This report by the Scottish Government shows that more looked after children are staying in school for longer and achieving higher qualifications than last year. However, there are still large gaps compared with all pupils.
The statistics in this report aim to improve understanding of educational outcomes for children with previous care experience, including children who were looked after at earlier stages in their school journey.
The report includes two new categories: children who have been looked after at any point since turning 5, and children who have been looked after at any point since turning 12.
The first two sections of this publication cover stages and attainment, and post-school destinations of young people who left school in 2021/22. An estimated 1,068 young people who left school in 2021/22 had been looked after at some point between August 2021 and July 2022. They represent 1.9% of all 55,237 school leavers in 2021/22. New experimental statistics estimate 1,356 young people who had been looked after at any point since turning 12, and 2,030 young people who had been looked after at any point since turning 5, left school in 2021/22.
The final section focuses on the achievement of Curriculum for Excellence Levels (CfE). This covers 2,970 children who were looked after at some point during 2021/22, and 4,621 children looked looked after at any point since turning 5 across Primary 1 (P1), Primary 4 (P4), Primary 7 (P7) and Secondary 3 (S3) year groups.