Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying.
The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Parents' Survey, 2009 aimed to provide up-to-date information to assess some important policy initiatives introduced since the last survey, carried out in 2008. The survey had two main objectives. The first was to provide up-to-date and accurate information on parents' childcare arrangements and their views of particular childcare providers and childcare provision in general. The second was to continue the time series and provide information to help monitor the progress of policies in the areas of childcare and early years education. The survey series uses an inclusive definition of childcare and early years provision as parents were asked to include any time that their child was not with resident parents or at school. This included informal care provided by grandparents and ex-partners as well as formal care; and included times when parents were working and when they were not. Parents were asked their reasons for using childcare, enabling us to report on childcare used for economic reasons, and childcare used for the child's education. Further information is available on the NatCen Childcare and Early Years Series web page.
Main Topics:
The survey broadly covered the following topics:use of childcare and early years provision in the last year and in the last weekcosts of childcaresources of information on childcare provisionattitudes towards childcare provision in the local areareasons for using and views of the main formal providerreasons for using more than one provider childcare and maternal employmentbackground details on the family structuresocio-demographicsparents’ work detailsWhile the 2008 and 2009 questionnaires covered similar issues, there were some changes and additions made in 2009. For example, the 2009 questionnaire expanded the section on holiday care. It introduced a section on how children’s disabilities affect childcare and also new in 2009 was a section on information given to parents by providers about their children’s activities and information about activities to do at home. Other changes in 2009 included the reintroduction of questions asking about the home learning environment, removing questions about Childcare Link and ‘Birth to Three Matters’ and changing the codes for ethnicity and academic and vocational qualifications.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
