Current until 10 December 2002. This is a report on the first stage of the development of a National Minimum Data Set (NMDS) for children’s services (child care and preschool services) in Australia. It specifically reports on a field test of the data elements contained in the data manual (Version 1.0) as endorsed by the National Community Services Information Management Group (NCSIMG) Children’s Services Data Working Group. However, as a result of issues identified during discussions of the data elements, the report goes beyond the field test, to examine more fundamental issues relating to the structure of the NMDS.