Nurseries: Admissions

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the average occupancy rate of (a) Sure Start children’s centre nurseries, (b) maintained nurseries and (c) private, voluntary and independent nurseries was in (i) England, (ii) each region and (iii) each local authority area in each of the last five years. (234133)

[holding answer 10 November 2008]: The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey collects information on occupancy rates in child care and early years providers.

Table 1 shows the national occupancy rates for different types of child care providers from 2005 to 2007. Data are not available for earlier years or for all types of providers in 2005.

*Table 1: Occupancy rates for England from 2005 to 2007*
Percentage
	2005	2006	2007
Full day care	83	85	82
Full day care in children’s centres	n/a	82	83
Sessional	89	89	87
After school clubs	n/a	79	75
Holiday clubs	n/a	71	70
Child minders	71	76	71
Nursery schools	n/a	93	95
Primary schools with nursery and reception classes	n/a	90	89
Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes	n/a	85	86

Table 2 shows the regional occupancy rates for different types of child care providers for 2007. Data for earlier years are not available in the format requested.

*Table 2: Regional occupancy rates for 2007*
Percentage
	Full day care	Full day care in children’s centres	Sessional	After school	Holiday	Child minders	Nursery schools	Primary schools with nursery and reception classes	Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes
East Midlands	80	77	82	67	65	65	92	87	81
East of England	84	85	86	73	66	72	94	86	83
London	78	82	87	77	70	61	96	93	95
North East¹	²81	²73	²85	²71	²67	²75	96	n/a	79
Yorkshire and Humber	²—	²—	²—	²—	²—	²—	94	n/a	84
North West	83	83	88	72	65	73	91	n/a	82
South East	83	79	88	71	73	69	97	90	87
South West	81	83	85	69	60	75	99	88	81
West Midlands	83	77	84	73	66	73	96	88	82
¹ Data for child care providers are not separately available for the North East and Yorkshire and Humberside regions. ² Indicates brace. Note: Data are not available for primary schools with nursery and reception classes in the North East and North West regions as an insufficient number of interviews were achieved in these areas. Data are also not available for primary schools with nursery and reception classes in Yorkshire and Humberside as this region was grouped with the North East and North West to ensure that national figures were representative.

Data on occupancy rates are not available at a local authority level.

Volume 482: debated on Tuesday 11 November 2008