The bi-annual Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers, published today, shows that the number of childcare and early years providers in England reduced from 90,300 to 81,500 over the two-year period – representing a loss of 8,800 providers.
Of those that left the sector, 5,700 were childminders, 2,100 were nurseries (‘group-based providers’) and 1,000 were school-based providers.
The research, carried out by Natcen on behalf of the Department for Education, is based on survey responses from 5,715 nurseries, 1,649 school-based providers and 1,240 childminders between March and July scaled-up to reflect all registered early years and childcare provision across England.
The figures, which do not take into account the number of providers that entered the sector between 2016-18, also show the number of childcare places fell by 251,700 between 2016 and 2018.
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