How to engage with the CMA’s childcare market study
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is undertaking a market study into early years education and childcare services in England.
Below we set out our roadmap for the market study, and how you can engage with us.
We are looking at:
- how the sector works
- how well it performs for families, childcare professionals and providers
- how it could work better
We are focusing on the supply of early years education and childcare services in England, for pre-school aged children from birth until they start school aged 4 or 5 years old.
Work in the childcare sector aligns strongly with our strategic objectives. Across all our work, we focus on delivering tangible benefits for the economy, its citizens and businesses. In particular, as set out in our 2026 to 2029 Strategy, the CMA aims to improve household prosperity by promoting competition and protecting consumers, with a particular focus on areas of essential spend and at moments of vulnerability.
Market study timeline
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Launch – July 2026:
- market study notice
- consultation on scope
- call for views from families, professionals, and providers and other interested people
- webinar
Engagement, evidence gathering & analysis – July to December 2026
- commissioned research
- engagement with providers, stakeholders and sector experts
- information requests and questionnaires
- analysing market data and international comparisons
- working closely with UK and local governments and regulatory bodies
- public update on emerging thinking
Consultation – December 2026 to April 2027
- consultation on emerging thinking and any possible options for improving outcomes
- further targeted evidence gathering and analysis
- deepening our understanding and shaping possible options for improvements
Final report – May 2027
- publishing our final report
The dates are included as a guide and may be updated.
The CMA will conduct the market study in line with its 4Ps framework: Pace, Predictability, Proportionality, Process.
We will update this page throughout the market study, and you can subscribe to get emails when we update it. The button to opt in for email notifications can be found at the top of the page. You can also sign up to the mailing list to receive updates about this market study.
Launch: July 2026
On 1 July 2026 we launched a market study, which we expect to last for 11 months.
We published a statement of scope, which:
- explains why we are launching a market study
- sets out the proposed scope of the market study
- sets out at a high-level some potential outcomes from the market study (‘remedies’)
We are inviting views on the proposed scope of the market study, and have set out a number of questions in our Statement of Scope to help inform responses. The deadline for responses is 26 July 2026.
We are also running a call for views to gather first-hand insights on how the sector is working more generally. We are inviting views from families, early years education and childcare professionals and providers on their experiences of using or providing early years education and childcare services, as well as views from other interested people and organisations. The call for views will close on 26 July 2026.
We have also published a market study notice, which sets out the scope and timescale of the study, and the period during which representations may be made to the CMA.
Webinars: Introduction to our early years education and childcare services market study
We are holding two webinars on how the market study will run, what it means for the sector and how to engage with us throughout the market study.
On 15 July from 10:00 to 11:00am we will hold a webinar for anyone interested in the market study and on 16 July from 6:15pm to 7:15pm we will hold a similar webinar for providers of early years education and childcare services.
For more information about the webinars and to reserve your place visit:
Engagement, initial evidence gathering and analysis: July to December 2026
We will undertake initial evidence gathering and analysis to understand whether the sector is working as well as it could.
We will engage with, and gather evidence from, a range of stakeholders throughout the market study to ensure we can benefit from a wide range of perspectives.
We expect to engage with, amongst others:
- families, carers and guardians with a child (or children) of pre-school age, as well as consumer groups
- early years education and childcare professionals and providers – ranging from large corporate groups to small and medium-sized providers, as well as childminders
- the UK and local governments, and regulatory bodies
- sector and professional representative organisations, academics, expert groups, and organisations with a policy interest in the sector
We expect to engage and gather evidence in a number of ways, including through:
- running a call for views, inviting information from families, professionals and providers, and other interested people, which closes on 26 July 2026
- responses to our statement of scope consultation, which closes on 26 July 2026
- commissioning third-party research
- collecting information using our statutory information gathering powers and through informal channels (such as questionnaires) sent to key market participants
- hosting industry roundtables and meetings with providers, industry associations, regulators and other stakeholders
- engaging with sector experts – which may include business experts, academics, and policy researchers – to consider the CMA’s emerging thinking, and ensure our work is informed by expert knowledge and insight
- analysing available market data and international comparisons
- working closely with the UK and local governments, including to understand applicable regulatory and policy frameworks
- working closely with regulatory bodies
The formal scope of our market study is England-only, because the funding arrangements and regulations are very different in each nation. However, we are interested in insights from other parts of the UK, and will draw out lessons from our analysis for devolved governments’ consideration. We will engage with the devolved governments to seek any input and share these insights.
During this period:
- we will refine our areas of focus against the evidence gathered, informed by tools such as internal state of play (ISOP) meetings
- we may provide public updates as our understanding develops
At the end of this period, we expect to publish our emerging thinking and (if we identify concerns) possible options for improving outcomes.
Consultation on emerging thinking and potential remedies: December to April 2027
We will invite views from interested stakeholders on our emerging thinking and any possible options for improving outcomes.
Alongside this, we will undertake further targeted evidence gathering and analysis to deepen our understanding of the sector and shape possible options for improvements.
Final report
We expect to publish our final report setting out our conclusions from the market study, and any remedies in May 2027.
Contact
In the first place, please share your views via our call for views. If you wish to respond to our statement of scope or otherwise contact the team: childcare@cma.gov.uk
If you would like to hear from us about this market study you can sign up to our mailing list.