Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Parents' Survey, 2009 aimed to provide up-to-date information to assess some important policy initiatives introduced since the last survey, carried out in 2008. The survey had two main objectives. The first was to provide up-to-date and accurate information on parents' childcare arrangements and their views of particular childcare providers and childcare provision in general. The second was to continue the time series and provide information to help monitor the progress of policies in the areas of childcare and early years education. The survey series uses an inclusive definition of childcare and early years provision as parents were asked to include any time that their child was not with resident parents or at school. This included informal care provided by grandparents and ex-partners as well as formal care; and included times when parents were working and when they were not. Parents were asked their reasons for using childcare, enabling us to report on childcare used for economic reasons, and childcare used for the child's education. Further information is available on the NatCen Childcare and Early Years Series web page. Main Topics: The survey broadly covered the following topics:use of childcare and early years provision in the last year and in the last weekcosts of childcaresources of information on childcare provisionattitudes towards childcare provision in the local areareasons for using and views of the main formal providerreasons for using more than one provider childcare and maternal employmentbackground details on the family structuresocio-demographicsparents’ work detailsWhile the 2008 and 2009 questionnaires covered similar issues, there were some changes and additions made in 2009. For example, the 2009 questionnaire expanded the section on holiday care. It introduced a section on how children’s disabilities affect childcare and also new in 2009 was a section on information given to parents by providers about their children’s activities and information about activities to do at home. Other changes in 2009 included the reintroduction of questions asking about the home learning environment, removing questions about Childcare Link and ‘Birth to Three Matters’ and changing the codes for ethnicity and academic and vocational qualifications. Multi-stage stratified random sample Face-to-face interview

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Parents’ Survey, 2017 had two key objectives. The first was to provide salient, up-to date information on parents’ use of childcare and early years provision, and their views and experiences of particular childcare providers and childcare provision in general. The second was to continue the time series – which has now been running for over ten years – on issues covered throughout the survey series. With respect to both these objectives, the study aims to provide information to help monitor the progress of policies in the area of childcare and early years education. Further information about this study can be found on the GOV.UK Childcare and early years survey of parents: 2017 webpage. Main Topics: The survey covered the following topic areas: For all families: use of childcare in the reference term-time week and the past year; types of providers used for all children, and costs; use of and availability of breakfast and after-school clubs (for families with school-age children); use of and satisfaction with provision of childcare during school holidays in the past year (for families with school-age children); awareness and take-up of entitlement to free early years provision for two-, three- and four-year olds (including roll out of 30 free hours scheme); awareness and receipt of tax credits and subsidies; sources of information about local childcare; views on affordability, availability, flexibility and quality of childcare in the local area; and childcare and working arrangements. For one randomly selected child: detailed record of childcare attendance in the reference week; details of main provider for selected child; reasons for choosing the main provider; home learning environment. Classification details for all families: household composition; demographic characteristics (for example ethnicity, qualifications, income); parents' work history over the last two years (including any atypical working hours and whether this caused childcare problems); classification of children according to Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disability or long-standing illness; housing tenure; and contact details for childcare providers and administrative questions. Multi-stage stratified random sample Face-to-face interview

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey.The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four Year Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and the Parents' Demand for Childcare (conducted in 1999 and 2001) (the latter series is held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33341).The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemicFurther information is available on the gov.uk Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers' Survey, 2021: Special Licence Access (CCEYP 2021) collected information on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England to allow the evaluation of policy initiatives. The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and Frontier Economics to conduct the CCEYP 2021. Data were collected via a mixed mode web and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey. The 2021 survey was designed to be comparable with the 2018 and 2019 survey. Other differences between the 2019 and 2021 surveys, such as minor differences to the sampling process, are detailed in the technical report.The EUL version of CCEYP 2021 is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8951. Main Topics: This data covers a variety of subjects such as provider background; attendance and capacity; funded hours; staff-to-child ratios; children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); access to a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO); staff details; additional services; and the financial side of providing childcare such as costs, incomes, fees and implementation of Free Entitlement (FEEE), Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and Tax Free Childcare (TFC). Multi-stage stratified random sample

