Children's services
New releases
Technical paper on operational definitions and data issues for key national indicators of children's health, development and wellbeing (30 June 2008)
Injury among young Australians (4 June 2008)
Adoptions Australia 2006-07 (21 February 2008)
Child protection Australia 2006-07 (23 January 2008)
Children's services include:
- Formal child care services which provide care and developmental activities for children usually aged between the ages of 0 and 12 years; and
- Preschool services which offer educational and developmental programs for children in the year or two before full-time schooling.
The Children's Services team of the Children, Youth and Families Unit contributes to the development of consistent national data on children's services and produces regular reports on child care and preschool service provision and usage in Australia.
Children's Services National Minimum Data Set (CSNMDS)
Under direction from the Children's Services Data Working Group, work was undertaken to develop a Children's Services National Minimum Data Set (CSNMDS). This data set was signed off by the National Community Services Information Management Group (NCSIMG) in July 2005. The final report on the development of the CSNMDS was published in February 2007.
For more information on the development of this data set, proceed to:
Implementation of the CSNMDS
Now that the initial development work for the CSNMDS has been completed, work is underway to study options for implementation. For more information on the implementation of the CSNMDS please follow this link.
Publications
There have been a number of reports and working papers released by the AIHW relating to children's services. These reports use data from various sources, such as the Commonwealth Department of Family and Community Services Child Care Census and the ABS Child Care Survey.
For a comprehensive summary of children's services, download the children's chapter from the Australia's Welfare publication (click here for the latest Australia's Welfare).
Other publications in the children's services area are as follows:
- Final report on the development of the Children's Services National Minimum Data Set (2007)
- CSNMDS Report on the Phase 1 Pilot Test (2007)
- CSNMDS Report on the Phase 2 Pilot Test (2007)
- Trends in the affordability of child care services 1991-2004 (2006)
- Counting kids: Developing a new national collection for child care and preschool services (2004)
- Trends in long day care services for children in Australia, 1991-99 (2002)
- Report on the field testing of the proposed children's services national minimum data set (2001)
- Trends in the affordability of child care services (2001)
- Outside school hours care services in Australia 1994-97 (2000)
- Comparison of data items in selected children's services collections (2000)
- Trends in long day care services for children in Australia 1991-95 (1998)
- Outside school hours care services in Australia 1996 (1997)
- Children's services in Australia 1996 (1996) - Out of print
- Child care workers (1995)
Last reviewed by January 2008