Educational Outcomes for Scotland's Looked After Children 2010/11

Main Statistics

• The overall school attendance rate for looked after children was 88.6 per cent in 2010/11 compared with 93.1 per cent for all school children. This is an increase in overall school attendance rate of 0.8 percentage points from 2009/10 for looked after children. School attendance rates were lowest for children who are looked after at home (79.1 per cent). (Tables 1 & 2)
• The overall exclusion rate for looked after children was 326 per 1,000 looked after children, compared with 40 exclusions per 1,000 pupils for all school children. This is a drop from 365 per 1,000 looked after children in 2009/10. Exclusion rates were highest for children who were looked after in a voluntary home (1,032 per 1,000 children) (Tables 4 & 6)
• The average tariff score for looked after children who left school during 2010/11 was 79, compared to 385 for all school leavers. This is an increase of 12 points from the average tariff score of 67 for looked after children in 2009/10. However, this comparison is influenced by the fact that 88 per cent of looked after children who left school during 2010/11 were aged 16 years or under when they left school, compared to only 34 per cent of all school leavers being of this age when leaving school. (Table 8)
• Sixty-four per cent of looked after children who left school during 2010/11 were in a positive destination at the time of the initial destination survey, compared with 89 per cent of all 2010/11 school leavers. This is an increase of 5 percentage points for looked after children school leavers from 2009/10, but now includes looked after children school leavers who were taking part in an Activity Agreement. However, by the time of the follow-up destination survey, the percentage of looked after children who left school during 2010/11 who were in a positive destination had fallen to 55 per cent, compared with 87 per cent of all 2010/11 school leavers. (Tables 11a and 11b)