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Parents' Survey, 2010 had two key objectives. The first was to provide salient, up-to-date information on parents' use of childcare and early years provision, and their views and experiences of particular childcare providers and childcare provision in general. The second objective was to continue the time series - which has now been running for over ten years - on issues covered throughout the survey series. With respect to both of these aims, the study aimed to provide information to help monitor the progress of policies in the area of childcare and early years education. Since the Coalition Government was formed in 2010 there have been a number of other policy initiatives, which are described in the policy document 'Supporting Families in the Foundation Years' (DfE, 2011). Addressing the recommendations of three independent policy reviews for Government, the document outlines plans to reform the Early Years Foundation Stage; retain a national network of Sure Start Children's Centres and consult on a new core purpose; extend free early education to 40% of two-year-olds; revise statutory guidance to increase the flexibility of free early education for three- and four-year-olds; and promote quality and diversity across the early education and childcare sector. Using material from the survey, the report describes in detail what childcare is used by different types of families, changes in take-up over the years, parents' reasons for using or not using childcare and for choosing particular providers, and parents' views on the providers they used and on childcare provision in their local area in general. Main Topics: The 2010 survey covered the following topic areas: For all families: use of childcare in the reference term-time week and the past year; types of providers used for all children, and costs; use of and availability of breakfast and after-school clubs (for families with school-age children); use of and satisfaction with provision of childcare during school holidays in the past year (for families with school-age children); awareness and take-up of entitlement to free early years provision for three- and four-year olds; awareness and receipt of tax credits and subsidies; sources of information about local childcare; views on affordability, availability, flexibility and quality of childcare in the local area; and childcare and working arrangements. For one randomly selected child: detailed record of childcare attendance in the reference week; details of main provider for selected child; reasons for choosing the main provider; additional services offered at the main provider; impact of provider on child development and well-being and influence on home learning environment; parental involvement with the selected child (if selected child aged 2-5 years); and details of parental awareness of Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) (if selected child aged 2-5). Classification details for all families: household composition; demographic characteristics (for example ethnicity, qualifications, income); parents' work history over the last two years (including any atypical working hours and whether this caused childcare problems); classification of children according to Special Educational Needs (SEN) and disability or long-standing illness; housing tenure; contact details for childcare providers; and admin questions. Multi-stage stratified random sample Face-to-face interview

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four Year Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and the Parents’ Demand for Childcare (conducted in 1999 and 2001) (the latter series is held at the UKDA under GN 33341). The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Parents' Use, Views and Experiences, 2004 aims were to continue from the previous series, and to provide nationally representative, salient and up to date information on parents' use, views and experiences of childcare, upon which to base evaluations or recent policy interventions. The survey series uses an inclusive definition of childcare and early years provision as parents were asked to include any time that their child was not with resident parents or at school. This included informal care provided by grandparents and ex-partners as well as formal care; and included times when parents were working and when they were not. Parents were asked their reasons for using childcare, enabling us to report on childcare used for economic reasons, and childcare used for the child's education. Further information is available on the NatCen Families and Children web page. Main Topics: Topics covered included: who used what childcare and early years provision (data collected in relation to last year and last week); why parents use childcare or early years provision (who used which types of childcare for economic and educational reasons); when parents use childcare and early years provision (number of providers, number of days used, patterns of use across the day); the cost of childcare and early years provision (who pays, how much, weekly cost, hourly cost, awareness of costs, financial help towards costs); barriers to using childcare and early years providers (affordability, availability and quality of childcare in local area; costs as a barrier to use; access to information about childcare); what parents of pre-school children feel about their childcare and early years provision (main providers; how main providers were chosen; room for improvement; perceptions of input into child's development; feelings about feedback from providers); what parents of school age children feel about their childcare (main providers, childminders, reception classes, breakfast and after school clubs - why used, who uses them and whether they are satisfied). Multi-stage stratified random sample Face-to-face interview Diaries

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers' Survey, 2021 (CCEYP 2021) collected information on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England to allow the evaluation of policy initiatives. The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and Frontier Economics to conduct the CCEYP 2021. Data were collected via a mixed mode web and Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey. The 2021 survey was designed to be comparable with the 2018 and 2019 survey. Other differences between the 2019 and 2021 surveys, such as minor differences to the sampling process, are detailed in the technical report.The SL version of CCEYP 2021 is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8953. Main Topics: This data covers a variety of subjects such as provider background; attendance and capacity; funded hours; staff-to-child ratios; children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); access to a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO); staff details; additional services; and the financial side of providing childcare such as costs, incomes, fees and implementation of Free Entitlement (FEEE), Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) and Tax Free Childcare (TFC).

