Kids 1st claims top spot
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Nursery group Kids 1st has retained its number one place in this year’s Nursery Chains quality table, with all of its inspected nurseries graded outstanding.
The group has achieved the highest score possible with all its ten settings that have been inspected achieving outstanding grades (with an 11th nursery awaiting its first inspection.)
Quality among the large nursery groups is continuing to rise.
A higher proportion of settings run by the biggest chains are graded good or outstanding than Ofsted’s latest figures for all nurseries.
According to our analysis, 89.8 per cent of the settings owned or managed by the 20 largest groups are graded good or outstanding.
The latest Ofsted statistics show that, as of 31 March this year, 87 percent of providers on non-domestic premises were judged good or outstanding in their most recent inspections.
For the fifth year running the table gives an insight into the quality of the biggest nursery groups in the UK, by comparing the Ofsted grades of the 20 largest chains.
Data provider Watchsted has compiled the grades, and we have analysed the findings using our points-based rating system.
Kids Planet is runner-up for the second year in a row, with nine of its nurseries outstanding, and the rest graded good.
Childbase is in third place, up one position from last year, achieving three more outstanding grades in the last 12 months.
Children 1st is a new entry to this year’s table in fourth place, and in fifth place is the London Early Years Foundation.
Across the 20 groups this year’s average score is higher than last year, a sign that quality is continuing to rise.
Top 25
Alongside our Ofsted quality table, our league table of the 25 largest nursery groups in the UK finds that the groups provide a combined total of 89,557 registered childcare places, spread across 1,208 settings.
This is a total of 9,383 more places and 125 more settings than last year’s table.
Our top 25 names include five new entries, including franchise groups Monkey Puzzle and Banana Moon (in ninth and 11th places respectively). We also feature the YMCA, whose federation of local YMCAs runs 38 nurseries and pre-schools across the country and is now the 13th largest nursery group.
Nursery chain Children 1st is in 14th place with 1,841 places across 18 settings, and Just Childcare offers 1,174 places at 20 nurseries.
- Read the story in full here
- Nursery Chains is out on Monday and free with Nursery World (16-29 November).
