Nursery Schools: Bexley

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many nursery places for three and four-year-olds there were in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford and (b) the London borough of Bexley in (i) 2001 and (ii) 2006. (129464)

The available information is shown in the tables.

*Number of part time funded places*^1,2 filled by three and four-year-olds, Bexley local authority—position in January each year
	Three-year-olds	Four-year-olds
Year	Maintained nursery and primary schools³	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers	Total three-year-olds	Maintained nursery and primary schools⁴	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers	Total four-year-olds
2001	1,300	⁵910	2,200	n/a	n/a	^6,72,600
2006	1,100	⁸1,000	2,100	2,300	⁹310	2,600
n/a = not available ¹ A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. ² Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 if they exceed 1,000 and to the nearest 10 otherwise. ³ Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the annual schools' census. ⁴ Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the annual schools' census. ⁵ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the nursery education grant data collection exercise. ⁶ For 2001, four-year-old sub-national figures from the nursery education grant data collection exercise can not be disaggregated between the maintained and private, voluntary and independent sectors. ⁷ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the nursery education grant data collection exercise. ⁸ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the early years census and the annual schools’ census. ⁹ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the early years census and the annual schools' census.

*Number of part-time funded places*^1,2 filled by three and four-year-olds, Bexleyheath and Crayford parliamentary constituency—position in January each year
	Three-year-olds	Four-year-olds
Year	Maintained nursery and primary schools³	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers⁴	Total three-year-olds	Maintained nursery and primary schools⁵	Other maintained and private, voluntary and independent providers⁶	Total four-year-olds
2006	400	360	760	880	80	960
n/a = not available ¹ A place is equal to five or more sessions and can be filled by more than one child. ² Figures are rounded to the nearest 10 or 100 as appropriate. ³ Headcount of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the annual schools' census. ⁴ Part-time equivalent number of children aged three at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the early years census and the annual schools' census. ⁵ Headcount of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the annual schools' census. ⁶ Part-time equivalent number of children aged four at 31 December in the previous calendar year from the early years census and the annual schools' census.

The latest figures on early education places for three and four-year-olds in England were published in Statistical First Release 32/2006 “Provision for children under five years of age in England—January 2006 (final)” in August, which is available on the Department's website:

Volume 458: debated on Wednesday 28 March 2007