Ofsted Childcare Provider Scraper

Scrape England's official register of day nurseries, pre-schools and out-of-school childcare providers straight from Ofsted / GOV.UK open data. Search by region, local authority, provider type and Ofsted rating, look up specific settings by their Ofsted URN, or list every setting run by a nursery operator/group (e.g. a national nursery chain).

What this actor does

• Official source — pulls the latest quarterly Ofsted "Childcare providers and inspections" management-information dataset directly from GOV.UK, always the current release
• England-wide coverage — every actively registered day nursery, pre-school (sessional day care), out-of-school club (breakfast/after-school clubs), and non-home-based childminder, whose details are published un-redacted
• Search by area — region (9 English regions) and/or local authority (154 areas)
• Search by rating — filter to Outstanding-only, Good-or-better, or Requires-improvement-or-better
• Search by capacity — min/max registered childcare places
• Direct lookup — fetch specific providers by their Ofsted URN
• Operator/group lookup — list every setting run by a nursery chain (e.g. "Busy Bees", "Bright Horizons", "Kids Planet")
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains data that was actually published

Output per provider

• providerUrn, providerName, providerType (Childcare on non-domestic premises or Childminder without domestic premises), providerSubtype, providerStatus, sourceUrl (Ofsted's public inspection-report page)
• registeredPersonName, registeredPersonUrn — the operator/company that owns the setting
• registrationDate
• streetAddress, town, postalCode, localAuthority, region, ofstedRegion (Ofsted's own broader regional grouping), parliamentaryConstituency, deprivationBand
• registerCombinations — which Ofsted register(s) the provider holds (ALL, EYR only, VCR only, CCR only, EYR-CCR, EYR-VCR, CCR-VCR)
• earlyYearsRegisterFlag, compulsoryChildcareRegisterFlag, voluntaryChildcareRegisterFlag — booleans for each individual register
• places — registered childcare capacity; placesIncludingEstimates (present only when it differs from places, e.g. an estimated figure where the official count is 0/unknown)
• Legacy graded inspection (Outstanding/Good/Requires improvement/Inadequate framework — pre-2025/26 inspections): overallEffectiveness, overallEffectivenessCode (1–4), qualityOfEducation, behaviourAndAttitudes, personalDevelopment, effectivenessOfLeadershipAndManagement, safeguardingEffective, lastInspectionDate, lastInspectionNumber
• REIF inspection (Ofsted's newer 2025/26-onwards framework, 5-point standard scale — replaces the legacy grade for providers inspected under it): reifInspectionDate, reifInspectionNumber, reifInspectionVisitType, reifSafeguardingStandardsMet, reifInclusion, reifCurriculumAndTeaching, reifAchievement, reifBehaviourAndAttitudes, reifChildrensWelfareAndWellbeing, reifLeadershipAndGovernance (each judgement: Exceptional / Strong standard / Expected standard / Needs attention / Urgent improvement)
• outOfSchoolComplianceStatus — for out-of-school clubs inspected under the compliance-only framework (Met / Not met (with actions) / Not met (enforcement)); outOfSchoolInspectionDate, outOfSchoolInspectionNumber, outOfSchoolSafeguardingEffective — that inspection's date/number/safeguarding verdict
• ccrRequirementsSuitability, vcrRequirementsSuitability — Compulsory/Voluntary Childcare Register requirements-met verdicts
• crInspectionDate, crInspectionNumber, crComplianceStatus — most recent Childcare Register inspection (when applicable)
• ncorInspectionDate, ncorInspectionNumber, ncorComplianceStatus — most recent non-compulsory-register inspection (when applicable)
• recordType: "provider", scrapedAt

