Care in Scotland
Nurseries and day care for children in South Ayrshire
60 nurseries and day care for children in South Ayrshire, run by 21 providers. Of the 59 with Care Inspectorate grades, 52 (88%) have no area graded below Good.
Registered services
60
run by 21 providers
Average grade
4.4 / 6
Scotland: 4.4. The mean of each service's key-question grades.
Graded in the last 12 months
27%
16 of 60. A grade describes a service on the day it was inspected.
How nurseries and day care for children in South Ayrshire are graded
Each service's lowest key-question grade, from the Care Inspectorate (6 is Excellent, 1 is Unsatisfactory). 59 of 60 have published grades; the rest have not been graded yet.
- Excellent (6) 0
- Very good (5) 19
- Good (4) 33
- Adequate (3) 6
- Weak (2) 1
- Unsatisfactory (1) 0
Nurseries and day care for children in South Ayrshire
See all 60 in the directory, with filters and search →
Premium and Featured listings are promoted placements (the provider pays, or occasionally we give a plan) and appear first. They never change a grade.
Where nurseries and day care for children are in South Ayrshire
Ayr 28 Troon 9 Prestwick 8 Girvan 6 Kilmarnock 4 Maybole 3 Ballantrae 1 Mauchline 1
The wider picture in South Ayrshire
- 118 adults were waiting in hospital to leave in September 2026 (Public Health Scotland).
- 15,396 people are aged 75 or over, projected to be 18,948 by 2036 (National Records of Scotland).
- 48% of registered care services reported staff vacancies at 31 December 2024 (SSSC and Care Inspectorate; all types of service).
Common questions
How many nurseries and day care for children are there in South Ayrshire?
There are 60 registered with the Care Inspectorate and listed here (data as at 30 September 2026). The same address can hold more than one registration, so this is a count of registrations, not buildings.
How are nurseries and day care for children in South Ayrshire graded?
The Care Inspectorate grades each service from 1 (Unsatisfactory) to 6 (Excellent) on several key questions. 59 of these have published grades. For 52 of them the lowest grade is Good (4) or better, and for 1 it is Weak (2) or Unsatisfactory (1). A service with no grade has not been graded yet, which is common for new registrations.
How recently have they been inspected?
16 of the 60 were graded in the last 12 months. Each service page shows the date, because a grade describes the service on the day it was inspected.
How do I choose one?
Use the grades as a starting point, not a verdict: read the latest inspection report on the Care Inspectorate's own page for each service, visit if you can, and ask the questions that matter to you. Your council's social work department or health and social care partnership can also help. We do not recommend any one service.
Other care in South Ayrshire
Nurseries and day care for children 60 Childminders 42 Care homes 33 Care at home services 29 Housing support services 20 All care in South Ayrshire
Source: Care Inspectorate open data under the Open Government Licence v3.0, as at 30 September 2026. Grades are never changed or estimated here. This is not a recommendation or care advice: see how to use this site and about the data.