Nursery Schools: Coventry

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many mainstream nursery providers there were in the Coventry area in (a) 1997 and (b) 2005. (112765)

[holding answer 8 January 2007]: Information is not collected in the form requested.

The available information on child care providers is shown in tables 1 and 2.

*Table 1: Number*¹ *of registered child care providers for children under eight years of age by type of care—Coventry local authority area—position at 31 March 2005*
Type of care	2005
Full day care	90
Sessional day care	40
Child minders	500
Out of school day care	50
Crèche day care	40
¹ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: Ofsted

*Table 2: Number*¹ *of day care providers for children under eight years of age by type of provider—Coventry local authority area—position at 31 March 1997*
Type of provider	1997
Day nurseries	90
Playgroups and pre-schools	100
Child minders	700
Out of school clubs	10
Holiday schemes	10
¹ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: Children’s Day Care Facilities Survey.

*Table 3: Number*¹ *of registered child care places for children under eight years of age by type of care—Coventry local authority area—position at 31 March 2005*
Type of care	2005
Full day care	3,600
Sessional day care	1,100
Child minders	2,500
Out of school day care	1,700
Crèche day care	500
¹ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: Ofsted

*Table 4: Number*¹ *of day care places for children under eight years of age by type of provider—Coventry local authority area—position at 31 March 1997*
Type of provider	1997
Day nurseries	2,200
Playgroups and pre-schools	2,300
Child minders	2,300
Out of school clubs	200
Holiday schemes	400
¹ Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 if under 100, and to the nearest 100 if over 100. Source: Children’s Day Care Facilities Survey.

However, it is also important to take in to account change in the numbers of places available. The information is given in tables 3 and 4.

Local authorities were responsible for the registration and inspection of children’s day care facilities until these responsibilities were transferred to Ofsted in September 2001. The figures for 2005 were derived from the Ofsted database of registered child care providers. The figures for 1997 were derived from the Children’s Day Care Facilities Survey, which was discontinued in 2001. Therefore the figures for child care providers for 2005 are not directly comparable with the day care figures for 1997.

With the introduction of the National Day Care Standards and the transfer of responsibilities for registration and inspection of child care providers from local authority social service departments to Ofsted in September 2001, child care places were classified according to the type of day care provided: full day care, sessional day care, child minder, out of school day care or crèche day care. Ofsted has produced figures based on this classification on a quarterly basis from March 2003. Its latest figures were published in its report “Registered Childcare Providers and Places, September 2006”, which is available on its website:

www.ofsted.gov.uk/.

Up until March 2001, child care providers were classified according to the type of provider: day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools, child minders, out of school clubs and holiday schemes. Figures based on this classification were published in a series of Statistical Bulletins, which are available from the Department’s website:

Volume 455: debated on Thursday 11 January 2007