Peter Harvey

Good afternoon and welcome to our Preschool Reform Agreement Briefing.

We'll give everyone a minute to get settled.

For those I haven't met, I'm Peter Harvey.

I'll be your host this afternoon and you're here with us for the PRA Data Collection briefing session.

We'll get going in about 30 seconds.

I can see about 120 of you already here, which is great.

And we will start shortly on our PRA data collection briefing shortly.

All right.

I think we're at quorum and certainly we will have recording for those that want to catch us later or who might be a few minutes late.

I am Peter Harvey, I am the director of Funding, Compliance and Projects here at the Department of Education.

And one of the great things that I get to do in my role is all things Digital Hub, and that's what we're going to be talking about today as a part of our Preschool Reform Agreement data collection briefing.

I would like to begin by acknowledging traditional owners of the lands on which we are all joining today, the lands and waterways where we work and live.

I come to you today from the land of the direct people, and I pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging and acknowledge the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and educators to those in New South Wales.

And I will also be joined here today for our briefing session by Amy Birungi, who's our Director with accountability for the Preschool Reform Agreement and for frequent Flyers of the Digital Hub webinar series.

We'll also have Sonja Herrmann back, who's our product owner for a bit of a live demonstration later on how to do all of the great things in there.

Just a bit of housekeeping up the front.

It is a big crowd and we know that sometimes we leave the mute on, sometimes we leave it off.

And so we do have a few kind of pieces in the background as to help with that.

So you'll see that we've got the microphone video and chat functions disabled, but we do have the Q&A function available for any questions.

So please do use that.

The team is sitting behind the scenes, even though you can't see them, going through all of those to respond where we can and also to make sure that we capture any of those in the Q&A are toward the end.

And we do have automated closed captions also enabled during the session as well.

So if you'd like to use those, please go ahead.

If there's any kind of technical difficulties with those please drop a question into the Q&A and the team would pick that up in the background for you.

And as I mentioned at the top, we are recording today's session.

And so that will be made available for you if you want a rewatch or if you do have other services or people in your services that didn't get a chance to come along today, fear not, they haven't missed out.

We'll have that available.

In terms of what we're going to cover today, we've got a big agenda and what we're really going to focus on, as the name suggests, is giving you the additional information and support that you need about the Preschool Reform Agreement and the data collection that's currently in flight.

As a part of that, supported by our Digital Hub, today, you're going to learn a bit about the Preschool Reform Agreement itself and what that means in terms of how we work with the Commonwealth, but importantly, how that agreement then supports the work that you're doing in services with children day in and day out.

We're going to talk a little bit about the Digital Hub, importantly around how data is collected and the timeline for the current collection.

And so you understand when you need to be doing certain activities there as a part of that attendance capture.

And as always, we will have a live demonstration.

And I think probably the bit to really kind of stay tuned for is some live tips and tricks from the team as well who are in their day in and day out, but also some of the things that we get kind of common questions around.

We'll be sure to debunk and provide a few tips there.

As mentioned at the top.

We'll also make sure we've got plenty of time for Q&A at the end, and so do pop those into that Q&A bubble on screen and we'll make sure that we're bringing those out at that point.

First up though, we're going to hear from Amy Birungi, who's going to talk to you all about the preschool reform agreement and what it means and why it's important. Amy.

Amy Birungi

Thanks, Peter. Hi everyone.

My name is Amy Birungi and as Peter said, I have responsibility in the Department of Education for working with the Commonwealth on the Preschool Reform Agreement and what that means for NSW.

So I've just got a few slides to talk us through what the Preschool Reform Agreement is and why it matters in the context of the collection that you're participating in relation to both enrolment and attendance in preschool.

So the Preschool Reform Agreement is a funding agreement that the Australian government has made with all States and territories and it supports the delivery of 600 hours of quality preschool for children in the years before school.

States and territories receive the money from the Australian government and pass the funding on to services in New South Wales.

This is done through Start Strong Funding, so you receive it as part of your Start Strong Funding envelope, but we have some obligations to the Australian government to meet in order to receive the full funding that's been allocated for a given year and also to maintain our funding agreement with them.

So we have some data that we need to provide annually that demonstrates our performance against some indicators that I'll go into a little bit more detail on the next slide.

But we're here today because in the context of the PRA services are required in Term 2 to complete data collection around enrolment and attendance for the entirety of Term 2.

And in New South Wales, the way that we interface with you and we receive that data is obviously through your own CCMS and then connected to the department's Digital Hub.

So if I go to the next slide, I'll unpack a little bit further our specific performance requirements that we need to receive the funding from the Australian government.

We have 2, as I said earlier, we have 2 performance indicators that we need to meet.

One relates to enrolment.

