Official Statistics

Methodology: childcare providers and inspections as at 31 March 2026

Published 9 July 2026

Applies to England

Introduction

This document contains the methodology relevant to our official statistics release of childcare providers and inspection outcomes data, which we publish twice a year.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to. You are welcome to contact us directly at childcaredataqueries@ofsted.gov.uk with any comments about how we meet these standards, or if you have any questions or feedback about our release. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Users can find out more about how Ofsted applies the code of practice for statistics to our statistical release on our Ofsted standards for official statistics page.

Changes to inspection frameworks and comparability

We introduced the education inspection framework (EIF) in September 2019. A renewed version of this framework was then introduced in November 2025, following a consultation. Ofsted began inspecting registered early years settings under the renewed EIF on 10 November 2025.

The renewed EIF uses a 5-point scale to grade up to 6 evaluation areas, and safeguarding is evaluated on a ‘met’ ‘not met’ scale. These are distinct from the judgements under the original EIF and are not directly comparable.

The 6 evaluation areas under the renewed EIF are:

• inclusion
• curriculum and teaching
• achievement
• behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines
• children’s welfare and wellbeing
• leadership and governance

The 5-point scale is:

• urgent improvement
• needs attention
• expected standard
• strong standard
• exceptional

Inspections of settings registered on the Early Years Register (EYR) but only providing care exclusively for children at the beginning and end of the school day or in holiday periods (out-of-school day care) do not need to meet the learning and development requirements of the early years foundation stage (EYFS). Therefore, the evaluation areas of ‘curriculum and teaching’ and ‘achievement’ are not evaluated at these inspections.

Where no children in the early years age range are present or on roll at the time of the inspection (NCOR/NCP), the ‘leadership and governance’ of the setting is the only evaluation area that is graded. This is to determine if the provider is meeting the requirements of the EYFS and the Childcare Register (CR) (if applicable). These providers can only be graded as ‘urgent improvement’, ‘needs attention’, or ‘expected standard’.

Under the original EIF, between 1 September 2019 and 30 September 2025, inspections of out-of-school day care settings were not full EYR inspections as they did not receive grades for the 4 EIF judgements. Both out-of-school day care and no children on roll or present (NCOR/NCP) settings received an overall effectiveness judgement of ‘met’, ‘not met (with actions)’, or ‘not met (enforcement)’.

The overall effectiveness judgement of full EYR inspections under the original EIF resulted in an outcome of ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ taking into account 4 judgements:

• quality of education
• behaviour and attitudes
• personal development
• effectiveness of leadership and management

Under the common inspection framework (CIF) between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2019, inspectors judged 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

Comparing inspection outcomes across academic years

The mixture of early years and childcare providers we inspect can vary year to year, and this will therefore affect the outcomes that we see. The inspections carried out in any single year are not designed to be representative of all early years and childcare providers nationally, and outcomes should therefore not be compared across years.

A series of policy changes means there is no single measure available that can be used to compare early years providers.

The ‘provider level’ dataset shows outcomes from each registered early years or childcare provider’s last inspection regardless of which framework the inspection was carried out under. Therefore, it contains outcomes for early years and childcare providers inspected under different frameworks that are not comparable.

Methodology

The Childcare Act 2006 gives His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) responsibility for regulating childminding and childcare on domestic and non-domestic premises in England. It gives HMCI responsibility for the registration and inspection of providers that are registered on the EYR and the CR, and for enforcement when it appears that legal requirements are not being met.

These official statistics releases report on early years and childcare inspections under sections 49, 60 and 77(2)(b) of the Childcare Act 2006 and childminder agencies under sections 51D and 61E.

The publication reports on early years and childcare inspections that have taken place since 1 September 2008, when the EYFS was introduced. This is the statutory framework for the early education and care of children from birth to the 31 August following their fifth birthday.

We present and analyse:

• the number of providers on the EYR and the CR
• the number of providers that have joined or left the early years sector
• the number of childcare places offered by providers on the EYR
• the number of regulatory events and registration visits
• the number of childcare providers registered with childminder agencies
• all inspections carried out within a set period

Types of provider and inspection

The publication refers to 5 types of early years providers:

• childminders
• childminders without domestic premises
• childcare on non-domestic premises – for example, pre-schools and private nurseries
• childcare on domestic premises
• home childcarers – for example, nannies

These providers are registered on 2 different childcare registers:

• Early Years Register (EYR)
• Childcare Register (CR), which is divided into 2 parts:
  • compulsory part of the Childcare Register (CCR)
  • voluntary part of the Childcare Register (VCR)

Providers can be registered on a single register or on a combination of registers. More information on these registers is provided in the glossary.

Most provision in the early years age range is offered by childcare providers that are registered with Ofsted, either on the EYR or the CR. However, there are some providers of childcare that are exempt from registration with Ofsted, for example state-funded schools, independent schools, and academies that provide childcare for children aged 2 and older. This publication only reports on childcare providers that are registered with Ofsted.