Rating fields are only present once a provider has had its first inspection — newly registered settings won't yet have them, which is expected and reflects the real Ofsted register. A provider carries either the legacy graded fields or the REIF fields (or both, if inspected under both frameworks across its history) depending on when its most recent inspection took place — minimumRating only filters on the legacy grade, since the REIF 5-point standard scale isn't directly comparable to it.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	select	search	search / byUrn / byOperator
region	select	–	English region, e.g. London (mode=search); leave blank to search all regions
localAuthority	select	–	Local authority area (mode=search)
providerSubtype	select	–	Full day care / Sessional day care / Out-of-school day care
minimumRating	select	any	Any / Requires improvement or better / Good or better / Outstanding only (legacy grade only)
registerCombination	select	–	Exact Ofsted register combination, e.g. ALL, EYR only
deprivationBand	select	–	Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) band of the provider's postcode area, e.g. Most deprived, Least deprived
nameContains	string	–	Case-insensitive substring match on provider name
minPlaces / maxPlaces	int	–	Registered capacity range (0–1000)
providerUrns	array	–	Ofsted URNs (mode=byUrn)
operatorName	string	–	Operator/company name substring (mode=byOperator)
operatorUrn	string	–	Exact Registered Person URN (mode=byOperator)
maxItems	int	100	Hard cap on emitted records (1–5000)

Example: Outstanding day nurseries in a local authority

{
  "mode": "search",
  "localAuthority": "Kent",
  "providerSubtype": "Full day care",
  "minimumRating": "outstandingOnly",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: lookup by URN

{
  "mode": "byUrn",
  "providerUrns": ["EY275703", "509666"]
}

Example: every setting run by a nursery chain

{
  "mode": "byOperator",
  "operatorName": "Busy Bees",
  "maxItems": 500
}

Use cases

• Parent research — find highly-rated nurseries and pre-schools in a specific area
• Childcare market research — map nursery density, capacity and ratings by region or local authority
• Competitive intelligence for nursery chains — track a competitor operator's full estate and rating distribution
• Local authority / early-years planning — analyze childcare capacity and quality across a region
• Lead generation for childcare suppliers — build territory lists of nurseries by area, type or rating

FAQ

What's the source of this data? Ofsted's official "Childcare providers and inspections: management information" open dataset, published quarterly on GOV.UK. The actor always fetches the current release automatically.

Does this cover the whole UK? England only — Ofsted regulates childcare in England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have separate regulators (Care Inspectorate, Care Inspectorate Wales, Health and Social Care Trusts) not covered by this dataset.

Why aren't most childminders included? Ofsted's open dataset redacts home-based childminders' names and addresses for privacy (they operate from private homes). This actor covers every provider type where full details are published un-redacted: "Childcare on non-domestic premises" (day nurseries, pre-schools, out-of-school clubs) and "Childminder without domestic premises" (childminders who operate away from their own home, e.g. in a community hall). Ordinary home-based "Childminder", "Home childcarer" and "Childcare on domestic premises" rows are excluded because GOV.UK publishes their name/address fields as the literal value REDACTED.

How current is the data? Ofsted republishes this dataset quarterly. The actor always discovers and downloads the latest available release at run time.

What does the Ofsted rating mean? Outstanding, Good, Requires improvement, or Inadequate — the overall effectiveness grade from a setting's most recent full inspection under the Early Years Register framework. Settings not yet inspected won't have a rating.

What's outOfSchoolComplianceStatus? Out-of-school childcare (breakfast/after-school clubs) can be inspected under a compliance-only framework instead of the four-point grade — this field carries that verdict when applicable.

Can I find all locations for a specific nursery chain? Yes — use mode=byOperator with the chain's name (e.g. "Busy Bees", "Bright Horizons", "Kids Planet") or its exact registeredPersonUrn from any provider record.

What is "REIF" and why do some providers not have overallEffectiveness? Ofsted introduced a new inspection framework (REIF) for early-years settings from 2025/26 onward, replacing the familiar 4-point grade (Outstanding/Good/Requires improvement/Inadequate) with a 5-point standard scale (Exceptional/Strong standard/Expected standard/Needs attention/Urgent improvement) across several judgement areas. A provider whose most recent inspection happened under REIF carries the reif* fields instead of the legacy overallEffectiveness fields — both are real, current Ofsted data, just from different inspection generations. As Ofsted continues rolling out REIF, an increasing share of providers will carry reif* fields instead of the legacy grade.