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey. The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four-Year-Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and Parents' Demand for Childcare, conducted in 1999 and 2001 (see SNs 4380 and 4970 respectively). The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic Further information is available on the GOV.UK Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers’ Survey, 2009 collects information on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2009 survey covers both childcare (full day care, sessional care, out-of-school care, childminders and children’s centres), and early years settings in maintained schools (nursery schools, primary schools with nursery and reception classes and primary schools with reception but no nursery classes). Main Topics: The datasets contain information on childcare and early years providers, including data on:provider characteristics (ownership, opening times, length of operation, free early education sessions)number of places and children attending (number of places, ages, ethnicity, vacancies)staff characteristics (number of staff, demographics of paid staff, pay, hours) qualifications (qualifications held and working towards by paid staff) training (current level of training, training plans and budgets) recruitment and retention (level of recruitment, retention rates, vacancies)income (income, fees, funding, childcare vouchers, tax credits, business performance) The provider level datasets for childcare providers and early years providers contain the responses of senior managers at these settings, with one row of data per setting. The staff level datasets for childcare providers and early years providers contain information on individual members of staff linked to information about the setting that they work in and there is one row of data per staff member. The childminders dataset contains the responses of childminders and these individuals work alone therefore there is only one dataset for this group of providers.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The introduction of the National Childcare Strategy in 1998 marked a radical shift in government policy and for the first time put childcare provision firmly on the political map. Since then a wide range of childcare initiatives and funding streams have been introduced, and hence there is a need for regular data to aid the evaluation of recent policy interventions in these areas. The Childcare and Early Years Provision survey series is divided into two survey strands: the Parents’ Survey and the Providers’ Survey.The Parents’ Survey provides data on parents’ take-up, views and experiences of childcare. Families in England are randomly selected from the Child Benefit Records and all parents had children aged 0-14 years. They are asked about their use and experiences of childcare for all children in the family and to give more detailed information about childcare for a particular child (selected at random where there is more than one child in the family). The current Parents' Survey series replaces two previous surveys: the Survey of Parents of Three and Four Year Old Children and Their Use of Early Years Services (conducted between 1997 and 2002) and the Parents' Demand for Childcare (conducted in 1999 and 2001) (the latter series is held at the UK Data Archive under GN 33341).The Providers' Survey monitors the characteristics and development of childcare and early years providers and the workforce in England. Information was collected on the number and characteristics of providers, the characteristics of the children enrolled, workforce composition, qualifications and training, recruitment and retention, and business operation. The 2016 survey underwent an extensive redesign, which means findings are not comparable with previous surveys.The 2020 survey was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemicFurther information is available on the gov.uk Childcare and Early Years Statistics webpage.Special licence dataAdditional, more detailed variables from the Providers' Survey in 2018, 2019 and 2021 are available under Special Licence (SL). The SL data have more restrictive access conditions than those made available under the standard End User Licence (EUL) agreement. Prospective users of the SL version will need to complete an extra application form and demonstrate to the data owners exactly why they need access to the additional variables in order to get permission to use that version. Users are advised to consult the EUL version first and the list of variables available under each study before applying. The Childcare and Early Years Provision: Providers' Survey, 2018: Special Licence Access (CCEYP 2018) collected information on the main characteristics of childcare and early years provision in England to allow the evaluation of policy initiatives. The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and Frontier Economics to conduct the CCEYP 2018. Data were collected via a large scale Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing (CATI) survey. The 2018 survey was designed to be comparable with the 2016 survey, notwithstanding some changes to improve the quality of data and to reflect new policy priorities. Other differences between the 2016 and 2018 surveys, such as minor differences to the sampling process, are detailed in the technical report.The EUL version of CCEYP 2018 is available from the UK Data Archive under SN 8453. Main Topics: This data covers a variety of subjects such as attendance and capacity; staff-to-child ratios; delivery of Government policies including funded entitlements and TFC; children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND); staff qualifications and pay; and the financial side of providing childcare such as costs, incomes and fees. Multi-stage stratified random sample