For more information, see our official statistics on state-funded schools and academies, and on non-association independent schools.

A small number (around 60) of early years providers that are on the sites of association independent schools are registered with Ofsted but are mainly inspected by another inspectorate: the Independent Schools Inspectorate.

For more information, see our guidance on Regulating and inspecting association independent schools with an early years registration. We do not have any Independent Schools Inspectorate inspection data recorded in our administrative system for these providers, but we do include them in our registration statistics.

There are 4 different types of inspection for early years and childcare providers under the renewed EIF:

• full EYR inspection
• full out-of-school day care EYR inspection
• NCOR/NCP EYR inspection
• CR inspection

CR inspections result in an outcome that the provider has ‘met’ or ‘not met’ the requirements. In instances when the provider does not meet one or more of the requirements, the inspector must either issue actions for the provider to take or consider enforcement action.

Under the renewed EIF, out-of-school day care inspections are a type of full inspection. However, in this release these inspections are reported separately from full EYR inspections.

The ‘inspection level’ dataset provides information on inspections that have taken place over a specific reporting period. This is referred to as provisional data. In addition, we revise data for the previous reporting period with each new release, to include the small number of inspections that were not published in the month following the end of the reporting period. This is referred to as revised data.

Under exceptional circumstances, we may withhold or withdraw publication of an inspection report card. Outcomes of withheld or withdrawn report cards are not included in any of the datasets.

Regulatory activity

This release also details the amount of regulatory activity we have carried out during the reporting period. This activity includes:

• regulatory events (including remote events by telephone call)
• registration visits

Inspection window

Starting in 2020, early years providers were inspected within a 6-year window based on the date and outcome of their last inspection. In April 2026, a 4-year window replaced the 6-year window. The new inspection frequency timescales will be phased, with full implementation expected by March 2030. Providers that have already been inspected under the 6-year window will transition to the new 4-year window at their next routine inspection as part of the phased rollout.

The timescale for the first inspection of a new childcare provider was within 30 months of their registration date. From April 2026, new childcare providers on the EYR will be inspected within 18 months of their registration date.

Under the renewed EIF, if any evaluation area is graded as ‘needs attention’, a setting will usually be inspected again within 12 months. Settings will usually be reinspected within 6 months if any evaluation area is graded ‘urgent improvement’. A grade of ‘not met’ for the safeguarding evaluation area does not automatically mean the setting will be graded ‘urgent improvement’ in other evaluation areas. The setting will likely be reinspected within 6 months if safeguarding is graded ‘not met’, but there can be enforcement activity in between if required.

Data

We use a live administrative data system to register childcare providers and to schedule and monitor inspections.

We collate our official statistics data from this administrative system at the end of the reporting period. This data includes the number of providers and places. The data is then aggregated for presentation and analysis. While we aim to produce the highest-quality statistics, there are occasional differences between the data on the administrative system and the final inspection report. Reasons for this include changes being made during the quality assurance process.

When we hold sensitive or personal data, we have disclosure-control processes in place to ensure that it is not published. The contact, name and address details of childminders, domestic childcare providers and home childcarers are redacted. This redaction is also applied to a small number of providers of childcare on non-domestic premises, for providers’ personal safety and for national safety.

Inspections

The cut-off period for including published inspection report cards in the statistics is 1 calendar month after the end of the reporting period. This is to allow time for the majority of the relevant reports to have been published. It accounts for the time required to write up, verify and publish the inspection report cards after the inspection has taken place. This helps to ensure that we capture the majority of inspections completed during the reporting period within the official statistics.

For providers on the EYR, a provider’s most recent inspection where children are present at the time of the inspection is either a full EYR inspection or a full out-of-school day care EYR inspection; for providers that are only on the CCR and/or VCR, it is a CR inspection. If providers leave the EYR but remain on the CR, any previous EYR inspection history is removed from their provider and inspection data.

The publication also provides information on the most recent EYR inspections where no children in the early years age range were present and/or on roll at the time of the inspection. These are referred to as NCOR/NCP EYR inspections.

Under the original EIF, CR inspections and EYR inspections of out-of-school day-care providers were not counted as NCOR if no children were present. Instead, they remain listed as a CR or out-of-school day-care EYR inspection.

Places

Since September 2012, providers have been required to give details about the number of places they offer at the point of registration. They must calculate this based on the legal requirements of the EYFS. The information about places that is compiled and presented in the publication is a proxy for the size and capacity of the early years sector.

Data on places is reported only for the providers registered on the EYR, with a high proportion of these also being registered on the CR. When considering data on places, it is important to note that it covers all places for children under 8. This data includes all EYR places for children under 5 and CCR places for children aged 5 to 7.

When a provider that is already registered on the EYR joins the CR, existing places information will not be retained. The number of places will be updated at the provider’s next inspection.

