Early Years Alliance chief executive Neil Leitch has criticised the move to drop the statistics, and said the DfE needs to 'improve' them.
He said that the statistics are ‘misleading’ because they do not reflect current occupancy levels at early years settings.
The DfE has been collecting local authority-level data on early years childcare provision during Covid-19 since April 2020 on a weekly, and more recently, fortnightly, basis.
However, school attendance statistics continue to be published weekly.
In the latest release, the DfE said that it plans to stop collecting early years attendance statistics at the end of the summer term, ‘unless there are significant changes to guidance around attendance at early years settings in relation to Covid-19.'
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