Full-day places rise as others decline

Quarterly data on the number of registered childcare providers and places to the end of December last year show that there are now 12,000 daycare providers, including pre-school groups, day nurseries and children's centres, offering 507,700 places.

Figures for the same quarter last year put the number of providers of full-day care at 10,600 offering 436,000 places.

But despite the increase to full- day care there were decreases in other childcare provision.

Overall, the number of registered childcare places for England has gone up by 5 per cent, while the number of providers is up by only 0.2 per cent.

This means that the total number of childcare places has grown by only 74,100 in the past 12 months, despite the Government's pledge to deliver more than two million places by 2006.

But a spokeswoman from the Department for Education and Skills said that the Government would meet its commitment.

'We've created 1.2 million new places since 1997, benefiting over two million children, and we are on target to create two million places by 2006,' she said.

The number of registered childminders has dropped by 1,000 in the past 12 months, although the number of childminding places rose marginally.

Ofsted's figures also showed a drop since December 2003 of around 8 per cent in the number of providers and places for sessional care, which includes playgroups and private nursery schools.

Steve Alexander, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said a number of factors could explain the apparent reduction in the number of sessional places. 'Our data suggests that expansion has been driven by groups taking younger children, opening for longer hours or opening a lunch club, rather than moving to offering full daycare. We have no evidence to suggest a rise in the number of sessional groups closing.'

Figures also showed an increase to out-of school care, with the number of places up 6 per cent since December 2003 to 341,500.