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 22 April)

Not the latest data

Published 8 March 2022

Last updated 8 March 2022

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 16 September 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), Easter data (29 March - 19 April 2021) and summer holiday (17 July 2021 - 6 September 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 10 2022
Release type
Geographic levels: National
Indicators: Number of teachers and school leaders absent for any reason
Number of teachers and school leaders absent for COVID-19 reasons
Number of teachers and school leaders absent for other reasons
Filters: Date
Phase of education
Time period: 2020 Week 42 to 2022 Week 9

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_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_inside_education_setting	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_inside_education_setting	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_outside_education_setting	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_outside_education_setting	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	number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_covid19_reasons	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_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_any_reason	proportion_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_any_reason	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_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_inside_education_setting	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_inside_education_setting	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_outside_education_setting	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_required_to_remain_at_home_or_isolate_by_NHS_test_and_trace_or_in_line_with_government_guidance_due_to_close_contact_outside_education_setting	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	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_covid19_reasons	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	number_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_any_reason	proportion_of_teaching_assistants_and_other_staff_absent_for_any_reason
2020	Week 42	National	E92000001	England	2020/10/12	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	2020/10/12	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	2020/10/12	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	2020/10/12	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	2020/10/12	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 43 variables
Variable name	Variable description
date	Date
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_any_reason	Number of teachers and school leaders absent for any reason
number_of_teachers_and_school_leaders_absent_for_covid19_reasons	Number of teachers and school leaders absent for COVID-19 reasons
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

Footnotes

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.
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.
COVID-19 related reasons include a confirmed or suspected case of coronavirus and those required to isolate by NHS Test and Trace due to contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, where they are not exempt from self-isolation under the changes of 16th August 2021.
The purpose of this data collection is primarily to understand attendance and workforce 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.
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. Rates of confirmed cases and isolation among workforce may be impacted by levels of testing.
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.
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.

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Table 1D - Daily workforce absence in education settings during the COVID-19 outbreak (12 October to 17 December, 8 March to 22 April)

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