So we need children to be enrolled in a preschool programme for 600 hours a year and then we also need to demonstrate attendance for that 600-hour program that we run.

And we need to demonstrate sort of year-on-year improvement in children's attendance in those programs.

And where we're able to meet our performance indicators, then we are we are able to receive the full funding that's been allocated to NSW for that given year.

You'll see in the dots on the slide that there are some sort of subsets of, of information that we need to collect against both the enrolment and the attendance indicators.

So we collect data for all children and then we also look at enrolment and attendance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and then also children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The data that you collect is vital as it then feeds into the Digital Hub and is checked by our data teams and then submitted to the Australian Government as part of our reporting obligations.

And the Australian Government uses the data that they received to check that we have met our performance indicators.

A snapshot of your data will be submitted to the Australian Government as part of our attendance data submission, but in order to make sure that we are presenting the most accurate snapshot of that data, you will have an opportunity to view and edit your service and child data snapshot in the Digital Hub.

There will be a given window in which you can do this and you will be given the opportunity to review and edit prior to finalising the submission of your data.

The data that we are collecting includes preschool service details, preschool service operating hours, and then children details.

And it's important to note that this data collection is in addition to the annual preschool census, which many of you would be familiar with that takes place later on this year.

So that's a very quick run through of the Preschool Reform Agreement.

If you have any questions about the PRA specifically, as Peter has said, the Q&A function is there for you to pop some questions in.

And my team is online and available to answer any questions that you might have.

But I'm going to hand over to Sonja to tell us a bit more about the Digital Hub.

Thanks, Sonja.

Sonja Herrmann

Thank you, Amy.

Hi, everyone.

I am Sonja Herrmann.

As Peter mentioned, I'm the Digital Hub product owner and I'll be providing you with some additional information about the current data collection and the Digital Hub.

Before we get into more details regarding the PRA data collection, let me give you a brief overview of the Digital Hub, in particular for services that have not joined any previous webinars.

So the purpose of the Digital Hub program is to simplify and streamline data collection and funding processes.

That's achieved by centralising data collection management, meeting Commonwealth reporting requirements, therefore securing essential funding, as we just heard from Amy, phasing out the use of the Early Childhood Contract Management system or in short, ECCMS or E-C-C-M-S, and moving it all to the Digital Hub, as well as creating efficiencies and reducing administrative burden for early learning services and department teams.

As of last year, we have successfully onboarded all community and mobile preschools eligible for the Start Strong for community preschools and mobile preschool funding programmes onto the Digital Hub.

So you all should have access to the Digital Hub right now.

We also had a small group of pilot services complete the PRA attendance data collection last year, and earlier this year we completed trialling the census via the Digital Hub.

Both collection exercises have provided us with valuable insights, helping us improve the Digital Hub and making data collection easier for you.

Now, let's dive into more details of the current PRA data collection underway.

On the next slide, they will provide you an overview of the data being collected as part of the 2026 PRA data collection.

You can also refer to the PRA Data Guide on the department website for full details of the data being collected.

I'll get a colleague to post a link in the Q&A or chat for you to refer to.

So what data is collected?

As Amy briefly pointed out, we are collecting data about your preschool service.

This includes your service approval ID, your service name, contact details, your services address and if available, your service is ABN.

All this information comes from the National Quality Agenda IT system, or in short and NQAITS.

If you need to update any of your preschool service details, you will need to do so in NQAITS, although I'm pretty sure that's less likely needed.

Next is the information about children enrolled in your service, which we received from your childcare management system or in short CCMS.

Before you can share any details related to data with us, you need to ensure parents or guardians have provided their consent by signing the consent form.

Once you have the relevant consent, you must capture this in your CCMS for each child by your consent indicator.

Without this captured in your CCMS, the data for that child will not transfer to the digital hub.

So if you currently cannot see some or all of your children in the Digital Hub, please check that they have the relevant consent information in your CCMS.

So it might be a toggle, it might be a tick box, but it needs to relate to consent.

So please double check.

This is really important because otherwise we can't get your child information.

We also ask you to fill in the date the parents consent form was signed.

Again, your CCMS should have a field to enter that date.

In addition to consent details, we get a child ID for each child, noting that this is generated by your CCMS, so you don't need to enter this yourself.

In fact, some of you may not even see it in your CCMS.

Other data we collect for children include the child's full name, sex, date of birth, primary address, language, and Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander background.

So some very similar data that we collect in the census.

Since this collection focuses on attendance and enrolment information, we collect attendance hours and enrolment details for each child.

Lastly, we collect preschool service operating details.

This includes the service approval ID important to notice that the data will not transfer to Digital Hub if this is not captured in your CCMS accurately.

So please ensure you have filled in the full-service approval number starting with SE- followed by the 8-digit number and check there are no spaces or typos in your number.

