The Department publishes information on the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds in maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers. This is derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and two and a half hours per week as 0.2 places. Table 1 shows the number of part-time equivalent places filled by three and four-year-olds in Leeds West constituency, Leeds local authority and the West Yorkshire region from 2005 to 2009.
Leeds West constituency Leeds local authority West Yorkshire4 2005 1,700 14,700 47,400 2006 1,600 14,800 47,800 2007 1,700 15,200 48,900 2008 1,800 16,400 51,400 2009 1,900 17,200 53,700 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. 3 Age of all children taken at 31 December in the previous calendar year. 4 Includes Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield. Source: Early Years Census and School Census
Information on nursery school places per head of population has not been included. This is because data on places available are not collected; only data on places filled are available and as children can access their free entitlement across different areas; part time equivalent places are not on a comparable basis with the population figures. Population figures at this level of disaggregation are also not as reliable as at the national level.