Children's Nurseries UK Market Report 2012, by market intelligence provider Laing and Buisson, found that the positives to be had from a rise in the under-fives population were largely offset by the drop in under-threes attending childcare, leaving settings seeking to fill this gap. While the under-fives population increased from 3.5 to 3.9 million between mid-2006 and mid-2011, 'slightly fewer' children attended nurseries last year, says the report, causing occupancy rates to slip from 81.5 to 81 per cent in the year to March 2012.
The proportion of threeand four-year-olds in nursery last year held firm at around 19 per cent, but that for under-threes fell from 14.2 per cent in March 2008 to 11.2 per cent in March 2012. The report attributes the decline to rises in informal childcare and stay-at-home parents as a result of the economic downturn. Cuts to the childcare tax credit were also seen as a contributory factor.
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