Fall in nursery places raises concerns over free childcare expansion

Figures show that the number of available early years places dropped by one per cent from 1.3 million to 1.29 million in the period 31 March to August 2015.

The regulator said this has been driven by a three per cent fall in numbers of registered childminders from 49,400 to 47,900, and a two per cent decrease in the number of non-domestic childcare providers from 89,000 to 87,000.

Ofsted said the figure on non-domestic providers could be partially down to changes in legislation in May this year, which dropped the requirement of schools to register early years provision for two-year-olds separately.

Figures also show a one per cent increase in the proportion of providers on the early years register to be good or outstanding, compared with the same period last year.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, said urgent action must be taken.

“Early years providers are a vital source of quality, age-appropriate care and education for young children, and so it is deeply concerning to see that the number of providers in the sector has declined, resulting in a loss of more than 11,000 childcare places.

“At a time when government is looking to maximise capacity ahead of the roll-out of the 30-hour scheme, it's critical that urgent action is taken in order to tackle this problem.”

On the decline in childminders, Leitch said: "We have already lost around 10,000 childminders in the past three years. We cannot afford for this trend to continue.”

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) said: “We are proud that nurseries are maintaining their excellent quality despite all their current difficulties, but these figures bear out the worrying, slow decline in the number of places and settings in the childcare sector.

“Government needs a thriving childcare sector, in which working parents can receive 30 free hours for their three- and four-year-olds from 2017, so this downward trend needs to be reversed if we want to ensure a choice of accessible, high-quality childcare to meet parents’ needs.

“The sector is doing well in terms of quality, but it is certainly not thriving from a business perspective, as the decline in numbers shows.

“This reinforces our argument that sufficient funding per child needs to be in place so that nurseries and childminders aren’t forced to go out of business.”