Which children to include: spring 2026
Source: gov.uk (2025-12-03)

Find out which providers and children are in the scope for the early years census.

All English providers of free early education in the private, voluntary and independent sectors are within the scope of the early years census.

They must provide you with the data for the early years census at individual child level for children taking up a free place.

You must only include data from early years providers that have funded children. Do not include data from any provider in your area that doesn’t have funded children at the time of the census.

For the purposes of this collection, we define ages as:
- a child eligible after reaching 9 months old has a date of birth between 1 January 2024 and 31 March 2025
- a 1-year-old has a date of birth between 1 January 2024 and 31 December 2024
- a 2-year-old has a date of birth between 1 January 2023 and 31 December 2023
- a 3-year-old has a date of birth between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2022
- a 4-year-old has a date of birth between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2021
Record the normal situation during the week beginning 12 January 2026.

If children are temporarily absent, for example, sick or on holiday, include them. If the provider was temporarily closed, record the situation which would have applied during the week.

Schools with early years provision

Schools with funded on-site early years free provision should make their return using either the school census or the early years census.

We expect you to cross-check your early years census and school census returns to make sure there are no duplicates before submission.

If the registered pupils of the school are recorded in the school census, do not include them in the early years census.

Record children attending a separate Ofsted registered provider on a school site on the early years census and not the school census.

Children attending provision provided by a local authority maintained school governing body under Section 27 of the Education Act 2002 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2002/32/section/27)

Local authority maintained school governor run provision is:
- set up by a local authority maintained school (not an academy) as a community or charitable service using powers under Section 27 of the Education Act 2002
- delivered directly by the school (that is under the auspices of the school’s governing body)
- where children are not registered pupils of the school
- where staff are employed by the school or local authority
Children who are receiving early years provision that is directly run by an academy, on academy premises, must be registered pupils of the academy and recorded on the school census, not the early years census.

Children may appear on the 2 different censuses where their funded entitlement, extended or expanded entitlement hours are split between 2 different settings. In which case, the number of free entitlement hours for each child across all provision is limited to 15 hours for funded and expanded entitlements or, where appropriate, 30 hours where extended entitlement is claimed.

Where schools need to complete the early years census for non-pupils, you will need to issue a local authority EY number to the school to be able to add the data to COLLECT.

Childminders

Childminder agencies

Childminder agencies register with and are inspected by Ofsted. Agencies are not childcare providers as they will not directly provide childcare, but, once registered with Ofsted, agencies are able to register individual childminders (and childcare providers on domestic premises) who will provide this service.

This means that individual childminders will have a choice either register:
- directly with Ofsted
- with a childminder agency
The introduction of childminder agencies may alter the method used by local authorities to collect data. This means that the local authority will have to collect data from:
- childminder agencies (on behalf of all childminders registered with the agency)
- agency registered childminders who choose to submit returns directly to the local authority
- childminders registered with Ofsted
This could impact URN and EY numbers.

Childminders registered with Ofsted

Childminders who are registered with Ofsted will be required to submit a childminder return to their local authority.

Local authorities with childminder networks (who previously submitted aggregated returns for the network) are now required to submit an individual return for each childminder registered with Ofsted.

Childminders registered with childminder agencies

Childminders who are registered with childminder agencies can submit a childminder return directly to their local authority. However, childminder agencies may submit an individual level return for each childminder registered with them to the childminder’s home local authority (the local authority within which geographical area the childminder is located).

In both instances, the childminder and any colleagues working with them, are recorded as the number of staff. For example, a childminder working together with another childminder and an assistant would be recorded as three staff.

The Childcare Act 2006 (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/21/contents) indicates that if 4 or more adults work together to provide childcare on domestic premises then they are either classified as an early or later years childcare provider or both (depending on which Ofsted register they are registered on). Therefore, a childminder working with 3 or more adults will need to be recorded as an early years provider (private, voluntary or other) in the census.