Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2020/21

Main Findings

Full results are available from the accompanying tables on the scot.gov website.

Infographic text below:

Education outcomes for looked after children have improved over the last decade.

However, there are still large gaps compared with all pupils.

Leaver attainment

71% of leavers looked after within the year obtained 1 or more qualification at SCQF level 4 or better. This is down from 72% in 2019/20, and compares with 96% for all leavers in 2020/21.

Leaver destinations

86% of leavers looked after within the year went on to a positive initial destination. This is up from 80% in 2019/20, and compares with 95% for all leavers in 2020/21.

Attendance

Children looked after within the year had an 88% attendance rate when schools were open, this is up from 87% in 2019/20, and compares to 92% of all pupils in 2020/21.

Exclusions

There were 78 cases of exclusion per 1,000 pupils who were looked after within the year. This is down from 152 cases of exclusion per 1,000 pupils looked after within the year in 2018/19, and compares to 12 cases of exclusion per 1,000 pupils overall in 2020/21.

Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels

A lower proportion of looked after children achieve the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) level relevant to their stage compared with all children.

The gap between Looked after children and all children ranges from 22 percentage points in listening and talking, to 29 percentage points in writing