Children: Day Care

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many childcare places have been created in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point since 1997. (318092)

Information on the number of childcare places available in Essex local authority from 1997 to 2009 is shown in the following table. The information requested is not available by parliamentary constituency.

*Table 1: Number*¹ *of childcare places*²*for children under eight years of age position at 31 March each year, 1997-2009*
	Essex
1997	34,900
1998	34,200
1999	27,200
2000	27,900
2001	28,800
2002	³—
2003	32,500
2004	33,800
2005	34,900
2006	36,600
2007	36,800
2008	36,100
2009⁴	32,400
¹ Figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. ² 1997-2001—Data Source: Children's Daycare Facilities survey—total includes day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools, childminders, out of school clubs, and holiday schemes. 2003-08—Data Source: Ofsted—total includes full daycare, sessional daycare, childminders, out of school clubs, and creche daycare. 2009—Data Source: Ofsted—total includes childminders, childcare on non-domestic premises, childcare on domestic premises and home child carer. ³ Data were not collected for 2002 during the transfer of responsibility to Ofsted. ⁴ Figures included are revised figures published by Ofsted in September 2009. Data not collected due to transfer of responsibility from LAs to Ofsted. Local authorities were responsible for the registration and inspection of children's day care facilities from 1997 to 2001. Responsibility transferred to Ofsted from 2003 and correspondingly, the categories of childcare changed from day nurseries, playgroups and pre-schools, childminders, out of school clubs and holiday schemes to full and sessional daycare, childminders, out of school clubs, and creche daycare. Therefore, data from 2003 are not directly comparable with data prior to 2002.

Due to changes in legislation, Ofsted have changed the way they publish statistics on registered childcare providers and places. From 1 September 2008, Ofsted started to record providers in line with new legal requirements using the categories of childminders, childcare on domestic premises, and childcare on non-domestic premises. This change means that the total numbers of providers and places (excluding childminding) shown in its returns up to and including August 2008 and from December 2008 onwards (the last under the old system, and the first under the new system) are not directly comparable.

Volume 508: debated on Wednesday 24 March 2010