Education Outcomes for Looked After Children, 2018-19

The annual update on Education Outcomes for Looked After Children covering 2018-19 has been released by Scotland’s Chief Statistician. Findings for that period show:

• Attainment for school leavers who were looked after within the year has improved over the last six years, narrowing the gap to all school leavers. However, over the last four years, improvement in attainment for looked after school leavers has stalled.
• Looked after school leavers who were in foster care or with friends or relatives had higher attainment than other placement types.
• In 2018-19 81% of looked after school leavers were in a positive destination 3 months after leaving school, an increase from 71% in 2012-13. This compares with 95% of all school leavers in 2018-19
• 9 months after leaving school, the proportion of school leavers looked after within the year in a positive destination has increased from 63% in 2012-13 to 71% in 2018-19. This compares with 93% of all school leavers being in a positive destination 9 months after leaving school in 2018-19.
• The attendance rate for pupils looked after within the year has fallen over the last six years, decreasing from 89% in 2012-13 to 87% in 2018-19. The attendance rate for all pupils has also fallen slightly over the same period, reducing from 94% in 2012-13 to 93% in 2018-19.
• The attendance rate for pupils looked after in a foster care placement (95%) was higher than the attendance rate for all pupils (93%) in 2018-19.
• The rate of exclusion for looked after pupils has fallen substantially, from 397 per 1,000 pupils in 2009-10 to 280 per 1,000 pupils in 2012-13 and 152 per 1,000 pupils in 2018-19. However, this was around seven times as high as the rate of 22 per 1,000 pupils for all pupils in 2018-19.

Background

Education Outcomes for Looked After Children, 2018-19

The publication provides data from the 2018-19 school year on attainment and post-school destinations for 1,031 school leavers who were looked after within the last year, attendance rates for 11,238 school pupils looked after within the last year, 837 of these pupils who were excluded from school, and achievement of curriculum for excellence levels for 3,288 pupils who were looked after within the last year and in P1, P4, P7 or S3.

Official statistics are produced by professionally independent statistical staff – more information on the standards of official statistics in Scotland is available online.