Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2021/22
Information on attainment and destinations of looked after school leavers, and achievement of curriculum for excellence levels for looked after children in Scotland in 2021/22.
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School leavers stages and attainment
This section presents data on the educational attainment and stages of the estimated 1,068 leavers looked after within the year, as well as 1,356 leavers care-experienced at any point aged 12 or over, and 2,030 leavers care-experienced at any point aged 5 or over. The statistics cover pupils in publicly funded mainstream schools in the 32 local authorities, and one grant aided school.
Headline findings
-
Over the last ten years, the proportion of looked after school leavers who left school in S4 or earlier has declined. The gap between the proportion of leavers looked after within the last year and all children leaving school in S4 or earlier has fallen from 45.7 percentage points in 2009/10, to 30.2 percentage points in the year before the pandemic (2018/19), and to 19.3 percentage points in 2021/22.
- Over the last ten years, attainment for school leavers who were looked after within the year has increased, especially at SCQF levels 4 and 5. The gap between the proportion of leavers looked after within the year and all children achieving 1 or more qualification at SCQF level 5 or better has fallen from 63.9 percentage points in 2009/10 to 50.4 percentage points in the year before the pandemic (2018/19), and to 40.3 percentage points in 2021/22.
- In 2021/22, a lower proportion of leavers who experienced care since turning 5, and leavers who experienced care since turning 12, left school at a later stage compared to leavers looked after within the year. However, all 3 categories of care-experienced leavers still tend to leave school at earlier stages than all school leavers.
- In 2021/22, a higher proportion of leavers who experienced care since turning 5 achieved higher SCQF levels compared to school leavers who experienced care since turning 12, and school leavers looked after within the year. However, their attainment is still lower than that of all school leavers.
- In 2021/22, leavers looked after within the year who were looked after at home with parents had lower levels of attainment than those placed in other community placements.
Impacts of COVID-19
For notes on impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on School Leaver Attainment see section 1.3.1 of Summary Statistics for Attainment and Initial Leaver Destinations.
School leavers stages
As shown in Chart 1, leavers looked after within the year left school at earlier stages. In 2021/22, 31.7% of school leavers looked after within the year left school in S4 or earlier. This is higher than 12.4% of all school leavers.
Experimental statistics show the proportion of children care-experienced at any point aged 5 or over, and children care-experienced at any point aged 12 or over, who left school in S4 or earlier. As shown in Chart 1, 29.4% of school leavers who experienced care since turning 12 and 27.8% of those who experienced care since turning 5 left in S4 or earlier. Although these proportions are slightly lower than that of school leavers looked after within the year (31.7%), they remain considerably higher than for all school leavers(12.4%). Notably, the proportion of school leavers leaving school at S6 and other stages is slightly higher for those who experienced care since turning 5 (32.9%) than those who experienced care since turning 12 (30.5%), and than school leavers looked after within the year (28.3%). Nonetheless, this is still considerably lower than all school leavers (59.8%).
Chart 1: Stage of school leavers
Percentage of school leavers leaving school at each stage for school leavers looked after within the year, care experienced leavers, and all leavers, 2021/22.
Longer term trends (Chart 2) indicate that the proportion of school leavers looked after within the year who left school in S4 or earlier was fairly stable between 2016/17 and 2019/20 followed by a steady decline. Compared with 2020/21, the proportion of school leavers looked after within the year who left school in S4 or earlier decreased from 37.3% to 31.7% in 2021/22. Although this continues to remain considerably higher than for all school leavers, the gap between the proportion of leavers looked after within the year and all children leaving school in S4 or earlier has narrowed by 26.3 percentage points since 2009/10.
Chart 2: School leavers leaving school in S4 or earlier
Percentage of school leavers between 2009/10 to 2021/22 who left school in S4 or earlier for all school leavers looked after within the year and for all school leavers.
School leavers attainment
This publication reports on the highest Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) level achieved at SCQF Levels 3 to 7. Please refer to background notes for more information.
In 2021/22 leavers looked after within the year had lower levels of attainment than all school leavers (Table 1.2). Of the leavers looked after within the year, 78.3% had at least one qualification at SCQF level 4 or better. This is considerably lower than that of all school leavers, nearly all of whom (96.4%) left school with one or more qualification at SCQF level 4 or better. The greatest disparity between looked after school leavers and all school leavers is evident at higher levels of attainment. For example, 15.9% of leavers looked after within the year achieved one or more qualification at SCQF level 6 or better, compared with 61.3% of all school leavers. Moreover, 46.1% of school leavers looked after within the year achieved one or more qualification at SCQF level 5 or better, compared with 86.4% of all school leavers.
