Nursery World - Ofsted figures show drop in childminders

There are more than 1,000 fewer childminders registered with Ofsted than there were six months ago, and the number of places has also fallen slightly, according to the latest figures released by the inspectorate.

The Registered Childcare Providers and Places statistics - now published by Ofsted twice a year rather than quarterly - show that there are 80,619 providers on the Early Years Register providing a total of 1,309,339 places.

There are now 1,048 fewer registered childminders at the end of March than there were at the end of September 2012.

On 30 September there were 55,826 childminders compared with 54,778 at the end of March. There were a total of 3,520 leavers and 2,472 joiners.

Leavers describes the number of providers that have been edited in Ofsted's registration database to 'inactive' status between 30 September 2012 and 31 March 2013. Most of these are resignations are where providers have left the register, but figures also include providers that have had registration cancelled or changed provider type or register.

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