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Analysis of Survey of Operational Costs 2006

Publication Details

This report provides the summary results of the 2006 Survey of Operating Costs for early childhood education (ECE) services.

Author(s): Data Management and Analysis Division, Ministry of Education

Date Published: January 2007

Summary

The summary may be useful for early childhood education services who wish to compare their costs to other services, or to understand how the Ministry of Education interprets the data . It is a relatively technical report for services that want more detail about the process. The report refers to a parallel report on the development of 20 Hours ECE funding rates, which is also available on the Education Counts website, for more information on early childhood education funding, visit the ECE Funding index page on the Ministry of Education website.
  1. In June and July 2006 the Ministry of Education conducted the Survey of Operational Costs of Early Childhood providers. Surveys were sent to all licensed early childhood education services, to request information about expenditure on a range of categories over the most recent fiscal year for which they have audited annual accounts.

  2. This report analyses some key aspects of the data collected, covering response rates, average cost per hour and the proportion of expenditure spent on major cost categories.

  3. The overall response rate from services was 56%. A response rate of 25%, given suitable coverage of service types, would have been adequate to provide a reliable indication of costs1. This compares with the 2005 response rate of 48%. As in 2005, responses have good coverage for all service types, rates, centre ownership, regions, and levels of rurality.

    Table 1: Response Rates by Service Type2

    Education & Care Responses Total Response Rate
    707
    1848
    38.3%
    Kindergarten
    493
    620
    79.5%
    Home-based
    124
    219
    56.6%
    Playcentre
    243
    484
    50.2%
    Te Kōhanga Reo
    468
    501
    93.4%
    Total
    2059
    3672
    56.1%

     

  4. The average cost by service type is shown in the table below. This shows that education & care services have the highest average cost followed by Te Kōhanga Reo, kindergarten, home-based ECE, and playcentre. For both all-day and sessional education & care services there is a clear pattern that the cost per enrolled hour increases with the percentage of registered teachers. The report also includes analysis of average costs between regions and for different ownership structures.

    Table 2: Average Cost per Enrolled Hour by Service Type

    Average Cost Over-two Under-two
    Education & Care
    6.09
    12.85
    Kindergarten
    5.50
    N/A
    Home-based
    5.40
    10.80
    Playcentre
    3.85
    7.71
    Te Kōhanga Reo
    5.66
    11.32

 

Footnotes

  1. Based on HOI’s Dec 04 report on survey and price index mechanisms.
  2. Totals as at 1 July 2006.

Related Pages on Education Counts

Calculation of 20 Hours ECE Rates

Related Ministry of Education Web Pages

ECE Funding Index page

 

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