Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2022/23

School leavers

• Attainment for school leavers who were looked after within the year has increased since 2009/10 at all levels, but dropped slightly in the last year.
• The gap between the proportion of looked after leavers and all children achieving one or more qualification at SCQF levels 3, 4 or 5 or better has reduced considerably since 2009/10, though it has increased slightly in the last year. At SCQF levels 6 and 7, the gap has continued to narrow.
• The gap in attainment between care-experienced and all pupils is generally lower for those children whose care experience ended at a younger age (before secondary school), and highest for those who were looked after in the last year.
• School leavers looked after within the year who were looked after at home with parents had lower levels of attainment than those placed in kinship, foster or residential care.
• The gap between the proportion of leavers looked after within the year in a positive follow-up destination compared to all school leavers has reduced considerably since 2009/10 (44.0 percentage points) and is slightly smaller compared to 2021/22.

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL)

• A lower proportion of looked after pupils achieve Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels relevant to their stage compared with all pupils.
• The largest gaps between looked after pupils and all pupils are in: numeracy and writing in P7 (33.6 and 32.9 percentage points respectively); numeracy and writing in P4 (31.2 and 29.1 percentage points respectively); and numeracy in S3 (29.1 percentage points).

Attendance and exclusions

• Children looked after within the year had an 84.4% attendance rate. This is down from 87.9% in 2020/21 and compares to 90.2% of all pupils in 2022/23.
• The exclusion rate for pupils looked after within the year has risen for the first time in 12 years, and is almost six times the rate for all pupils (which has also risen) in 2022/23.