Exclusive: how the nursery chains measure up

This is the fourth year running that the chain, which runs ten nurseries in the North-East of England, has achieved this accolade.

Two-thirds of the group’s nurseries are graded outstanding, while a third of its settings are rated as good.

Our Ofsted table is based on our analysis of the Ofsted reports of the 20 biggest nursery groups in England.

By comparing their grades we are able to determine a top-20 table for quality.

Kids Planet is a new entry to the Ofsted table and is in joint second position with Kids Allowed, with both groups only achieving outstanding and good grades.

Based in Cheshire, Kids Planet has expanded in the past 12 months to run 12 nurseries, and has also risen up the ranks in our league table of the 25 largest nursery chains, which shows the total number of settings and registered childcare places the groups provide.

Busy Bees is by far the largest nursery group in the country with 237 settings offering more than 21,000 places.

The second biggest chain is Bright Horizons with 202 nurseries offering 16,108 places.

The third largest group is Asquith with 76 nurseries providing 5,855 nursery places.

Both tables are published in Nursery World’s annual Nursery Chains supplement free with the latest issue.

• Subscribers can download pdfs of the Ofsted quality table and the Top 25 table, as well as all the features from the Nursery Chains supplement.