Teachers: Sick Leave

(asked on 22nd April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the level of teacher absence due to sickness in the 2019-20 academic year.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 28th April 2021

The Department collects information on teacher sickness absence from all state funded schools via the School Workforce Census, held in November each year since 2010. Each census collects data for absence from the previous academic year. The latest data available cover the academic year 2018/19.

Information on the number and rates of teacher sickness absence, published in the ‘School Workforce in England’ statistical publication, is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-workforce-in-england.

To reduce burdens on schools during the COVID-19 outbreak, the return of absence data for the 2019/20 academic year was not required in the 2020 School Workforce Census. Schools will not be asked to submit 2020 census absence data retrospectively in future censuses.

For the 2020/21 academic year, the Department has published detailed school workforce absence data from 19 January 2021. This data will be included as part of the publication ‘Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak’, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/attendance-in-education-and-early-years-settings-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-outbreak.

The data is drawn from the educational setting status form, which was set up to help the Government monitor the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on schools, nurseries and colleges, focus support more effectively and keep children safe.

The Department plans to return to collecting information on teacher sickness absence in the 2020/21 academic year from all state funded schools via the School Workforce Census, held in November 2021. This data will be released, as per the usual timings, in the summer of 2022.

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