Official Statistics

Main findings: Childcare providers and inspections as at 31 March 2023

Published 29 June 2023

Applies to England

This is the main findings report for the childcare providers and inspections as at 31 March 2023. The following are also available:

• underlying data

• methodology

• pre-release access list

Summary

This release includes:

• the number of Ofsted-registered childcare providers on 31 March 2023 and their most recent inspection outcomes

• data on inspections and regulatory activity carried out until 31 March 2023

Summary of findings

On 31 March 2023, there were:

• 63,200 childcare providers registered with Ofsted, down by 4,800 (7%) since 31 March 2022

• 27,900 childminders registered with Ofsted, down by 3,500 (11%) since 31 March 2022

• 1.27 million childcare places offered by providers registered on the Early Years Register (EYR), down by 24,500 (2%) since last year

Introduction

The early years and childcare sector is primarily made up of private nurseries, pre-schools and childminders. In this publication, we refer to 4 types of early years provision:

Childminders

These are people who look after children for payment or reward, in a home that is not the child’s own. Childminders have the option to register either with Ofsted or with a childminder agency.

Childcare on non-domestic premises

These are nurseries, pre-schools, holiday clubs and other group-based settings.

Home childcarers

These are individuals who care for children wholly or mainly in the child’s own home (for example, nannies).

Childcare on domestic premises

These are providers where 4 or more people look after children together in a home that is not the child’s. Providers of childcare on domestic premises have the option to register either with Ofsted or with a childminder agency.

Further information about provider types is available in the glossary.

Childcare in early years is also provided in the schools sector. It is offered in state-funded schools and independent schools. For more information, see the early years provision in the schools sector section of this page.

Providers, places and registers

Number of providers

There were 63,200 childcare providers registered with Ofsted on 31 March 2023, down by 4,800 (7%) since last year.

Figure 1: Childcare providers registered with Ofsted as at 31 March 2023, by provider type

^{Note: numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.
‘Broadly stable’ is used when the change in the number of providers is fewer than 25.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector over time

The number of active providers on our registers has been falling steadily since 2015. The decline in the number of providers is due to more providers leaving than joining the childcare sector (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector, by financial year

^{Note: Most EYR leavers are provider resignations, rather than cancellations, and some will be providers moving from the EYR to the Childcare Register (CR). Most EYR joiners are new provider registrations.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Places

On 31 March 2023, there were 1.27 million childcare places offered by providers registered on the EYR, down by 24,500 (2%) since last year.

Data on places is reported for the 49,100 providers registered on the EYR and is first gathered at registration and updated at inspection.

The number of childcare places has not decreased at the same rate as the number of providers. While the number of providers has fallen by 7% since March 2022, the number of places has only decreased by 2%. This is mainly driven by an increase in the number of places offered by providers of childcare on non-domestic premises.

For methodological notes on places data, see the methodology and quality report that accompanies this release.

Figure 3: Number of childcare places offered by providers on the EYR as at 31 March 2023, by provider type

^{Note: place numbers of less than 1 million are rounded to the nearest 1,000. Place numbers of more than 1 million are rounded to the nearest 10,000.
Places include children up to aged 7 where providers are registered on both the EYR and the CR.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Registers

On 31 March 2023, 49,100 (78%) of Ofsted-registered childcare providers were on the EYR. The remaining 22% were only registered on the CR.

Childcare providers can be registered on one or more of the following registers:

• Early Years Register (EYR)

• Childcare Register (CR), which is divided into 2 parts:

  • compulsory

  • voluntary

Further information about these registers is provided in the glossary.

Figure 4: Venn diagram of Ofsted-registered providers as at 31 March 2023, by the different registers for childcare

^{Note: numbers under 100 are rounded to the nearest 10 and numbers over 100 are rounded to the nearest 100, therefore numbers may not sum to the total.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Inspections and regulatory activity

Most recent inspections of providers on the EYR

At their most recent inspection, 96% of all childcare providers on the EYR were judged either good or outstanding. This has remained the same since 31 March 2022.

Since 2019, the proportion of outstanding childcare providers has decreased from 20% to 14%.

Figure 5: Overall effectiveness of active early years – registered providers over time at their most recent inspection

^{Note: numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.
The number of providers who were previously judged requires improvement includes a small number of inspections where the provider was judged satisfactory (a former grade under an old framework).
View data in an accessible table format.}

On 31 March 2023, 38,900 (79%) of eligible providers on the EYR had received a full inspection under the education inspection framework. Full EYR inspections result in a graded judgement of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023

Around 7,600 events were full inspections of providers registered on the EYR. The remaining 1,500 inspections were to out-of-school settings or to providers with no children on roll at the time of inspection.

