Statistics Publication Notice: Education and Training Series: Pre-School and Childcare Statistics 2010
Statistics on Pre-School and Childcare
BACKGROUND NOTES
1 This publication provides information about pre-school education centres, childcare centres and childminders registered with the Care Commission.
2 Historical statistics, notes on the background to the surveys, the questionnaires, guidance notes, and related publications can be found at www.scotland.gov.uk/childrenstats .
3 Census week was the week beginning 25 January 2010. Childminders also answered the survey for this week.
4 Of the 4,125 Care Commission registered services included in the January 2010 census, 3,633 (88%) completed the full census form; 149 (4%) completed a shortened pre-school education form, 69 (2%) responded saying that they had closed, were not currently operating, or the Census was not applicable to them. The remaining 274 (7%) centres did not respond to the survey at all.
5 When necessary, information used in January 2009 has been used to impute for those centres that did not return forms or did not complete specific questions.
6 For the third time, centres providing pre-school education were asked how many children had access to a General Teaching Council for Scotland ( GTCS) registered teacher during census week. In the guidance notes "access to a teacher" was defined as "the teacher being present in a pre- school education setting when the child is in attendance", and it was acknowledged that systems for providing access to teachers vary.
7 Pre-school education centres were also asked for the third time whether they received occasional or ad hoc support from any external GTCS registered teachers. This could be instead of, or in addition to, any teacher(s) providing pre-school education under a regular arrangement.
8 For the Childminders Survey 1,191 registered childminders were sampled, of which 808 (68%) returned completed forms. The sample was stratified by urban-rural classification and area deprivation. Responses on the qualifications of childminders were grossed up to 5,559, the total number of registered childminders in Scotland in January 2010 excluding those listed as "inactive" by the Care Commission.
9 As in January 2009, to reduce the burden on childminders of completing the form, this year some information on their characteristics was taken from the Care Commission's December 2009 Annual Returns. As there was a level of non response to this return the numbers have been weighted up to the total number of registered active (5,559) and inactive (507) childminders as at 1 January 2010. These figures are presented in Table 19 and are classed as outwith the scope of National Statistics. The number of responses, the number of childminders, and the weights used are shown in Appendix 2.
10 The figures in Tables 14- 17 and 20- 21 show the numbers of childcare staff and childminders with qualifications at the level equivalent to the SVQs shown below.
Childcare qualifications |
Non-childcare qualifications |
SVQ2 |
SVQ2 |
SVQ3 |
SVQ3 |
SVQ4 |
SVQ4 |
Degree |
Degree |
11 Definitions of the services provided:
Nursery: This category includes daycare and pre-school centres for children aged 5 or under including local authority pre-school classes and nurseries; private and voluntary daycare nurseries including centres providing pre-school education in partnership with the local authority; and community and workplace nurseries. The services will normally be used by parents on a regular rather than a drop-in basis and be provided for at least the school term.
Playgroup: These provide sessional or day care for children aged 5 or under. Most are run by groups of parents with parent-led committees, although some may be owned by individuals or organised by other voluntary bodies or by the local authority. They rely heavily on parents/carers who volunteer their services although they may employ paid staff, e.g. a play leader or assistant. Some playgroups will provide pre-school education in partnership with the local authority.
Out of school club: Out of school clubs offer care for school age children in the absence of parents or carers from the end of the school day until parents can collect their children, and also before school starts.
Breakfast club: This is a specifically designated breakfast club that is likely to provide a meal and will take place before school hours.
Crèche: A crèche provides 'drop in' care for children in order to enable adults to engage in activities such as further education, shopping or attending a meeting.
Children/family centre: Child and family centres provide services similar to those available in community nurseries and nursery centres. Day care/education is provided along with a range of support services for families which can be adapted to meet local needs. They are usually managed by voluntary organisations or by the local authority's social work or education department.
Sitter service: A sitter service provides childcare in the family's own home from early morning until late evening seven days a week.
Holiday play scheme: Holiday play schemes cater mainly for school age children and provide opportunities for children to participate in a broad range of supervised leisure and educational activities during school holidays.
Family support services working directly with parents: This should be taken to mean services which goes over and above the normal contact that a childcare or education service would have with parents. These services give parents opportunities to assist their child's development and achieve greater satisfaction in their role as parents, to support them in providing a healthy upbringing for their child, to promote self-esteem and personal confidence in both children and parents and to provide opportunities for parents to acquire skills which lay the basis for more extensive training or subsequent employment.
Professional health care: Services provided by professional health staff such as midwives, health visitors, speech therapists, psychologists, doctors and dental practitioners including antenatal care, postnatal care and support, child health clinics/screening and support groups where these are run by health professionals.
Gaelic provision: Services wholly or primarily in the Gaelic medium.
Outdoor play area: Any area out of doors available to the children attending the centre, which may also be shared with others or available to the wider community.
12 Whole time equivalent is the total number of hours worked by all staff members divided by the number of hours in a standard full-time working week, which was specified as 35 hours.
