Statistics have been published today on Education Outcomes for
Looked After Children. The publication provides data from the
2023/24 school year on school attendance, achievement of
Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) levels, school leavers stages and
attainment, and school leavers post school
destinations.
Key findings include:
School attendance
1. The attendance rate for pupils across primary, secondary and
special schools who were looked after during the year has
decreased from 84.4% in 2022/23 to 83.7% in 2023/24. For all
pupils, the attendance rate increased slightly from 90.2% in
2022/23 to 90.3% in 2023/24.
2. The gap between the attendance rates for looked after pupils
(78.4%) and all pupils (87.6%) in secondary schools increased to
9.3 percentage points in 2023/24 (from 8.0 percentage points in
2022/23). The gap for primary students increased from 3.1
percentage points to 3.3 percentage points over the same
period.
Achievement of Curriculum of Excellence
Levels
3. Achievement levels across all subjects were lower for pupils
looked after during the year compared to all pupils during
2023/24 for P1, P4, P7 and S3 stages. The gap between looked
after pupils and all pupils has decreased in 2023/24 compared to
2022/23 for all subjects at P7 and S3 stages. The gap has shown
more variation for P1 and P4 over the previous two years, across
all subjects.
School leavers stages and attainment
4. The proportion of looked after leavers who left school in S4
or earlier has declined from 62.8% in 2009/10 to 35.1% in
2023/24, but this is a slight increase from 31.7% in 2021/22 and
34.3% in 2022/23.
5. The gap between the proportion of looked after leavers and all
children who achieve SCQF level 5 or better decreased from 63.9
percentage points in 2009/10 to 42.7 in 2023/24 (up from 42.1
percentage points in 2022/23 and 40.3 percentage points in
2021/22).
6. Attainment levels were generally higher for school leavers
looked after in community accommodation compared to residential
accommodation. However, school leavers looked after at home had
among the lowest attainment levels of all placement types.
School leavers post-school destinations
7. Since 2009/10 the proportion of school leavers looked after
during the year that enter initial positive destinations has
increased from 58.1% to 85.3%, a decrease from 86.4% in 2022/23.
Over the same period, the proportion in a positive follow-up
destinations increased from 42.0% in 2009/10 to 72.4% 2023/24.
This was an increase in the latest year from 71.1% in
2022/23.
8. The gap between the proportion of looked after leavers
compared to all leavers who are in positive follow-up
destinations was 20.7 percentage points. This gap has decreased
compared to both 2009/10 (44 percentage points) and 2022/23 (21.8
percentage points).
Background
This report provides data from the 2023/24 school year for school
pupils who were looked after within the year, or for some
duration since age 5 for school leavers. Statistics are included
for all pupils and looked after pupils on school attendance,
Achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (ACEL),
attainment, and school leaver destinations.
Looked after children are defined as those in the care of their
local authority (Children Scotland Act 1995).
The full statistical
publication is available with the Excel tables.
Official statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for
Statistics.
