Week 38 2020

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

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• Published: 22 September 2020
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• Produced by: Department for Education

A summary of attendance in education settings from Monday 23 March to Thursday 17 September and early years settings from Thursday 16 April to Thursday 17 September.

This publication provides a high-level national summary of estimates from the Department for Education's education settings survey and local authority early years survey. We are working to expand the scope of published data in future releases. 

These statistics have been produced quickly in response to developing world events. The Office for Statistics Regulation, on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority, has reviewed them against several key aspects of the Code of Practice for Statistics and regards them as consistent with the Code’s pillars of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value.

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Methodologies

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

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Background

From the beginning of the autumn term in the 2020/21 academic year, all pupils, in all year groups, were expected to return to school full-time.

Between March 2020 and the end of the summer term, schools were asked to limit attendance to reduce transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). The timeline is summarised below:

• From Friday 20 March 2020, in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, the government asked early years settings, schools, and colleges to close to all children except those of critical workers and those classified as vulnerable.
• From 1 June, the government asked schools to welcome back children in nursery, reception, year 1 and year 6, alongside children of critical workers and vulnerable children from all years. Early years settings were also asked to begin welcoming back all children from 1 June.
• From 15 June, secondary schools, sixth form and further education colleges were asked to begin providing face-to-face support to students in year 10 and 12 to supplement their learning from home, alongside full time provision for students from priority groups. Primary schools were given the flexibility to bring back pupils in other year groups, where they have space to do so.
• By 17 July, most schools and colleges had closed for the summer holiday. Ordinarily, fewer early years settings are open and fewer children are in attendance during school summer holidays. This is due to reduced demand for childcare and the closure of term-time only and school-based settings.

Education settings survey

To help understand the impact of these decisions, the Department for Education (DfE) established a survey of schools and colleges in England. Schools and colleges are asked to report information to DfE each day.

The education settings survey was open between 23 March and 17 July 2020 and then reopened on 1 September 2020. The survey questions were changed on 1 September 2020 to reflect the expectation that all schools should prepare to open to all pupils.

Local authority early years survey

To help understand the impact of these decisions, from 6 April 2020, the Department of Education (DfE) asked local authorities (LAs) to regularly report to the DfE information on the number of children in attendance, including the number of settings open or closed. The focus of this survey was narrowed to early years settings from 16 April. 

The volume and percentage of children in attendance from 10 September is not directly comparable with the previous data points due to a break in the time series. The number of three-year-olds eligible for funded childcare, and therefore attending EY settings, increases through the academic year. Attendance in settings decreases in the autumn when children move to reception. For more details on the break in the time series, please see the methodology section. 

Data coverage

This data release includes data from the education settings survey from 23 March to 17 September and early years settings from 16 April to 17 September. 

The narrative in this document focuses on Thursday 17 September to maintain comparability with previous weeks. Data from Wednesday 9 September is included in the underlying data because this was the first time fewer than 1% of schools reported inset days since the survey reopened on Tuesday 1 September.

Non-response adjustment

Education settings survey

Non-response adjustments made to published figures from 9 September 2020 are summarised here. For the non-response adjustment methodology made to published figures from 23 March to 16 July 2020, see the July 21 publication.

The response rate among state-funded schools was 76% on 17 September. Open rate and attendance figures for state-funded schools in this release are adjusted to account for those that did not respond to the survey.

The methodology used from 9 September assumes that state-funded schools that did not respond were no more likely to be closed, partially open or have lower attendance than responding state-funded schools. This follows analysis of response patterns, data collected from a sample of non-responding schools, and comparison with data collected through regular phone calls between DfE and local authorities to identify any closed schools. Responses have been weighted to take account of differences in response rate between different school types.

See the methodology section for further detail.

Local authority early years survey

For the local authority early years survey, figures for the number of settings open and closed and the number of children attending for those LAs which did not respond are estimated based on the proportions reported by LAs which did respond. The national estimate comprises reported figures from LAs which did respond combined with these estimates (see the methodology section). From 1 June onwards, this methodology has been revised to take into account the wider opening of early years settings.

Open status of state-funded schools

All figures are for state-funded schools. State-funded schools are primary, secondary, special schools and alternative provision. Further education colleges, post-16 special institutions and independent schools are not included in these figures, however estimates for these settings are included in the ‘Open status and attendance by type of school or college’ section of this publication.

