Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to measure the availability of nursery places in (a) York and (b) England.

To measure the availability of nursery places nationally and locally, the department uses data on the supply of childcare places gathered from Ofsted management information, the annual school census for each local authority and the annual Childcare and Early Years provider survey. The department monitors data from the Eligibility Checking Service to track demand for places.

The department shares this analysis, broken down to ward level, with local authorities. Local authorities use this analysis when completing their termly readiness self-assessments which are intended for local authorities to assess their progress in meeting their sufficiency duty, including the capacity of their local market to deliver sufficient places to meet parental demand for each stage of the rollout.

Local authority readiness self-assessments, as well as regular engagement through our regional leads enable the department to understand where support for local authorities, including York, may be needed. Where a local authority is identified as requiring targeted support, or self-identifies, our delivery support contractor, Childcare Works are able to provide this support tailored specifically to a local authority’s needs.