Collection dates

Service type(a)	Jurisdiction	Reference week (2010)(b)	
Long day care (LDC)
Family day care (FDC)
In home care (IHC)
Occasional care (OCC)
Outside school hours care (OSHC)
Preschool (PS)	NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, WA, NT, ACT	31 May to 6 June	
Vacation care (VAC)	Tas	7 to 13 June	
Long day care
Family day care
In home care
Occasional care
Outside school hours care
Preschool	Tas	21 to 27 June	
Vacation care	NSW, Vic, Qld, SA, WA, NT, ACT	5 to 11 July	
(a)	Refer to Glossary for service type definitions.
(b)	Variations in the reference weeks were due to the different school holiday periods across Australia.
The second part of the National ECEC Workforce Census involved the direct collection of information from individual staff (‘The Staff Survey’ / ‘Staff information collected directly from individual staff’).  It sought detailed information on staff roles, qualifications, nature of employment, professional development activities, pay and conditions and career intentions.  Participation in the Staff Survey was voluntary.
To assist quality and consistency of data collection across the first and second parts, there were similarities between the workforce information requested from service providers and from individual staff.
All National ECEC Workforce Census data were collected using a self-completion methodology, with the predominant modes being online for child care services, hard copy self-completion for preschool services and hard copy self-completion for the Staff Survey.  Preschool services and individual staff were also given the option of completing their questionnaires online.
After extensive follow-up activity to maximise participation and clarify responses, data were consolidated, cleaned and weighted for analysis.
2.2	Response summary
Table 2.2.1 summarises the overall response to the National ECEC Workforce Census.  It was estimated that 16,378 services were operational during the reference week, and were considered as in-scope for the Service Survey.  Of these, 12,983 (79.3%) services responded.
The Service Survey response rate, defined as responding services as a per cent of estimated in-scope services as at the reference week, was 81.4% for child care services and 74.2% for preschools.
Some 61,941 worker responses to the Staff Survey were received, from 12,412 participating services.  Overall, 75.0% of all services had at least one staff member respond to the Staff Survey.  This was comprised of 74.0% of child care services and 77.4% of preschools.  Note that ‘Estimated operational services’ for the Staff Survey includes 170 services which were not operational in the reference week for the Service Survey, but had at least one staff member respond to the Staff Survey.
Table 2.2.1:	National ECEC Workforce Census response summary (a)

	Service Survey	Staff Survey	
	Estimated in-scope services during reference week	Responding services (a)	Response rate %	Estimated operational services	Participating services	Participating Services %	
Total Services	16,378	12,983	79.3	16,548	12,412	75.0	
Service type							
LDC	5,784	4,878	84.3	5,817	4,991	85.8	
FDC	313	300	95.8	315	288	91.4	
IHC	69	58	84.1	71	45	63.4	
OCC	85	78	91.8	86	77	89.5	
OSHC	3,150	2,500	79.4	3,155	1,791	56.8	
VAC	2,157	1,593	73.9	2,205	1,429	64.8	
Subtotal childcare	11,558	9,407	81.4	11,649	8,621	74.0	
PS	4,820	3,576	74.2	4,899	3,791	77.4	
State / Territory							
NSW	5,077	4,193	82.6	5,113	3,851	75.3	
Vic	4,083	3,074	75.0	4,159	3,119	75.0	
Qld	2,911	2,371	75.7	2,945	2,230	75.7	
SA	1,379	1,111	78.6	1,392	1,094	78.6	
WA	1,771	1,318	74.4	1,774	1,333	75.1	
Tas	535	414	77.4	537	371	69.1	
NT	294	224	76.2	297	170	57.2	
ACT	328	278	84.8	331	244	73.7	
(a)	Excludes 964 services which partially completed the Service Survey, for example, by logging in to the online version of the Service Survey without completing the full survey.
The 81.4% response rate for child care services for the Service Survey, was lower than that achieved for similar collections in 2006 (86%) and 2004 (88%).  
Whilst 75.0% of services had at least one staff member respond to the Staff Survey, a Staff Survey response rate, defined as responding staff as a per cent of total staff, is not provided, given that no definitive estimate of the total number of staff can be established.
2.3	About the data presented in this report
Weighted services data
Unless otherwise stated, all data relating to services in of this report has been weighted to the estimated in-scope population of operating services as at the reference week.
Although the weighting process corrects for minor imbalances in the achieved sample with respect to service type (long day care, family day care / in home care, occasional care, outside school hours care, vacation care and preschools) within jurisdiction and remoteness area (major city, inner regional, outer regional, remote / very remote), weighted estimates should be used with caution.
Weighted estimates can be used indicatively to make comparisons between service types, jurisdictions and to derive estimates of actual usage.
Weighted workforce and staff data
The ECEC workforce data presented in Section 3 of this report is based on worker information provided by services as part of the Service Survey.  It relates specifically to individual staff members who worked during the reference week.  It excludes those workers who were absent for the entire reference week (eg workers on extended sick leave, annual or long service leave) and workers not based at the service location and who had no involvement in the day to day management of the service. 
In this report, the estimated length of experience of a worker in the ECEC sector and years of experience are not necessarily continuous.  Periods of absence of 3 months or more are subtracted from their total estimated experience.
Unless otherwise stated, workforce data has been weighted by assigning the service-level weight to each staff member reported by the service.
The ECEC workforce data presented in Section 6 of this report is based solely on responses to the Staff Survey.  Staff responded in respect of the service they mainly worked in.  Note that due to the time lag between surveys, the staff who responded to the Staff Survey may differ from staff reported by services in the Service Survey.  
Staff Survey data have been weighted using a rim weighting procedure, which adjusts for proportions within the achieved sample size.  As noted above, weighted estimates should be used with caution.  

3	ECEC workforce

3.1	ECEC workforce overview
The data presented in sections 3.1 to 3.4 is based on staff information collected from services as part of the Service Survey.  Section 3.5 shows only staff information collected from child care services as this staff data was not collected from preschool services. 
A total of 139,187 staff were employed in the sector at the reference week (although this may include some double counting of staff with more than one part-time position).
Overall, 88.6% of the workforce was engaged in a contact role, with 78.2% in a ‘primary contact’ role and 10.4 % in an ‘other contact’ role.  A small proportion of the workforce (1.1%) worked in a voluntary capacity.
Nearly 49% of workers in the sector were engaged by long day care services, with 18.3% by preschool services, 11.7% by outside school hours care, 10.1% by vacation care and 9.8% engaged by family day care services.
Table 3.1.1:	Size of ECEC workforce in the National ECEC Workforce Census (a)

	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	Total %	
NSW	7,613	23,238	4,649	203	296	4,730	4,016	44,744	32.1%	
Vic	7,294	14,513	3,276	292	185	4,104	2,453	32,116	23.1%	
Qld	1,920	16,888	3,255	325	101	3,570	3,670	29,729	21.4%	
SA	2,648	4,540	796	55	22	1,633	1,935	11,630	8.4%	
WA	4,080	5,001	629	110	92	847	980	11,737	8.4%	
Tas	1,071	1,446	499	67	51	428	368	3,929	2.8%	
NT	371	709	169	0	0	239	252	1,740	1.2%	
ACT	479	1,640	302	0	22	722	396	3,562	2.6%	
Total	25,475	67,975	13,575	1,051	769	16,273	14,069	139,187	100.0%	
Total %	18.3%	48.8%	9.8%	0.8%	0.6%	11.7%	10.1%	100.0%		
(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.

3.2	Workforce demographics
Table 3.2.1 shows demographic information for the ECEC workforce by service type.
Males and younger workers were more likely to be employed in outside school hours care and vacation care services.  Over half of the outside school hours care (52.2%) and vacation care (56.7%) workforce were aged 29 or under. 
Long day care was the next youngest group, followed by in home care, with occasional care and family day care services and preschools employing an older group of workers.  Almost two thirds of the workers in preschools (65.6%) and family day care services (63.3%) were aged 40 and over.
Male workers tended to be younger on average than women: the median age was 25 for men and 36 for women.
The proportion of Indigenous workers was highest among the occasional care workforce (3.3%) and preschool workers (3.2%) and lowest among family day carers (0.8%).
Table 3.2.1:	Age, Gender and Indigenous status by service type (a) (b)

 	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
Age group 	Percentage	
15-19	1.3	6.4	0.2	4.6	4.2	11.4	10.6	5.9	
20-24	4.5	19.7	1.9	20.4	10.9	29.5	31.5	17.6	
25-29	6.7	17.1	6.3	14.5	11.6	11.3	14.6	13.2	
30-34	8.3	12.0	12.1	8.7	11.4	7.0	7.7	10.3	
35-39	13.7	11.2	16.2	8.0	12.3	6.9	6.9	11.2	
40-44	16.9	9.7	16.1	6.7	11.2	7.6	7.1	11.0	
45-49	17.9	8.7	15.3	10.1	13.1	8.2	7.4	10.8	
50-54	15.6	7.4	13.7	8.5	12.5	8.5	6.7	9.6	
55 and over	15.2	7.7	18.2	18.5	12.8	9.7	7.6	10.4	
	Number	
Total specified	23,378	67,545	13,562	1,051	769	16,130	13,862	136,297	
Total not specified	2,097	430	14	0	0	143	207	2,890	
Gender 	Percentage	
Male	3.6	2.6	1.1	2.2	1.7	15.4	17.3	5.6	
Female	96.4	97.4	98.9	97.8	98.3	84.6	82.7	94.4	
	Number	
Total specified	25,168	67,918	13,572	1,051	769	16,268	14,050	138,795	
Total not specified	307	56	4	0	0	5	19	392	
Indigenous status	Percentage	
Yes	3.2	1.8	0.8	1.4	3.3	2.1	2.4	2.1	
No	96.8	98.2	99.2	98.6	96.7	97.9	97.6	97.9	
	Number	
Total specified	22,731	54,426	11,633	789	573	12,966	11,058	114,176	
Total not specified	2,744	13,549	1,943	261	196	3,307	3,011	25,011	
TOTAL STAFF	25,475	67,975	13,576	1,050	769	16,273	14,069	139,187	
(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Services were asked to report the Indigenous status, i.e. the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander origin, of each worker.

