As in previous waves of the Survey of Childcare and Early Years Providers (SCEYP), the study comprised a representative sample of three distinct provider populations in England, each of which was analysed separately:
- Group-based providers (GBP): childcare providers registered with Ofsted and operating in non-domestic premises;
- School-based providers (SBP): nursery provision in schools and maintained nursery schools;
- Childminders: Ofsted-registered childminders providing early years care and operating in domestic settings (excluding providers solely on the voluntary register).
The sample sizes drawn for each provider type drew upon the response rates of the 2022 survey to determine how many records would feasibly be needed to hit response targets. For GBPs and SBPs, this meant using all of the available sample.[3] For childminders, not all of the available sample was used; once the sample for the main survey was drawn, using the response rates from 2022 and the target responses, a sub-sample of records were drawn for the short survey from 16 larger Local Authorities to ensure sufficient base sizes for analysis. For the remaining Local Authorities, all records were sampled.
In the main Official Statistics publication for SCEYP 2023, figures were reported for five sub-groups:
- Private GBPs;
- Voluntary GBPs;
- Nursery class childcare settings;
- Maintained nursery schools (MNS); and
- Childminders.
This chapter describes the sampling approaches adopted for both the main SCEYP and the short SCEYP surveys.
[3] After the sample for the main survey was compiled, all remaining records were assigned to the short version of the survey.
2.1 Group-based providers sample
GBPs are childcare providers registered with Ofsted and operating in non-domestic premises.[4] The survey collected further details about the ownership and type of childcare offered.
A request was made to Ofsted to provide information for all records in the “childcare on non-domestic premises” category (excluding those classified as inactive and those appearing on the Voluntary Childcare Register (VCR) only) from their July 2022 snapshot database. The sample was based on records from July 2022 to be consistent with the timing of sampling for previous years’ surveys. The data was provided in two stages, with stage 1 providing the variables necessary for drawing the sample and stage 2 containing provider contact details (address, telephone numbers and e-mail address). At stage 1, 24,404 records were provided.
Prior to distributing cases between the main and short surveys, records were checked for duplicates, settings that were known to have closed, or settings identified as only offering holiday care or leisure activities. In total, 1,033 records were removed from the sample.
The remaining 23,371 records were used to draw a sample for the main survey. As in previous years, a stratified random sampling approach was used. Records were selected in proportion to the regional distribution of records and stratified by local authority (LA), register type, ownership status, deprivation band based on the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), and postcode. As in previous years, it was decided to oversample the North East to achieve sufficient responses for this region to be analysed alongside others. A total of 15,120 records were selected for the main survey, (based on the previous year’s response rate and a target of 6,200 responses).
The selected sample was then allocated systematically (using the same stratification variables) to one of three questionnaire variants (16/42/42% split[5]) and, within each variant, to a specific day of the week about which to answer certain questions. This was done in order to allow analysis of trends in attendance and capacity that vary by weekday. All GBPs that remained in the sample frame following sampling to the main survey were treated as eligible for the short survey (8,251).
Table 2.1 Number of group-based providers issued to each survey element
| Survey element | N |
| Main SCEYP | 15,120[6] |
| Short SCEYP | 8,251 |
| Not issued to mainstage fieldwork | 1,033 |
| Total | 24,404 |
[4] This does not include provision in schools.
[5] The majority of providers were split between the staffing (v2) and finance (v3) variants which were of most interest analytically. A smaller proportion were allocated to variant 1 which focused on SEND. The same split has been in place since 2016.
[6] 100 records were assigned to ‘pilot/cognitive testing’ status. They were re-sampled for the main SCEYP.
2.2 School-based providers sample
The sample of SBPs consisted of maintained and independent primary schools with nursery and reception provision, including maintained nursery schools (MNS). Although schools offering reception provision alongside nursery provision were eligible for the study, they were only asked about their nursery provision. This sample was drawn from the Schools Census, collected in November 2021 from all schools in England. The sample was complemented with further information from the Get Information About Schools (GIAS)[7] extract. The types of schools eligible for the study were identified using the following criteria:
- Independent schools with reception and nursery provision: open independent schools with statutory lowest age equal to 0, 1, 2 or 3 years (according to School Census) and offering nursery classes (according to GIAS);
- Maintained nursery schools: open state-funded nursery schools (according to School Census);
- Maintained schools with reception and nursery provision: open state-funded mainstream and special schools which offer nursery classes (which have at least one pupil in nursery and at least one pupil in reception).
A total of 10,049 eligible school-based providers were identified.[8] After the sampling frame was checked for duplicate records and known or planned closures, 9,956 records were included in the sample.
