§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many(a) announced and (b) unannounced inspections of nurseries took place in each of the last five years; [189405]
(2) how many nurseries were de-registered by Ofsted in each of the last five years; [189406]
(3) how many complaints about child care providers Ofsted has received in each of the last five years. [189465]
§ Margaret HodgeThese are matters for the Office of Standards in Education (Ofsted) and I have asked HM Chief Inspector for Schools, David Bell, to write to the hon. Gentleman and place a copy of his letter in the Library.
§ Tim LoughtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) how many(a) nurseries and (b) nursery places have been closed in each of the last five years; [189407]
(2) how many registered nurseries there were in each of the last five years, broken down by those (a) publicly provided, (b) privately provided and (c) provided by the voluntary sector. [189404]
§ Margaret HodgeThe information is not available in the form requested. The available information on the numbers of day nurseries (or full day care providers) and the number of available nursery places in England is shown in the tables.
With the introduction of the National Day Care Standards and the transfer of responsibilities for registration and inspection to Ofsted, childcare providers are now classified according to whether they are full day care, sessional day care, childminder, out of school day care or creche day care places. Previously, childcare providers were classified according to whether 1807W they were day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools, childminders, out of school clubs or holiday schemes. Therefore, figures for 2003 and 2004 are not directly comparable with figures for earlier years because they are collected on a different basis.
The latest statistics on the number of full day care providers registered in England were published on 22 July 2004 in a report by Ofsted "Registered Childcare Providers and Places in England, 30 June 2004". The report is available on the Ofsted web-site, www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications
Number of day nurseries and places1 in England 1999 to 2001 Position as at March 31 Number of day nurseries2 Number of places in day nurseries2 2002 3— 3— 2001 7,800 285,100 2000 7,500 264,200 1999 7,000 247,700 1Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. 2 Figures derived from local authority estimates reported on the Day Care Facilities Survey. 3 Information not available.
Number of registered full day care providers and places1in England 2003–04 Position as at March 31 Number of registered full day care providers2 Number of places in registered full day care providers2 2004 11,000 456,300 2003 9,600 381,600 1 Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. 2 Data supplied by Ofsted. The Department does not collect information on the ownership and management of full day care providers on a regular basis. However, according to the Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey for 2002–03 there were around three quarters of full day care providers who were privately-owned and one in ten who were being run by a voluntary, church or community group in England in 2003. The remainder were run by either the local authority, school/college or by some other form of provider. The figures from this Survey were published in a report by Sure Start in May 2004 "2002–03 Childcare and Early Years Workforce Survey: Day Nurseries and other Full-day Care provision". The report is available on the Sure Start web-site, www.surestart/ensurequality/research/earlyyears/workforce/.