The number of places offered by a provider is the legal maximum number of children it can provide childcare for at any one time. A provider can look after different children in the morning and in the evening, as long as they do not exceed the maximum number of children at any one point in time.

The majority of childminders are registered as offering 6 childcare places because this is the maximum number of places allowed under EYFS guidelines for a childminder with no assistants. However, the number of places a childminder provides or intends to provide might be lower.

Aggregated data relies on estimated places numbers for a few providers where actual places numbers are not recorded. We calculate estimates using the mean for each provider type, after excluding any outliers with 600 or more places.

Joiners and leavers

Joiners are childcare providers that were active on the relevant register at the end of the period stated, but not at the start. Most of these are new registrations, but they also include providers with reactivated registrations, providers who have changed legal entity (for example, getting a new company or charity number, or changing from a sole trader to a limited company), and those that have changed provider type or register. At local authority or regional level, this may also include providers that have relocated into a new geographical area.

Leavers are childcare providers that were active on the relevant register at the start of the period stated, but not at the end. Most of these are resignations, but some are also providers that have had their registration cancelled or suspended, or that have changed provider type or register. At local authority or regional level, this may also include providers that have relocated out of a geographical area.

From 31 March 2024, the numbers of annual joiners and leavers are calculated by comparing the beginning of the year to the end. Therefore, the numbers of annual joiners and leavers in this release may not equal those produced in previous publications.

This is because, if a suspended provider has their registration reinstated, it will be under the same registration. It is, therefore, possible for a provider to leave a register in one official statistics period and rejoin it in the next, all during the same reporting year. Before 31 March 2024, this provider would have been included in annual joiners and leavers numbers, but now they would not.

This can occur whenever joiners and leavers are summed over multiple time periods.

Methods and quality

The average production time for this official statistics release is approximately 6 to 8 weeks. This time includes obtaining, cleaning and aggregating the data, drafting main findings, quality assuring all outputs, securing internal sign-off and uploading the information to GOV.UK. We take data from the administrative system on the first day of the month following the end of the reporting period.

Other sources of similar data

Ofsted is responsible for childcare inspections in England. The following organisations are responsible for childcare inspections in the devolved administrations of the UK:

Wales:

• Care Inspectorate Wales, for childcare inspections
• Estyn, for inspections of non-school settings for children under 5

Scotland:

• Care Inspectorate, for childminder inspections
• Education Scotland, for all other childcare inspections

Northern Ireland:

• Five separate Health and Social Care Trusts for different regions of the country

We also produce management information twice a year on childcare providers and inspection outcomes.

Several third parties provide interactive tools that display publicly available Ofsted inspection outcomes. Some of these may be collated using web scraping to extract inspection outcomes from published inspection reports. We cannot comment on the quality of these datasets.

Who is this release for?

Information in this release has 5 distinct purposes:

• it allows media outlets to use our key findings to inform the public about the quality of childcare provision across England and in local areas
• it allows users to track movement in the sector, and to monitor the quality of provision available at a national and local level and across provider types
• it gives an accurate picture of the quality of provision, which influences policy decisions about the location and quality of early years provision
• it helps the DfE and local authorities to inform policy decisions about the quality and geographical location of childcare provision
• in Ofsted, analysis of inspection outcomes informs the development of the inspection framework and underpins policies to improve standards; also, the key messages in the official statistics contribute towards the findings in HMCI’s Annual Report to Parliament

Official statistics in development

Due to the introduction of the renewed EIF, these statistics have been published as official statistics in development. This section outlines our commitment to remove the ‘in development’ label and return this release to an official statistics release.

Who

Our official statistics in development will be developed by analysts within Ofsted. We are consulting with users to gain feedback on our official statistics in development releases.

Why

Development of these official statistics releases is needed to help users best understand outcomes from the renewed EIF, and to provide users with an opportunity to contribute their views on what we include. The changes to the inspection framework mean that many of the old analyses have had to be removed. At the same time, we have added new analysis which we hope will be helpful.

What

We are running a survey to collect feedback from users of our official statistics. You can find the feedback form here. We will also consult with key stakeholders internally and externally to ensure that our products deliver useful information and insights. The responses to our survey and our wider consultation will inform future development of these statistics.

When

As the renewed EIF started in November 2025, and we only publish a small number of official statistics releases each year, we will wait for at least 1 year from the start of the renewed EIF before seeking to remove the ‘in development’ designation. This will give us enough time to evaluate fully whether the releases are delivering what our users require.

Glossary

Definitions of terms are in our statistics glossary.

Further information

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

• early years and childcare statistics
• EIF
• framework for the regulation of providers on the Childcare Register
• early years: regulation
• publication of outcome summaries

Contact us

If you have any comments or feedback on this publication, contact Alison Merrett on 03000 130 729 or Alison.Merrett@ofsted.gov.uk, or the early years data and analysis team at childcaredataqueries@ofsted.gov.uk.