Reporting year 2021

Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England

Children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England, national and local authority level outcomes including key stage 4 and absence

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• Produced by: Department for Education
• Published: 31 March 2022
• Last updated: 29 June 2023

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16 data sets available for download

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• Headline Figures

  National

  National attainment 8 and absence figures for children in need and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 3
  • Indicators:
    • Average Attainment 8 score
    • Percentage in sustained education, employment & apprenticeships
    • Persistent absentees percentage (autumn term)
  • Filters:
    • Social Care Group
  • Time period: 2020/21

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• National - Permanent exclusions and suspensions

  National

  Permanent exclusions and suspensions by type of school and social care group.

  • Number of rows: 280
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of pupils permanently excluded
    • Percentage of pupils with one or more suspension
    • Total number of pupils
  • Filters:
    • School type
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2015/16 to 2019/20

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• LA - Absence (six half terms)

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Full-year absence (six half terms) by type of school for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after. Data for 2019/20 is not available

  • Number of rows: 9,826
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence percentage
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
    • Number of overall absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • School type
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• National - School type

  National

  Type of school by social care group.

  • Number of rows: 58
  • Indicators:
    • Total number of pupils
    • Total number of pupils in pupil referral unit
    • Total number of pupils in special school
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• National - Destinations

  National

  Destinations after completing key stage 4 by social care group.

  • Number of rows: 31
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage identified as DWP/HMRC customer
    • Percentage in UK higher education institution
    • Percentage in advanced and Higher apprenticeships (level 3 and above)
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2018/19

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• National - Special educational needs (SEN)

  National

  Special educational need and primary type of special educational need by social care group.

  • Number of rows: 58
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of pupils with SEN
    • Percentage of pupils with SEN support
    • Percentage of pupils with SEN support having primary type of need: Autistic Spectrum Disorder
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• LA - School type

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Type of school for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 2,455
  • Indicators:
    • Total number of pupils
    • Total number of pupils in pupil referral units
    • Total number of pupils in special schools
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• National - Absence (six half terms)

  National

  Full-year absence (six half terms) by type of school and social care group. Data for 2019/20 is not available.

  • Number of rows: 226
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence percentage
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
    • Number of overall absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • School type
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• LA - Permanent exclusions and suspensions

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Permanent exclusions and suspensions for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 2,458
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of pupils permanently excluded
    • Percentage of pupils with one or more suspension
    • Total number of pupils
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2015/16 to 2019/20

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• LA - Absence (autumn term)

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Autumn term absence by type of school for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 4,891
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence percentage
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
    • Number of overall absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • School type
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2019/20 to 2020/21

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• National - Free school meals (FSM)

  National

  Free school meal eligibility of children in need by social care group.

  • Number of rows: 38
  • Indicators:
    • Number of pupils
    • Number of pupils with free school meal eligibility
    • Percentage of pupils with free school meal eligibility
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• LA - Special educational needs (SEN)

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Special educational need and primary type of special education need for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 2,455
  • Indicators:
    • Percentage of pupils with SEN
    • Percentage of pupils with SEN support
    • Percentage of pupils with having primary type of need: Autistic Spectrum Disorder
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• National - Absence (autumn term)

  National

  Autumn term absence by type of school and social care group,

  • Number of rows: 121
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence percentage
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
    • Number of overall absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • School type
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2019/20 to 2020/21

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• LA - Key Stage 4 (KS4)

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Key stage 4 attainment for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after) and children looked after.

  • Number of rows: 2,455
  • Indicators:
    • Average Attainment 8 score of all pupils
    • Average EBacc APS score per pupil
    • Percentage of pupils achieving grades 4 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• National - Key Stage 4 (KS4)

  National

  Key stage 4 attainment by special educational need and social care group.

  • Number of rows: 728
  • Indicators:
    • Average Attainment 8 score of all pupils
    • Average EBacc APS score per pupil
    • Percentage of pupils achieving grades 4 or above in English and mathematics GCSEs
  • Filters:
    • Ethnicity
    • Social care group
    • Special Educational Needs status
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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• LA - Free school meals (FSM)

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Free school meal eligibility for children in need (excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after), children on a child protection plan (excluding children looked after).

