Looked after students are now more than two grades behind their peers in the wake of the pandemic – and the gap is widening.
Between 2014 and 2019 the attainment gap between children in the social care system and their non-looked after peers had closed but this good work has now been undone.
An analysis from the Education Policy Institute (Hunt, 2023) has warned of growing numbers of young people entering the care system and a growing attainment gap due to Covid-19.
Furthermore, it highlights the overlap between children living in care and those living in poverty and warns that we cannot rely solely on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP) when it comes to Covid recovery – a “more versatile toolbox is needed”.
It finds that in 2021, looked after children (LAC) faced an attainment gap of 2.3 grades – up from 2.2 in 2019. It defines LAC as any child who has been looked after by the local authority for at least 24 hours in the last six years.
The analysis also considers students classified as children in need (CIN), including those without a child protection plan (CPP) who are assessed as needing help and protection because of risks to their health or development, and those with a CPP who are at risk of significant harm.
Children in need with a CPP saw a 2.1 grade gap in 2021 (up from 1.9 in 2019) while children in need with no CPP saw the gap grow from 1.4 to 1.6 grades.
At the same time numbers of children who have experienced care at some point in the last six years are increasing. In 2021:
- 12.7% of pupils (71,100 children) were classified as children in need without a CPP – up from 10.7% of pupils in 2014.
- 2.2% of pupils (11,200 children) were classified as children in need with a CPP – up from 0.6%.
- 1.7% of pupils (8,300 children) were classified as looked after children – up from 1.4%.
Furthermore, poverty is higher among this group of children and young people, with 61% of looked after children being eligible for free school meals, rising to 78% of children in need with a CPP.
The analysis states: “Looking at what has happened since the onset of the pandemic, it is clear that progress has gone into reverse. The gap widened markedly for all three groups in 2020 and each fell even further behind their peers in 2021. And just as the gap for those with a CPP narrowed the most pre-pandemic, it subsequently widened the most post-pandemic.”
The analysis suggests that relying solely on the NTP to close the post-pandemic gaps will not be enough: “A much bigger and more versatile toolbox is needed to address the scale of education recovery … this needs to go beyond academic programmes and support children’s social and emotional learning – for example, funding schools to deliver mental health support – as well as urgently tackling child poverty.
“Without a serious plan with proper investment, some of the most vulnerable children in our society will continue to be let down.”
Last month, a study from the NFER found that the reduced subsidy for the NTP was top of the list of reasons why schools planned to stop participation from September. Furthermore, 58% of schools in the study did not believe tutoring to be a long-term solution to closing attainment gaps.
James Bowen, assistant general secretary at the National Association of Head Teachers, said that financial pressures mean many schools will be “unable to continue offering extra tutoring to pupils who need it most as government subsidies are reduced”.
Commenting on the EPI analysis, Mr Bowen added: “Vulnerable children and those from disadvantaged backgrounds have disproportionately suffered from funding cuts to schools and services over the last decade and have been impacted harder by the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
“This research suggests that despite schools and their staff going and above and beyond to help, Covid hit these pupils particularly hard – not because they were less motivated than their more affluent peers, but due to additional barriers faced by families in these communities.
“Schools do their best to support pupils, but they cannot do this alone. The government refused to properly fund the Covid recovery plan proposed by its own education recovery tsar, failing the children and young people who need help the most.
“The government must do far more if it is serious about tackling inequalities, investing much more in both schools and community services like social care and mental health which are so important in supporting pupils and helping them to progress in their learning and education. Without this, inequalities will persist, and schools will continue to find it difficult to close this unjust attainment gap.”
Author of the analysis, Emily Hunt, EPI associate director, added: “These figures paint a worrying picture of the increasing number of children who are falling into social care. These children are often some of the most vulnerable within the education system. This reversal of the good progress made in gap-narrowing between 2014 and 2019 should be concerning to government and policy-makers.
“It is clear that we need a cross government strategy that addresses the scale and nature of the challenges facing the most vulnerable in society – including tackling poverty and the growing mental health crisis among young people.”
- Hunt: Attainment gaps for children in social care, EPI, July 2023: https://epi.org.uk/publications-and-research/attai...