The UK Nursery Report: August 2026

The national picture: 97.5% Good or better

Of the 14,487 open day nurseries in our database, 12,403 (85.6%) carry a current Ofsted judgement. The remaining 2,084 are mostly newly registered settings awaiting a first inspection, or providers whose latest report has not yet been published.

Ofsted grades by region

Good-or-better rates are tightly clustered nationally — from 96.7% in London to 98.7% in Yorkshire and The Humber. The Outstanding rate is where regions genuinely diverge: the North East produces Outstanding nurseries at nearly three times the rate of the East Midlands.

Council-level: where Outstanding is common — and rare

Zooming into local authorities makes the postcode effect obvious. We only rank councils with at least 60 graded nurseries, so small samples can’t distort the table.

The spread is stark: a parent in Trafford chooses from a market where 29.0% of graded nurseries are Outstanding; in Croydon the figure is 1.9% — two Outstanding settings out of 106 graded. Crucially, a low Outstanding rate is not the same as poor provision. Lincolnshire has one of the lowest Outstanding shares (5.5%) yet 100% of its 181 graded nurseries are Good or better, as do Northumberland, Durham, Cornwall, Sheffield, Stockport, Hounslow and East Riding of Yorkshire.

What parents say vs what Ofsted says

We hold 122,719 parent reviews across 10,757 settings. Comparing average review scores against Ofsted grades (restricted to settings with at least five reviews) produces the most useful finding in this report: parent ratings move in the same direction as Ofsted, but by a remarkably small margin.

The gap between an Outstanding and a Good nursery, in parents’ own scoring, is 0.06 of a star. Even settings judged Requires improvement average 4.41. And the 35 Inadequate settings with enough reviews average 4.65 — higher than Outstanding — though with so few settings that figure should be treated as an anomaly rather than a trend.

Ofsted’s new report cards: 7% of the market so far

Ofsted has moved early years inspection away from a single headline word towards report cards that grade several areas separately. In our snapshot, 1,035 settings (7.1% of all open day nurseries) already have a new-style report on file.

For the next couple of years parents will therefore be comparing two incompatible things: a single legacy word ("Good") against a set of area-by-area judgements. Our listings show whichever format applies to that setting, and we explain the areas in plain English in our guide to Ofsted report cards.

How current is that grade?

A grade is only as good as its date. Of the 12,820 settings with a dated inspection on file:

Roughly a quarter of dated inspections (25%) took place in 2022 or earlier — before much of the current staffing and funding pressure hit the sector. If a nursery you like was last visited four years ago, ask directly about staff turnover and management changes since then; the grade on the certificate may describe a very different team.

Ages served: who actually takes babies?

Baby rooms are the hardest places to find, because statutory ratios for under-2s (one adult to three children) make them the most expensive to staff. Across England, 51.0% of day nurseries register from birth — but the North East is far better served than London.

In London, fewer than half of nurseries take babies at all — which is precisely where waiting lists bite hardest. If you are pregnant and planning a return to work in London or the South East, register interest well before your baby arrives.

What a place costs in 2026

We deliberately do not publish fee averages of our own: nurseries price by session, age and add-on, and we will not estimate figures we cannot verify setting by setting. For national costs we use the Coram Family and Childcare Survey and DfE statistics¹.

• A full-time (50 hours) place for a child under 2 averages around £302 a week across Great Britain — about £15,700 a year before funding.
• Inner London remains the most expensive market at roughly £446 a week full-time; the North East the cheapest at around £256.
• Funded hours, Tax-Free Childcare and the Universal Credit childcare element together cut a typical bill by 40–80%.

For the full regional fee table, worked examples and every funding route, see our guide to UK nursery fees.

What this means if you are choosing a nursery now

1. Use the grade as a filter, not a decision. 97.5% of graded settings are Good or better, so the grade mainly rules out the 2.2% that aren’t.
2. Check the inspection date first. About one in four grades predates 2023.
3. Discount small differences in star ratings. Outstanding and Good settings differ by 0.06 stars on average — read the reviews, don’t rank them.
4. Start earlier for a baby place, especially in London where only 41.3% of nurseries take under-2s.
5. Expect two report formats while Ofsted transitions; 7.1% of settings already use the new card.

Methodology and limitations

• Population. 14,487 open, Ofsted-registered day nurseries in England, as recorded in the Nursery Advice database on 4 August 2026. Closed settings, childminders, out-of-school provision and non-England regulators (CIW, Care Inspectorate, RQIA) are excluded.
• Sources. Provider records from DfE Get Information About Schools; inspection outcomes, dates and report content from Ofsted; aggregate parent review counts and scores from Google Places.
• Grade percentages are calculated over graded settings only (12,403), never over the whole population.
• Council rankings include only local authorities with 60 or more graded settings, to avoid small-sample distortion.
• Parent-rating comparisons include only settings with five or more reviews. Public review data is self-selecting and skews positive.
• Ages served come from the registered age range on the provider record (12,791 settings), which is the range a setting may take, not a guarantee of an available baby room.
• Fee figures are third-party (Coram, DfE) and clearly labelled as such; we hold no fee data of our own.
• Rounding. Percentages are rounded to one decimal place, so columns may not sum to exactly 100%.

Spotted something that looks wrong? We correct data errors quickly — see our editorial standards or report an issue from any nursery listing.

Frequently asked questions

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About this guide & sources

Every numerical claim in this guide is sourced from UK government, NHS or recognised charity publications. We re-check each source on the article’s review date.

1. Coram Family and Childcare — Childcare Survey 2025 (retrieved 2026-08-04)
2. Ofsted — Childcare providers and inspections: official statistics (retrieved 2026-08-04)
3. Department for Education — Get Information About Schools (retrieved 2026-08-04)
4. Ofsted — Early years inspection handbook (retrieved 2026-08-04)

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