Scottish Government

Background Notes

1 This publication provides information about pre-school education centres, childcare centres and childminders registered with the Care Commission. The methodology is mostly the same as that used in 2008, and the figures are generally comparable with those years, with exceptions outlined in the footnotes.

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 26 January 2009. Childminders also answered the survey for this week.

4 The response rate to the Pre-School and Childcare Census was 81 per cent. An additional ninety six centres responded to say they had closed or were not currently operating. The 709 centres that did not respond were sent a letter to ask them a selection of the questions on pre-school education from the main census form. Of these, 355 responded.

5 When necessary, information used in January 2008 has been used to impute for those centres that did not return forms or did not complete specific questions.

6 For the second 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 second 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 1,179 registered childminders were sampled, of which 810 (69 per cent) returned completed forms. The sample was stratified by urban-rural classification and area deprivation. Responses on the qualifications of childminders were grossed up to 5,553, the total number of registered childminders in Scotland in June 2008 excluding those listed as "inactive" by the Care Commission (or with an unknown geography).

9 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 2008 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 (5,534) and inactive (505) childminders as at 7 January 2009. These figures are presented in Table 14 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 4.

10 The figures in Tables 14 and 15 show the numbers of childcare staff and childminders with qualifications at the level equivalent to the SVQs shown below.

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 Scottish Executive classifications published in August 2006. 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 six 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 Scottish Executive classification published in October 2006. 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/Publications/2006/07/31114822/0

Area deprivation: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/SIMD/StatisticalCompendium.

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

Telephone: 0131 244 1690
e-mail children.statistics@scotland.gsi.gov.uk.

For media enquiries, please contact Brendan Rooney on 0131 244 2960.

The Scottish Government web site is: www.scotland.gov.uk.

General enquiries on Scottish Government statistics can be addressed to:

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. ScotStat

If you would like to be 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

22. Crown Copyright

Brief extracts from the Crown Copyright material in this publication may be reproduced provided the source is fully acknowledged.