The Care Inspectorate has today published ‘Early Learning and Childcare Statistics 2022’, which shows the availability and quality of registered daycare of children and childminding services for children and families across Scotland.
This report is based on the ELC services registered with the Care Inspectorate and incorporates evaluations of the quality of these services, as well as additional information from the annual returns completed by service providers. The statistics include longer term trends as well as a focus on changes in the most recent year to 31 December 2022.
There were 3,514 daycare of children services as of 31 December 2022, 59 fewer compared to 2021. However, the average size of daycare of children services continued to increase, rising from 50.3 places in 2021 to 51.2 in 2022.
The capacity in early learning and childcare (including childminding services) decreased by 1.3%, from 204,700 in 2021 to 201,960 registered places at 31 December 2022. The decrease of places in 2022 was driven primarily by childminding services where capacity decreased by 2,830 places. Capacity in daycare of children services increased by 90 places overall.
There were 197,880 children registered with daycare of children services, this is an increase from 196,320 children registered in 2021. For childminding services there were 23,410 children registered in December 2022, this is a decrease from 24,880 children registered in 2021.
The proportion of daycare of children services providing funded early learning and childcare increased overall in 2022: the proportion of nurseries offering funded places in 2022 was similar to that in 2021 (from 98% in 2021 to 97.5% in 2022), whilst for playgroups there was an increase from 75% to 76.7%, and for children and family centres there was an increase from 88.8% to 89.8%.
The quality of services was high, based on the evaluations held by services at 31 December 2022, with 92.0% of childminding and 88.5% of daycare of children services holding evaluations of good or better for all assessed themes or key questions. Services found to be weak or unsatisfactory in all assessed key questions continue to be rare, with only 0.7% of daycare of children services and 0.2% of childminding services at this level.
Overall, 90.1% of daycare of children services offering funded ELC places held evaluations of good or better in all assessed key questions at 31 December 2022.
There is no relationship between prevalence of good quality funded services (those evaluated as good or better in all key questions) and levels of Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD), indicating that a consistent level of good quality funded provision is available in all areas.
Jackie Irvine, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “High quality early learning and childcare services benefit families in Scotland by supporting parents and guardians to access employment or training opportunities, and by giving our youngest citizens the best possible start in life.
“In our role as a regulator, we support these services to provide high quality care and deliver positive outcomes for children. It is encouraging that we continue to see examples of high quality provision across the ELC sector and in all regions of the country - every child in Scotland has the right to good quality, safe care which meets their needs and respects their rights.”
The full report can be read here and the supporting tables here.