As part of the service operating details, we also collect total weeks of services open for, date of operation, operation start and end times, and the reasons for non-operational statuses.

Although you may be able to list the reason for your services non-operational status in your CCMS, at this time we are not receiving this data from your CCMS.

You will be able to add this information for your service in the Digital Hub from the 17th of July during the submission window.

More on that a little later.

You would use the non-operational status for public holidays, professional development days and any other days where children aren't able to attend your service.

All other details shown on this slide for children and service operating details should come from your CCMS.

As such, please make sure the details are complete and correct in your CCMS so that complete and accurate data is transferred to Digital Hub on a weekly basis.

If you are unsure where to fill in certain details in your CCMS, you can refer to your CCMS help guides or reach out to their support.

As outlined by Amy earlier, your Term 2 data will be provided to the Australian Government as part of our 2026 PRA report late this year.

It is therefore important to be across the timeline of the collection activities, including some of the important deadlines.

So right now we are in the collection.

Also referred to as the representative or reporting period between the 20th of April and the 3rd of July, Essentially all of Term 2.

You should periodically review your data in the Digital Hub to see if there are any discrepancies between your CCMS and the Digital Hub.

You can view your data in Digital Hub by clicking on Services in the main menu on the left-hand side and then selecting your service.

If you find any discrepancies or gaps in your data, please update your CCMS accordingly.

Please note that in the Services menu in the Digital Hub, you will actually see additional details we are receiving from your CCMS which are not part of the PRA data submission.

For example, fees charged will be visible, but we will not be included in your PRA report.

It is still good practise to fill in these details as we progress throughout the year.

This will help make things easier for you for future data collections.

The department has also been contacting some of you where we have seen possible gaps, so some of you may have spoken with one of our team members regarding this.

If the conversation or your review highlighted data missing in your CCMS, you can add or edit the data in your CCMS during the collection.

Any updates to your data will be transferred to the Digital Hub every Friday evening and then refreshed data will be reflected in the Digital Hub the following Monday morning.

So if you update something today, it won't be visible this week or today.

You will have to wait to see it in the Digital Hub until next week.

After the collection.

A snapshot of your data will be taken on the 6th of July and anything you see in the Digital Hub from the 6th to the 31st of July will be a static snapshot.

This means any changes you make to the data in your CCMS after the 3rd of July will not transfer to the Digital Hub.

If you need to make changes to your data, you can do so in the Digital Hub on the 17th of July.

This is where we get to the submission.

Which is from the 17th to the 31st of July.

If you identify any gaps or errors, you can edit the details directly in the Digital Hub.

Any changes made there will not be transferred back to your CCMS though.

It's like a one-way street.

We get out of them CCMS to the Digital Hub but not the other way around.

So please make sure to update your CCMS as well where you need to.

At the beginning of the submission.

We you will not be able to add any new children to the Digital Hub.

This option will only become available in Term 3, so now is your best option to make sure you have all children recorded in captured in your CCMS before the snapshot is taken.

Once your data is complete, you may submit your data at any time within the submission period.

So you don't have to wait until the end.

And if you have submitted but then later discover an error, you can actually reopen the submission by updating the data again as long as you are still within the submission period.

Which ends on the 31st of July.

If you edit your data, please don't forget to resubmit again.

As mentioned earlier, the department is running regular checks on the completeness of data throughout the whole timeline.

Where we identify potential gaps.

We may reach out to you by email or phone requesting you to review and update the data entered either in your CCMS or in the Digital Hub.

That's depending on whether it's before or after the data snapshot is taken.

This also includes checks on the data after the submission period.

Has closed, which may happen throughout August and possibly September.

Please note, while we may reach out where we identify data points for you to review, the best thing you can do is to ensure the data you have entered into your CCMS is accurate and complete right now.

You should also make any relevant changes directly in your CCMS before the snapshot is taken and a reminder that any changes you make will transfer the Digital Hub on Friday evening and be visible in the Digital Hub the following week.

Please also make sure you regularly check your emails because you may get in touch with you via email.

Maybe check your junk and spam folders and make sure that any security settings are not preventing you from receiving emails from the department.

It also includes inboxes that might be full, so make sure there is sufficient space that you can receive emails from us.

When entering the data, take note of a few things to be mindful of.

First, the consent form.

I know I've mentioned it before, but it is really important.

If you haven't, take the consent form and record it in your CCMS.

We will not receive the data for that child.

2nd, the service approval number.

Again, we can't receive information from your service if you don't enter the service approval ID.

The format is SE- followed by the 8-digit number.

So for example it's SE-12345678.

Most approval numbers start with either 4 zeros or with a 4 followed by 3 zeros.

Third formatting.

One example is the State Territory of child's residence which must be entered as a 3-letter abbreviation.