Hours of work
Figure 3.2.2 shows the hours worked in different service types in the sector.  Overall, hours worked in the sector were evenly balanced between short part-time hours (0 to 19 hours, 29.6%), long part-time hours (20 to 34 hours, 29.3%) and full-time hours (35 to 40 hours 33.6%), with very few long hours (41 or more hours, 7.5%) worked.  
The workforce in family day care (47.9%) and in home care services (25.4%) were more likely to work long hours, with in home care services having a large proportion of part-time workers (59.1%).  Preschools (75.4%), outside school hours care (90.7%) and vacation care (75.3%) services also had large numbers of part-time workers, which is consistent with the sessional nature of these services.  
Figure 3.2.2:	Hours worked by service type (a) (b)
Figure removed – please see page 9 of report.

(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Includes workers whose hours of work during the reference week were reported by a service. 

3.3	Highest relevant qualifications of paid contact staff
Over two thirds (69.8%) of paid contact staff had an ECEC-related qualification, of which 14.0% had a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) and above.   
In all services, at least half of all paid contact staff had an ECEC-related qualification.  Paid contact staff in occasional care (80.5%), long day care (78.3%) and preschool (74.2%) services were most likely to have an ECEC-related qualification.  Paid contact staff (36.7%) in preschools were more likely to have an ECEC-related Bachelor degree and above.  
Table 3.3.1:	Highest level of ECEC-related qualifications of paid contact staff, by service type (a) (b)

 Highest level of qualification completed 	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Percentage		
Bachelor degree and above	36.7	9.4	4.5	6.3	8.3	9.3	14.2	14.0	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above	27.3	6.0	2.8	3.3	5.0	6.4	11.0	9.8	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent)	9.4	3.4	1.7	3.1	3.3	2.9	3.1	4.2	
Advanced Diploma / 
Diploma	17.4	31.9	16.0	13.4	36.7	18.0	17.0	24.6	
Certificate III / IV 	17.3	35.2	36.0	25.6	31.9	19.9	19.5	28.8	
Below Certificate  III	2.8	1.8	3.4	4.7	3.6	2.9	2.4	2.3	
Total staff with an ECEC-related qualification(c) 	74.2	78.3	59.9	50.1	80.5	50.0	53.1	69.8	
Total staff without an  ECEC-related qualification	25.8	21.7	40.1	49.9	19.5	50.0	46.9	30.2	
	Number 		
Bachelor degree and above	7,271	5,457	541	51	53	1,236	1,654	16,263	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above	5,407	3,458	340	26	32	852	1,288	11,404	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent)  	1,864	1,998	201	25	21	383	367	4,859	
Advanced Diploma /
Diploma	3,437	18,504	1,916	108	237	2,385	1,984	28,571	
Certificate III / IV 	3,420	20,453	4,319	206	206	2,636	2,276	33,517	
Below Certificate  III	558	1,033	402	38	23	381	281	2,717	
Total staff with an ECEC-related qualification(c) 	14,686	45,447	7,178	403	520	6,638	6,196	81,068	
Total staff without an  ECEC-related qualification	5,106	12,583	4,810	402	126	6,628	5,473	35,127	
Total specified	19,792	58,029	11,989	804	646	13,266	11,669	116,194	
Total not specified	1,514	803	744	148	7	1,020	1,056	5,292	
TOTAL STAFF	21,306	58,832	12,733	953	653	14,286	12,725	121,487	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Table includes paid contact staff only.  Paid contact staff refers to those workers who are paid and doing primary or other contact work. 
(c)	Relevant ECEC qualifications include early childhood teaching, primary teaching, other teaching, child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies, behavioural science and other early childhood education and care related qualifications.

3.4	Levels of teaching qualification in ECEC
Table 3.4.1 shows the qualification level of paid contact staff whose highest ECEC-related qualification was in a teaching field.  The qualifications of teachers and staff delivering Preschool Programs and Other Programs is covered in Chapter 5.
The largest proportion of paid contact staff with an ECEC-related qualification in a teaching field was in preschools (42.7%).   Around 13.0% of all paid contact staff had a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or above in a teaching field, of which preschool staff (36.0%) were most likely to have a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or above in a teaching field. 
Table 3.4.1:	Highest level of ECEC-related qualifications of paid contact staff in a teaching field, by service type (a) (b)

 Highest level of ECEC-related qualification completed 	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Percentage		
Bachelor degree and above	36.0	8.7	3.2	3.6	7.3	7.7	12.2	13.0	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above	26.8	5.6	1.9	1.7	4.7	5.5	10.0	9.2	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent)  	9.2	3.2	1.3	1.9	2.6	2.2	2.3	3.8	
Other (c)	6.7	2.0	1.5	0.9	0.8	2.1	2.0	2.7	
Total qualifications in a teaching field 	42.7	10.7	4.7	4.5	8.1	9.8	14.3	15.7	
Total qualifications in other ECEC-related field (d)	31.5	67.6	55.1	45.6	72.4	40.3	38.8	54.1	
Total with no ECEC related qualification	25.8	21.7	40.1	49.9	19.5	50.0	46.9	30.2	
	Number 		
Bachelor degree and above	7,127	5,061	382	29	47	1,018	1,428	15,091	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above	5,307	3,225	223	14	30	728	1,162	10,689	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent)  	1,820	1,836	159	15	17	290	266	4,402	
Other (c)	1,323	1,133	186	7	5	277	239	3,170	
Total qualifications in a teaching field 	8,450	6,194	567	36	52	1,295	1,667	18,261	
Total qualifications in other ECEC-related field (d)	6,236	39,252	6,611	367	468	5,343	4,529	62,806	
Total with no ECEC related qualification	5,106	12,583	4,810	402	126	6,628	5,473	35,127	
Total specified	19,792	58,029	11,989	804	646	13,266	11,669	116,194	
Total not specified	1,514	803	744	148	7	1,020	1,056	5,292	
TOTAL STAFF	21,306	58,832	12,733	953	653	14,286	12,725	121,487	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Teaching fields include early childhood teaching, primary teaching and other teaching.
(c)	‘Other’ includes Advanced Diploma / Diploma, Certificate III / IV and Below Certificate III qualifications in a teaching field.
(d)	Other ECEC-related qualifications include child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies and services, behavioural science and other ECEC-related qualifications. 

3.5	Experience and tenure of child care workforce
Information on the length of time that workers had worked in the ECEC sector and at their particular service was collected for all child care workers and was not collected from those working in a preschool.  
As can be seen from Table 3.5.1, paid contact staff with relevant ECEC qualifications were generally more experienced than paid contact staff without qualifications.  Occasional care (47.6%) and family day care (45.2%) had the greatest proportion of paid contact staff with ten or more years experience.  Staff without relevant ECEC qualifications were most likely (43.0%) to work in the ECEC sector for one to three years.   
Information was also collected on the length of time that each paid contact worker had been with their service as a contact worker.  Table 3.5.2 summarises this information.  Generally, qualified staff had spent longer as a contact worker with their service than non-qualified staff.  
Family day care (24.7%) and occasional care (21.0%) had the greatest proportion of staff with ten or more years experience in their service, with all services having a large proportion of staff with one to three years of experience.  

