Official Statistics

Main findings: Childcare providers and inspections as at 31 March 2024

Updated 11 July 2024

Applies to England

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

Summary of findings

On 31 March 2024:

• 61,800 childcare providers were registered with Ofsted, down by 1,440 (2%) since 31 March 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 1,340 (5%) since 31 March 2023, to 26,500 providers. The decline was lower than in previous years, in part, due to the lower number of leavers.

• 1.27 million childcare places were offered by providers registered on the Early Years Register (EYR), up by 1,370 (less than 1%) since 31 March 2023.

• At their most recent inspection, 97% of childcare providers were judged good or outstanding, an increase of 1 percentage point 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 their own or someone else’s home. It does not count as childminding if it is the home of one of the children being cared for unless the care is for more than 2 different families at the same time. 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 61,800 childcare providers registered with Ofsted on 31 March 2024, down by 1,440 (2%) since last year.

Figure 1: Childcare providers registered with Ofsted on 31 March 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 2015. 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.

In 2023–24, 8,070 childcare providers left the sector and 6,630 joined, giving a net decrease of 1,440 providers. Most of this change was due to childminders leaving the sector, with 1,340 more childminders leaving the sector than joining. ^{[footnote 1]} In 2023–24, 1,960 childminders joined the registers while 3,290 left.

The number of childminders registered continues to decline. However, the number of joiners was slightly higher and the number of leavers lower than in the previous financial years since 2020–21.

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

^{Note: The large majority of leavers are providers who have resigned from our registers, rather than providers who have had their registration cancelled by Ofsted. Most joiners are new provider registrations. Some will be providers moving 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 March 2024, 1.27 million childcare places were offered by providers registered on the EYR, up by 1,370 since last year.

Data on places is reported for the 47,700 providers registered on the EYR and is first gathered at registration and updated at inspection.

Childminders offer fewer childcare places than other providers on average. The decline in the number of childcare providers is mostly due to the falling number of childminders. This means the number of places has not decreased at the same rate as the number of providers. While the number of providers has fallen by 2% since 31 March 2023, the number of places has remained relatively unchanged.

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 on 31 March 2024, by provider type

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
This includes places for children under 8 at providers that are registered on both the EYR and the CR.
View data in an accessible table format.}

Registers

On 31 March 2024, 77% (47,700) 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 in the glossary.

Inspections and regulatory activity

Most recent inspections of providers on the EYR

Of the EYR providers that have had a full inspection, 97% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent one. This is an increase of 1 percentage point since 31 March 2023.

At their most recent inspection, 98% of childminders were judged good or outstanding. This represents an increase of 1 percentage point since 31 March 2023. 97% of childcare on non-domestic premises providers were judged good or outstanding, also an increase of 1 percentage point in the same period.

Since 31 March 2020, the proportion of outstanding childcare providers has fallen from 18% to 14%.

Figure 4: Overall effectiveness of active early years registered providers over time at their most recent inspection

^{Note: See Notes for rounding guidelines.
Numbers in brackets refer to the number of inspected providers.
Percentages are rounded and may not sum to 100 or to the totals reported in the text.
View data in an accessible table format.}

As at 31 March 2024, 77% (36,700) of eligible providers on the EYR had received a full inspection under the education inspection framework (EIF). Full EYR inspections result in a graded judgement of outstanding, good, requires improvement or inadequate.

Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

Around 8,880 events were full inspections of providers registered on the EYR. The remaining 1,640 inspections of providers registered on the EYR were to out-of-school settings or providers with no children on roll at the time of the inspection.

Around 1,530 (17%) events were first inspections of recently registered providers, and about 1,460 (16%) were inspections of providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.

Figure 5: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 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 regulatory events include face-to-face visits as well as telephone calls.
View data in an accessible table format.}

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

There have been 4,600 full inspections of providers registered on the EYR in the academic year to date. 87% of these were judged 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.

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.

Figure 6: Overall effectiveness of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 March 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 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.}

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 7: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 March 2024

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

Of the full EYR inspections carried out since 1 September 2023, 87% were judged either good or outstanding overall. All these inspections were good or outstanding for quality of education and behaviour and attitudes.

