Find the right nursery
for your little one.
Put in your postcode and see every registered nursery, pre-school and childminder near you: what Ofsted said, who they take, when they’re open, and what they charge. Then compare your shortlist side by side.
The four things parents ring round to find out
Ofsted publishes a spreadsheet of names and addresses. None of it answers what a place costs or whether it will take your funded hours, so we went and found out.
What it costs
Where a setting publishes its fees we show the figure, the sentence it came in and a link to the page it came from. No national dataset holds this, so we read it off 2,558 nursery websites.
Whether they take your funded hours
5,130 settings say so on their own website, and many spell out the catch: the minimum sessions you have to book, whether funding is stretched across the year, and what they charge on top for meals and nappies.
Who they can take, and when
The youngest age each setting accepts, whether there is a baby room, opening times, and whether it is all day, term-time sessions or wraparound care around the school run.
What Ofsted found
The rating in plain English with the date it was given, and a warning when it is old enough to have been awarded under rules that no longer exist. New-style report cards are shown area by area.
Childcare where you live
The largest towns and cities. Every town in England is on the full list.
What to ask when you go and look
No website can tell you whether your child will be happy somewhere. These are the questions worth asking on the visit.
- Who will actually look after my child? Ask about the key person system, how many children each adult has, and how often staff change.
- What does a normal day look like? Meals, naps, time outside, and what happens when a child is upset or won’t settle.
- What will it cost me in total? The hourly rate, what’s included, and how funded hours are applied. Ask about charges for meals, nappies and late pick-up.
- Can I use my funded hours here? Most working parents can get funded hours from the term after their child turns nine months. Not every setting takes them the same way.
- What happened at your last inspection? A good setting will talk openly about it, including anything Ofsted asked them to improve.
- Is there a waiting list? Ask how long, and whether they hold places for siblings.
Fees and funded-hours policies are in no national dataset, so where you see them here they were read from the setting’s own website and are their word rather than an official record. Prices change. Always confirm on the call.