Table 3.5.1:	Years of experience in the ECEC sector of paid contact staff, by service type (a)

 Years of experience 	Long day care 	Family day care	In home care	Occasional care	Out of school hours care	Vacation care	Total	
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	
Staff with relevant ECEC qualification(b)															
<1 year tenure	1,591	3.5	250	3.5	28	6.9	14	2.8	226	3.4	207	3.3	2,316	3.5	
1-3 years tenure	12,708	28.0	1,332	18.7	90	22.4	106	20.4	1,709	25.8	1,764	28.6	17,709	26.8	
4-6 years tenure	11,832	26.1	1,291	18.1	103	25.6	99	19.0	1,640	24.8	1,602	25.9	16,567	25.0	
7-9 years tenure	5,809	12.8	1,035	14.5	42	10.4	53	10.2	795	12.0	737	11.9	8,470	12.8	
10+ years tenure	13,396	29.5	3,219	45.2	140	34.8	248	47.6	2,244	33.9	1,866	30.2	21,113	31.9	
Not specified (c) 	112		51		0		0		24		21		207		
Total staff with relevant ECEC qualification	45,447		7,178		403		520		6,638		6,196		66,381		
Staff with no ECEC qualification															
<1 year tenure	3,382	27.0	632	13.2	97	24.2	21	16.8	1,320	20.0	1,093	20.1	6,545	21.9	
1-3 years tenure	4,903	39.1	1,420	29.7	179	44.5	41	32.7	3,430	51.9	2,880	53.1	12,853	43.0	
4-6 years tenure	1,654	13.2	676	14.1	60	14.9	13	10.5	1,053	15.9	864	15.9	4,319	14.5	
7-9 years tenure	751	6.0	476	10.0	33	8.2	13	10.7	244	3.7	226	4.2	1,744	5.8	
10+ years tenure	1,854	14.8	1,573	32.9	33	8.3	37	29.3	561	8.5	365	6.7	4,423	14.8	
Not specified (c)	39		34		0		0		20		46		138		
Total staff with no ECEC qualification	12,583		4,810		402		126		6,628		5,473		30,021		
All staff															
<1 year tenure	4,972	8.6	883	7.4	125	15.5	36	5.5	1,546	11.7	1,299	11.2	8,860	9.2	
1-3 years tenure	17,611	30.4	2,752	23.1	269	33.4	147	22.8	5,138	38.9	4,644	40.0	30,561	31.8	
4-6 years tenure	13,486	23.3	1,967	16.5	163	20.2	112	17.3	2,693	20.4	2,466	21.3	20,886	21.7	
7-9 years tenure	6,560	11.3	1,511	12.7	75	9.3	67	10.3	1,039	7.9	962	8.3	10,214	10.6	
10+ years tenure	15,249	26.3	4,791	40.3	173	21.6	285	44.1	2,805	21.2	2,231	19.2	25,536	26.6	
Not specified (c)	151		85		0		0		44		66		346		
Total specified	58,029		11,989		804		646		13,266		11,669		96,403		
Total not specified(d)	803		744		148		7		1,020		1,056		3,778		
TOTAL STAFF	58,832		12,733		953		653		14,286		12,725		100,181		
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data and table only includes paid contact staff. 
(b)	Relevant ECEC qualifications include early childhood teaching, primary teaching, other teaching, child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies, behavioural science and other ECEC-related qualifications.
(c)	Includes those contact staff whose years of experience in the ECEC sector were not specified.
(d)	Includes those contact staff where services did not specify the qualifications of staff.

Table 3.5.2:	Tenure as a paid contact staff in current service, by service type (a)

 Years of tenure as contact worker 	Long day care 	Family day care	In home care	Occasional care	Out of school hours care	Vacation care	Total	
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	
Staff with relevant ECEC qualification(b)															
<1 year tenure	8,841	19.5	1,016	14.7	91	22.7	58	11.1	1,066	16.1	1,136	18.4	12,207	18.5	
1-3 years tenure	21,200	46.8	2,214	32.0	216	53.8	192	37.0	2,886	43.7	2,801	45.3	29,511	44.8	
4-6 years tenure	8,685	19.2	1,179	17.0	64	15.9	102	19.6	1,343	20.3	1,260	20.4	12,633	19.2	
7-9 years tenure	3,102	6.9	854	12.3	18	4.6	58	11.1	524	7.9	435	7.0	4,991	7.6	
10+ years tenure	3,431	7.6	1,657	23.9	12	3.1	111	21.3	781	11.8	547	8.8	6,539	9.9	
Not specified (c) 	188		259		0		0		37		17		501		
Total staff with relevant ECEC qualification	45,447		7,178		403		520		6,638		6,196		66,381		
Staff with no ECEC qualification															
<1 year tenure	4,635	37.0	935	20.3	145	36.1	29	23.2	1,769	26.8	1,580	29.0	9,092	30.6	
1-3 years tenure	5,211	41.6	1,508	32.8	199	49.4	46	36.6	3,577	54.2	2,930	53.8	13,471	45.4	
4-6 years tenure	1,256	10.0	565	12.3	33	8.3	14	11.5	805	12.2	637	11.7	3,311	11.2	
7-9 years tenure	560	4.5	397	8.6	19	4.6	11	8.8	182	2.8	158	2.9	1,326	4.5	
10+ years tenure	861	6.9	1,189	25.9	6	1.6	25	19.8	264	4.0	143	2.6	2,488	8.4	
Not specified (c)	60		217		0		1		30		25		333		
Total staff with no ECEC qualification	12,583		4,810		402		126		6,628		5,473		30,021		
All staff															
<1 year tenure	13,475	23.3	1,950	16.9	236	29.4	86	13.4	2,835	21.5	2,716	23.4	21,299	22.3	
1-3 years tenure	26,412	45.7	3,722	32.3	415	51.6	238	36.9	6,464	49.0	5,731	49.3	42,982	45.0	
4-6 years tenure	9,940	17.2	1,744	15.2	97	12.1	116	18.0	2,148	16.3	1,897	16.3	15,943	16.7	
7-9 years tenure	3,662	6.3	1,251	10.9	37	4.6	69	10.7	706	5.3	593	5.1	6,317	6.6	
10+ years tenure	4,292	7.4	2,846	24.7	19	2.3	135	21.0	1,046	7.9	690	5.9	9,027	9.4	
Not specified (c)	248		476		0		1		67		41		833		
Total specified	58,029		11,989		804		646		13,266		11,669		96,403		
Total not specified(d)	803		744		148		7		1,020		1,056		3,778		
TOTAL STAFF	58,832		12,733		953		653		14,286		12,725		100,181		
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data and table only includes contact staff.
(b)	Relevant ECEC qualifications include early childhood teaching, primary teaching, other teaching, child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies, behavioural science and other ECEC-related qualifications.
(c)	Includes those contact staff whose years of experience in the ECEC sector were not specified.
(d)	Includes those contact staff where services did not specify the qualifications of staff.

4	Selected characteristics of child care services

This section describes selected characteristics of child care services such as hours of operation, number of children attending and children participating in preschool programs, as well as selected characteristics of the children attending each service type, such as age and the presence of any special needs.  The data presented in this section was provided by child care services as part of the Service Survey and was not collected from preschool services. 
4.1	Hours of operation
Most services (93.1%) that specified opening hours between Monday and Friday reported they maintained consistent opening hours throughout the week, with in home care services the most likely to offer variable hours of operation by day of week (24.0%).
A number of in home care services (15.2%) had multiple opening and closing times within a day.  Aside from outside school hours care, other service types typically stayed open throughout the day.  Almost all providers (98.2%) were open five days per week, irrespective of the service provided.
Table 4.1.1 shows the number of hours that services were open in the reference week by service type.  There was general consistency in weekly opening hours within long day care, occasional care, and vacation care.  
Outside school hours care operated, on average, for 23 hours and 45 minutes per week, while in home care operated for the highest average number of hours per week (66).
Approximately two thirds (69.0%) of outside school hours care services offered both before and after school sessions, and 31.0% offered after school sessions only.  The median duration of the morning session was two hours, while the median duration of the afternoon session was three hours. 
One fifth (20.4%) of in home care services offered two sessions on some days of the week.  This was rare (less than 5%) for other services.
In home care services were the only service type to offer weekend care in significant amounts.  All in home care services offered care seven days per week and were open for an average of eleven hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
Table 4.1.1:	Median and quartile weekly opening hours by service type (a)

 	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	
Opening hours	Hours	
Median	55:00	na	66:00	41:00	23:45	53:15	
25th percentile	52:30	na	60:00	40:00	15:50	50:00	
75th percentile	57:30	na	91:00	45:00	26:15	55:00	
	Number of services	
Total specified	5,736	na	40	84	3,090	2,115	
Not specified	45	na	14	1	57	41	
TOTAL SERVICES	5,781	na	53	85	3,147	2,156	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data

4.2	Children participating in child care
Children attending child care
Table 4.2.1 provides a historical view of the number of children attending child care services during the reference week, by service type.
It is estimated that in 2010, 989,452 children attended a child care service during the reference week, although it should be noted that this figure will include some double counting where a child attended more than one service.
Over half (54.9%) of the total children in care at the reference week attended long day care, with smaller proportions of children in outside school hours care (21.4%), vacation care (13.2%) and family day care (9.5%).  A relatively small proportion of children in care were in occasional care (0.6%) or in home care (0.4%).
Of all the children in care, the proportion attending long day care services during the reference week increased by 2.5 percentage points in 2010, relative to 2006.
Table 4.2.1:	Number of children attending child care in the reference week, by service type  (a) (b)

Service Type	2004 (c)
	2006 (c)
	2010
	
	No of children	%	No of children	%	No of children	%	
Long day care	383,020	50.9	420,110	52.4	543,539	54.9	
Family day care	89,300	11.9	84,350	10.5	93,738	9.5	
In home care	3,240	0.4	3,200	0.4	3,513	0.4	
Occasional care	7,359	1.0	6,767	0.8	6,401	0.6	
Outside school hours care	160,790	21.4	173,770	21.7	211,514	21.4	
Vacation care	101,710	13.5	107,280	13.4	130,747	13.2	
Other (d)	7,341	1.0	5,583	0.7	na	na	
Total	752,760	100.0	801,060	100.0	989,452	100.0	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Data includes double counting where children attend more than one service type.
(c)	Data sourced from the 2004 and 2006 Australian Government Census of Child Care Services.
(d)	In 2004, ‘other service types’ also included Multifunctional Children’s Services. In 2006 ‘other service types’ included non mainstream services such as multifunctional Aboriginal children’s services, mobile and toy library services, and Aboriginal playgroups and enrichment programs.  Data was not collected from ’Other services’ in 2010 as non mainstream services were out of scope of the National ECEC Workforce Census.

