Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2021/22

Introduction

Looked after children are defined as those in the care of their local authority (Children Scotland Act 1995). Getting It Right For Every Child (GIRFEC) is a range of policies aimed at helping every child and young person in Scotland reach their full potential, including looked after children, as they grow and develop into successful learners.

In previous years, this publication reported on the education outcomes of children who were looked after within the previous school year only, which for 2022 would be between August 2021 and July 2022. This year, we have expanded this coverage through the development of experimental statistics about care-experienced children. By combining annual data on looked after children, we are able to trace the care journeys of children who have been looked after since 2008/09. These new statistics aim to improve our understanding of educational outcomes for children with previous care experience,, including children who were looked after at earlier stages in their school  journey.

Using this data, we have included two new categories to describe care experience: children who have been looked after at any point since turning 5, and children who have been looked after at any point since turning 12. These categories broadly reflect children who have experienced care at any point since starting primary school (since turning 5), and those who have experienced care at any point since starting secondary school (since turning 12). These new groups and the group of children looked after within the last year are not mutually exclusive. This means a child can belong to multiple categories. For example, a child who was looked after continuously throughout primary and secondary school will be counted in all three categories.

For consistency, throughout this report we will refer to children who were looked after at some point during the period 1 August 2021 to 31 July 2022, for any duration of time, as pupils or leavers looked after within the year. Children who experienced care at any point, for any duration of time, since turning 5 will be referred to as pupils or leavers care-experienced at any point aged 5 or over. Children who experienced care at any point, for any duration of time, since turning 12 will be referred to as pupils or leavers care-experienced at any point aged 12 or over. More information on these new categories is given in the methodology section of the background notes. We are keen to hear how these new categorisations can improve our reporting, and will develop these further in the future based on user feedback.

The first two sections of this publication cover stages and attainment, and post-school destinations of young people who left school in 2021/22. An estimated 1,068 young people who left school in 2021/22 had been looked after at some point between August 2021 and July 2022. They represent 1.9% of all 55,237 school leavers in 2021/22. New experimental statistics estimate 1,356 young people who had been looked after at any point since turning 12, and 2,030 young people who had been looked after at any point since turning 5, left school in 2021/22.

The final section focuses on the achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (CfE). This covers 2,970 children who were looked after at some point during 2021/22, and 4,621 children looked looked after at any point since turning 5 across Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) and Secondary 3 (S3) year groups. This also covers achievement of CfE statistics for children in special schools/units that cover 479 children who were looked after in the last year and 595 children who experienced care at any point since turning 5.

An Official Statistics publication for Scotland

These statistics are designated as Official Statistics in accordance with the Statistics and Service Registration Act 2007. They have been produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Further information on Official Statistics is published by the UK Statistics Authority.

Experimental statistics

Some statistics in this publication are designated as experimental statistics. Experimental statistics are a subset of newly developed or innovative official statistics undergoing development. They are published to involve users and stakeholders in the assessment of their suitability and quality at an early stage. Further information