Week 24 2021

Laptops and tablets data

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Department for Education

Introduction

Get laptops, tablets and connectivity support for vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people who cannot attend school due to coronavirus (COVID-19) 

The government is providing over 1.3 million laptops and tablets to help schools, colleges and other FE institutions throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Following the announcement on 5th January 2021 about a national lockdown and restricting attendance in schools and colleges, the scale of deliveries increased. 

For the 2020 to 2021 academic year, the Department for Education (DfE) is providing laptops, tablets and connectivity support to schools, colleges, other FE institutions, academy trusts (trusts) and local authorities (LAs) to help children and young people access remote education during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Laptops, tablets, 4G routers and free mobile data have been made available, if there is no existing access to a device or for children without access to fixed broadband, for: 

  • disadvantaged children in years 3 to 11 and young people in 16 to 19 education whose face-to-face education is disrupted
  • disadvantaged children in any year group who have been advised to shield (opens in a new tab) because they (or someone they live with) are clinically extremely vulnerable
  • disadvantaged children in any year group attending a hospital school
  • disadvantaged 14 to 16-year-olds enrolled for Key Stage 4 at sixth-form colleges and whose face-to-face education is disrupted

The number of devices available for schools, colleges and other FE institutions to order through the Get help with technology service (opens in a new tab) reflects the number of laptops and tablets DfE estimates are needed by each school or college. This calculation is based on free school meals data/free meal data and an estimate of the number of devices a school or college already has and private device ownership. If a school, college, other FE institution, trust or LA requires additional devices, they can contact DfE and more devices can be made available.

These devices are in addition to those DfE provided during the 2020 summer term (opens in a new tab) to LAs and trusts for children, families and young people most in need.

4G wireless routers and mobile data are provided on a demand-led basis through the Get Help With Technology service. 

The DfE does not hold centrally recorded information on the onward distribution to families, children and young people. DfE has advised that devices and routers are to be used to support disadvantaged children and young people who are otherwise unable to access remote education.

Examples of this include disadvantaged children and young people:

  • with no digital devices in their household
  • whose only available device is a smartphone
  • with a single device in their household that is being shared with more than one other family member
  • who have no broadband, including where those families access the internet through mobile data.

For information about how many devices and 4G wireless routers were delivered to local authorities and academy trusts in the summer 2020 term and other publications up to 12th January 2021 please see previous publication here (opens in a new tab).

Related information

Releases in this series

View releases (17) for Laptops and tablets data

Methodologies

Headline facts and figures - 2021

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Additional supporting files

All supporting files from this release are listed for individual download below:

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LA

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Trust data

Devices (laptops and tablets) and 4G wireless routers delivered or dispatched to academy trusts or directly to schools within a trust since the start of the scheme. 

For trust data please see associated files

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Hospital schools and City Technical Colleges

Devices (laptops and tablets) and 4G wireless routers delivered or dispatched to hospital schools and City Technical Colleges since the start of the scheme. 

For this data please see the associated files.

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FE colleges and other institutions

Devices (laptops and tablets) and 4G wireless routers delivered or dispatched to FE colleges and other institutions since the start of the scheme. 

For FE data please see associated files.

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Help and support

Methodology

Find out how and why we collect, process and publish these statistics.

Ad hoc official statistics

Ad hoc official statistics are one off publications that have been produced as far as possible in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.

This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:

  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

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

Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Laptops and tablets data statistics and data:

Get help with technology

Email: annalise.halsall@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Annalise Halsall

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

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If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Telephone: 037 0000 2288

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