Canadian Survey on the Provision of Child Care Services (CSPCCS)

Detailed information for January 2021

Status:

Active

Frequency:

Irregular

Record number:

5338

The purpose of this survey is to collect information on the provision of child care services in Canada for children ages 5 and under, at the national, provincial and territorial level. Data is collected from licensed and unlicensed home-based and centre-based child care providers. Questions will be asked about staff in centres, services provided, enrollment and daily fees as well as the extent of challenges related to COVID-19. The data will be used by Employment and Social Development Canada for policy research purposes.

Data release - June 15, 2021

Description

Statistics Canada is conducting the Canadian Survey on the Provision of Child Care Services (CSPCCS), in collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Data will be gathered on:
- licensing as well as operational status of child care providers,
- type of child care services offered,
- number and age group of enrolled children and related daily fees,
- type of building where child care services are provided,
- number, type of tenure, and relevant training of child care employees,
- sources of operating funds, and
- existence and extent of challenges related to COVID-19;

This is a pilot survey which is smaller in scale both in terms of sample and content. It is intended to gather national, provincial and territorial level information on child care provision in centres, licensed and unlicensed homes to meet ESDC's immediate data need.

Subjects

  • Child care
  • Children and youth

Data sources and methodology

Target population

The target population for this survey includes all child care locations in Canada with an annual revenue of at least $2,500 per year. To identify these units, the sampling frame was built by taking locations coded to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 624410 on the Business Register in addition to centres matched from licensed provincial lists, whose primary activity does not fall under NAICS 624410 code. All units with revenue less than $2,500 were excluded from the frame.

Instrument design

The questionnaire was developed by Statistics Canada in partnership with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). Questionnaire Design Resource Centre (QDRC) conducted cognitive testing with selected respondents and made recommendations that were implemented to finalize the questionnaire. Data will be collected electronically. Before collection starts, HTML format of the electronic questionnaire will be uploaded onto the IMDB page.

Sampling

This is a sample survey with a cross-sectional design.

Sampling unit
The sampling units are all home-based licensed, home-based unlicensed and centre-based child care locations in Canada.

Stratification method
Units were stratified into three groups: Licensed Centre Predominance (LCP), Licensed Home Predominance (LHP) and Unlicensed Home Predominance (UHP). These three strata were further stratified into eleven regions, consisting of the ten provinces and the territories combined into one region.

Sampling and sub-sampling
The total sample size was set at 4000 units, and units were allocated to ensure similar quality across regions and balance among the estimation domains, which are centres, licensed home daycares and unlicensed home daycares. The allocation to strata was made so that the coefficient of variation for estimated proportions of 50% within estimation domains is expected to be around 14% for centres and unlicensed homes while quality for licensed homes can be seen as a by-product of the number of units allocated to the UHP stratum and is expected to be around 18%.

Data sources

Data collection for this reference period: 2021-01-11 to 2021-02-19

Responding to this survey is voluntary.

Data are collected directly from survey respondents.

Data will be collected via electronic questionnaire (EQ).

Respondents with email address in the Business Register System will receive email invitation while the remaining receive invitation letter with Security Access Code (SAC)to the EQ in the mail .
Computer assisted telephone interview (CATI)will be done for failed edit (FEFU) and non-response (NRFU) cases.

The average time required to complete the interview / survey is about 20 minutes.

View the Questionnaire(s) and reporting guide(s) .

Error detection

A series of edits were applied to the collected microdata to identify errors and inconsistencies.

Imputation

For categorical data, donor imputation was performed within homogeneous classes. For continuous variables, nearest neighbour methodology within classes was used.

Estimation

Weights were adjusted for non-response. Weighted point estimates of proportions, total and averages were obtained through the Generalized Estimation System (G-EST) along with the variance estimation using the Taylor linearization approach.

Quality evaluation

This methodology does not apply.

Disclosure control

Statistics Canada is prohibited by law from releasing any information it collects that could identify any person, business, or organization, unless consent has been given by the respondent or as permitted by the Statistics Act. Various confidentiality rules are applied to all data that are released or published to prevent the publication or disclosure of any information deemed confidential. If necessary, data are suppressed to prevent direct or residual disclosure of identifiable data.

Revisions and seasonal adjustment

This methodology does not apply to this statistical program.

Data accuracy

The accuracy is measured by the standard error for categorical data and by the coefficient of variation for totals and averages. To take into account the non-response mechanism, the variance is calculated using a 2-phase sampling design.

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