Regular readers will be familiar with our annual round-up of the top 20 nursery groups in the UK and Ireland, but this year for the first time Nursery Chains has compared the quality of nurseries in the largest chains by analysing Ofsted reports for each group in our league table.
Ofsted inspections are undoubtedly not the only marker of quality, but they do provide a snapshot of how nurseries owned and managed by the major chains rate in the quality of the childcare and early education they provide.
For the purposes of our survey, in order to make direct comparisons between the groups, we have only included nurseries that come under Ofsted's remit, that is early years settings in England.
Using this rationale, Giraffe, although the ninth largest group, is excluded because all its nurseries are in the Republic of Ireland.
To offer some context, according to Ofsted, 9 per cent of childcare settings were judged outstanding between the introduction of the EYFS in September 2008 and June 2009. Our analysis shows that 13 of the 19 groups have at least one outstanding nursery.
Child Base, the UK and Ireland's sixth largest group, is to be congratulated for having the highest proportion of outstanding grades among the leading nursery chains.
Based on an analysis of 35 reports (three of the group's 38 nurseries were new registrations with no reports available) 16 per cent of its nurseries had been graded as outstanding and 67 per cent marked as good by Ofsted.
Close behind Child Base with the second highest number of outstanding nurseries is the London Early Years Foundation with 75 per cent of its 19 nurseries rated as either outstanding or good.
Also noteworthy is the Childcare Corporation, which has the lowest proportion of satisfactory grades. Based on 18 inspection reports the group has one outstanding setting and 14 nurseries that have been judged good by Ofsted.
Overall quality
Looking at overall quality for the big chains, out of the 693 Ofsted reports we analysed, 40 nurseries were outstanding, 432 nurseries were good and 214 were satisfactory. Just seven nurseries were judged inadequate.
Meanwhile, despite the economic uncertainty of the past year, the majority of the nurseries in the top 20 table have increased in size, a positive sign that the early years and childcare sector is beating the recession.
The number of registered childcare places offered by these groups has increased to a total of 63,186, spread across 826 settings in the UK and Ireland. This compares with a total of 61,062 places last year, showing a rise of 2,124 places in the past 12 months.
However, there has been a slight fall in the number of settings from 836 settings last year, indicating that ten nurseries have closed.
There have been two major deals this year in the top three groups.
In May, Bright Horizons bought Teddies group of 32 nurseries, which means it is the largest provider of full daycare settings in terms of number of settings. However, it remains in second place behind Busy Bees, which is still the lead provider by number of childcare places on offer.
A sale of Teddies Nurseries had long been anticipated. The group was originally put up for sale by Bupa Care Services in July 2004, but when no buyer was found just nine of its 44 settings were put on the market and sold the following year.
Despite losing seven nurseries this year, Bright Horizons' buyout of the 32 remaining Teddies' nurseries has increased the number of places it offers by 1,700. The group now has 140 nurseries spread throughout the UK, including 28 in Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
Just Learning is the latest nursery group to expand with a £7m deal to acquire the Nunu group of 10 nurseries, which was due to complete on 20 October, as we went to press.
Jonathan Bell, managing director of Just Learning, said the group had ambitions to continue to expand by acquiring and developing nurseries in key locations. The sale also signals that banks and other investors are willing to back the sector.
The purchase puts the group in third position, including 21 nurseries in Scotland, which operate under the Careshare brand.
Nunu has three nurseries in Cheshire and seven other sites, mainly in the north and the Midlands. Eight nurseries are freehold properties.
Acquisitions and mergers at the top of the table have made room for three new entries to edge into our top 20.
Tops Day Nurseries, which runs nurseries in Dorset, Hampshire and Somerset is in 17th place.
The group saved the Isle of Wight College nursery from closure in August and now has 11 nurseries, many of them workplace nurseries attached to NHS hospital sites, with a combined offer of 849 places.
Relaunched last month as the London Early Years Foundation, the former Westminster Children's Society, is continuing to grow, with the opening of its 19th community nursery and fifth nursery for the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. The 52-place nursery opens at Wellgate Children's Centre this month.
The charity, which was set up in 1903, now offers about 800 places and ranks 19th in the table.
There are also a number of success stories for up-and-coming chains.
Complete Childcare, which previously ran three settings, bought Kingsclere Nurseries' seven-strong Berkshire group in February this year with a £4m finance deal, which at the time was believed to be one of the largest venture capitalist deals made in the UK this year.
The group, which offers 604 places, plans to expand further into Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
Busy Nought to Fives, which has seven nurseries mainly in Liverpool and Cheshire, is also growing with around 200 more places added in the past year. Plans include expanding the group's Wirral nursery to add an extra 48 places and opening two more nurseries in Liverpool and Preston.
Finally, the directory includes nine new nursery groups, ranging in size from three to five settings, another positive sign for the early years and childcare sector.
NOTES ON TABLES
- Tables compiled from the latest published Ofsted reports at www.ofsted.gov.uk and from data supplied by nursery groups.
- The percentages given are based on the number of nurseries each group owns or manages in England.
- For the purposes of our survey, in order to compare like with like, we have only included nurseries registered and inspected by Ofsted and excluded nurseries in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland, which fall under different inspection regimes.
- Where Ofsted reports are unavailable, for example if settings are new registrations, we have discounted these nurseries for the purposes of calculating the percentages.
- As inspections are carried out on average every three years, it is a matter of course that some of the latest inspection reports are more recent than others. This means that we have also included inspections carried out under the previous Ofsted inspection regime when nurseries were awarded separate grades for education and care. Where nurseries have been inspected for care and education 0.5 has been allocated for each grade.
