The Department for Education has published the initial results of new data gathering on attendance and staffing levels in early years settings.

The Covid Workforce Absence survey, predominantly targeted at group-based settings on the early years register, is a new, weekly data-gathering initiative intended to assess how staffing levels and attendance in early years settings is being affected by the ongoing pandemic – particularly by infection and self-isolation associated with Covid-19.

The first figures, gathered w/c 17 January, are available here: Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Week 4 2022

Commenting, Neil Leitch, CEO of the Early Years Alliance, said:

“We welcome the fact that the government is finally taking steps to capture the impact of Covid-19-related staff shortages in early years settings.

“With nearly one in ten settings closed, and others restricting attendance, it’s clear that the pandemic is still having a major effect on staffing levels. Given that early years settings work to tight adult-to-child ratios, small fluctuations in staff numbers can have a significant impact on their operation. Even those providers who have managed to remain open may have to turn children away due to a lack of sufficient staff -this means disruption for both parents and children that rely on consistency and continuity in their early education and care. 

“Providers are doing their utmost to try to deliver a normal service to families, but they need government support to do so, and so we once again urge the government to look at tightening self-isolation rules for under-fives to reduce the risk of preventable outbreaks in early years settings.

“What’s more, given that the early years sector was already facing huge staffing pressures long before the onset of the pandemic, it is vital that ministers now look to address the long-term recruitment and retention crisis that put settings in such a precarious staffing position in the first place if we are to avoid such a dire situation ever arising again.”