Attendance by age 
Table 4.2.2 shows the number of children in each type of care by age group.  
Child care attendance was most common for children aged 3-5 years, of which children aged 3 had the highest attendance (169,509).
Table 4.2.2:	Number of children attending per week by age and service type (a)

	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Children	
Aged 0-2 years							
 % services (b)	95.6	99.6	95.7	100.0	0.4	0.7		
Children attending	231,812	41,625	1,176	3,256	350	324	278,542	
Aged 3-5 years							
 % services (b)	99.1	99.2	95.7	100.0	91.6	90.4		
Children attending	299,572	34,917	1,120	3,141	34,595	18,770	392,116	
Aged 6-9 years							
 % services (b)	19.6	94.7	95.4	4.2	98.4	97.2		
Children attending	10,547	12,079	739	4	134,290	83,082	240,740	
Aged 10+ years							
 % services (b)	9.5	87.0	75.1	0.0	94.4	95.2		
Children attending	1,608	5,118	479	0	42,278	28,571	78,055	
All ages								
Children attending	543,539	93,738	3,514	6,401	211,514	130,747	989,453	
	Services	
Total specified	5,766	329	53	85	3,132	2,152	11,516	
Total not specified	15	0	0	0	15	4	35	
TOTAL SERVICES	5,781	329	53	85	3,147	2,156	11,551	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data. 
(b)	Refers to the proportion of services, by service type, that offered care to children in the specified age ranges.

Children in special needs groups 
Tables 4.2.3 to 4.2.5 show the number of children in special needs groups, aged 0 to 12, attending child care services in the reference week.  
Tables 4.2.3 and 4.2.4 show that occasional care services reported the highest proportion of attendance by Indigenous children (3.7%) and children whose parents or guardian spoke a language other than English (LOTE) at home (18.4%). 
Almost one third (32.3%) of Indigenous children attended a service with at least one Indigenous staff member.
Table 4.2.3:	Indigenous children aged 0 to 12 attending child care, by service type (a)

	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Children	
Indigenous								
No. of children	10,690	1,789	85	238	3,576	2,778	19,156	
%  of all children(b)	2.0	1.9	2.4	3.7	1.7	2.1	1.9	
	Services	
Indigenous	
Total specified(c)	5,686	327	53	85	3,053	2,102	11,307	
Total not specified	95	1	0	0	94	54	244	
All special needs groups	
Total specified(c)	5,766	329	53	85	3,132	2,152	11,516	
Total not specified	15	0	0	0	15	4	35	
TOTAL SERVICES	5,781	329	53	85	3,147	2,156	11,551	
a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
b)	Refers to children in special needs groups as a proportion of all children attending that child care service type in the reference week. Note that this includes a small number of services who did not specify the number of special needs children.
c)	Includes services where there was a response to children attending in at least one age group. 

Table 4.2.4:	LOTE children aged 0 to 12 attending child care, by service type (a)

	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Children	
Language other than English							
Number of children	84,096	11,035	249	1,175	25,195	14,329	136,078	
%  of all children(b)	15.5	11.8	7.1	18.4	11.9	11.0	13.8	
	Services	
Language other than English 	
Total specified(c)	5,722	327	53	85	3,086	2,118	11,392	
Total not specified	59	1	0	0	61	38	159	
All special needs groups	
Total specified(c)	5,766	329	53	85	3,132	2,152	11,516	
Total not specified	15	0	0	0	15	4	35	
TOTAL SERVICES	5,781	329	53	85	3,147	2,156	11,551	
a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
b)	Refers to children in special needs groups as a proportion of all children attending that child care service type in the reference week. Note that this includes a small number of services who did not specify the number of special needs children.
c)	Includes services where there was a response to children attending in at least one age group. 

Overall, 61.9% of responding services cared for at least one child with a disability or underlying long term health condition.  The median number of children with a disability or underlying long term health condition per service was one.  
Disabilities or underlying long term health conditions in communication (1.7%), interpersonal interactions and relationships (1.7%) and learning (1.5%) were most common in children attending child care in the reference week.  In home care had the highest percentage of children with disabilities (7.1%).  
Table 4.2.5:	Children aged 0 to 12 with disabilities or underlying long term health conditions attending child care, by service type (a)

	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Children	
All disabilities or underlying long term health conditions(b)	
Number of children	14,125	1,536	248	291	5,779	5,496	27,474	
%  of all children(b)	2.6	1.6	7.1	4.5	2.7	4.2	2.8	
Learning								
Number of children	7,679	656	169	133	3,027	3,240	14,905	
%   of all children(b)	1.4	0.7	4.8	2.1	1.4	2.5	1.5	
Communication							
Number of children	9,846	729	162	187	2,699	3,104	16,727	
%  of all children(b)	1.8	0.8	4.6	2.9	1.3	2.4	1.7	
Mobility 								
Number of children	2,032	229	104	37	669	905	3,975	
%  of all children(b)	0.4	0.2	2.9	0.6	0.3	0.7	0.4	
Self-care 								
Number of children	4,960	525	138	90	1,549	2,102	9,364	
%  of all children(b)	0.9	0.6	3.9	1.4	0.7	1.6	0.9	
Interpersonal 								
Number of children	7,763	653	150	131	3,971	4,160	16,829	
%  of all children(b)	1.4	0.7	4.3	2.0	1.9	3.2	1.7	
Other 								
Number of children	5,359	709	164	96	2,935	3,294	12,557	
%  of all children(b)	1.0	0.8	4.7	1.5	1.4	2.5	1.3	
	Services	
All special needs groups	
Total specified(d)	5,766	329	53	85	3,132	2,152	11,516	
Total not specified	15	0	0	0	15	4	35	
TOTAL SERVICES	5,781	329	53	85	3,147	2,156	11,551	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data. 
(b)	Due to the presence of children with multiple disabilities or long term health conditions, the sum of individual disabilities may not equal ‘All disabilities’.
(c)	Refers to children in special needs groups as a proportion of all children attending that child care service type in the reference week. Note that this includes a small number of services who did not specify the number of special needs children.
(d)	Includes services where there was a response to children attending in at least one age group. 

4.3	Children participating in preschool programs in long day care 
Table 4.3.1 shows the number of children who attended preschool programs in long day care, as reported by the service.  More detailed information on the delivery of preschool programs in long day care is covered in Chapter 5.  
New South Wales accounted for more than half of the children attending preschool programs in long day care centres, while children were most commonly taken to off-site preschool programs in Victoria and South Australia.
Table 4.3.1:	Access to preschool programs from approved LDC services, by State and Territory (a) (b)

	Children taken to a preschool program delivered by a different service	Participated in an in-house preschool program offered in an approved child care service	Of which:
Participated in both the in-house preschool program and a program provided by a different service	
NSW	318	63,820	255	
Vic	1,279	16,730	284	
Qld	231	16,366	38	
SA	1,374	5,552	516	
WA	910	5,164	390	
Tas	104	477	9	
NT	370	547	139	
ACT	251	2,555	71	
AUST	4,837	111,213	1,701	
(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	LDC services offering preschool programs may not meet the definition of preschool programs as defined in Section 5 of this report.

5	Selected characteristics of Preschool Programs

This section contains analysis on Preschool Programs delivered in long day care and preschool services.  A Preschool Program is a structured, play-based learning program, usually provided by a qualified teacher on a sessional basis.  Preschool Programs are primarily aimed at children in the year or two before they commence formal schooling, irrespective of the type of institution that provides the program or whether the program is government funded or privately provided. 
For the National ECEC Workforce Census, two specific criteria were used for classifying a service as providing a Preschool Program: where a program was delivered by a university qualified teacher (with at least a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) qualification in a relevant ECEC teaching field) and if the program was based on a curriculum or learning framework.  Some preschool services did not meet one or both of these criteria during the reference week and were therefore classified as either running an ‘Other program’ or having ‘No program’.  
‘Other program’ includes those programs not based on a specific curriculum or framework and / or programs delivered by a staff member with other than a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or above qualification in a relevant ECEC teaching field.  
‘No program’ indicates that a program was not run by the service in the reference week or that staff delivering the program had no ECEC related qualification.  The Preschool Program definition is detailed in the Glossary.
Table 5.1.1 shows the number of long day care and preschool services offering Preschool Programs across Australia.  As expected, the majority (84.2%) of preschool services had a Preschool Program, with Tasmania having the highest proportion of programs (91.5%), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (90.8%).  Across Australia, 12.6% of preschool services had an ‘Other program’.
Around 37.0% of all long day care services offered a Preschool Program during the reference week.  Provision of Preschool Programs in long day care services varied widely across Australia, with New South Wales having the highest proportion of services with a program meeting relevant criteria (49.7%), followed by Victoria (44.1%).

