Increase in Percentage of Children Attending Private Nurseries in Scotland
Increase in Percentage of Children Attending Private Nurseries in Scotland
Recently published data has shown that more families in Scotland are choosing to send their children to private and voluntary nurseries.
The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is an annual survey of the general population in Scotland, carried out since 1999. According to the 2024 SHS Childcare report, 32% of households with children aged up to five are choosing private nurseries compared with just 24% in 2018. That means that, while in 2018 fewer than a quarter of families were sending their children to a private nursery, in 2024 over a third do.
That said, local authority nurseries remain the most popular choice with 40% of parents choosing that provision, which is only slightly down from the 2018 figure of 43%. Only 5% use a childminder, a decrease from 10% in 2018 and 17% of households used no childcare at all which is similar to other years.
The most common reason given for using childcare was so that parents/carers can work (71%). This proportion was similar to 2022 and 2023 and has increased from 62% in 2018. The next most common reasons were for the child’s social development (30%) and for the child’s learning and language development (25%), both similar proportions to previous years.
Reasons for using childcare also varied with area deprivation. Those in the 60% least deprived areas were more likely to use childcare so that parents/carers can work than those in the 40% most deprived areas.
All households with at least one child aged up to 11 years old were asked how easy or difficult they found it to afford childcare. More than half said that they found it easy or very easy to afford childcare, with a further quarter stating that they found it neither easy nor difficult. However, 16% of households said that they found it difficult or very difficult to afford childcare.
The findings highlight clear differences between areas of lowest and highest deprivation.
Households in the 20% most deprived areas were more likely to find childcare unaffordable. They were much less likely to use a childminder (only 1% of households in those areas said they used a childminder) and were most likely to use no childcare at all, with almost a quarter of respondents (24%) saying that they did not use childcare.
Sources and more information:
1. https://ndna.org.uk/increase-in-children-attending-private-nurseries-in-scotland/
2. https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-household-survey-2024-childcare/