Exploring childcare accessibility in England: New indicator added to Local Insight

We have added a new indicator that measures childcare accessibility in England by evaluating the ratio of childcare places to every 100 children aged 7 and under in England to Local Insight.

Reliable and affordable childcare options can significantly impact family wellbeing and economic stability. Research has shown that early years education for disadvantaged children under four has a positive impact on life chances. 

Throughout the country, as innovation agency Nesta have highlighted in their work, there are affordability blackspots where childcare remains prohibitively expensive – or as this indicator from the ONS shows, inaccessible and unavailable.

We are excited to include this indicator within Local Insight, as there is nothing similar available at this neighbourhood level, and we are looking forward to seeing how the data is used – whether that is to:

• Identify the coldspots within your Local Authority or area of service
• Better support families with young children 
• Learn where to commission childcare and target resources or
• To advocate for increased funding and support, ensuring that all children have access to quality childcare.

About the indicator: Accessible childcare provision per 100 children

Within this indicator, ‘childcare provision’ refers to childcare on non-domestic premises (e.g. nurseries, pre-schools, holiday clubs) and childminders. 

Rather than measuring the number of available childcare places within a fixed boundary, this indicator counts the number of parents that can reach a provider within a 15 minute drive, or 25 minutes by public transport (including a 15 min walk). 

This methodology provides some interesting insights that cannot be gleaned through other datasets. For context, evaluating the availability of childcare only considers the number of parents and providers that are within a defined administrative boundary (for example, a Local Authority) and does not account for parents who may travel across a boundary to access a childcare provider.

For each provider, a ratio of childcare places to local children is created by considering supply, potential demand and travel time to childcare services.

Measuring supply

• Publicly available data from the government on ‘places offered within childcare providers’ was used to measure the capacity in the early years sector. 
• The number of places offered by a provider is the legal maximum number of children it can provide childcare for at any one time.

Measuring potential demand

• To provide a measure of potential demand for childcare, populations of all children aged 0 to 7 were used.
• Demand for childcare is likely to be affected by several factors, including the employment status of parents, access to informal childcare, and the affordability and ease of access to childcare. This actual demand is hard to measure. Therefore, in this analysis, ‘demand for childcare’ is instead ‘potential demand for childcare’. 

Limitations of ‘Accessible childcare provision per 100 children’

It is important to remember that this dataset relies on several key assumptions:

• Parents are more likely to use childcare that is closer to them. 
• There is generally a limit on how far parents will travel to reach a desired childcare provider.
• Children are evenly distributed across all households in an OA when estimating the population that travel by car. 
• If a household does have access to at least 1 car, they are using this car to access the childcare provider (unlikely to always be the case).

The analysis also only counts places from Ofsted’s Early Years Register (EYR). This doesn’t include: 

• Providers that are solely registered on the Childcare Register
• Parents who use informal childcare (e.g. grandparents)
• Places in some schools. Early years provision in about 10,000 schools is exempt from registration with Ofsted and recorded differently

What other indicators related to childcare accessibility are available?

We also have other relevant indicators on Local Insight that may be of interest, and could be complementary to this indicator: 

• The Indices of Deprivation (IoD) 2019 Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index
• Children providing unpaid care (Census 2021)
• Child Benefit claimants – % of children being claimed for (HM Revenue & Customs)

Exploring ‘Accessible childcare provision per 100 children’

This newly-added indicator within Local Insight is available to explore for any area type – which means that you can analyse this indicator for your wards, parishes, or the neighbourhoods in which you work.

You can also overlay your own data within the platform. For example, to build a truly comprehensive picture of childcare provision within your Local Authority or service area, you could place nurseries and other non-domestic childcare providers as points on the map – as pictured below.

Want to explore this indicator for your areas but not subscribed to Local Insight? Book a demo today and receive a free two-week trial.

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