Table 5.1.1:	Number and proportion of services with a Preschool Program or Other program by service type and State and Territory (a)

 	NSW	Vic	Qld	SA	WA	Tas	NT	ACT	Australia	
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	
Preschool	Services	
Preschool Program(b)	784	77.6	1,335	87.8	337	87.7	382	77.9	758	87.2	199	91.5	87	68.2	77	90.8	3,958	84.2	
Other program		
Advanced Diploma/Diploma (c)	43	4.2	123	8.1	16	4.2	62	12.6	52	6.0	6	2.6	9	7.4	1	1.5	312	6.6	
Other ECEC Qualification(d)	158	15.7	35	2.3	28	7.2	25	5.1	24	2.8	7	3.3	3	2.1	4	4.6	283	6.0	
No program(e)	26	2.5	27	1.8	3	0.9	22	4.5	35	4.0	6	2.6	28	22.3	3	3.1	150	3.2	
Total specified	1,010	100	1,520	100	384	100	491	100	868	100	218	100	128	100	84	100	4,703	100	
Not specified (f)	21	 	16	 	9	 	15	 	33	 	8	 	1	 	3	 	106	 	
Long day care	Services	
Preschool Program(b)	1,162	49.7	487	44.1	282	21.8	77	26.7	58	12.8	8	7.3	9	13.0	41	37.9	2,124	36.9	
Other program	 	
Advanced Diploma/Diploma (c)	56	2.4	15	1.4	7	0.6	8	2.8	5	1.0	0	-	1	1.6	1	1.0	94	1.6	
Other ECEC Qualification(d)	470	20.1	113	10.3	153	11.8	53	18.3	91	20.1	5	4.7	10	15.0	34	31.0	929	16.1	
No program(e)	648	27.7	488	44.2	848	65.7	151	52.2	300	66.1	91	87.9	47	70.4	33	30.1	2,605	45.3	
Total specified	2,337	100	1,103	100	1,290	100	289	100	453	100	103	100	67	100	109	100	5,751	100	
Not specified (f)	16	 	1	 	6	 	1	 	6	 						 	30	 	
Total preschool and long day care	Services	
Preschool Program(b)	1,946	58.1	1,822	69.5	618	36.9	460	58.9	816	61.7	207	64.4	96	49.2	118	61.0	6,082	58.2	
Other Program	  	
Advanced Diploma/Diploma (c)	99	2.9	138	5.3	24	1.4	70	8.9	56	4.3	6	1.8	11	5.4	2	1.2	405	3.9	
Other ECEC Qualification(d)	629	18.8	148	5.6	181	10.8	78	10.0	115	8.7	12	3.8	13	6.5	38	19.5	1,212	11.6	
No Program(e)	674	20.1	515	19.6	852	50.9	173	22.1	335	25.3	96	30.0	76	38.8	35	18.3	2,755	26.4	
Total specified	3,347	100	2,623	100	1,674	100	780	100	1,322	100	321	100	195	100	193	100	10,454	100	
Not specified (f)	37		17	 	15	 	16	 	38	 	8	 	1	 	3	 	136	 	
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Includes services where at least one Teacher delivered a Preschool Program. See Glossary for the definition of Teacher.
(c)	Includes services where the highest qualified Staff member delivered a program and had an Advanced Diploma or Diploma qualification in a teaching field only.
(d)	Includes services where the highest qualified Staff member delivered a program and had an ECEC qualification in a non-teaching field at any level, an ECEC qualification below the Diploma level in any field, or delivered a program not based on a specific (or known) curriculum or framework.
(e)	No program was delivered by the service during the reference week. Also includes programs delivered by a staff member without an ECEC related qualification.
(f)	Insufficient information was provided for classification. 

The National ECEC Workforce Census classified workers delivering a Preschool Program as teachers if they had a contact role with children and had obtained a teaching qualification at or above the 3 year Bachelor degree level pass (or equivalent) (see the Glossary for more details).  In this section, workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program are classified as staff if they had other than a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or above qualification in a relevant ECEC teaching field.  
Table 5.1.2 shows the highest level of relevant qualifications held by teachers and other staff who deliver Preschool Programs, in preschool and long day care services.  Of the 10,522 workers who delivered Preschool Programs in preschool services, 67.6% were teachers with a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) and above.  Approximately three times as many staff had a 4 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or higher teaching qualification (50.2%), compared to a 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) (17.4%). The qualification profiles of workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program varied widely across Australia.  The state or territory with the highest proportion of workers with a 4 year Bachelor teaching degree pass (or equivalent) and above was Tasmania (86.5%), followed by the Australian Capital Territory (78.2%) and Western Australia (74.7%).
A lower proportion of staff delivering a Preschool Program or Other program in long day care services had a 3 year Bachelor teaching degree pass (or equivalent) or higher (37.0%) compared to those in preschool (67.6%).  In addition, the proportion of those workers delivering a Preschool Program with a 4 year Bachelor degree pass (equivalent) and above in a teaching field was lower in long day care (24.0%) than in preschool (50.2%).  In long day care, Victoria had the highest proportion of workers with a 4 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) and above in a teaching field (27.8%), followed by Tasmania (27.4%) and Queensland (26.4%). Staff in long day care services predominantly had qualifications (at Diploma level or above) in ECEC-related fields other than teaching (59.0%). 

Table 5.1.2:	Number and proportion of workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program, by qualification level, service type and State and Territory (a) (b) (c)

 	NSW	Vic	Qld	SA	WA	Tas	NT	ACT	Australia	
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	
Preschool	
Teaching field(d)	Workers	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above(e)	898	29.1	1,548	49.0	476	55.8	570	52.1	1,154	74.7	362	86.5	96	69.7	177	78.2	5,280	50.2	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent)	801	25.9	582	18.4	101	11.8	139	12.7	165	10.7	16	3.9	14	10.0	12	5.2	1,829	17.4	
   Advanced Diploma / Diploma	179	5.8	443	14.0	63	7.4	239	21.8	128	8.3	23	5.5	19	13.6	6	2.9	1,101	10.5	
Other ECEC-related field, at Diploma level or above(f)	1,211	39.2	587	18.6	212	24.9	147	13.4	97	6.3	17	4.1	9	6.7	31	13.8	2,312	22.0	
Total delivering program at Diploma level or above	3,089	100	3,160	100	852	100	1,095	100	1,545	100	418	100	137	100	226	100	10,522	100	
Long day care	
Teaching field(d)	Workers	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above(e)	1,154	23.2	461	27.8	336	26.4	111	23.8	57	13.2	11	27.4	9	23.0	48	21.0	2,186	24.0	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 year (or   equivalent)	868	17.4	178	10.7	84	6.6	16	3.5	19	4.4	np	-	np	-	np	-	1,184	13.0	
   Advanced Diploma / Diploma	227	4.6	69	4.2	33	2.6	23	4.9	11	2.6	np	-	np	-	np	-	366	4.0	
Other ECEC-related field, at Diploma level or above(f)	2,731	54.8	950	57.3	817	64.3	315	67.8	343	79.8	27	66.6	27	71.2	163	71.4	5,373	59.0	
Total delivering program at Diploma level or above	4,980	100	1,658	100	1,270	100	464	100	430	100	41	100	38	100	228	100	9,109	100	
Total delivering preschool and long day care programs, at diploma level or above	8,069	 	4,818	 	2,122	 	1,559	 	1,975	 	459	 	175	 	454	 	19,631	 	
np:	Not available for publication for confidentiality reasons.  These teachers have been included in total and Australia counts.
(a)	Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)     Data only includes those workers whose qualifications were specified.
(c)	Workers with qualification exemptions have not been included.
(d)	Only includes teachers who were reported by services to be delivering an in-house preschool program during the reference week, and with ECEC-related qualifications in the fields of early childhood related teaching, or other teaching qualifications.
(e)	Includes Bachelor degree (4 years or equivalent), Bachelor degree honours, Graduate diploma or graduate certificate and Post graduate degree.
(f)	Other ECEC-related qualifications include child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies and services, behavioural science and other ECEC-related qualifications, at the Diploma level or above. These workers are delivering programs that do not meet the criteria for a ‘Preschool Program’ as defined by the National ECEC Workforce Census.

Table 5.1.3 shows the hours worked by staff delivering a Preschool Program or Other program in preschools and long day care services.  The table also shows the qualifications of staff who delivered a Preschool Program or Other program.
In preschool services, the most common range of hours worked by teachers was 30 to 39 hours for those with 4 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) and above (30.8%) and those with 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) (30.9%).  There was little variation in the pattern of hours worked by staff with different qualifications.  In total, just over half (52.3%) of preschool workers worked between 20 and 39 hours during the reference week. 
The proportion of total staff working 30 to 39 hours with qualifications of Diploma level or above was much higher in long day care services (52.0%) compared to preschool (30.2%).  Furthermore, there was a higher percentage of long day care staff working 40 to 49 hours (19.6%) than staff in preschool services (11.1%).  As with preschool, there was only minor variation in the working pattern of staff with different qualification levels.

