The childcare market - United Kingdom

1.1 Definition and presentation

The childcare market mainly concerns the childcare for children under 3 years of age.

Whether it is home care or not, the competition is very harsh between the actors, who organize themselves as follows:

• Collective reception It is done in a private crèche or in a private crèche. The establishments included are crèches (especially in pre-school), drop-in centres, kindergartens or multi-childcare establishments.
• Maternal assistance
• Home childcare This last type of care is one of the activities of the home help market

Kindergarten assistants highlight the individual approach to the relationship with the child while the collective reception and the crèches highlight their socialization skills.

One of the main issues in the childcare sector is professionalization. A large part of this activity is carried out by parents themselves or by actors with undeclared benefits.

A decrease in the global infant mortality rate, together with more women joining the workforce, has spurred recent years’ growth in daycare services. Moreover, Marketwatch predicts a continued positive global growth trend with a CAGR of close to 4% from 2019-2023, where China will capture the largest share of growth. In the UK, the child day-care centers industry grew by 3.9% from 2014 to 2019. In 2019, there were over 18,000 businesses registered. The UK market’s growth has been parly driven by increased fees.

This market is increasingly consolidated; two key players, Busy Bees and Bright Horizons, account for 8% of the market in the UK. [LaingBuisson] Moreover, during 2016 to 2018, the number of individual nurseries declined by 20%. Moreover, demand trends are reflected in the fact that parents value education at an earlier stage in life, and hence use this service.