§ Mr. RookerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the number of nursery places per 1,000 children in the shire counties; what is the average figure for the metropolitan districts; and what factors account for the difference between the figures.
§ Mrs. RumboldInformation on nursery places is not collected centrally. The number of pupils under five attending maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in primary schools in England in January 1988 per 1,000 of estimated population aged three and four in each non-metropolitan county and the overall average for metropolitan districts is given in the following table. A variety of factors may account for the differences between the figures including local policies on the education and care of the under-fives and the priority given by successive Governments to the most disadvantaged areas.
Number of pupils under five in maintained nursery schools and classes per 1,000 children in the population1 January 1988 Pupils Avon 151 Bedfordshire 300 Berkshire 244 Buckinghamshire 121 Cambridgeshire 118 Cheshire 208 Cleveland 536 Cornwall2 141 Cumbria 212 Derbyshire 284 Devon 99 Dorset 60 Durham 387 East Sussex 70 Essex 59 Gloucestershire 0 Hampshire 49 Hereford and Worcester 61 Hertfordshire 297 Humberside 329 Isle of Wight 56 Kent 51 Lancashire 170 Leicestershire 216 Lincolnshire 75 Norfolk 52 North Yorkshire 179 Northamptonshire 176 Northumberland 262 Nottinghamshire 472 Oxfordshire 127 Shropshire 115 Somerset 8 Staffordshire 224 Suffolk 142 Surrey 114 Warwickshire 177 West Sussex 34 Wiltshire 21 Total non-metropolitan counties 167 Total metropolitan districts 374 England 239 1 The estimated population aged three and four. 2 Includes Isles of Scilly.