eprintid: 1541495 rev_number: 38 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/01/54/14/95 datestamp: 2017-02-19 00:14:15 lastmod: 2021-12-19 00:03:01 status_changed: 2019-06-24 09:45:01 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Simon, A title: A critical review of the advantages and limitations of using large-scale national surveys to examine childcare patterns and the ECEC workforce in Britain ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B16 divisions: B14 divisions: J81 keywords: Early childhood education, childcare, quality, early childhood policy, workforce note: Copyright © 2017 The author(s). Published by Informa UK limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. abstract: OECD countries have established statistical collections to ensure quality within Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). Focusing on one part of ECEC – preschool ‘childcare services’ – this paper critically reviews statistical collections specifically designed to measure childcare patterns in England alongside UK data collected for other purposes which can be used to examine childcare patterns. The paper evaluates how far these data provide a reliable basis for examining the childcare workforce, how well childcare usage and provision patterns can be analysed and the degree to which the data provide comparable geographical coverage. Results show analysis is restricted by the various ways data-sets count and classify occupations. Differences in geographical coverage make them difficult to compare. More refinement of occupation categories would make existing sources more useful. The themes discussed here are relevant for other countries seeking to understand how best to utilise their statistical collections for examining childcare patterns. date: 2019 date_type: published official_url: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2017.1291586 oa_status: green full_text_type: pub language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1208412 doi: 10.1080/09575146.2017.1291586 lyricists_name: Simon, Antonia lyricists_id: ASIMO62 actors_name: Flynn, Bernadette actors_id: BFFLY94 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Early Years: an international journal of research and development volume: 39 number: 1 pagerange: 4-16 issn: 1472-4421 citation: Simon, A; (2019) A critical review of the advantages and limitations of using large-scale national surveys to examine childcare patterns and the ECEC workforce in Britain. Early Years: an international journal of research and development , 39 (1) pp. 4-16. 10.1080/09575146.2017.1291586 <https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2017.1291586>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1541495/9/Simon%20VoR%2024_06_2019_A%20critical.pdf