Decision details

The Chair welcomed Audrey Swann, Head of Education for Looked after Children and Challenging Groups, to the meeting.

The report presented explained that the attainment of all Lancashire's looked after children, wherever they were placed, was collated at the end of Key Stage 1 (age 7 years) and Key Stage 2 (age 11 years) for primary pupils, and the end of Key Stage 4 (age 16 years) for secondary pupils. Those looked after children who had been in care for at least 12 months prior to the end of the key stage assessments were part of a group known as OC2, this was the group for which attainment was compared to other looked after children nationally, and to those pupils who were not looked after. The attainment measures that were collated for looked after children were those that were reported on nationally for all pupils.

It was reported that looked after children did not attain as well as children not looked after but did attain better than children in need. Looked after children changed schools frequently and this had an impact on their attainment. Change of home placement also had an impact. Members enquired if there were statistics on why there were so many school moves. Members were advised that for Ofsted reasons, the Looked after Children Team did track how many school moves each child had and that most school moves were due to home moves. There were very few looked after children who were permanently excluded from a school.

It was noted that once looked after children were settled in a safe and stable environment then greater progress in education was made.

Resolved: That the;

  i.  Report presented be noted

  ii.  The need to support the attainment of looked after children in policy decisions, contact with schools and services at a county wide level be understood and noted.