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Introduction & Main Findings

Scotland's Chief Statistician today published Pre-school and Childcare Statistics 2008, 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 1-9)

• As at January 2008 there were 4,336 registered childcare centres, a slight decrease on the 4,457 of January 2007. Of these centres, 4,267 were operating, around 50 fewer than in 2007 ( Table 1, Table 2). There were 2,702 centres that provided local authority funded pre-school education.
• The number of registered childminders increased from 6,020 in January 2007 to 6,055 in January 2008. If inactive childminders are excluded, this figure is 5,580. Due to a change in methodology, the latter figure is not comparable with 2007 ( Table 1, Table 14).
• The majority of operating childcare centres said that their main service was a nursery (2,449 centres or 57 per cent). This was true in all types of area regardless of deprivation level and urban/rural classification ( Table 2, Chart 1).
• The least deprived third of areas had the highest proportion of centres whose main service was a playgroup (19 per cent), and the most deprived third had the lowest proportion (5 per cent). In contrast, the most deprived areas had higher proportions of centres whose main service was a crèche or a children/family centre (6 per cent for each) than both intermediate and deprived areas. ( Table 2, Chart 2).
• The number of centres that provided a playgroup decreased by 11 per cent between 2007 and 2008, from 704 to 630 ( Table 5).
• There were 81 childcare centres that provided services wholly or primarily in the Gaelic medium, no change from 2007 ( Table 5).
• Most centres that were operating (73 per cent) provided an outdoor play area. The percentage increased by 1 percentage point between 2007 and 2008 ( Table 5).
• A total of 198,860 children attended childcare centres during census week, and 25,240 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 10-18)

• There were 26,600 paid staff working directly with children in childcare centres, of which 88 per cent were permanent and 45 per cent were part time. Due to a change in methodology, this figure is not comparable with 2007 ( Table 12, Table 13).
• Twenty eight per cent of paid childcare staff were responsible for managing the work of other staff ( Table 12).
• There was an average of 2.0 permanent or temporary staff employed in each centre responsible for the management of the centre, or 8,350 staff in total ( Table 11).
• In the 557 centres that used peripatetic or shared management staff, there was an average of 1.5 peripatetic management staff per centre ( Table 11).
• A quarter 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 increased by 9 percentage points from 2007, to 78 per cent. This increase was seen in all sectors and was greatest in the public sector, where the proportion rose by 15 percentage points to 80 per cent. These figures are based on the centres that returned full census forms ( Table 10).
• Ninety six per cent of paid childcare staff in childcare centres and ninety nine per cent of childminders were female ( Table 14).
• Over three quarters of childminders (78 per cent) worked 30 or more hours per week and 15 per cent worked more than 50 hours. Most childminders (81 per cent) worked more than 40 weeks per year ( Table 14). These figures are derived from the Care Commission's Annual Returns and are outwith the scope of National Statistics.
• Eighty three per cent of paid childcare staff in childcare centres had a childcare qualification, an increase of three percentage points on 2007. Similarly, the percentage of staff with a qualification at SVQ level 2 or above increased by four percentage points to 80 per cent, and the percentage with a qualification at SVQ level 3 or above increased by five percentage points to 70 per cent ( Table 15, Table 16).
• The percentage of childminders with a childcare qualification at SVQ level 2 or above increased by five percentage points to 27 per cent and the percentage with SVQ level 3 or above increased by four percentage points to 22 per cent. ( Table 15, Table 16).
• Childcare staff working in public sector centres were more qualified than those in the private or voluntary sectors. Eighty nine per cent of staff in public centres had childcare qualifications at SVQ level 3 or above, compared to 65 per cent in private and 51 per cent in voluntary centres ( Table 17, Chart 4).
• Childcare staff who managed other staff were more qualified than those who did not, with 87 per cent having a qualification at SVQ level 3 or above compared to 64 per cent for those who did not manage ( Table 17).

Pre-school education (Tables 19-28)

• In January 2007 there were 2,823 centres that provided pre-school education following the Scottish 3-5 curriculum. Of these, 1,580 were local authority managed centres, 1,122 were partnership providers offering places funded by the local authority and 121 were neither or unknown ( Table 19).
• There were 57 centres that provided pre-school education in the Gaelic medium, 3 more than in 2007 ( Table 19).
• The number of local authority or partnership pre-school providers decreased by 2 per cent between 2007 and 2008, from 2,750 to 2,702 ( Table 20).
• The percentage of local authority or partnership centres that were managed by the local authority ranged from 30 per cent in Eilean Siar to 90 per cent in the Orkney Islands ( Table 20, Chart 5).
• There were 106,060 children registered for pre-school places funded by the local authority, of which 5,370 were under 3. The large decrease in under 3 year olds (from 12,910 in 2007) is mainly due to a change in wording of the question to explicitly exclude children in places not funded by the local authority ( Table 21).
• Ninety six per cent of children eligible, or 96,130 in total, were registered for the ante-pre-school or pre-school year of pre-school education. This figure is based on a series of estimations and so should be treated with caution ( Table 22).
• Sixty six per cent of pre-school children had access to a GTCS registered teacher during census week. This includes children whose access was to a teacher providing only ad hoc or occasional support to the centre. The figure may be an undercount as a number of centres did not provide information for this question ( Table 22).
• The percentage of children with access to a teacher during census week was much higher in local authority centres (81 per cent) than in partnership centres (30 per cent) ( Chart 6).
• There were 8,730 whole time equivalent ( WTE) staff providing pre-school education in local authority and partnership centres ( Table 25).
• There were 1,672 whole time equivalent ( WTE) GTCS registered teachers, of which 1,447 worked in local authority centres. These figures include 204 WTE teachers shared between centres ( Table 26).
• The percentage of centres using shared or peripatetic teachers ranged from four per cent in Aberdeen City to 61 per cent in West Dunbartonshire ( Chart 7).
• Sixty six 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. This corresponds to ninety two per cent of local authority centres and 28 per cent of partnership centres ( Table 26).
• Twenty three per cent of pre-schools said they received occasional or ad hoc support from GTCS registered teachers. Eight per cent of those who received this support received it on 40 or more days per year ( Table 27).

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