Childcare in deprived areas
Overall, quality is generally poorer where there is most poverty and social deprivation. In the 30 most deprived local authority areas:[8]
- 53% of childminders provide good or better childcare, compared with 60% in the rest of the country
- 54% of day care groups provide good or better childcare, compared with 63% in the rest of the country.
Children and families living in areas already experiencing relative deprivation therefore face further inequity because they have less access to high quality childcare provision.
There are notable exceptions. Some childcare is of high quality despite being in a deprived area; for example, 75% of childcare in Blackpool is good or outstanding.
Table 1: Levels of good or outstanding provision, April 2005 to March 2008
|
|
Childcare: |
Childcare: |
Childcare: |
Early education: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England average | 60% | 62% | 60% | 66% |
| Deprived areas | 53% | 54% | 53% | 56% |
| Non-deprived areas | 60% | 63% | 61% | 67% |
| Range between regions | From 50% in Inner London to 64% in South East | From 52% in Inner London to 68% in East Midlands | From 50% in Inner London to 65% in South East | From 58% in Inner London to 71% in West Midlands |
| Range between local authority areas* | From 29% in Hackney (inner London) to 81% in Wokingham (south east) | From 39% in Lambeth, Hackney and Newham (inner London) to 85% in Dudley (West Midlands) | From 34% in Hackney and Newham to 79% in Torbay | From 46% in Liverpool to 80% in Devon |
| Number of local authority areas where at least 75% of provision is good or better * | 7 | 3 | 5 | - |
| Number of local authority areas where under 50% of provision is good or better * | 25 | 12 | 20 | - |
| Deprived local authority areas with highest percentage good or outstanding | Liverpool (72%) | Blackpool, Leicester, Nottingham and Wolverhampton (69%) | Blackpool (75%) | - |
Notes to table 1: Figures refer to the most recent inspection of providers whose registration was still active on 31 March 2008. ‘Deprived areas’ means the 30 most deprived local authority areas (20% of the 150 local authorities).
*These figures exclude local authorities with under 100 inspections: for childminding 13 authorities were excluded, for day care 50 were excluded; for all childcare 3 were excluded. Early education is excluded because only 48 authorities had at least 100 inspections.
Continue to New and established provision
[8] The 30 most deprived areas are Barking & Dagenham, Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Brent, Greenwich, Hackney, Haringey, Hartlepool, Islington, Kingston upon Hull, Knowsley, Lambeth, Leicester City, Lewisham, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Newham, Nottingham City, Rochdale, Salford, Sandwell, South Tyneside, Southwark, Stoke on Trent, Sunderland, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest and Wolverhampton.
These are the most deprived 20% of all local authority areas, based on indices of multiple deprivation in England; details are available from www.statistics.gov.uk
