Methodology

School placements for children from outside of the UK

Published: 13 October 2022

Background

This release provides data collected via the ‘School placements for children from outside of the UK’ survey from local authorities.

It provides data on the number of children from outside of the UK who have applied for a school place, split by the following countries of origin:

Afghanistan (arrivals via Afghanistan Relocation and Assistance Policy or Afghanistan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, and British Nationals)
Ukraine (arrivals via the Family Scheme or Homes for Ukraine)
Hong Kong (arrivals via the Hong Kong British Nationals (Overseas) welcome programme)

Data was also asked on applications from ‘All other countries outside of the UK’, however, because many local authorities have reported not currently holding this information, it is not including in this publication.

Data is also included on the number of offers made within 15 days of application. There are many reasons why some children have not been offered a place and why some applications may take longer than 15 days to process, including where the Fair Access Protocol is used.

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Data quality

This data has been collected and analysed quickly to inform the Department for Education's response to the resettlement of families from Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Ukraine. The DfE recognises the operational importance of publishing this data in a timely manner and so is publishing this it as management information.

The data is collected from local authorities on a voluntary basis with the latest return covering the period 1st September 2021 to 27th September 2022. In the latest return the overall response rate was 51%. Imputations to adjust for non-response have been made to produce national and regional estimates. See ‘Adjustments for non-response’ section for more detail.

All local authority figures are as reported. Nil returns and partial nil returns (where a number is unknown by the local authority) are presented as an ‘x’. In recognition of the uncertainty of the adjustments made for non-response, all national and regional figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Any figure less than 50 has been presented as ‘low’.

Some local authorities provided partial data, therefore, the sum of breakdowns (for example, primary plus secondary) may not equal totals within the local authority level data.

Upon receiving the data, quality checks were carried out. This included removing duplicates (in most cases the newest return was a correction of the previous return/s) and adding in late returns that had been provided via email if in a suitable format.

The following local authorities provided the additional notes that should be considered when using their data:

May:

Knowsley - Figures relating to primary applications and offers relate to the period since 25th April 2022 only; secondary figures cover the full reporting period.
Bath and North East Somerset - Figures relate to only 59% of schools.
Camden - Figures provided relate to the number of pupils who have started on roll in schools since September 2021. These have been recorded against ‘offers’.

June:

Camden -Figures for all children waiting for an offer has been reported as within 15 days. This could contain duplicates if a parent has applied for multiple schools.
Suffolk- Figures relate to only 19% of schools.
Sutton- Unable to measure the length of time to offer a school place so data has been entered for more than 15 days.
North Yorkshire, East Riding of Yorkshire, Middlesbrough, and Hertfordshire - applicants are not required to state country of origin so there could be missing data.
Bath and North East Somerset - Figures relate to 71% of primary schools and 50% of secondary schools.
Portsmouth- Figures for Afghanistan relate to the period since April 2022.
Kirklees- Figures relate to the period between 1st September 2021 to 16th June 2022.
Warrington- Figures relate to the period between 1st September 2021 to 17th June 2022.
Havering- Figures relate to the period between 29th March 2022 and 28th June 2022.
Bedford- Figures relate to the period between 28th May 2022 and 28th June 2022.

July:

Sutton- Unable to measure the length of time to offer a school place so data has been entered for more than 15 days.
Harrow- Applications from Afghanistan relate to those placed with the ARAP scheme or housing teams.
Tower Hamlets- Removed withdrawn applications from data.
Bristol, Leicester, Hertfordshire, and Wiltshire- Corrected data from the previous submission.
North Yorkshire, Middlesbrough, and Rochdale- Applicants are not required to state country of origin so there could be missing data.
Kirklees- Figures relate to the period between 1st September 2021 to 15th July 2022.
Telford and Wrekin- Children unplaced for the 2021/22 academic year will be transferred to 2022/23 therefore will not be reflected in this data.
Barnet- Applicants who have refused an offer or secured education elsewhere have not been included in the data.
Rutland- Number of children waiting for a school place has reduced because the children have been offered a place.
Gateshead- Applicants who no longer required a place have been removed from data.
Havering- Figures relate to the period between 29th March 2022 and 26th July 2022.
Bedford- Figures relate to the period between 28th May 2022 and 26th July 2022.

