Today, a new Public Health Scotland (PHS) dashboard has been published which presents data on COVID-19 in children and young people of educational age, education staff and education settings in one place.

The dashboard will be updated weekly and initial outputs will show testing & cases and hospital admissions. It will also present information from contact tracing on cases present in an educational setting in the 7-days before symptom onset, and on cases who work in education or childcare.

The PHS education surveillance programme was established in August 2020 to collect and analyse information from a range of sources to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on children and education staff.

Diane Stockton, PHS Chief Officer for Education Recovery and COVID-19 Vaccination Surveillance, said:

"We are pleased to be able to present key information about COVID-19 and education in a single dashboard to help increase understanding of the impact on staff and pupils in educational settings. By sharing this information, parents, staff and children can get a greater understanding of the direct impact of the pandemic on young people and those working in education. 

"As we reach the first anniversary of lockdown, we recognise the significant impact that the past year has had on Scotland’s children, families, and education workforce. Our education dashboard forms part of our ongoing commitment to support education recovery and improve our children and families' health and well-being".

Phil Couser, Director of Data Driven Innovation at PHS, said:

"To respond to the immediate and long-term health impacts of the people of Scotland as a result of Covid-19, good data and knowledge are vital. These education surveillance data are one part of a range of PHS data used to offer public health advice on how we can manage the spread of the virus and safeguard future outcomes for individuals and, ultimately, society.

"The dashboard includes information that is discussed each week within the COVID-19 Education Recovery Group. By making this data and information available to the public health community, and the public, we are sharing the best available knowledge, data and intelligence to protect and improve the health of the population of Scotland."

View the COVID-19 education dashboard.

Read the evidence on COVID-19 in education settings.

Last updated: 06 October 2022