Scottish Government

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Pre-School and Childcare Statistics 2009

23/09/2009

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Pre-school and Childcare Statistics 2009, which presents new statistics on childcare centres and childminders registered with the Care Commission, and childcare centre staff.

The main findings are:

• As at January 2009 there were 4,274 registered childcare centres, a decrease on the 4,336 of January 2008. Of these centres, 4,119 were operating, around 148 fewer than in 2008. There were 2,645 centres that provided local authority funded pre-school education.
• The number of registered childminders decreased from 6,055 in January 2008 to 6,039 in January 2009. If inactive childminders are excluded, this figure is 5,534.
• A total of 196,750 children attended childcare centres during census week, and 28,980 attended childminders. These figures may include some double counting as children are counted once for each centre and/or childminder they attend.
• Ninety six per cent of children eligible, or 97,200 in total, were registered for the ante-pre-school or pre-school year of pre-school education, similar to the previous year.
• Seventy per cent of pre-school children had access to a GTCS registered teacher during census week, slightly higher than in the previous year. This includes children whose access was to a teacher providing only ad hoc or occasional support to the centre during census week.
• The percentage of childminders with a childcare qualification at SVQ level 2 or above increased by two percentage points to 29 per cent.