August:

Bath and North East Somerset – Figures represent 46% of primary schools and 58% of secondary schools.
Rochdale, Middlesbrough, Hertfordshire, and York - Applicants are not required to state country of origin so there could be missing data.
Tower Hamlets – Where numbers are lower pending applications have been withdrawn.
Gateshead – Figures have reduced due to applicants no longer needing a school place.
Telford and Wrekin- Children unplaced for the 2021/22 academic year will be transferred to 2022/23 therefore will not be reflected in this data.
Barnet & Herefordshire – The school holiday period has not been included when calculating the number of days between application date and the offer. Applicants who refused and offer or secured a place elsewhere have not been included in the data.
Portsmouth - Figures for Afghanistan relate to the period since April 2022.
Warrington and Leicester – Figures have been amended due to previously being recorded incorrectly.
Kirklees – Figures relate to the period up to the 29th August 2022.
Derby - Figures are estimated and cannot be taken as exact.
Bedford - Figures relate to the period since 28th May 2022.
Merton – Number of children waiting for a school place has risen due to the summer holidays as applications have not been processed while schools have been closed.
Havering- Figures relate to the period since 29th March 2022.

September:

Camden- Figures relating to children waiting for an offer was not split into ‘less than 15 days after application’ or ‘more than 15 days after application’ therefore all children waiting for an offer have been put into waiting more than 15 days. Those waiting for an offer could contain duplicates if a parent has applied for multiple schools.
Windsor and Maidenhead- currently verifying data received from schools so some children might be missing from the figures.
Waltham- Figures for Hong Kong relate to the period since July 2022.
Suffolk- Figures relate to 88% of schools.
Bath and North East Somerset - Figures relate to 78% of primary schools and 58% of secondary schools.
Rochdale, East Riding of Yorkshire & York- Applicants are not required to state country of origin so there could be missing data.
Portsmouth- Figures for Afghanistan relate to the period since April 2022.
Sutton- Unable to measure the length of time to offer a school place so data has been entered for more than 15 days.
Kirklees – Figures relate to the period up to the 26th September 2022.
Bedford- Figures relate to the period since 28th May 2022.
Stoke-on-Trent- Unable to measure the length of time to offer a school place so have not included children waiting for a school place in data.

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Adjustments for non-response

Imputations to adjust for non-response have been made to produce national and regional estimates. All local authority figures are as reported, with nil returns and partial nil returns (where known) presented as an ‘x’. In recognition of the uncertainty of these adjustments, all national and regional figures have been rounded to the nearest 100. Any figure less than 50 has been presented as ‘low’.

The imputation methodology for June to September is as follows:

If a local authority provided data in the latest survey, that data is used.
If no return was provided in the latest survey, data is used from the previous survey or the previous imputation. An uplift is applied to these figures based on changes seen between the two surveys for local authorities who supplied returns for both.

If a local authority provided data for some countries of origin but not others, the missing data is assumed zero, unless is it known that the data is missing because the number is unknown by the local authority. In the latter case, the missing data is presented as x and step 2 is applied to estimate the number, when calculating national and regional figures.

The imputation methodology for the May release was as follows:

If a local authority provided data in the latest survey, that data is used.
If no return was provided - for Ukraine data - data is used from a previous shorter survey. An uplift is applied to these figures based on changes seen between the two surveys for local authorities who supplied returns for both.
If no return was provided - for Afghanistan and Hong Kong data - estimates are produced based on each local authorities' population size (pupil numbers from the Spring 2022 school census) and rates seen amongst returning local authorities.
If data was provided data for some country of origin but not others, the missing data is assumed zero.

The DfE will review this methodology as the series progresses.

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