Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers' Survey, 2018

The <span style="font-style: italic;">Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers’ Survey, 2018</span> collected information on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England to allow the evaluation of policy initiatives.<br><br>The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and Frontier Economics to conduct the CCEYP 2018. Data was collected via a large scale Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey. The 2018 survey was designed to be comparable with the 2016 survey, notwithstanding some changes to improve the quality of data and to reflect new policy priorities. Other differences between the 2016 and 2018 surveys, such as minor differences to the sampling process, are detailed in the technical report. 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 <i>Childcare and Early Years Provision</i> survey series is divided into two survey strands: the <i>Parents’ Survey</i> and the <i>Providers’ Survey</i>. <br>
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The <i>Parents’ Survey</i> 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 <i>Parents' Survey</i> series replaces two previous surveys: the <i>Survey of Parents of Three and Four Year Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services</i> (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and the <i>Parents' Demand for Childcare</i> (conducted in 1999 and 2001) (the latter series is held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33341).<br>
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The <i>Providers' Survey</i> 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.<br>
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Further information is available on the gov.uk <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-childcare-and-early-years" title="Childcare and Early Years Statistics" target="_blank">Childcare and Early Years Statistics</a> webpage.<br>
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