THE North-East has the highest proportion of nurseries judged good or outstanding in England, according to Ofsted inspectors.

But in some areas a significant minority of nurseries in the North-East are judged to require improvement.

Between July and August this year Ofsted carried out more than 3,600 inspections of nurseries and early years providers on non-domestic premises across England.

For providers of childcare on non-domestic premises, the North-East has the highest proportion in England judged good or outstanding , with 88 per cent falling into one of these two categories.

This compares favourably with London, where only 79 per cent were rated either good or outstanding, the lowest ratings in the country.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Nurseries and other early years providers are getting better. These statistics show that four-fifths have been judged to be good or outstanding at their most recent inspection. However, the gaps for the poorest children are still too wide.

“We are clear that good teaching is essential to help more young children, particularly those from poorer areas, be ready to learn when they begin primary school. We are working with those providers judged to require improvement to help them provide a better service for young children and their parents.

“We are currently consulting on the future of education inspection, which includes early years, and would urge nurseries and other providers to consider our consultation carefully.”

Ofsted visited 80 early years providers in the North-East and judged eight to be outstanding (10 per cent), 57 to be good (71 per cent), 13 to require improvement (16 per cent) and just two (three per cent) were rated as inadequate.

The two nurseries rated as inadequate were in Darlington and County Durham.

The area with the most inspections was in County Durham, where 14 premises were visited and six out of 14 were said to require improvement.

In Darlington three out of four nurseries inspected were rated as ‘good’.

Three out of four nurseries inspected in Hartlepool were rated as ‘outstanding’.

Between July and August Ofsted carried out 3,617 inspections of childcare provision across England, 2,500 of these inspections were full inspections of providers on the Early Years Register.

Seventy four per cent of these inspections resulted in judgements of good or outstanding for overall effectiveness. This is the same proportion of good or outstanding judgements as the previous reporting period.