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

• 89% for quality of education and behaviour and attitudes

• 88% for personal development

• 87% for effectiveness of leadership and management

Safeguarding

Of the 4,600 childcare providers that had a full EYR inspection, 94% 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

Childminders and childcare on domestic premises providers can choose to register with Ofsted or to register with a childminder agency. Existing childminders and childcare on domestic premises providers can 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 and childcare on domestic premises providers who are registered with them.

Childminder agencies become eligible for inspection within 12 months of the date when they have childminders on roll. There are only 2 overall effectiveness inspection outcomes: ‘effective’ and ‘ineffective’. On 31 March 2024, 3 out of 6 childminder agencies registered with Ofsted had childminders on roll and therefore were eligible for inspection, and 1 provider previously had childminders on roll. All 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 2024, around 12,500 state-funded schools had been given an early years judgement at their most recent school inspection. Of these, 89% were judged good or outstanding for overall effectiveness, and 92% were judged good or outstanding for early years provision.

On 31 March 2024, there were 380 state-funded nursery schools in England. We have inspected all of these, and 98% were judged good or outstanding at their most recent inspection (see Table 1). A large proportion (61%) of these nursery schools were judged outstanding and 38% were judged good.

Table 1: Overall effectiveness of open state-funded nursery schools on 31 March 2024

	All inspected nursery schools	Outstanding	Good	Requires improvement	Inadequate
Number of nursery schools inspected	380	230	140	6	1
Percentage of inspected nursery schools	100	61	38	2	0

^{Percentages may not add to 100 and figures may not add to totals due to rounding.}

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.

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 ensure that inspections are consistent across 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 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: Richard Smith, Anna Ruddock, Chris Dinham, Rebecca Vincent, Sam Trapp 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 on 31 March 2024, by provider type

Provider type	Number of providers on 31 March 2024	Change since 31 March 2023
Childminders	26,500	-1,340
Childcare on non-domestic premises	27,100	+170
Childcare on domestic premises	210	-5
Home childcarers	7,960	-270

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
2020–21	6,545	9,569	72,044
2021–22	6,087	10,106	68,025
2022–23	6,093	10,911	63,207
2023–24	6,628	8,071	61,764

See Figure 2.

Data for figure 3: Number of childcare places offered by providers on the EYR on 31 March 2024, by provider type

Provider type	Number of places on 31 March 2024	% of total places on the EYR
All providers	1,270,000	100%
Childcare on non-domestic premises	1,100,000	87%
Childcare on domestic premises	5,100	<1%
Childminders	162,000	13%

See Figure 3.

Data for figure 4: 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 2024	36,700	14	84	2	1
31 March 2023	38,900	14	82	2	1
31 March 2022	40,000	16	81	2	1
31 March 2021	41,300	18	79	3	1
31 March 2020	44,800	18	79	3	1

See Figure 4.

Data for figure 5: Inspections and regulatory activity between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024

Activity type	Number of events	Details
EYR inspections	10,500	8,880 of these visits were full inspections. Of these, 1,530 (17%) were of providers without a previous full inspection, 5,900 (66%) were of providers previously judged good or outstanding, and 1,460 (16%) were of providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate.
CR inspections	1,480	60% of these visits were to home childcarers.
Registration visits	3,010	More than half (60%) of these were prospective childminders intending to register on the EYR or CR, 25% were visits to childcare on non-domestic premises, 15% were visits to home childcarers and 1% were visits to childcare on domestic premises.
EYR regulatory events	7,320	More than half of these events (59%) related to childcare on non-domestic premises.

See Figure 5.

Data for figure 6: Overall effectiveness of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 March 2024, 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	4,600	10	78	7	6
Providers without a previous full EYR inspection	720	9	77	7	7
Providers previously judged good or outstanding	3,050	12	78	5	5
Providers previously judged requires improvement or inadequate	830	2	77	13	9

See Figure 6.

Data for figure 7: Overall effectiveness and key judgement outcomes of full EYR inspections carried out between 1 September 2023 and 31 March 2024

Judgement outcome	Number of inspections	% providers judged outstanding	% providers judged good	% providers judged requires improvement	% providers judged inadequate
Overall effectiveness	4,600	10	78	7	6
Quality of education	4,600	10	79	7	4
Behaviour and attitudes	4,600	10	78	7	4
Personal development	4,600	10	77	6	6
Effectiveness of leadership and management	4,600	10	78	7	6

See Figure 7.

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