Educational attainment of looked-after and accommodated children in East Lothian

In 2005/06, 76% of all care leavers got at least one qualification at SCQF level 3 or above (compared with 50% for Scotland as a whole). The figure for leavers from care at home was 67% compared with 45% nationally. For leavers from care away from home the respective figures were 79% and 57%. In the core subjects of Maths and English, 33% of care at home leavers achieved qualifications compared with 28% for Scotland as a whole. For care away from home leavers, the respective figures were 64% and 41%.

There were significant improvements in performance compared with the previous year. There was a rise of 23 percentage points in the proportion of all care leavers obtaining at least one qualification at SCQF level 3 and a rise of 19 percentage points proportion of all care leavers achieving qualifications in Maths and English.

These figures were impressive and had been achieved by effective inter-disciplinary work and training and support for named teachers.

Despite its very good educational attainment of looked after children figures the council were not satisfied with this. They had produced statistics that compared the educational attainment of looked after children with children who are not looked after.

The director of education and children’s services said that looked after children did not do well compared to children who were not looked after. The council were working to narrow the educational attainment gap between looked after children and children who were not looked after. We thought this was a highly commendable example of commitment to continuous improvement.

Source: SWIA Performance Inspection Report (2008)