London parents least likely to use free early education places

Children from South Asian backgrounds are less likely to use formal childcare than white British children.

Most parents using the free entitlement said they were ‘fairly or very satisfied’ with the number of free hours they received.

The findings are taken from two reports just published on the department’s website.

Statistics show that in January 2012 the number of children using free early education places was 1,264,420, an increase of 39,950 children.

However, the increase in numbers is largely due to a rise in the population of children in this age group, as the proportion of three-and four-year-olds in early education places is roughly the same as last year.

Take-up of the free entitlement for three and four-year-olds remains stable at around 93 per cent for three-year-olds and 98 per cent for four-year-olds.

A breakdown of take-up of the entitlement by local authority area is also included for the first time.

This shows that take-up rates are lower in London than elsewhere at 89 per cent of three-and four-year-olds accessing free places, compared to the national average of 96 per cent for all three-and four-year-olds.

The greatest proportion of children in early education places is in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber and the South West, with the highest take-up rate of 98 per cent of three-and four-year-olds.

Sixty per cent of places for three-year-olds using free places are in private and voluntary settings and 36 per cent in maintained nursery schools and nursery classes in primary schools.

Among four-year-olds, 62 per cent are using their places in infant classes in primary schools, 15 per cent are in nursery schools and nursery classes and 21 per cent are in private and voluntary settings.

Around 4 per cent of children are classed as taking their entitlement in independent schools - this includes children using more than one provider who may have been counted twice and also some children in direct grant nursery schools.

Separate research by IPSOS Mori and commissioned by the DfE involved face-to-face interviews with more than 6,700 parents in England with children under 15 between September 2010 and April 2011.

Key findings from the Childcare and Early Years Survey 2010 on parents’ use of childcare and early years provision include:

• Reported take-up of free early education places for three-and four-year-olds (85 per cent) did not significantly change between 2009 and 2010.
• The majority of parents using free nursery places were fairly or very satisfied with the number of free hours they received.
• Parents’ perceptions of childcare availability were unchanged from the 2009 survey, with 44 per cent saying that there were the right amount of places and 32 per cent saying that were not enough.
• Just over half of parents who did not work said that they would prefer to work if they could arrange reliable, affordable and good quality childcare.
• The median take-up of free hours was 15 for three- and-four-year-olds, suggesting that parents were using the extra two-and-a-half hours in their entitlement, which rose from 12.5 to 15 hours in September 2010.
• Parents tend to use their free hours over five days a week (43 per cent), with just over a quarter using their hours over three days.
• A quarter of parents said it was difficult or very difficult to pay for childcare.
• A quarter of parents had not heard of the EYFS.