Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying.
The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers’ Survey, 2006 covers both childcare (full day care, sessional, out-of-school, childminders and children’s centres), and early years settings in maintained schools (nursery schools, primary schools with nursery and reception classes and primary schools with reception but no nursery classes). In order to reduce the time it took providers to complete the interview, a core set of questions were asked of all providers, and then the sample was randomly divided into two groups, one of which was asked questions in module A (costs and income) while the other group was asked questions in module B (training and recruitment). Slightly different questionnaires was put to the group childcare providers, childminders and early years settings in maintained schools.
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The datasets contain information on childcare and early years providers, including data on:provider characteristics (ownership, opening times, length of operation, free early education sessions)number of places and children attending (number of places, ages, ethnicity, vacancies)staff characteristics (number of staff, demographics of paid staff, pay, hours) qualifications (qualifications held and working towards by paid staff) training (current level of training, training plans and budgets) recruitment and retention (level of recruitment, retention rates, vacancies)income (income, fees, funding, childcare vouchers, tax credits, business performance) The provider level datasets for childcare providers and early years providers contain the responses of senior managers at these settings, with one row of data per setting. The staff level datasets for childcare providers and early years providers contain information on individual members of staff linked to information about the setting that they work in and there is one row of data per staff member. The childminders dataset contains the responses of childminders and these individuals work alone therefore there is only one dataset for this group of providers.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Telephone interview
