Official Statistics

Main findings: childcare providers and inspections as at 31 August 2024

Published 20 November 2024

Applies to England

Ofsted Big Listen consultation

In September 2024, we published our response to the Big Listen, the largest consultation in Ofsted’s history. We sought views right across our work, from schools and children’s social care to teacher training and early years. We made a commitment in our response to reform our inspection frameworks and introduce report cards. These reforms will require changes to our current suite of management information and official statistics publications.

Once the new frameworks and report cards have been developed, we will consult on changes to our statistical publications, ensuring they continue to present information in the right way to best support our users.

This is the main findings report for the childcare providers and inspections as at 31 August 2024 release. 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 August 2024 and their most recent inspection outcomes
• data on inspections and regulatory activity carried out until 31 August 2024

Summary of findings

On 31 August 2024:

• 61,200 childcare providers were registered with Ofsted, down by 1,030 (2%) since 31 August 2023. Most of this decline was due to a fall in the number of childminders

• the number of childminders registered with Ofsted had decreased by 1,060 (4%) since 31 August 2023, to 26,000 providers. The decline has been slowing in each academic year since 2021/22, mostly due to decreasing numbers of leavers

• 1.28 million childcare places were offered by providers registered on the Early Years Register (EYR), up by 12,100 (1%) since 31 August 2023. Most of this increase was due to a rise in the number of places offered by childcare on non-domestic premises providers

• at their most recent inspection, 98% of childcare providers were judged good or outstanding, an increase of 1 percentage point since 31 August 2023

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 61,200 childcare providers registered with Ofsted on 31 August 2024, down by 1,030 (2%) since last year.

The decrease in the number of providers has slowed each year since 2021/22, mostly because fewer providers are leaving the sector.

Figure 1: Childcare providers registered with Ofsted as at 31 August 2024, by provider type

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
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 since before August 2019. This is because more providers are leaving the childcare sector than joining (see Figure 2) and is mainly due to a fall in the number of childminders ^{[footnote 1]}.

In 2023/24, 7,520 childcare providers left the sector and 6,490 joined, giving a net decrease of 1,030 providers. Most of this decline was due to a fall in the number of childminders, with 1,060 more childminders leaving than joining. In 2023/24, 1,930 childminders joined Ofsted’s registers while 2,980 left.

The number of childminders registered continues to decline, but at a slowing rate. Each academic year since 2021/22, the number of joiners has increased and the number of leavers has decreased.

The decreasing numbers of leavers might be expected given the shrinking population of childminders. However, the proportion of childminders leaving each academic year has also declined since 2021/22.

The number of childcare on non-domestic premises providers registered has increased by 420 (2%) since 31 August 2023.

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

^{Note: Most leavers are provider resignations, rather than cancellations, and most joiners are new provider registrations. Some will be providers moving registers from the EYR to the Childcare Register (CR) or resigning from one register but remaining on the other.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Places

On 31 August 2024, there were 1.28 million childcare places offered by providers registered on the EYR, up by 12,100 (1%) since last year.

1.11 million of these childcare places were offered by providers of childcare on non-domestic premises, up by 19,900 (2%) since last year.

Data on places is reported for the 47,200 providers registered on the EYR and is first gathered at registration and updated at inspection.

The number of childcare places has not changed at the same rate as the number of providers. This is because the declining number of providers is mostly due to the falling number of childminders, and childminders offer fewer childcare places than other providers on average. While the number of providers has decreased by 2% since 31 August 2023, the number of places has increased by 1%.

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 August 2024, by provider type

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
Places include children up to age 7 where providers are registered on both the EYR and the CR.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Registers

On 31 August 2024, 47,200 (77%) of Ofsted-registered childcare providers were on the EYR. The remaining 23% 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.

Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

Around 8,270 events were full inspections of providers registered on the EYR. The remaining 1,500 inspections of providers registered on the EYR were inspections of out-of-school settings or of providers with no children on roll at the time of inspection.

Figure 4: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
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 not equal 10%.
The regulatory events include face-to-face events as well as remote events via telephone call.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Outcomes of full EYR inspections between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

Of the 8,270 full inspections of providers registered on the EYR carried out since 1 September 2023, 88% resulted in a judgement of good or outstanding.

Of the inspections that were previously judged requires improvement or inadequate, 78% improved to good or outstanding at their next full inspection.

Key judgements

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

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

Of the full EYR inspections carried out since 1 September 2023, 88% resulted in a judgement of either good or outstanding overall. All these inspections were good or outstanding for their quality of education and behaviour and attitudes.

Figure 5: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

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

The proportions of individual key judgements that were good or outstanding were:

• 88% for personal development
• 88% effectiveness of leadership and management
• 89% for quality of education
• 90% for behaviour and attitudes

Providers’ inspection outcomes 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.