13 The categories of urban-rural were derived from the latest Scottish Executive classifications available at the time of the Census. This provides a mapping from individual postcodes to six categories of rurality. Individual pre-school and childcare service providers were assigned to one of these categories based upon the category of the area in which they are located. Urban areas are settlements over 10,000 population. Small towns are settlements of between 3,000 and 10,000 people. Rural areas are settlements of less than 3,000 people. There are 32 childcare centres that do not have an urban-rural classification because their exact location (i.e. postcode) was not known.
14 The categories of deprivation were derived from the latest Scottish Executive classification available at the time of the Census. This provides an indicator of deprivation for each of the 6,505 data zone areas of Scotland. The category "least deprived" denotes the 33.33 per cent least deprived data zones, "most deprived" is the 33.33 per cent most deprived data zones and "intermediate" makes up the remaining 33.33 per cent. Individual pre-school and childcare service providers were then assigned the category corresponding to the data zone in which they are located.
15 Further information about the urban-rural classification, area deprivation and the additional data sources used in this publication can be found through the following links:
Care Commission: http://www.carecommission.com/
General Register Office - Scotland: http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk
Urban-rural classification: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/About/Methodology/UrbanRuralClassification
Area deprivation: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD .
16 This is a National Statistics publication for Scotland. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics at http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/code-of-practice/code-of-practice-for-official-statistics.pdf. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure that they meet customer needs and are produced free from any political interference.
17. Statistics assessed, or subject to assessment, by the UK Statistics Authority carry the National Statistics label, a stamp of assurance that the statistics have been produced and explained to high standards and that they serve the public good.
Further information about Official and National Statistics can be found on the UK Statistics Authority website at www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk
18. SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT STATISTICIAN GROUP
Our Aim
To provide relevant and reliable information, analysis and advice that meet the needs of government, business and the people of Scotland.
For more information on the Statistician Group, please see the Scottish Government website at www.scotland.gov.uk/statistics
19. For public enquiries ( non-media) about the information contained in this Statistics Publication Notice, or for more detailed information, please contact:
Gary Sutton
Children, Young People and Social Care StatisticsThe Scottish Government
Area 1-D(S) South
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh EH6 6QQ.
Telephone: 0131 244 1690
e-mail children.statistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk .
For media enquiries, please contact John Robertson on 0131 244 4001.
The Scottish Government web site is: www.scotland.gov.uk .
General enquiries on Scottish Government statistics can be addressed to:
Office of the Chief Statistician
Scottish Government1N.04, St Andrews House
EDINBURGH EH1 3DG
Telephone: (0131) 244 0442
e-mail: statistics.enquiries@scotland.gsi.gov.uk
Further contact details, e-mail addresses and details of previous and forthcoming publications can be found on the Scottish Government Website at www.scotland.gov.uk/statistics
20. Complaints and suggestions
If you are not satisfied with our service, please write to the Chief Statistician, Mr Rob Wishart, 1N.04, St Andrews House, Edinburgh, EH1 3DG, Telephone: (0131) 244 0302, e-mail rob.wishart@scotland.gsi.gov.uk. We also welcome any comments or suggestions that would help us to improve our standards of service.
21. Review of Statistics - Future Changes
The Scottish Government's Education Directorate has been undertaking a review of its existing statistical collections. As a result, the Scottish Government has decided on the following changes:
- The Scottish Government will not continue to conduct an annual Pre-School and Childcare Census in its existing format.
- The Scottish Government will continue to conduct an annual Pre-School Education Census. However, this Census will now take place in September (starting September 2010) to coincide with the Primary, Secondary and Special School Pupil Census that are carried out at this time of year. Results for all sectors of Education provision will be published together in a compendia publication the following December.
The benefits of this change is that the availability of information on Pre-School Education will continue, will be more timely and will be available at the same time as for information in relation to Primary, Secondary and Special schools.
22. Review of Statistics - Proposed Changes
As part of the review of statistics, the Scottish Government's Education Directorate are currently consulting on the following proposals:
- The Scottish Government will no longer conduct its own Childcare Census and Childminders survey. The reason for this proposal is that information about these childcare providers are also collected by the Care Commission. Therefore, the Scottish Government will work closely with the Care Commission in order for similar information previously collected and published by the Scottish Government will become available from their own data sources, from 2011.
- The Scottish Government will no longer conduct its own Childcare Workforce survey. Again, the reason for this proposal is that information about the workforce for the childcare sector is also collected by the Care Commission, and will be analysed by the Scottish Social Services Council ( SSSC). Therefore, the Scottish Government will work closely with the Care Commission and the SSSC in order for similar information previously collected and published by the Scottish Government will continues to be available from these organisations, from 2011.
The benefits of these proposals are:
- The availability of information on Childcare provision, childminders and the Childcare Workforce will continue, but from alternative sources.
- The timing of availability should not be significantly affected.
- Burdens on data providers will be minimised as the duplication of information provided by Childcare providers and Childminders to both the Care Commission and the Scottish Government will be eliminated.
23. ScotStat
If you would like to be included in consultations similar to that mentioned above, consulted about new or existing statistical collections or receive notification of forthcoming statistical publications, please register your interest on the Scottish Government ScotStat website at www.scotland.gov.uk/scotstat
24. Crown Copyright
Brief extracts from the Crown Copyright material in this publication may be reproduced provided the source is fully acknowledged.
There is a problem
Thanks for your feedback