Experimental statistics show that the proportion of leavers care-experienced at any point since turning 12 with at least one qualification at SCQF level 4 or better (78.1%) is similar to that of school leavers looked after within the year. For leavers care-experienced at any point since turning 5, this proportion is slightly higher (81.1%), although still lower than that of all school leavers (96.4%). At higher levels of attainment, 16.7% of leavers care-experienced at any point since turning 12 achieved one or more qualification at SCQF level 6 or better, compared with 19.0% of leavers care-experienced at any point since turning 5. This indicates that when we expand our coverage to consider children who experienced care further back than in the last year, the gap in attainment between care-experienced and all pupils is lower for those children whose care experience ended at a younger age (before secondary school).
Table 1.2: Highest level of attainment achieved
Percentage of school leavers achieving SCQF levels for school leavers looked after within the year, care experienced leavers, and all leavers, 2009/10 to 2021/22.
|
Highest level of attainment achieved |
School leavers looked after within the last year |
School leavers who experienced care since turning 12 |
School leavers who experienced care since turning 5 |
All school leavers |
|
1 or more qualification at SCQF level 3 or better |
88.2 |
88.1 |
90.2 |
97.9 |
|
1 or more qualification at SCQF level 4 or better |
78.3 |
78.1 |
81.1 |
96.4 |
|
1 or more qualification at SCQF level 5 or better |
46.1 |
46.5 |
50.1 |
86.4 |
|
1 or more qualification at SCQF level 6 or better |
15.9 |
16.7 |
19.0 |
61.3 |
|
1 or more qualification at SCQF level 7 |
2.5 |
2.9 |
3.4 |
21.5 |
|
No passes at SCQF 3 or better |
11.8 |
11.9 |
9.8 |
2.1 |
Comparing longer term trends, the proportion of leavers looked after within the year achieving all SCQF qualification levels (Chart 3a) continues to be consistently lower than that of all school leavers (Chart 3b). Since 2020/21 the proportion of looked after school leavers achieving at least one qualification at SCQF level 4 or better has increased from 70.9% to 78.3% in 2021/22. Another notable increase since 2020/21 relates to the proportion of looked after school leavers achieving one or more qualification at SCQF level 5 or better which is up from 37.6% to 46.1% in 2021/22.
Trends over the last ten years indicate that the gap between educational attainment of looked after school leavers and all school leavers has narrowed. In 2011/12, 61.9% of all school leavers looked after within the year had at least one qualification at SCQF level 4 or better, compared with 78.3% in 2021/22. Improvements are also evident at higher levels of attainment. In 2011/12, 4.2% of all school leavers looked after within the year had at least one qualification at SCQF level 6 or better, compared with 15.9% in 2021/22. Of particular note is the increase in proportion of looked after school leavers achieving one or more qualification at SCQF level 5, which has more than doubled between 2011/12 (21.4%) and 2021/22 (46.1%).
Chart 3a: Highest level of attainment achieved for school leavers looked after within the year
Percentage of school leavers achieving SCQF levels for school leavers looked after within the year, 2009/10 to 2021/22.
Chart 3b: Highest level of attainment achieved for all leavers
Percentage of school leavers achieving SCQF levels for all leavers, 2009/10 to 2021/22.
Type of accommodation
Looked after children can be placed in two broad types of accommodation – community settings or residential accommodation. As shown in Table 1.3, leavers’ educational attainment in 2021/22 varied by placement type. Specifically, leavers looked after within the year placed in community settings showed higher educational attainment across the board, when compared to those in residential settings.
For those placed in community settings, the highest proportion of leavers achieving one or more pass at SCQF Level 3 or better were school leavers placed with foster carers provided by a local authority (95.3%), followed by kinship carers (95.2%), and foster carers purchased by a local authority (89.6%). A similar pattern was observed for leavers achieving one or more pass at SCQF Level 4 or better where the highest proportion of leavers passing were placed with foster carers provided by a local authority (93.0%), followed by kinship carers (87.6%), and foster carers purchased by a local authority (86.8%).