Table 5.1.3:	Number of workers delivering a Preschool Program or Other program, by hours worked, qualification level and service type (a) (b) (c)

	Hours worked	Total Specified	Australia	
	<10	10 - 19	20 - 29	30 - 39	40 - 49	50 +		Total(g)	
	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	no.	%	 	
Preschool	
Teaching field(d)																
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or 
   equivalent) and above(e)	574	11.0	1,197	22.9	1,072	20.5	1,605	30.8	656	12.6	113	2.2	5,216	100	5,280	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or 
   equivalent)	177	9.8	455	25.2	421	23.2	558	30.9	181	10.0	18	1.0	1,810	100	1,829	
   Advanced Diploma / Diploma	94	8.6	309	28.3	255	23.4	313	28.7	95	8.7	24	2.2	1,090	100	1,101	
Other ECEC-related field, at Diploma level or above(f)	288	12.6	555	24.3	555	24.3	666	29.1	218	9.6	5	0.2	2,286	100	2,312	
Total delivering program at Diploma level or above	1,132	10.9	2,516	24.2	2,302	22.1	3,142	30.2	1,150	11.1	160	1.5	10,403	100	10,522	
Long day care	
Teaching field(d)																
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or 
   equivalent) and above(e)	95	4.4	200	9.1	299	13.7	1,068	48.9	479	21.9	43	2.0	2,184	100	2,186	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 year (or   
   equivalent)	68	5.8	150	12.6	185	15.6	542	45.8	212	17.9	27	2.3	1,184	100	1,184	
   Advanced Diploma / Diploma	13	3.6	43	11.7	54	14.8	158	43.2	92	25.1	6	1.6	366	100	366	
Other ECEC-related field, at Diploma level or above(f)	173	3.2	438	8.2	739	13.8	2,966	55.2	1,005	18.7	52	1.0	5,373	100	5,373	
Total delivering program at Diploma level or above	350	3.8	831	9.1	1,278	14.0	4,734	52.0	1,788	19.6	127	1.4	9,108	100	9,109	
Total delivering preschool and long day care programs, at diploma level or above	1,483	7.6	3,347	17.2	3,580	18.3	7,876	40.4	2,938	15.1	288	1.5	19,511	100	19,631	
(a)     Totals may not equal the sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)     Table only includes those workers whose qualifications were specified.  
(c)	Workers with qualification exemptions have not been included.  
(d)	Only includes teachers who were reported by services to be delivering an in-house preschool program during the reference week, and with ECEC-related qualifications in the fields of early childhood related teaching, or other teaching qualifications.
(e)	Includes Bachelor degree (4 years or equivalent), Bachelor degree honours, Graduate diploma or graduate certificate and Post graduate degree.
(f)	Other ECEC-related qualifications include child care, nursing (including mothercraft nursing), other human welfare studies and services, behavioural science and other ECEC-related qualifications, at the level of Diploma or above. These workers are delivering programs that do not meet the criteria for a ‘Preschool Program’ as defined by the National ECEC Workforce Census.
(g)	Australia total includes those workers whose working hours were not specified for the reference week. 

6	Preschool and child care Staff Survey highlights

6.1	Overview 
The analysis presented in this section is based on data collected directly from staff in the Staff Survey.  It covers job satisfaction, plans to stay within the sector, whether staff received recognition of prior learning when completing their child care qualifications, current study, attitudes to study and income.
6.2	Job satisfaction and career in ECEC sector
Whilst most respondents (refer to Table 6.2.1) were satisfied with their job (88.0%), a lower proportion (51.7%) were satisfied with their pay and conditions.  Dissatisfaction with pay and conditions was most acute for long day care (34.9%) and preschool (30.0%) workers.
At least three quarters of respondents agreed that there was good team spirit and morale in the workplace (80.6%) and that management was supportive (78.8%).  
Just over half of respondents felt that their job had a high social status (52.1%), while over half indicated that their job was stressful (52.2%).  
Outside school hours care (37.5%) and vacation care (36.4%) respondents were less likely to agree that their job was stressful than workers in other service types. 
In keeping with overall levels of job satisfaction, a relatively small proportion of respondents (9.9%) indicated that if they could, they would leave the sector today, with occasional care workers the most likely to want to leave (14.4%).  
Workers generally entered the sector because they wanted to work with children (83.3%) and not because it was their only available opportunity (14.6%).  Most respondents expressed an interest to further their career in the sector (63.3%) and would recommend a career in the sector to others (69.2%).  
Although in home carers were most likely to indicate that they entered the sector because it was the only opportunity available at the time (19.1%), they were also the most likely to be willing to recommend a career in the sector to others (76.1%).

Table 6.2.1:	Agreement with attitude statements (a) (b)

Statement		PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
Job Satisfaction										
I am satisfied with my job	% agree	91.5	85.3	88.8	90.3	88.1	90.6	90.9	88.0	
	% disagree	2.3	3.4	2.7	2.5	3.0	1.7	1.9	2.8	
I am satisfied with my pay and conditions	% agree	50.3	43.1	60.3	58.7	54.0	67.4	69.6	51.7	
	% disagree	30.0	34.9	18.2	19.8	29.8	15.0	14.3	27.9	
There is a good spirit and team morale in my workplace	% agree	84.6	76.8	75.8	75.8	78.4	88.9	87.1	80.6	
	% disagree	5.3	7.1	4.5	2.9	6.2	2.9	3.5	5.6	
Management are supportive	% agree	80.9	76.4	78.2	75.7	77.8	82.3	83.1	78.8	
	% disagree	6.3	7.6	4.9	5.4	6.7	4.8	5.0	6.5	
My job is important to me because it has high status and I receive positive recognition in the community	% agree	47.9	52.2	55.8	46.7	44.3	53.7	54.4	52.1	
	% disagree	19.8	19.7	16.7	19.0	25.3	14.9	14.0	18.3	
The job is stressful	% agree	51.8	58.6	55.9	47.0	54.5	37.5	36.4	52.2	
	% disagree	20.6	14.0	14.3	21.5	19.8	30.7	28.8	18.8	
Career in ECEC Sector										
If I could I’d leave the sector today	% agree	7.5	11.7	11.3	12.7	14.4	7.3	7.1	9.9	
	% disagree	80.3	71.6	71.2	70.6	70.1	78.1	79.5	74.7	
I entered the sector because I always wanted to work with children	% agree	84.9	85.7	81.5	79.7	84.8	76.9	77.7	83.3	
	% disagree	3.9	3.6	4.9	4.9	4.3	6.0	6.2	4.3	
I entered the sector because it was the only opportunity available at the time	% agree	10.1	13.9	21.0	19.1	16.1	17.5	16.5	14.6	
	% disagree	79.0	73.5	62.4	64.7	71.4	65.3	66.7	71.7	
I am interested in furthering my career in the sector	% agree	57.4	66.5	63.2	63.0	63.2	60.3	61.8	63.3	
	% disagree	13.7	11.3	11.1	13.5	12.9	13.3	12.2	12.1	
I would recommend a career in the sector to others	% agree	72.3	64.7	73.6	76.1	61.4	74.8	75.2	69.2	
	% disagree	6.7	9.0	5.8	4.0	12.0	4.9	4.1	7.3	
(a)	Table excludes the proportion of staff who indicated neutral agreement to the statements.
(b)	Table excludes unpaid staff. 

6.3	Retention
Most workers (80.3%) expected to still be employed with the same employer or business in 12 months time (see Figure 6.3.1).  This was consistent across all service types.  
Figure 6.3.1:	Expectation of being employed by the same service in 12 months time (a) (b)

Figure removed – please see page 29 of report.

(a)	Chart only includes workers who indicated their expectations of being employed.
(b)	Chart excludes unpaid staff.

Table 6.3.2 shows the main reasons why staff thought they might not or would not be with the same employer in 12 months time.    
The main reasons were reported as the nature of the work and conditions in the sector, such as seeking employment elsewhere (27.7%), dissatisfaction with pay or conditions (27.6%) or stress (17.1%).  Some reasons were due to external factors, such as personal reasons (23.9%), maternity leave (10.0%) or retirement (5.3%).
Seeking employment outside the sector was least common among preschool workers (16.7%) and most common among outside school hours care workers (39.3%) and vacation care workers (38.5%).
Outside school hours care workers and vacation care workers were also the least likely to say that their reason for leaving was due to the stress levels of their job (9.3% and 9.4% respectively) and the most likely to say that their reason for leaving related to a return to study, travel or a family reason (23.2% and 28.6% respectively).
Preschool workers were most likely to say that they were leaving due to temporary work arrangements (31.3%), while relatively large proportions of family day care workers (19.4%) and occasional care workers (17.1%) were leaving due to retirement.
Table 6.3.2:	Main reasons why staff may finish their current job in the next 12 months (a) (b)

 	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
	Percentage	
Seeking other employment outside of sector	16.7	25.7	24.7	28.3	24.3	39.3	38.5	27.7	
Dissatisfaction with pay / conditions	19.9	32.9	26.5	13.1	15.7	21.5	20.5	27.6	
Returning to study/ travel / family reasons	15.6	25.7	19.5	22.9	20.4	23.2	28.6	23.9	
The job is stressful	12.2	21.3	21.3	16.2	17.6	9.3	9.4	17.1	
Seasonal /  temporary job / fixed contract finishing	31.3	7.3	5.2	17.9	17.4	4.5	6.5	10.2	
Maternity leave	7.6	13.0	10.8	9.9	11.2	4.7	4.0	10.0	
Workplace culture	7.9	11.1	8.5	7.2	8.9	4.6	6.4	9.1	
Retiring	8.9	3.7	19.4	6.1	17.1	3.8	3.3	5.3	
Difficulty in managing children’s behaviour	2.2	3.8	3.6	4.6	1.3	2.6	2.7	3.3	
Employer / business closing down / downsizing	3.6	2.9	1.1	0.4	2.6	2.6	2.3	2.7	
Unable / Unwilling to complete qualification requirements	2.2	1.7	5.1	1.7	6.0	4.3	3.1	2.5	
Other	26.4	25.4	18.7	14.2	17.1	30.3	30.4	26.2	
	Number 	
Total specified	1,566	6,291	625	90	68	1,526	1,306	11,473	
Total – reason not specified (c) 	86	266	60	12	2	85	84	596	
Total not expecting to stay with their service 	1,652	6,557	685	102	71	1,611	1,390	12,069	
(a)	Survey respondents could indicate more than one reason for expecting to finish their current job in the next 12 months.
(b)	Table excludes unpaid staff.
(c)	Includes staff who indicated that they did not want to answer the question.

