According to the research by UCL’s Faculty of Education & Society, the total number of registered nurseries in England declined from 24,000 to 22,500 between 2018 and 2024. This fall was mainly in the not-for-profit group with a 19 per cent decline.
In contrast, there was a 10 per cent increase in the for-profit, non-PE-backed group, mostly privately owned nurseries. Although PE-backed providers have declined over recent years, the research finds that their sector share has more than doubled from 2 per cent to 5 per cent, which the researchers say is because of the sharp decline in not-for-profit nurseries between 2018 and 2024.
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