School leavers placed with foster carers provided by a local authority also showed the highest proportions achieving one or more qualification at SCQF Level 5 or better (73.8%), followed by foster carers purchased by a local authority (65.1%), and kinship carers (56.4%). Of all community placements, leavers placed at home with parents had the lowest levels of attainment. The exception to this in relation to the percentage achieving one or more qualification at SCQF level 7 or better where leavers placed at home with parents had the second lowest proportion. Leavers looked after at home with parents had the lowest attainment levels of all community placements both in the years during the COVID-19 pandemic (2019/20 and 2020/21) as well as in the year before (2018/19).
For looked after leavers placed in residential accommodation, the highest proportion of leavers achieving one or more pass at SCQF Level 3 or better and SCQF Level 4 or better related to those placed in a voluntary home (both 87.5%) followed by other residential placement (83.3% and 71.4%, respectively). A similar pattern was observed for leavers achieving one or more pass at SCQF Level 5 or better where the highest proportion of leavers passing related to those placed in a voluntary home (50.0%) followed by other residential placement (33.3%).
Table 1.3: Highest level of attainment achieved by placement type
Number and percentage of school leavers looked after within the year by highest level of attainment achieved and placement type, 2021/22.
|
Placement type |
Number of school leavers |
Percentage with no passes at SCQF 3 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 3 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 4 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 5 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 6 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 7 or better |
|
In the community (one placement) |
794 |
11.0 |
89.0 |
79.3 |
49.2 |
18.1 |
3.3 |
|
At home with parents |
219 |
24.2 |
75.8 |
54.3 |
12.8 |
1.8 |
0.5 |
|
Kinship Carers: friends/relatives |
291 |
4.8 |
95.2 |
87.6 |
56.4 |
18.6 |
4.8 |
|
Foster carers provided by LA |
172 |
4.7 |
95.3 |
93.0 |
73.8 |
34.3 |
4.1 |
|
Foster carers purchased by LA |
106 |
10.4 |
89.6 |
86.8 |
65.1 |
22.6 |
3.8 |
|
Other community [Note 1] |
6 |
16.7 |
83.3 |
66.7 |
50.0 |
50.0 |
0.0 |
|
Residential accommodation (one placement) |
274 |
14.2 |
85.8 |
75.2 |
36.9 |
9.5 |
0.4 |
|
Local authority home |
95 |
18.9 |
81.1 |
68.4 |
29.5 |
9.5 |
1.1 |
|
Voluntary home |
8 |
12.5 |
87.5 |
87.5 |
50.0 |
12.5 |
0.0 |
|
Other residential [Note 2] |
42 |
16.7 |
83.3 |
71.4 |
33.3 |
9.5 |
0.0 |
|
More than one placement |
129 |
10.1 |
89.9 |
80.6 |
42.6 |
9.3 |
0.0 |
|
All looked after within the last year |
1,068 |
11.8 |
88.2 |
78.3 |
46.1 |
15.9 |
2.5 |
[Note 1] Includes 'with prospective adopters'.
[Note 2] Includes 'in residential school', 'in secure care accommodation' and 'crisis care'.
Number of placements
Looked after children can have more than one placement during the year. Table 1.4 shows that in 2021/22, a similar proportion of leavers looked after within the year with two placements achieved 1 or more SCQF level 3-5 or better as those leavers with one placement. A higher proportion of leavers looked after within the year with one placement (16.8%) achieved one or more qualification at SCQF Level 6 or better, than those with two placements (10.2%). Overall, leavers looked after within the year with three or more placement show the lowest attainment levels. However, when interpreting these findings, it should be noted that the categories for two and three or more placements include a much smaller total number of children than one placement.
Table 1.4: Highest level of attainment by number of placements
Number and percentage of school leavers looked after within the year by highest level of attainment achieved and number of placements they had in the year, 2021/22
|
Number of placements |
Number of school leavers |
Percentage with no passes at SCQF 3 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 3 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 4 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 5 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 6 or better |
Percentage with 1 or more qualification at SCQF Level 7 or better |
|
One placement |
939 |
12.0 |
88.0 |
78.0 |
46.5 |
16.8 |
2.9 |
|
Two placements |
108 |
9.3 |
90.7 |
81.5 |
43.5 |
10.2 |
0.0 |
|
Three or more placements |
21 |
14.3 |
85.7 |
76.2 |
38.1 |
4.8 |
0.0 |
|
All looked after within the last year |
1,068 |
11.8 |
88.2 |
78.3 |
46.1 |
15.9 |
2.5 |
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