6.4	Recognition of prior learning
Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) allows a person to receive recognition and credit for the knowledge and skills they have, no matter how these were attained, including overseas.  This can include skills from:
•	Previous study, including courses at school and at college, through adult education classes or training programs at work
•	Work experience, including work that is paid or unpaid
•	Life experience, including leisure pursuits or voluntary work.
Just over one third of the respondents (37.4%) had received some recognition of prior learning when completing their qualification (see Table 6.4.1), with RPL most common among family day care respondents (43.2%).  
RPL was most commonly on the basis of study at TAFE (50.1% of all  those who received RPL) or assessed skills and experience (29.9%).
Table 6.4.1:	Proportion of staff who received RPL for qualifications in current job, by service type (a)

	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
RPL status	Percentage	
Any RPL	33.4	39.0	43.2	35.1	39.0	34.1	35.4	37.4	
No RPL	52.0	51.7	44.1	46.4	52.2	50.1	49.0	50.6	
RPL not applicable	14.6	9.3	12.7	18.5	8.9	15.8	15.6	12.0	
Basis for RPL (b) 									
Study at university	30.9	13.2	7.1	17.6	12.2	25.4	28.3	18.2	
Study at a TAFE / technical college	40.0	55.4	50.1	41.1	51.7	44.6	45.7	50.1	
Other study	12.5	18.7	18.0	17.1	17.3	13.0	11.7	16.3	
Assessed skills and experience	32.6	25.3	42.0	44.9	33.4	32.5	32.4	29.9	
Other	7.2	6.8	9.4	10.6	7.8	7.7	8.7	7.5	
Had RPL, basis not stated	1.9	2.1	2.6	2.6	2.3	2.7	3.0	2.3	
	Number	
Total specified	10,933	29,754	5,643	454	339	7,124	6,135	60,382	
Total not specified (c)	302	791	154	13	6	168	126	1,559	
TOTAL STAFF	11,235	30,545	5,797	467	345	7,291	6,261	61,941	
(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Totals may not sum to 100% as staff could report more than one basis for RPL.
(c)	Includes unpaid staff who were not asked to report on RPL.

6.5	Current study
Almost one third (30.8%) of Staff Survey respondents were currently studying (see Table 6.5.1).  
Study was most common for staff employed by outside school hours care (35.2%), long day care (35.0%) and vacation care services (35.1%), and least common for preschool services (15.8%).  
Outside school hours care staff (47.1% of those currently studying) and vacation care staff (50.6%) were most likely to be studying for a university degree. 
Almost two thirds (65.4%) of respondents were studying in a child care or children services field, with early childhood teaching (16.7%) and primary teaching (9.8%) the next most popular fields.
Table 6.5.1:	Level of study for staff currently studying in an ECEC-related field, by service type (a)

 Level of qualification currently studying 	PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
Study status	Percentage	
Studying	15.8	35.0	28.3	20.9	26.1	35.2	35.1	30.8	
Not studying	84.2	65.0	71.7	79.1	73.9	64.8	64.9	69.2	
Study level 		
Bachelor degree and above	27.0	14.6	5.5	26.4	15.1	47.1	50.6	23.6	
   Bachelor degree pass 4 years (or equivalent) and above	21.5	10.0	3.0	23.4	11.1	42.0	46.0	19.0	
   Bachelor degree pass 3 years (or equivalent) 	5.5	4.6	2.5	3.0	4.0	5.1	4.5	4.5	
Advanced Diploma / 
Diploma	30.8	48.1	39.7	26.3	55.7	23.0	22.7	39.4	
Certificate III / IV 	36.3	32.4	48.3	40.0	22.7	25.0	21.7	31.9	
Below Certificate  III	2.2	1.3	0.9	3.4	1.3	1.2	1.2	1.4	
Level not specified	3.7	3.6	5.6	3.9	5.1	3.7	3.9	3.9	
	Number	
Total specified	11,040	30,137	5,694	461	341	7,189	6,173	61,036	
Total not specified (b)	195	408	103	6	4	102	88	905	
TOTAL STAFF	11,235	30,545	5,797	467	345	7,291	6,261	61,941	
(a)	Totals may not equal sum of components due to rounding of weighted data.
(b)	Includes unpaid staff who were not asked about their current study.

Respondents were also asked why they were studying for their qualification.  Staff generally undertook study for professional development reasons:  The three most common responses were to upgrade skills or qualifications (69.6%), their own motivation (46.0%), and the desire to improve their effectiveness in their role (45.1%).
Respondents not enrolled in education were asked to rate their agreement with seven statements about the reasons they were not studying (see Table 6.5.2).  

Less than one third of respondents agreed that they were not interested in further education (29.2%), with time (48.9%), cost (45.3%) and lack of value in terms of wage increases (44.9%) seen as the main barriers to further study.  Lack of time (60.0%) and cost (53.2%) were particularly common reasons amongst family day care respondents.
A relatively small proportion of respondents cited difficulty in accessing education (14.1%), undertaking the Recognition Assessment Process (9.8%) and getting support from their managers and colleagues (4.8%) as reasons for not studying.

Table 6.5.2:	Agreement with statements about future study for those not currently enrolled in education (a)
	
Statement		PS	LDC	FDC	IHC	OCC	OSHC	VAC	Total	
I would like to further my studies, but the cost is too high	% agree	43.2	47.8	53.2	50.3	49.0	37.7	38.4	45.3	
	% disagree	24.9	24.4	18.1	21.9	22.3	32.5	31.7	25.5	
I would like to further my studies, but I don’t have enough spare time	% agree	51.9	50.7	60.0	53.1	44.7	36.1	36.7	48.9	
	% disagree	20.8	23.4	17.3	23.6	24.4	34.3	33.1	24.4	
It’s not worth the time and money to study further – any resulting wage increase is too small	% agree	46.6	49.4	44.4	39.4	50.8	33.4	33.2	44.9	
	% disagree	24.1	24.9	28.0	29.8	25.9	35.7	36.5	27.4	
It is the difficulty in accessing training facilities that stops me from further studies	% agree	15.0	13.2	21.1	21.0	14.8	11.4	11.6	14.1	
	% disagree	48.7	52.4	45.4	47.1	45.7	54.7	54.4	51.3	
It is the difficulty in undertaking the Recognition Assessment Processes (RAP) that stops me from further study	% agree	9.8	10.1	12.3	10.8	12.4	7.7	8.2	9.8	
	% disagree	44.7	49.1	44.7	45.4	40.5	51.7	51.8	48.2	
I would like to further my studies, but am not supported by managers / colleagues	% agree	3.7	5.7	4.2	5.5	7.1	4.7	3.9	4.8	
	% disagree	72.2	73.5	72.6	65.6	70.2	73.9	74.0	73.1	
I am not interested in further studies or going back to study	% agree	32.9	27.8	30.2	30.1	31.9	28.2	26.7	29.2	
	% disagree	39.2	45.3	44.2	45.4	43.9	43.0	45.3	43.6	
(a)	Table excludes the proportion of staff who indicated neutral agreement to the statements.

6.6	Income
Figure 6.6.1 shows the annual income distribution of paid full time workers by service type.  The majority of full time workers in preschools (50.4%) earned $52,000 or more per year and just over half of full time workers in child care services earned between $31,200 and $51,999 per year.  
Figure 6.6.1:	Income distribution of paid full time workers by service type (a) (b) (c)
Figure removed – please see page 35 of report.

(a) 	Income figures refer to pre-tax incomes for the worker’s early childhood education and care job.
(b)     Excludes those paid workers who did not report their income in the Staff Survey. 
(c)	Where full time is defined as paid hours of 35 hours or more per week.

Across all service types (refer to Figure 6.6.2), most part time workers (79.5%) earned less than $32,000 per year.  The largest proportion of part time workers in long day care (57.8%), in home care (52.3%), occasional care (50.1%), family day care (48.6%) and preschools (42.6%) earned between $15,600 and $31,199 per year.  In vacation care and outside school hours care around 57% of part time workers earned less than $15,600 per year
Figure 6.6.2:	Income distribution of paid part time workers by service type (a) (b) (c)
Figure removed – please see page 35 of report.

(a) 	Income figures refer to pre-tax incomes for the worker’s early childhood education and care job.
(b)     Excludes those paid workers who did not report their income in the Staff Survey. 
(c)      Where part time is defined as paid hours of 0 to less than 35 hours per week.