This means enter NSW and not New South Wales.

If data comes from your enrolment form directly, we've heard about that too.

Please also ensure it's not left blank.

Speaking of addresses, please enter the address of the child's primary residence only.

It cannot be a PO box, and it cannot be two different addresses.

It needs to be just one and needs to be the primary residency only.

And lastly, refer to the PRA Data Guide on our website, which has additional information on data being collected.

Finally, remember to check your data in the Digital Hub before the end of business on the 3rd of July in the CCMS that is transferred to the Digital Hub.

Make any updates to the CCMS before this date because otherwise it won't transfer across to the Digital Hub.

They're quite important.

You can still then make edits in the Digital Hub from the 17th of July onwards, but it's best if you get all your data correct and complete in your CCMS beforehand.

For support with capturing information in your CCMS, please reach out to your CCMS support team now to help illustrate some of the steps for you.

Leo from our team will run you through a short demonstration.

Over to you, Leo.

Leo Lopez

Thanks Sonya.

I'm just going to share my screen.

Please confirm if you can see my screen.

OK.

Hi everyone.

So I'm Leo, and for today's system demo, I'll be focusing on updating and submitting the PRA data through the Digital Hub.

And just noting that I'm logged in as a provider admin.

And the examples that I'll be showing you today is test data only.

So once logged in and from the home screen, we'll select the program from the left-hand menu.

From the programs page, you can either search for the PRA program using the search field, or you can just scroll down the page.

So here's our PRA program.

We'll click on the Eligible Services button.

From here, you'll see all the eligible services listed under this provider.

For our demo today, we'll be using Little Kids Learning Centre as our example service.

You'll notice that the submission status is showing us review data.

This means that the submission is still in the review phase and hasn't yet been submitted.

So let's click on the service to begin.

From here you'll see all the details tab that needs to be reviewed.

The easiest way to see which section is incomplete is by clicking on the Data Submissions tab.

Here you'll see the status for Service Details and Operating Hours is showing us incomplete and in this case the children data is showing us complete.

So let's select the Service Details tab and let's locate the missing information.

So it looks like the number of program weeks in the calendar is showing blank.

So let's update that and let's save our changes.

And you'll see a little message here that says that we have successfully updated the information.

Now moving on to the Operating Details tab for our example, we need to update the operating hours for the two weeks.

So let's start updating the missing information by ticking the date box and adding in the start and close times.

Last one for the week, so we'll click Save Changes, but just note that you will need to click Save changes every time you update each week.

And we'll get this little message here to say that we are updating the operating hours.

So we'll just click save and for the final day, the service for example, is closed.

So it's important that we choose a reason from the drop-down menu.

So for Monday we'll select Public Holiday and then we will click Save and again same message.

We will just click and confirm that we are updating the operating hours and then moving on to the Children's tab.

As mentioned, our example for the child information is showing as complete, but if you do need to update the information and review the information, you can just click on the pencil icon.

Then just go through each tab and update any missing or incorrect information.

Then save your changes.

So moving on to the Data Submissions tab, you'll notice that all the completion status has now changed to Complete because we have updated all the missing information.

So this confirms that we are now ready to submit.

So we'll scroll down to the Data Submission Warranty section and we'll read the warranty description.

And once you're happy with that, we will take the acknowledgement box and then take submit and you'll get a little note saying that you have submitted here.

And once you have submitted, a date and time stamp along with the name of the person who made the submission will be recorded here.

Sorry, I think, apologies, my screen has disappeared.

Let me put that back.

Ok, so now going back to the Eligible Services list, you'll notice that the data submission status for Little Kids Learning Centre is now showing as submitted.

You'll just need to repeat the submission process for all the other Eligible Services under your provider organisation.

And if you have submitted and you need to make further changes as Sonya mentioned before, you are able to jump back into the service and re edit and resubmit within the specific window.

And if you do need help with submitting, we do have an Editing PRA Quick Reference Guide that's available on the Help section here, here it is here.

And also just remembering to review the data in the Digital Hub before the 3rd of July and any updates should be made in the CCMS during the collection period. And so the data will be reflected in the Digital Hub and that's the end of my system demo.

Thank you.

Sonja Herrmann

Thank you so much for taking time this afternoon to join us to go through a few of the PRA data collection information and questions.

Really appreciate it.

We know you're all busy and you know, need to basically go back to educating children.

So I really appreciate the time.

Also appreciate the time you take to go through your data, review it, speak to our data collection teams, the support and yeah, doing all the important things for us so that we can report to the Commonwealth and secure funding for you.

Thanks again.

We'll leave it at that.

If you have any questions after this webinar, feel free to reach out to us either to the collection team at ECECCollection@det.nsw.edu.au

Is the address also the helpline as well.

Thanks again and have a great afternoon.

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