To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to detail the number of registered childcare providers in (i) Northern Ireland; and (ii) East Londonderry, in each of the last three years.

At 16 September 2014, there were 5,185 childcare providers in Northern Ireland, 289 of which were located in the East Londonderry Constituency. These figures were taken from a live database of childcare providers that is updated on a regular basis and maintained by the Health and Social Care (HSC) Board. As it is a live database, it is not possible to use this database to provide figures for previous years.

The table below contains the number of childcare providers at 31 March in 2012 and 2013. These figures have been taken from the HSC Board’s Delegated Statutory Functions Returns that provide aggregated information on childrens social care activity including childcare. As the East Londonderry constituency falls within both the Northern and Western HSC Trusts, figures on childcare provision have been provided for both Trusts.

Table 1: The Number of Childcare Providers in the Northern HSC Trust, the Western HSC Trust and Northern Ireland at 31 March (2012 – 2013)

Source: Health and Social Care Board Delegated Statutory Functions Returns

Note: Childcare providers include childminders, crèches, day nurseries, after school clubs, playgroups, two year old programmes and summer schemes