Table 1D - Daily workforce absence in education settings during the COVID-19 outbreak (excludes half term dates 19th October - 23rd October and 2nd November)
Not the latest data
Published
Last updated
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 25 March 2021. It excludes half term terms (19th October - 23rd October, and 2nd November 2020) and the national lockdown during the spring term (4 January to 5 March 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.
On this page
Data set details
- Theme
- COVID-19
- Publication
- Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
- Release
- Week 13 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 12
Data set preview
| 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 | 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 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 |
| 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 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 |
Variables in this data set
| 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
- 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.
- The following education settings are included: academies (including free schools and studio schools), local authority maintained schools (excluding local authority nursery schools), non-maintained special schools, alternative provision and university technical colleges.
- 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.
- The number absent is rounded to the nearest 100, therefore there are some instances where figures between 1 and 49 are rounded to zero.
- Workforce figures are grossed using the non-response methodology for state-funded settings. Further education, specialist post-16 and independent settings are not grossed. Only the proportions for each indicator have been included as a result.
- 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. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- The educational settings survey asks further education providers to report data for the previous day. As such, data collected and presented in this publication for further education and special post-16 settings reports on a day earlier than for other settings.
- 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. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published an analysis of the number of school workers who have had COVID-19 within their Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey publication on 6 November.
- Workforce data, including workforce number on roll information which is needed in order to calculate percentages, was collected from 12 October.
- An error was identified that affected national level absence rates for ‘teaching assistants and other staff’ published in underlying data table 1D and included in the narrative of the 19 January publication. This data, including the 19 January narrative, was corrected on 28 January. Absence rates at local authority level in table 1C, equivalent national-level absence rates for ‘teachers and school leaders’ and the number of ‘teaching assistants and other staff’ absent for each reason in table 1D were unaffected.
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.