Abbreviations

ABS	Australian Bureau of Statistics
AGCCCS	Australian Government Census of Child Care Services (2006)
ASC	After school hours care
BSC	Before school hours care
CCB	Child Care Benefit
CCMS	Child Care Management System
CCPS	Child Care Provider Survey (2008-09)
DEEWR	Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
ECEC	Early Childhood Education and Care
FDC 	Family day care
IHC 	In home care
LDC	Long day care
N	Population
n	Achieved sample size
OCC	Occasional care
OSHC	Outside school hours care
PS 	Preschool
ROGS	Report on Government Services
SCH	Statistical Clearing House
VAC	Vacation care

Glossary

After school hours care (ASC) – refer to OSHC
Before school hours care (BSC) – refer to OSHC
Child Care Management System (CCMS) – DEEWR administrative system from which the child care services contact list for the National ECEC Workforce Census was generated. 
Child care services – refers to ASC, BSC, FDC, IHC, LDC, OCC and VAC services. 
Disability or long term health condition – The National ECEC Workforce Census collected data on the following areas:
	Learning and applying knowledge, education – intentionally using senses to experience certain stimuli (e.g. watching, listening, touching, smelling and tasting); ability to imitate actions or behaviours; learning to read and write; ability to solve problems, make decisions or think; and ability to focus and maintain attention to specific stimuli or tasks. 
	Communication – understanding and/or responding to spoken messages or non-verbal messages such as symbols, signs or drawings; speaking and/or singing; making self understood in their most effective method of communication or language if applicable. 
	Mobility – ability to roll, crawl, walk, climb and move around within and outside of buildings; being able to stay in the same body position (e.g. sitting and standing) to play or carry out a task; performing coordinated actions of handling objects (such as picking something up, grasping a toy, or throwing). 
	Self-care – caring for oneself by performing activities appropriate to age, such as washing and drying oneself, dressing, eating, drinking and toileting. 
	Interpersonal interactions and relationships – carrying out the tasks required for appropriate, basic and/or complex interactions with other people (including family members, friends, relatives, adults and strangers); creating and maintaining relationships in formal settings (such as child centre); behaving within acceptable limits; responding to the feelings of others and coping with own emotions. 
	Other – including general tasks (such as undertaking and carrying out single or multiple tasks or being able to follow and adapt to changes in routine, or managing behaviours or emotions in completing tasks); domestic life; community and social life (such as ability to engage in groups or clubs for children that undertake activities such as play, games, sport and/or other hobbies).
Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Dataset (ECEC NMDS) - the Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Dataset (ECEC NMDS) was developed to provide a nationally consistent approach to data collection and provision for the NP ECE. It was endorsed by the Early Childhood Data Sub Group under the Ministerial Council for Education, Early Childhood Development and Youth Affairs in 2010.
Family Day Care (FDC) - refers to services in receipt of the Child Care Benefit where a network of individual carers provide flexible care, typically in their own home, for other people's children and as part of coordinated home-based care schemes.  Care is predominantly provided for children from birth to 6 years old who are not yet at school, but may also be provided for school-aged children.  Both not-for-profit and for-profit providers may operate a FDC service.
A FDC service is responsible for the effective operation of all components of FDC, including recruiting, training and supporting carers; monitoring care provision; and providing advice, support and information for parents.  The service also assists parents to select an appropriate FDC carer for their child.  A FDC service can provide flexible care, including all-day care, part-time, casual, before and after school care, and care during school holidays.  FDC services may provide access to preschool programs for eligible children.
In home care (IHC) - similar to FDC but the professional care is provided in the child’s own home.  IHC is funded by the Australian Government, is not widely available and is usually an option where other forms of care are not suitable.  This usually arises in circumstances where it is difficult for the child to be cared for outside the home; for example if the child has a disability and the home is structured especially for them. 
Integrated Centres – these centres provide integrated services to children from birth to 8 years of age.  The combination of services provided may include preschool to Year 2, child care, family support and other services that support children’s learning, health and well-being.  Most will be captured as a subset of the above services.
Long Day Care (LDC) - a centre-based form of child care service in receipt of Child Care Benefit.  LDC services provide all-day or part-time care for children from birth to 6 years old who attend the centre on a regular basis.  Care is generally provided in a building, or part of a building, that has been created or redeveloped specifically for use as a child care centre, and children are usually grouped together in rooms according to age.  Centres, in the majority of cases, operate between 7:30 am and 6:00 pm on normal working days for 48 weeks per year, so that parents can manage both the care of their children and demands of employment.  Private operators, local councils, community organisations, employers or non-profit organisations may run these services. 
Services may provide respite care and other non work-related child care but must ensure care is offered to families in line with the Priority of Access Guidelines.  Services may offer access to preschool programs for children of eligible age (age varies between jurisdictions) and provide care for school children before and after school and during school holidays.
National Partnership Agreement on Early Childhood Education (NP ECE) - the NP ECE is a national agreement to ensure that every child, 12 months prior to full-time schooling, has access to a preschool program delivered by: a four year ECEC university qualified early childhood teacher; in accordance with a national early years learning framework; for 15 hours a week, 40 weeks a year; across a diversity of settings; in a form that meets the needs of parents; and at a cost that does not present a barrier to participation.
Non mainstream services - these services are out of scope of this project and the following description is provided for information only.  Non mainstream services are provided by not-for-profit organisations and are delivered mainly in rural, remote or Indigenous communities, providing access to ECEC where the market would otherwise fail to deliver.  These services are generally subject to relevant children’s services state and territory regulations.  Types of non mainstream services may include:  mobile ECEC services; Multifunctional Aboriginal Children’s Services; Indigenous playgroups; Indigenous OSHC and enrichment programs; crèches including Jobs, Education and Training (JET) crèches; neighbourhood models of occasional care and rural care services.
Occasional care (OCC) - centre-based child care service that supports families by providing flexible care for children from birth to five years.  Families can access occasional care either hourly, on a sessional basis for short periods or at irregular intervals.  OCC services are run by community organisations, non-profit organisations or local councils.
Other contact – an ‘other contact worker’ has some duties involving direct contact with children, but deals mainly with staffing or management issues such as supervising staff and handling queries from parents.  This may include, but is not limited to, principals, deputy principals, centre managers and coordinators.
Outside school hours care (OSHC) -  services in receipt of Child Care Benefit provide care for primary school-aged children (typically aged 5 to 12 years) before and / or after school care and can also operate during school holidays (vacation care) and on pupil free days.  OSHC services are usually provided from primary school premises.  Services may also be located in child care centres, community facilities or other OSHC centres located near the primary school.  Both not-for-profit and for-profit providers may operate OSHC services.
Participation rate – a service is considered to have participated in the National ECEC Workforce Census either by completing the Service Survey, or by having a least one staff member complete a Staff Survey.  Participation rate is defined as participating services as a per cent of estimated in scope services. 
Preschools (PS) - services licensed and / or funded by state or territory governments to deliver preschool services at a particular location.  Preschool comprises a structured educational program provided by a qualified teacher in a variety of settings, usually aimed at children in the year before they commence formal schooling.  The terminology for preschool varies between jurisdictions, with the most commonly used terms being:
•	Kindergarten in Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia 
•	Kindergarten or Preschool in South Australia and Victoria
•	Preschool in Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and Northern Territory.
For the purposes of this report, preschool refers to both kindergarten and preschool.
Educational programs or curricula may be provided in long day care and other settings.  For the purposes of this report, long day care and other child care settings which run a preschool program are not included in the definition of preschools, to avoid double counting.
Preschool program - the Early Childhood Education and Care National Minimum Dataset (ECEC NMDS) defines preschool programs as being comprised of a structured, play-based learning program usually provided by a qualified teacher on a sessional basis.  It is primarily aimed at children in the year or two before they commence formal schooling, irrespective of the type of institution that provides the program or whether the program is government funded or privately provided. 
The following criteria were used to define a ‘Preschool Program’ and are listed below: 
1.	Delivered by a Teacher of a Preschool Program;  and
2.	Delivered based on a curriculum or framework.
Primary contact – a ‘primary contact worker’ mainly has direct contact with children.  This may include, but is not limited to, teachers, teachers’ assistants / aides, specialist teachers and therapists.
Response rate – completed Service Survey returns as a per cent of estimated in scope services.  
Rim weighting - rim weighting is usually used when there is a need to weight according to various characteristics, but the relationship of those characteristics is not known and / or when weighting needs to take into account multiple characteristics at the same time.
Rim weighting is also used when there are not enough respondents to adequately fill all the possible cells of the weighting matrix.
Service Survey – refers to the first part of the National ECEC Workforce Census, where services provided information on usage, the number of children with additional needs in child care, and the provision of access to preschool programs in relation to a seven day period or ‘reference week’.
Staff information collected from services - part of the Service Survey, whereby services were also asked to provide information about their workforce at the individual worker level, including the role of staff, length of service, qualifications (including exemptions), current study and employment status.
Staff Survey – refers to the second part of the National ECEC Workforce Census, which involved the collection of information from individual ECEC staff.  
Teacher of a Preschool Program - the ECEC NMDS defines a teacher as a person with a relevant university qualification (or equivalent) who is delivering a Preschool Program. Delivery of a Preschool Program is defined as face-to-face delivery by a primary contact worker of a program that is a structured, play-based, educational program. A teacher is included as delivering a Preschool Program if they delivered the program at least once during the reference week.  This definition applies at the worker level.  
The following were all necessary criteria to define someone as a ‘Teacher of a Preschool Program’:
1.	Delivered at least one hour of a Preschool Program in the reference week;
2.	Had a relevant degree (4 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent) or higher, or 3 year Bachelor degree pass (or equivalent)) in a relevant ECEC teaching field.  Relevant ECEC teaching fields include qualifications in early childhood related teaching, primary teaching, or other teaching;
3.	Was a primary contact or other contact worker; and
4.	Had a role as a Principal, Director, teacher, teacher in charge or group leader.