Education Outcomes for Looked After Children – 2023/24

An Official Statistics Publication

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.