  • Number of rows: 1,637
  • Indicators:
    • Number of pupils
    • Number of pupils with free school meal eligibility
    • Percentage of pupils with free school meal eligibility
  • Filters:
    • Social care group
  • Time period: 2016/17 to 2020/21

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Data guidance

Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England: 2021' national statistics underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the  Open Government License and is intended to meet at least three stars for  Open Data.

The methodology should be referenced alongside this release. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality and how the data is produced.

Coverage

This statistical release provides data on outcomes measures for children in need (CIN), including children looked after (CLA) by local authorities in England. Data is provided at national, regional and level authority level.

Children in need data is not available for Hackney local authority for the 2020 to 2021 collection year. Hackney were unable to provide a return for the 2021 children in need census, due to a cyberattack which had a significant impact on their management information systems.

The outcome measures cover:

• special education needs
• educational attainment (at key stage 4)
• destinations from school
• absence from school
• permanent exclusions and suspensions from school
• free school meal eligibility
• type of school attended

Detailed information on the social care groups and the all pupils comparisons is provided in the methodology.

Abbreviations of social care group names used throughout this release

• CIN - children in need
• CINO - children in need, excluding children on a child protection plan and children looked after. This includes children on child in need plans as well as other types of plan or arrangements.
• CPPO - children on a child protection plan, excluding children looked after.
• CLA - children looked after (excludes children who are in respite care in their most recent episode during the reporting year).

Social care groups included in both national and local authority level data:

• CINO at 31 March
• CPPO at 31 March (where numbers are large enough).
• CLA 12 months at 31 March

Social care groups included in national level data only:

• All pupils comparison - from the national publications.
• CIN at 31 March
• CLA less than 12 months at 31 March
• CIN at any point - ‘any point’ means at any point during the reporting year (including at 31 March).
• CINO at any point
• CPPO at any point
• CLA at any point
• Ever CIN - last 6 years - children in need, at any point in the last 6 reporting years (including at 31 March).

At key stage 4 there are additional groups in the national level data on previously looked after arrangements (PLAA). These are Official Statistics on arrangements for previously looked after children.

• PLAA - Adoption - previously looked after children who left care through an adoption.
• PLAA - SGO - previously looked after children who left care through a special guardianship order (SGO).
• PLAA - CAO - previously looked after children who left care through a child arrangements order (CAO).
• PLAA - Total - previously looked after children who left care through an adoption, SGO or CAO.

File formats and conventions

Confidentiality (rounding and suppression):

Rounding and suppression is applied to the data. The Code of Practice for Statistics requires that reasonable steps should be taken to ensure that all published or disseminated statistics produced by the DfE protect confidentiality. The publications follow the DfE policy statement on confidentiality (opens in new tab). 

National and regional numbers have been rounded to the nearest 10. Local authority numbers are unrounded.

Where a denominator is shown as zero, the original figure submitted was zero. 

Percentages are rounded to one decimal place (except for permanent exclusions and suspensions, where they are rounded to two decimal places).

Average Attainment 8 scores are rounded to one decimal place and EBacc average point scores are rounded to two decimal places.

As a result of rounding components may not sum to totals and percentages may not sum to 100.

For key stage 4 measures, values of 0 (zero) are suppressed to protect confidentiality. For all other measures, values of 0 (zero) are not primary suppressed. Prior to 2021, values of 0 (zero) were suppressed for all measures.

The following symbols have been used:

‘c’ to protect confidentiality - secondary suppression may also be applied to figures to protect confidentiality
‘z’ for not applicable
‘x’ for not available (updated in 2021 from a colon in 2020)
‘~’ used when a result that is not 0 (zero) would appear as 0 (zero) due to rounding

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Outcomes for children in need, including children looked after by local authorities in England statistics and data:

Children Looked After Data Team

Email: CLA.STATS@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Bree Waine

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

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