Of the full EYR inspections carried out, around 1,550 (19%) were first inspections of recently registered providers, and about 1,230 (15%) were inspections of providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.

Figure 6: Overall effectiveness judgements of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024, by previous inspection outcome

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
Percentages are rounded and may not add to 100.
Numbers in brackets refer to the number of inspected providers.
Inspections previously judged requires improvement include a small number of inspections judged satisfactory (a former grade under a previous inspection framework).
Data refers to the overall effectiveness of inspections rather than providers, as providers may have had multiple inspections during the year.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Safeguarding

Of the 8,270 full EYR inspections carried out since 31 August 2023, 95% resulted in a judgement of effective for 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.

Most recent inspections of providers on the EYR

Of the EYR providers that have received a full inspection, 98% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent one. This is an increase of 1 percentage point since 31 August 2023.

On 31 August 2024, 36,300 (77%) of eligible providers on the EYR had received a full inspection under the EIF.

Childminder agencies

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 deregister 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 August 2024, 7 childminder agencies were registered with Ofsted. Of these, 3 had childminders on roll and were therefore eligible for inspection, and 1 provider previously had childminders on roll. Of these 4 childminder agencies once eligible for inspection, all 4 have been inspected. All 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 August 2024, around 13,000 had been given an early years judgement at their most recent school inspection. Of these, 90% were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness, and 93% were judged good or outstanding for early years provision.

On 31 August 2024, there were 380 state-funded nursery schools in England. We have inspected all of these, and 97% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. Of these, 57% were judged outstanding and 40% were judged good.

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

We explain the main uses of this data and the arrangements for quality assurance, and provide 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.

Rounding

Numbers in this report are rounded as follows:

• numbers under 100 are not rounded
• numbers between 100 and 1,000 are rounded to 2 significant figures
• numbers over 1,000 are rounded to 3 significant figures

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, contact Anita Patel on 03000 130 914 or Anita.Patel@ofsted.gov.uk, or the early years data and analysis team at childcaredataqueries@ofsted.gov.uk.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the following for their contribution to this statistical release: Anna Ruddock, Richard Smith, Chris Dinham, Rebecca Vincent and Mundeep Gill.

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 as at 31 August 2024, by provider type

Provider type	Number of providers on 31 August 2024	Change since 31 August 2023
Childcare on non-domestic premises	27,300	+420
Childminders	26,000	-1,060
Home childcarers	7,750	-410
Childcare on domestic premises	210	+11

^{See Figure 1.}

Data for Figure 2: Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector, by academic year

Academic year	Joiners	Leavers	Total number of providers
2019/20	7,400	-8,270	75,300
2020/21	6,990	-11,300	71,000
2021/22	5,690	-11,100	65,600
2022/23	6,330	-9,650	62,300
2023/24	6,490	-7,520	61,200

^{See Figure 2.}

Data for Figure 3: Number of childcare places offered by providers on the EYR as at 31 August 2024, by provider type

Provider type	Number of places on 31 August 2024	% of total places on the EYR
Childcare on non-domestic premises	1.11 million	87%
Childminders	158,000	12%
Childcare on domestic premises	5,000	<1%

^{See Figure 3.}

Data for Figure 4: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

Activity type	Number of events	Details
EYR inspections	9,770	8,270 (85%) of these were full inspections. 920 (9%) of these were to providers providing out-of-school day care. 590 (6%) of these were to providers with no children on roll.
CR inspections	1,370	Approximately 6 out of 10 (63%) of these were visits to home childcarers.
Registration visits	3,150	58% of these visits were to prospective childminders intending to register on the EYR or CR. 25% were visits to childcare on non-domestic premises providers, 16% were visits to home childcarers, and 1% were visits to childminders.
Regulatory events	7,910	60% of these related to childcare on non-domestic premises providers.

^{See Figure 4.}

Data for Figure 5: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024

	Number of inspections	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
Overall effectiveness	8,270	10	78	6	6
Quality of education	8,270	10	79	7	4
Behaviour and attitudes	8,270	11	79	6	4
Personal development	8,270	11	78	6	6
Effectiveness of leadership and management	8,270	10	78	6	6

^{See Figure 5.}

Data for Figure 6: Overall effectiveness judgements of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 August 2024, by previous inspection outcome

	Number of inspections	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
All full EYR inspections	8,270	10	78	6	6
Inspections of providers without a previous full EYR inspection	1,550	10	78	6	6
Inspections of providers previously judged good or outstanding	5,490	12	78	5	5
Inspections of providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate	1,230	2	76	13	9

^{See Figure 6.}

1. ‘A focus on childminders’, Ofsted, September 2023. ↩