16,400 state-funded schools responded to the survey on 17 September. This represents 76% of all state-funded schools. The following figures are adjusted for non-response. More information can be found in the Methodology section of this release.

Department for Education guidance (opens in a new tab) sets out that all schools should prepare to welcome back all children this autumn.

• 99.9% of state-funded schools were open on 17 September. Of the small proportion (0.1%) of schools that were closed, this was mostly due to COVID-19 related reasons.
• Approximately 94% of state-funded schools were fully open on 17 September, up from 92% on 10 September. Schools are considered fully open if they are able to provide face-to-face teaching for all pupils on roll for the whole school day and they have not asked a group of pupils to self-isolate.
• Responses from schools indicate that most were not fully open due to COVID-19 related reasons. Of all schools that responded to the survey, 4% said they were not fully open due to suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19, up from 1% on 10 September. Of those not fully open due to non-COVID-19 related reasons, this included staggering entry for children in nursery and reception in the first few weeks of term.

Attendance in state-funded schools

Department for Education guidance (opens in a new tab) sets out that school attendance is mandatory from the beginning of the autumn term. Pupils with COVID-19 symptoms, or who have someone in their household who does, should not attend school. If someone who has attended school is tested positive for COVID-19, pupils they have been in close contact with will be asked to self-isolate. 

Attendance estimates include pupils absent for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 related reasons.

All pupils

• Approximately 87% of all pupils on roll in all state-funded schools were in attendance on 17 September, slightly down from 88% on 10 September.
• We estimate 94% of schools were fully open on 17 September. Attendance was higher in fully open schools - we estimate 88% of all pupils on roll in fully open state-funded schools were in attendance on 17 September, down from 90% on 10 September.
• The overall absence rate in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England in the 2018/19 academic year was 4.7%. There are some differences in the calculation of this figure and our attendance estimates that affect comparability [3].

Vulnerable children

Attendance of vulnerable children and young people was prioritised between March 2020 and the end of the summer term, when attendance was limited for other pupils to reduce transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). While all children are now expected to attend, provision for vulnerable children and their attendance continues to be monitored. Schools are asked to report the number of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) and the number with a social worker on roll and in attendance each day. 

Pupils with a social worker are considered ‘children in need’. Our analysis after adjusting for non-response suggests that schools may be under-reporting the number of children with a social worker when compared to the most recently published children in need statistics [4]. Therefore these estimates only account for pupils with a social worker that are identified by schools.

• The attendance of pupils with EHCPs and children in need is typically lower than for other pupils. In the 2018/19 academic year, the overall absence rate was 8.7% for pupils with a statement of SEN or an EHCP and 11.4% for children in need [5]. There are some differences in the calculation of these figures and our estimates that affect comparability [3].
• Approximately 81% of all pupils with an EHCP on roll in all state-funded schools were in attendance on 17 September. This figure was 82% in fully open state-funded schools.
• Approximately 81% of all pupils with a social worker on roll in all state-funded schools were in attendance on 17 September. This figure was 83% in fully open state-funded schools.

[3] 2018/19 overall absence rates include pupils aged 5-15 in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools. Our attendance estimates include pupils of all ages on roll in these schools, including children in school-based nurseries (for whom attendance is not mandatory), 4-year olds in reception, 16-year olds in year 11 and all students in sixth forms. Pupils on roll in alternative provision (who have a higher than average absence rate) are included in our attendance estimates, but excluded from the 2018/19 overall absence rates.

[4] Statistics: children in need and child protection (opens in a new tab)

[5] Pupil absence in schools statistics and characteristics of children in need statistics (opens in a new tab)

Open status and attendance by type of school or college

Response rate varies between school or college types, therefore some are more sensitive to the non-response methodology than others. Response rates were lower among some setting types, which means there is greater uncertainty around their estimates.

The definition of ‘fully open’ is different for colleges. Colleges using a planned combination of on-site and remote delivery (opens in a new tab) are considered fully open. However, where remote delivery is being implemented as a contingency response, colleges should report as ‘not fully open’. Analysis of open-text responses indicated that most colleges reporting as ‘not fully open’ were using a planned combination of on-site and remote delivery and such responses were manually amended to ‘fully open’. Where there was not sufficient detail provided to assess this, responses remained as ‘not fully open’ and therefore the proportion of FE colleges is likely to be an underestimate.

