Laptops and tablets progress data as of 26 January 2021

Information about how many laptops and tablets that have been delivered or dispatched to local authorities and academy trusts.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

“We continue to provide devices at huge speed and scale for those children who need them the most, with over 875,000 now delivered to schools and councils. Over 300,000 of these have been delivered since schools closed to most pupils, helping ensure no child loses out while learning at home.

“I want to thank teachers, school staff and parents who continue to work tirelessly to ensure vulnerable and critical worker children can still attend school, while delivering remote education for those at home.”

Additional background: devices:

• Recent research from Ofsted, published yesterday, showed that:

• A large proportion of schools in England feel that they are doing well at mitigating children’s learning loss through remote education.
• Most teachers surveyed said they were confident they were providing a high-quality remote education when this was needed.

Additional background: attendance:

• We are taking every possible measure to reduce cases in our communities, and so while many pupils remain at home, schools still have measures in place to help protect all staff as well as vulnerable and critical worker children, so that they can remain in classrooms.
• Schools, colleges and early years settings across the country worked extremely hard to remain open throughout the autumn term, implementing safety measures and providing remote education where children were self-isolating. 
• There is no robust evidence to date to suggest that teachers are at higher risk than other key workers or other professions, but we are working with ONS to keep this under review.  
• Recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) data published 25 January shows that covid-related deaths among teaching professionals are statistically significantly lower than among the general population.
• We expect schools to work with families to ensure all critical worker children are given access to a place if this is required. If critical workers can work from home and look after their children at the same time then they should do so, but otherwise this provision is in place to enable them to provide vital services.
• Schools have been closed to most pupils during the lockdown not because they are unsafe, but because the government is taking every possible measure to reduce cases in the community and protect the NHS. It does not undermine the lockdown to host vulnerable and critical worker children on site during this period.

Published 26 January 2021