Around 1,600 (22%) were first inspections of recently registered providers, and about 900 (12%) were inspections of providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.

Figure 6: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023

^{Note: numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.
Our agreement with the government is to inspect 10% of providers on the CR each financial year. The number of CR inspections reported above is by academic year and it may therefore appear lower than 10%.
RI: requires improvement.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Figure 7: Overall effectiveness of active early years registered providers inspected between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023, by previous inspection outcome

^{Note: numbers are rounded to the nearest 100.
Numbers in brackets refer to the number of inspected providers (rounded).
Providers who were previously judged requires improvement, includes a small number of inspections where the provider was judged satisfactory.
View data in an accessible table format.}

The inspection outcomes of providers are likely to vary, depending on their previous overall effectiveness judgement. Providers that were previously judged good or outstanding were more likely to receive a good or outstanding judgement at their next inspection. Therefore, the overall effectiveness profile of providers may vary year on year, depending on which have been selected for inspection in the year to date.

Nearly three quarters (73%) of providers that were previously judged requires improvement or inadequate improved to good or outstanding at their next full inspection.

Key judgements

As part of a full inspection under the EIF, an early years provider is graded on 4 key judgements:

• quality of education

• behaviour and attitudes

• personal development

• leadership and management

Figure 8: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of active early years registered providers inspected between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023

^{Note: percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Of the EYR providers that have had a full inspection since 1 September 2022, 85% were judged either good or outstanding overall. All these providers were judged good or outstanding for their quality of education and behaviour and attitudes.

The proportions of individual key judgements that were good or outstanding were: 85% for personal development and effectiveness of leadership and management and 87% for quality of education and behaviour and attitudes.

Safeguarding

Of the 7,600 childcare providers that had a full EYR inspection, 92% were deemed to have effective safeguarding.

While inspectors do not give a separate grade for safeguarding practice, there is a written judgement in the inspection report on whether arrangements for safeguarding children are effective.

Childminder agencies

New childminders and childcare on domestic premises providers can choose to register with Ofsted directly or to register with a childminder agency. Existing childminders and childcare on domestic premises can also choose to de-register with Ofsted and register instead with a childminder agency.

Ofsted inspects childminder agencies. The childminder agencies are responsible for carrying out annual quality assurance visits to the childminders who are registered with them.

Childminder agencies are only eligible for inspection when they have childminders on roll. There are only 2 overall effectiveness inspection outcomes: ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’. On 31 March 2023, 7 childminder agencies were registered with Ofsted. Of these, 5 had childminders on roll and were therefore eligible for inspection. Of these 5 childminder agencies inspected, 4 were judged to be ‘effective’.

Early years provision in the schools sector

In state-funded schools, other than nursery schools, early years provision is given its own judgement as part of the overall inspection of the school. On 31 March 2023, there were around 11,300 state-funded schools that had an early years judgement at their most recent school inspection. Of these, 86% were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness, and 90% were judged good or outstanding for early years provision.

On 31 March 2023, there were 383 state-funded nursery schools in England. We have inspected all of these, and 97% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection (see Table 1). These was made up of a large proportion (61%) of nursery schools judged outstanding and 36% judged good.

Table 1: Overall effectiveness of open state-funded nursery schools on 31 March 2023

	All inspected nursery schools	Outstanding	Good	Requires improvement	Inadequate
Number of nursery schools inspected	383	235	137	9	2
Percentage of inspected nursery schools	100	61	36	2	1

^{Note: numbers are rounded to the nearest 100. Percentages might not add to 100 due to rounding.
This table does not include state-funded nursery schools.}

For more information on school inspections and outcomes, see our statistics on state-funded school inspections and outcomes. For more information on non-association independent school inspections and outcomes, see our statistics on non-association independent schools.

Please note that Ofsted only inspects non-association independent schools. The Independent Schools Inspectorate inspects association independent schools.

Notes

There is an explanation about the main uses of this data and the arrangements for quality assurance, as well as further contextual information, in the methodology and quality report accompanying this release.

The methodology and quality report also provides information on the strengths and limitations of the statistics.

