School Leaver Follow-up Destinations - Data Sources and Methodology

Recording of ‘Unemployed Seeking’ statuses

The rollout of Universal Credit (UC) commenced in March 2016 and has replaced out of work benefits, such as Jobseekers' Allowance, that were previously used to update the status of individuals to 'Unemployed Seeking'. For previous releases of these statistics, SDS did not receive data from the DWP on Universal Credit claimants.

SDS now receive UC data from DWP which they have used to validate the destinations of school leavers for 2021-22 and beyond.

SDS maintains an accurate record of the circumstances of the school leavers in unemployment that it engages with, through the delivery of post-school services. The availability of UC data from DWP will, in many cases, simply have confirmed the statuses of school leavers which had already been determined through this engagement.