To decide the required issued sample sizes, IFF assumed the same response rates as in the SCEYP 2022 main sample (see Table 2.2) and used these to estimate the number of surveys that would need to be issued to achieve the target of 2,542 total responses.
Table 2.2 Response rate assumptions for school-based providers by type
| School type | Main survey | Short survey |
| Independent schools with reception and nursery provision | 36% | 25% |
| Maintained nursery schools | 63% | - |
| Maintained schools with reception and nursery provision | 36% | 25% |
A stratified random sampling approach was used to select the samples of school-based providers. Table 2.3 presents the number of cases sampled for the main survey and the short survey. As in previous years, it was necessary to include all maintained nursery schools that were sampled in the main survey in order to ensure achieving sufficient interviews for regional analysis. The samples were stratified by school type (disproportionate sampling), region and IDACI score to ensure geographical representativeness of the sample. After stratification, there were 6,836 schools eligible for the main survey. The samples were then allocated systematically (using the same stratification variables) to one of two questionnaire variants (50/50% split) and, within each variant, to a specific day of the week about which to answer questions. This was done in order to allow analysis of trends in attendance and capacity that vary by weekday.
The remaining 3,120[9] schools in the sample frame were allocated to the short survey. These were only maintained and independent schools offering both reception and nursery.
Table 2.3. Number of school-based providers issued to each survey element
| Survey element | Issued (n) |
| Main SCEYP | 6,836 |
| Short SCEYP | 3,120 |
| Not issued to mainstage fieldwork | 93 |
| Total | 10,049 |
[7] Get Information About Schools (GIAS) is a register of educational establishments in England and Wales. It is maintained by the Department for Education.
[8] The increase in initial sample since 2022 was caused mainly by schools moving from ‘No Nursery Classes’ classification to ‘Has Nursery Classes’ on Get Information About Schools (GIAS).
[9] 60 schools were assigned ‘pilot/cognitive testing’ status.
2.3 Childminders sample
The sample of childminders was drawn from the July 2022 monthly snapshot of the Ofsted register of childminders.[10] Only those that confirmed they were still practicing childminders at the time of interview were eligible to be surveyed.
A request was made to Ofsted to provide information for all records of active childminders (excluding those appearing on the VCR only) from their July 2022 monthly snapshot database. The data was provided in two stages, with stage 1 providing the variables necessary for drawing the sample, and stage 2 containing the provider name, address and contact details (telephone numbers, e-mail address) for sampled childminders. After cleaning to remove childminders known to have closed, the stage 1 database included 29,990 active childminders.[11] This database was used to select samples for all survey components.
Based on a target response rate of 34% for the main survey, and a target of 2,000 responses, IFF selected 6,059 childminders for the main survey sample.
As in previous years of SCEYP, the design of the short survey sample was driven by the need to provide estimates at LA level. Therefore, IFF estimated how many interviews including data on fees would be achieved with the main survey for each LA and then ‘topped up’ the sample with the aim of achieving either 80 or 100 interviews in each LA (across the short and main survey combined). If there were more than 600 CMs in the sample frame for an LA, the target was 100. If the LA had fewer than 600 CMs, the target was 80. In some cases there were too few CMs in the population to achieve 80 interviews and in these cases all records were drawn. In order to calculate the volume of top-up records needed per LA, a response rate of 20% was assumed for the short survey in every region except London, where a response rate of 15% was assumed based on SCEYP 2021. A total of 26,320 childminders were sampled.
A stratified random sampling approach was used to select both samples. Smaller regions were oversampled for the main survey to enable reporting by region and questionnaire variants. The sample was further stratified by LA, register type, time elapsed since registration and IDACI score, and then checked to ensure that the selection was representative of the entire population of childminders.
The selected sample was then allocated systematically (using the same stratification variables) to one of two questionnaire variants (50/50% split) and, within each variant, to a specific day of the week to answer questions about. This was done in order to allow analysis of trends in attendance and capacity that vary by weekday. The sample for the short survey was stratified by the same set of variables (explicitly stratifying by LA), and then allocated to a specific day of the week about which to answer certain questions.
Table 2.4 Number of childminders issued to each survey element
| Survey element | Issued (n) |
| Main SCEYP | 6,059 |
| Short SCEYP | 20,261 |
[10] Childminders must register with Ofsted or a childminder agency. Only those that registered with Ofsted were included in the SCEYP sample frame.
[11] This continued the trend in reduction of the size of the sampling frame seen in previous years of the survey. In 2022, there were 33,800 active childminders to sample from.
