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Written question asked by Sally Keeble (Labour) on Thursday, 4 March 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 8 March 2010. It was answered by Baroness Primarolo (Labour) on Thursday, 25 March 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Pre-school Education: Northampton

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many nursery places there were for children in Northampton in (a) 1997, (b) 2001, (c) 2005 and (d) 2010.
Answer

Table 1 shows the number of part-time equivalent places filled by three and four-year-olds in Northamptonshire local authority in 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2009. Data for 2010 is not yet available and will be published in the summer, so 2009 has been provided instead.Data on the number of places available is not collected; only data on the number of places filled is available as children can access their free entitlement across different local authorities.Part-time equivalent places are derived by counting children taking up 12 and a half hours per week as one place, 10 hours per week as 0.8 places, seven and a half hours per week as 0.6 places, five hours per week as 0.4 places and two and a half hours per week as 0.2 places.

Table 1: Part-time equivalent number of free early education places¹, ², ³ filled by three and four-year-olds4, local authority: Northamptonshire, position in January each year
Number of places
1997 9,700
2001 11,000
2005 14,000
2009 15,100
¹ A place is equal to 12.5 hours (five sessions) and can be filled by more than one child. ² Figures are rounded to the nearest 100. ³ Prior to 2004, information on early education places was derived from returns made by local authorities as part of the nursery education grant (NEG) data collection exercise. From 2004 onwards, information has been derived from Early Years Census and School Census data. 4 Age of all children taken at 31 December in the previous calendar year. Source: Early Years Census and School Census.

The Department publishes information on the part-time equivalent number of free early education places filled by three and four-year-olds in maintained, private, voluntary and independent providers available at:"http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000848/index.shtml"

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
508 c575-6W; 321280
Session
2009-10
Subjects
Pre-school education Northampton
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk