Data set from Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

Table 1D - Daily workforce absence in education settings during the COVID-19 outbreak (12 October to 17 December, 8 March to 15 July)

Not the latest data

Published 20 July 2021

Last updated 20 July 2021

This file contains workforce absence statistics for education settings from 12 October 2020 to 17 December 2020 and again following wider reopening of schools, from 8 March 2021 to 13 May 2021. It excludes half term terms (19th October - 23rd October, and 2nd November 2020), the national lockdown during the spring term (4 January to 5 March 2021), and Easter data (29 March - 19 April 2021). Data for workforce during the restricted opening of schools can be found in table 1e.

Data is in this file has been scaled to account for non-response so it is nationally representative.

Data set details

Theme: COVID-19
Publication: Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Release: Week 29 2021
Release type
Geographic levels: National
Indicators: Number of teachers and school leaders absent for other reasons
Number of teachers and school leaders absent with a confirmed case of covid-19
Number of teachers and school leaders absent with a suspected case of covid-19
Filters: Date
Phase of education
Time period: 2020 Week 42 to 2021 Week 28

Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data
time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	date	phase	response_rate	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_on_roll	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_on_roll_in_open_settings	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_suspected_case_of_covid_19	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_suspected_case_of_covid_19	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_confirmed_case_of_covid_19	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_confirmed_case_of_covid_19	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_isolating_due_to_contact_in_school	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_isolating_due_to_contact_in_school	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_isolating_due_to_contact_outside_school	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_isolating_due_to_contact_outside_school	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_covid19_reasons	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_other_reasons	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_other_reasons	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_on_roll	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_on_roll_in_open_settings	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_with_a_suspected_case_of_covid_19	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_with_a_suspected_case_of_covid_19	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_with_a_confirmed_case_of_covid_19	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_with_a_confirmed_case_of_covid_19	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_isolating_due_to_contact_in_school	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_isolating_due_to_contact_in_school	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_isolating_due_to_contact_outside_school	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_isolating_due_to_contact_outside_school	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_covid19_reasons	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_other_reasons	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_other_reasons
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	12/10/2020	All state-funded schools	-	480654	-	2572	0.5	2040	0.4	5758	1.2	4669	1	3.1	16562	3.4	653091	-	2248	0.3	2188	0.3	7364	1.1	4913	0.8	2.6	18392	2.8
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	12/10/2020	State-funded alternative provision	-	5054	-	26	0.5	12	0.2	84	1.7	60	1.2	3.6	239	4.7	6099	-	42	0.7	24	0.4	51	0.8	75	1.2	3.1	207	3.4
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	12/10/2020	State-funded primary	-	240218	-	1014	0.4	991	0.4	3351	1.4	2277	0.9	3.2	7686	3.2	409371	-	1398	0.3	1443	0.4	4847	1.2	3127	0.8	2.6	11449	2.8
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	12/10/2020	State-funded secondary	-	213465	-	1382	0.6	901	0.4	1793	0.8	2116	1	2.9	7674	3.6	172523	-	521	0.3	462	0.3	953	0.6	1091	0.6	1.8	3955	2.3
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	12/10/2020	State-funded special	-	21918	-	150	0.7	134	0.6	530	2.4	215	1	4.7	963	4.4	65097	-	287	0.4	259	0.4	1514	2.3	621	1	4.1	2780	4.3

Variables in this data set

Table showing first 5 of 29 variables
Variable name	Variable description
date	Date
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_other_reasons	Number of teachers and school leaders absent for other reasons
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_confirmed_case_of_covid_19	Number of teachers and school leaders absent with a confirmed case of covid-19
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_with_a_suspected_case_of_covid_19	Number of teachers and school leaders absent with a suspected case of covid-19
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_isolating_due_to_contact_in_school	Number of teachers and school leaders isolating due to contact in school

Footnotes

Absence rates for teaching assistants and other staff are likely to be less robust as more work part-time. There are likely to be inconsistencies in how schools treat part time staff in their reported data, for example some may update their on roll numbers daily to account for part-time staff ‘expected’ to be on-site and others may not.
The purpose of this data collection is primarily to understand attendance and teacher availability. This data is reported directly by schools via DfE's daily education settings survey. It is not the primary source of data on infection, incidence and COVID-19 cases overall.
COVID-19 related reasons include a confirmed or suspected case of coronavirus and self-isolation due to potential contact with a case of coronavirus. Staff that are shielding would not be included in these figures.
There are only a small number of special post 16 settings therefore the data is expected to be variable and sensitive to changes in one or more settings.
Workforce absences are not known in closed schools. This means these figures are likely to be under-estimates of the numbers of workforce with confirmed or suspected cases and self-isolating, particularly when the proportion of schools closed for COVID-19 related reasons is higher.
Figures for independent schools are unlikely to be representative. We looked at a sample of non-responding school websites across different phases to assess whether they were open to children of key workers and vulnerable children. This was to enable us to assess whether non-responding schools were as likely to be open as the responding schools. For independent schools, we found evidence that non-responding schools were more likely to be closed than responding schools. Open rates and attendance rates for independent schools are likely to be lower than reported here.
All national level figures are adjusted for non-response. Regional and local authority level figures are based on responding schools only. See accompanying document for full methodology.
On-site testing for staff was available from 4 January to 5 March 2021. All staff are now encouraged to take two rapid COVID-19 tests each week at home. For staff classified as clinically extremely vulnerable, on-site attendance at work is not mandatory. Rates of confirmed cases and self-isolation among workforce may be impacted by levels of testing.

Using this data

Download the underlying data as a compressed ZIP file
View or create your own tables
View tables that we have built for you, or create your own tables from open data using our table tool

Download this data using code

Access this data using common programming languages using the URL below.

URL

Table 1D - Daily workforce absence in education settings during the COVID-19 outbreak (12 October to 17 December, 8 March to 15 July)

On this page