Education inspection framework

On 1 September 2019, we began inspecting under the EIF. The EIF helps to support consistency across inspections of early years and childcare providers, maintained schools, academies, non-association independent schools and further education and skills providers in England. We evaluate the overall quality and standards of the early years provision in line with the principles and requirements of the early years foundation stage statutory framework. Inspectors judge the overall effectiveness of the early years provision, taking into account 4 judgements:

• quality of education

• behaviour and attitudes

• personal development

• effectiveness of leadership and management

Glossary

Definitions of terms are in our statistical glossary.

Further information

We publish the following information on the inspection of early years providers:

• early years and childcare statistics

• EIF

• framework for the regulation of provision on the childcare register

Contact for comments or feedback

If you have any comments or feedback on this publication, you should contact Anita Patel on 03000 130 914 or Anita.Patel@ofsted.gov.uk.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their contribution to this statistical release: Rebecca Vincent, Richard Smith, Chris Dinham, Alison Merrett, Lucy Conway, Mundeep Gill and Austen Norris.

Annex: data tables for figures

This section contains the underlying data in an accessible table format for all figures.

Data for figure 1: Childcare providers registered with Ofsted on all registers as at 31 March 2023, by provider type

Provider type	Number of providers as at 31 March 2023	Change since 31 March 2022
Childminders	27,900	-3,500
Childcare on non-domestic premises	26,900	-400
Childcare on domestic premises	200	broadly stable
Home childcarers	8,200	-900

^{‘Broadly stable’ is used when the change in the number of providers is fewer than 25.}

See Figure 1.

Data for figure 2: Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector, by financial year

Financial year	Joiners	Leavers	Total number of providers
2015/16	10,398	14,545	84,970
2016/17	9,825	13,399	81,396
2017/18	9,707	11,382	79,721
2018/19	7,449	10,567	76,602
2019/20	9,254	10,788	75,068
2020/21	6,636	9,660	72,044
2021/22	6,237	10,256	68,025
2022/23	6,282	11,100	63,207

See Figure 2.

Data for figure 3: Number of childcare places offered by providers on the EYR as at 31 March 2023, by provider type

Provider type	Number of places as at 31 March 2023	% of total places on the EYR
Childcare on non-domestic premises	1,090,000	86%
Childcare on domestic premises	5,000	<1%
Childminders	171,000	14%

See Figure 3.

Data for figure 4: Venn diagram of Ofsted-registered providers as at 31 March 2023, by the different registers for childcare

Register combination	Number of childcare providers by register combination
EYR	49,100
CCR	45,100
VCR	51,300
EYR, CCR and VCR	37,300
EYR and CCR	4,900
EYR and VCR	50
CCR and VCR	2,800
EYR only	6,900
CCR only	150
VCR only	11,200

See Figure 4.

Data for figure 5: Overall effectiveness of active early years – registered providers over time at their most recent inspection

	Number of inspected providers	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
31 March 2023	38,900	14	82	2	1
31 August 2022	39,900	15	82	2	1
31 August 2021	40,900	17	80	2	1
31 August 2020	43,700	17	79	3	1
31 August 2019	49,800	20	76	3	1

See Figure 5.

Data for figure 6: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023

Activity type	Number of events	Details
EYR inspections	9,100	7,600 of these visits were full inspections. Of these, 22% were to providers without a previous full inspection, 67% were to providers previously judged good or outstanding, and 12% were to providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.
CR inspections	1,300	46% of these visits were to home childcarers
Registration visits	1,600	More than half (57%) of these were prospective childminders intending to register on the EYR or CR, 31% were visits to childcare on non-domestic premises, 10% were visits to home childcarers and 1% were visits to childcare on domestic premises.
EYR regulatory events	4,200	Most of these visits (96%) were to childminders or childcare on non-domestic premises.

See Figure 6.

Data for figure 7: Overall effectiveness of active early years registered providers inspected between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023, by previous inspection outcome

Previous inspection outcome	Number of inspections	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
All full EYR inspections	7,600	10	75	7	8
Providers without a previous full inspection	1,600	9	76	7	8
Providers previously good/outstanding	5,100	12	75	6	8
Providers previously requires improvement/inadequate	900	2	72	14	12

See Figure 7.

Data for figure 8: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of active early years registered providers inspected between 1 September 2022 and 31 March 2023

Judgement outcome	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
Overall effectiveness	10	75	7	8
Quality of education	10	77	8	5
Behaviour and attitudes	11	76	7	5
Personal development	11	75	6	8
Effectiveness of leadership and management	10	75	7	8

See Figure 8.