In order to inform policy development, the Government needs reliable information on the key characteristics of provision in the early years and childcare sector. Robust information on the workforce, the providers operating in the sector and the number of children attending are vital inputs to the policy decision making process. The Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey provides a very broad range of measures that help to address information needs in these areas. In addition to the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey conducted in 2013, the Department for Education (DfE) and its predecessor departments also commissioned earlier waves of this survey. As such, the Childcare and Early Years Providers Survey began in 1998 and was repeated in 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011. The 2013 research, which is the focus of this report, consisted of surveys amongst the ten following types of settings: Full-day childcare; Sessional childcare; Children's centres (focusing primarily on full-day care and which are a sub-set of full-day care as a whole); Before school care; After school care; Holiday care; Childminders; Primary schools with nursery and reception classes; Primary schools with reception but no nursery classes; Nursery schools. (author abstract)