Figures are given as of 4pm on 17 September, except for further education (FE) colleges which are as of midnight 17 September. 

• More state-funded primary schools were fully open (95%) than state-funded secondaries and special schools (92%)
• Attendance was lower in special schools (77%) compared to state-funded secondaries (86%) and state-funded primaries (88%). Typically, attendance in special schools is lower than in mainstream settings. 
• Attendance in alternative provision is lower than other settings. This may be due in part to alternative provision institutions reporting dual-registered pupils as being on roll. Pupils dual-registered with a mainstream setting are not required to attend alternative provision full-time.

Table 1: Response rate and estimates of % open, % fully open, % attendance and % attendance in fully open settings by school or college type on 17 September

Setting type	Response rate	% open  [6]	% fully open	% attendance	% attendance in fully open [7]
State-funded primary	77%	99.9%	95%	88%	89%
State-funded secondary	73%	99.9%	92%	86%	87%
State-funded special	75%	99%	92%	77%	79%
Alternative provision	68%	98%	94%	56%	58%
All state-funded schools	76%	99.9%	94%	87%	88%
Independent schools	46%	99%	96%	91%	92%
Special post-16 institutions	61%	99%	93%	-	-
FE colleges	74%	99%	96%	-	-

[6] Percentage open figures are rounded to 1dp for state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and all state-funded schools. For other phases, figures are reported to 0dp and where 100% of settings report they are open, this is reported as 99%  given level of uncertainty around these estimates due to lower response rates and/or small population sizes.

[7] Attendance rates are not yet reported for FE colleges or special post-16 institutions as we develop a methodology to account for the fact that some learners attend part-time.

Early years settings

The response rate to the early years local authority survey was 95%, with 143 out of 151 LAs submitting data on 17 September. Some children returned to early years settings on week commencing 31 August, with many more returning on week commencing 7 September. However, due to the weekly nature of the collection, the response rate and the fact that some providers started the autumn term with inset days it is expected to take a few weeks before the early years attendance figures settle. 

The volume and percentage of children in attendance from 10 September is not directly comparable with the previous data points due to a break in the time series. The number of three-year-olds eligible for funded childcare, and therefore attending EY settings, increases through the academic year. Attendance in settings and decreases in the autumn when children move to reception. For more details on the break in the time series, please see the methodology section. 

The following figures are adjusted for non-response. More information can be found in the Methodology section of this release.

• An estimated 51,000 early years settings were open on 17 September. This represents 74% of all settings, with 16% closed and 10% unknown [8]. The percentage closed may include some providers which are open, due to differences in the ways local authorities collect data and report non-responses. This is currently being reviewed.

[8] Due to rounding, these do not always sum to 100%.

• We estimate 619,000 children attended early years settings on 17 September. This represents approximately 47% of the number of children who usually attend childcare in term time [9]. Due to many children attending EY settings on a part-time basis , and some children not being present due to normal sickness or holiday absence,  we would not expect all children to be in attendance on the day of the data collection. As the denominator ‘number of children who usually attend during term time’ includes all children attending on any day of the week, we do not expect the percentage of children attending early years settings to reach 100%.
• Approximately 23,000 vulnerable children attended early years settings on 17 September. This represents around 27% of 0 to 4 year olds classified as ‘Children in Need’ or who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) [10]. Attendance rates for vulnerable children are presented as a proportion of the estimated number of children aged 0-4 with an EHCP using formal childcare plus the total number of Children in Need aged 0-4. We do not have estimates of the number of Children in Need who usually use formal childcare. Therefore the attendance rate is presented to allow comparisons to be made over time, rather than the proportion of vulnerable children who would usually attend early years settings. This means this figure is not comparable with the proportion of children who usually attend childcare in term time.

[9] The number of children in term time was estimated using outputs from the Childcare and early years survey of parents: 2019 (opens in a new tab) and ONS National Population Projections: 2018 based. (opens in a new tab)

[10] 0 to 4 year olds excluding those in Reception classes. This is an estimate based on the 2019 Children in Need census and January 2020 school census. 

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

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Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.

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