Looked after children: education outcomes 2018-2019

School Attendance

• The attendance rate has fallen for looked after pupils over the last six years
• The attendance rate for pupils looked after in a foster care placement is higher than the attendance rate for all pupils 

This section presents data on the school attendance of looked after young people who were at publicly-funded schools. It compares attendance for all pupils in publicly-funded schools with 11,238 pupils who were looked after within the last year. Attendance data is collected every two years, so the information for 2011/12, 2013/14, 2015/16 and 2017/18 is not available.

Chart 4 shows that the rate of attendance for pupils looked after within the year is consistently below the rate for all pupils. The gap in attendance rate between these groups has increased over the last six years from 4.9 percentage points in 2012/13 (93.6% for all pupils and 88.7% for looked after pupils) to 6.2 percentage points in 2018/19 (93.0% for all pupils and 86.8% for looked after pupils).

Sector

Looked after children have a lower attendance rate than all pupils in all school sectors (Table 3.1). However, the differences are relatively small in primary school, with the attendance rate for pupils looked after within the year and all pupils being 92.4% and 94.5% respectively in 2018/19.

For special schools, the attendance rate for pupils looked after within the year was 85.1%, while the rate for all pupils was 90.1%.

In secondary school, the differences in attendance rate between looked after children and all pupils are greater than in the primary and special sectors. Pupils looked after within the year had an attendance rate of 81.1%, compared with a rate of 90.7% for all pupils.

Accommodation type and gender

Table 3.2 shows the attendance rates for pupils looked after within the year by the type of accommodation and gender. The highest attendance rates are for young people in 'other community' placements (including those in supported and those with prospective adopters) in a foster care placement, both provided by and purchased by local authorities. The attendance rates of 95.6%, 95.4% and 95.3% respectively for these pupils were higher than the rate for all pupils (93.0%). Pupils looked after at home (76.4%) and those in local authority homes (83.5%) had the lowest attendance rates.

Overall, girls who were looked after within the year had a slightly higher attendance rate than boys looked after within the year, with an attendance rate of 87.0% for girls compared with 86.6% for boys. For pupils looked after in all residential accommodation placement types, however, boys had a higher rate of attendance than girls.

(1) Includes supported accommodation and with prospective adopters.
(2) Includes in residential school, in secure care accommodation, and crisis care.

Number of placements

Pupils looked after within the year who experienced one or two placements had higher rates of attendance than pupils with three or more placements (Table 3.3). This pattern was similar for both girls and boys. Attendance rates were highest among pupils with two placements (87.6%) and one placement (86.8%) and lowest for those with three placements (83.8%) and four placements (84.2%). It should be noted that the majority of pupils looked after within the last year had only one placement.