Children's Day Care Facilities (Hansard, 8 September 2003)

§ Mr. Miliband

The information requested is shown in the tables.

Numbers of day care providers¹ by type of provider, England, 1999–2003
Position at 31 March each year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Day nurseries²	7,000	7,500	7,800	n/a	n/a
Full day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	9,600
Playgroups and pre-schools²	15,000	14,300	14,000	n/a	n/a
Sessional day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	11,600
Childminders	82,200	75,600	72,300	n/a	68,200

117W

Numbers of day care providers¹ by type of provider, England, 1999–2003
Position at 31 March each year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Out-of-school clubs²	3,800	4,400	4,900	n/a	n/a
Holiday schemes²	10,200	⁴11,700	12,900	n/a	n/a
Out-of-school day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	8,000
Creche day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	1,900
n/a = not available.
¹ Figures have been rounded.
² Data Source: Children's Day Care Facilities.
³ Data Source: Ofsted.
⁴ Includes those schemes exempt from registration.

Numbers of day care places¹ by type of provider, England, 1999–2003
Position at 31 March each year	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003
Day nurseries²	247,700	264,200	285.100	n/a	n/a
Full day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	383,200
Playgroups and pre-schools²	347,200	353,100	330,200	n/a	n/a
Sessional day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	285,600
Childminders	336,600	320,400	304,600	n/a	300,600
Out-of-school clubs²	113,800	141,100	152,800	n/a	n/a
Holiday schemes²	435,300	⁴490,400	550,400	n/a	n/a
Out-of-school day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	301,600
Creche day care³	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	43,900
n/a = not available.
¹ Figures have been rounded.
² Data Source: Children's Day Care Facilities.
³ Data Source: Ofsted.
⁴ Includes those schemes exempt from registration.

Local authorities were responsible for the registration and inspection of children's day care facilities until these responsibilities were transferred to Ofsted in September 2001. The figures on children's day care facilities up to and including 2001 were derived from local authority estimates returned to DfES by local authority social service departments.

The period from September 2001 to March 2003 was designated as a transitional period where Ofsted, as a by-product of its inspections, validated the actual number of individuals and organisations that were providing child care. At the end of the transitional period, Ofsted conducted appropriate quality checks on its administrative database and released the number of provider and places in June, with further publications planned on a quarterly basis. The number of child care providers and places are not directly comparable with the previous data made available by the DfES because they were collected differently.

With the introduction of the National Day Care Standards the day care facilities classification has been updated. Day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools and childminders have been equivalently reclassified to full day care, sessional day care and childminders respectively.

Day care figures for 2001 and earlier years for England and Government Office regions were published in DfES Statistical Bulletin 08/01, "Children's Day Care Facilities at 31 March 2001", which is available in the Library and on the DfES website: www.dfes.gov.uk/statistics Figures for 2001 for out-of-school clubs and holiday schemes have recently been revised. Latest child care statistics were published in a report by Ofsted, 118W "Registered Childcare Providers and Places in England, 31 March 2003", which is available on the Ofsted website: www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications