The report, Making the Grade?, said that a total of 6,881 children's services - including daycare, childminding and care homes - were inspected between April 2008 and March 2009 and most received good grades.
Services can be graded from 1 (unsatisfactory) to 6 (excellent) across different aspects of care, or 'quality themes'. These include: quality of care and support; quality of information/ environment; quality of staffing; and quality of management and leadership.
Eighty-eight per cent of children's services were graded 4 or above for quality of care and support.
Childminding in particular scored highly, with one in three childminders achieving grades of 5 (very good) or 6 (excellent) across all themes. A quarter of all daycare services achieved top grades of 5 and 6.
Maggie Simpson, chief executive of the Scottish Childminding Association, said, 'I'm delighted that childminders in Scotland have continued to prove they provide consistent, high-quality childcare from their own homes.'
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'It is important that parents are encouraged to understand what the gradings mean and take a look at their setting's full report. To improve their scores further, nurseries should continue to invest in staff development and quality. NDNA Scotland believes it is vital that financial support for staff training and salaries is available, to ensure nurseries can develop without further fee increases for parents.'