How nursery ranking works

The single biggest factor. We anchor your search to a postcode, a neighbourhood, a town, a specific nursery you typed, or — as a fallback — the visible map view if you've moved it. From there, nurseries closer to the anchor rank higher than nurseries further away.

You're in control of the anchor: change the postcode, pick a town from the typeahead, or pan the map and tap “Search this area” to re-anchor.

Nurseries claimed and verified by their operator rank above unclaimed listings. Verification means the operator proved they run the nursery — via a one-time code sent to the Ofsted-registered phone or email, a certificate upload, or a posted code letter to the registered address.

We surface the verification method on each nursery's page so you know which check was passed.

Outstanding ranks above Good, Good above Requires Improvement, and so on. A more recent inspection counts more than an older one — a 2024 Good is treated as a stronger signal than a 2018 Outstanding because it's a closer description of how the nursery runs today.

The grade and the inspection date are both shown on every card; the rank weight reads them directly.

When you apply filters — child age, hours, funded-hours eligibility, SEN — nurseries that match all your filters rank above nurseries that match some. A nursery that doesn't match your hardest constraints (e.g. the child's age band) is excluded from the list, not just demoted.

• Parent reviews and star ratings.We don't rank by reviews. We don't show reviews. UK nursery directory review systems have a documented reputation for advertiser bias and suppression of low scores; we'd rather rank on checkable facts than crowd opinion.
• Paid placement. No nursery has ever paid us to rank higher and none ever will. Halo Pay (where a nursery accepts our payment integration) is a badge for parents to see; it does not affect rank.
• Editor's choice or hand-picked features. We do not put a thumb on the scale for a specific nursery, ever.

The data behind a nursery comes from Ofsted's register, the Care Inspectorate (Scotland), and the nursery's own submissions once they've claimed their listing. If something's wrong, the nursery's operator can fix it directly — or you can flag it for us via the contact link in the footer.