Pre-School and Childcare Statistics 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:
Childcare Centres and Services (Tables 1-10)
- 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 ( Table 1, Table 2). 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. ( Table 1, Table 14).
- The majority of operating childcare centres said that their main service was a nursery (2,425 centres or 59 per cent). This was true in all types of area regardless of deprivation level and urban/rural classification ( Table 2, Chart 1).
- There were 80 childcare centres that provided services wholly or primarily in the Gaelic medium, 1 fewer than in 2008 ( Table 5).
- The percentage of centres that were operating who provided an outdoor play area has increased from 73 per cent in 2008 to 81 per cent in 2009. ( Table 5).
- 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 ( Table 8).
The Childcare Workforce (Tables 11-16)
- There were 25,470 paid staff working directly with children in childcare centres, of which 86 per cent were permanent and 50 per cent were part time
( Table 12, Table 13). - Nearly a third of centres used unpaid volunteers working directly with children ( Table 13).
- The percentage of centres that had a plan or strategy detailing how they will meet the requirements for registration with the SSSC fell slightly from 78 per cent to 76 per cent. These figures are based on the centres that returned full census forms ( Table 10).
- Ninety nine per cent of active childminders were female ( Table 14).
- Over three quarters of currently active childminders (78 per cent) worked 30 or more hours per week and 15 per cent worked more than 50 hours. Most childminders (76 per cent) worked more than 40 weeks per year ( Table 14). These figures are derived from the Care Commission's December 2008 Annual Returns and are outwith the scope of National Statistics.
- The percentage of childminders with a childcare qualification at SVQ level 2 or above increased by two percentage points to 29 per cent and the percentage with SVQ level 3 or above increased by three percentage points to 25 per cent. ( Table 15, Table 16).
- Please note that the information in respect of the qualifications of the childcare workforce that would normally have been included in this publication is not currently available. This information will be published in a separate Statistics Publication Notice on Wednesday 28 October 2009.
Pre-school education (Tables 17-26)
- In January 2009 there were 2,780 centres that provided pre-school education following the Scottish 3-5 curriculum. Of these, 1,558 were local authority managed centres, 1,087 were partnership providers offering places funded by the local authority and 135 were neither ( Table 17).
- There were 54 centres that provided pre-school education in the Gaelic medium, 3 less than in 2008 ( Table 17).
- The number of local authority or partnership pre-school providers decreased by 2 per cent between 2008 and 2009, from 2,702 to 2,645 ( Table 17).
- The percentage of local authority or partnership centres that were managed by the local authority ranged from 36 per cent in Eilean Siar to 90 per cent in the Orkney Islands ( Table 17, Chart 3).
- There were 105,420 children registered for pre-school places funded by the local authority, of which 3,750 were under 3 ( Table 18).
- 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. This figure is based on a series of estimations and so should be treated with caution ( Table 18).
- 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 ( Table 19).
- There were 8,590 whole time equivalent ( WTE) staff providing pre-school education in local authority and partnership centres ( Table 21).
- Developments made to this Census in January 2009 have enabled us to estimate the actual physical number of GTCS registered teachers who provide pre-school education under a regular arrangement, whether employed by the centre or shared with other centres. This has resulted in the following:
- There were 2,880 GTCS registered teachers in posts providing pre-school education under a regular arrangement in January 2009. This compares with 2,710 in 2008. Please note that this includes multiple counting if a teacher works in more than one centre and this comparison is affected if there is a change in the level of multiple counting.
- These 2,880 posts were filled by an estimated 2,590 GTCS registered teachers. This is the first time the actual number of GTCS registered teachers providing pre-school education under a regular arrangement has been able to be calculated.
- The Whole Time Equivalent ( WTE) of all GTCS registered teachers providing pre-school education under a regular arrangement in January 2009 was 1,638 WTE, which is 34 WTE fewer than in 2008.
- See Table 23 for further details.
- Sixty eight per cent of pre-schools had GTCS registered teachers who provided pre-school education under a regular arrangement, whether employed by the centre or shared with other centres, an increase of two percentage points from 2008 ( Table 24).
- However, by type of provider shows that 93 per cent of local authority centres compared with 32 per cent of partnership centres had GTCS registered teachers who provided pre-school education under a regular arrangement ( Table 24).
- Thirty two per cent of pre-schools said they received occasional or ad hoc support from GTCS registered teachers, an increase of 9 percentage points compared with 2008 ( Table 25).