FOI Request - Looked-after Children in secondary school
Dear Department for Education,
Please could you provide extracts from the National Pupil Database to share details of state mainstream secondary schools in the local authorities of Bexley, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway, Slough, Southend-on-Sea, Sutton, Torbay, Trafford and Wirral.
The information I need in an Excel spreadsheet ideally is:
· Local authority
· Total pupils on roll (KS3 & KS4 only) in a) selective schools b) non-selective schools.
· Number of pupils who are Looked-after Children (KS3 & KS4 only) in a) selective schools b) non-selective schools.
· Number of pupils who are Previously Looked-after Children (KS3 & KS4 only) in a) selective schools or b) selective schools.
Please could you also provide the total % of Looked after, and previously looked after, children in all selective (grammar) schools. I believe there are 163 grammar schools, so the overall figure for these schools.
Thank you for your help with this request.
Yours faithfully,
Joanne Bartley
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Dear Joanne Bartley
Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 8 August.
A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2022-0030722.
Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288
Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk
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Hi Joanne Bartley,
You raised a number of questions about looked-after-children and
previously looked after children. Your first bullet point suggests that
you may require an aggregated number in selective schools by local
authority level as opposed to national level figures. Please can you
confirm what geographical breakdown you are interested in? There are
several LAs with only a small number of selective schools. For this
reason, it may be worth pointing out that an LA level analysis would
increase the risk of redaction to protect confidentiality.
Please can we also clarify what you’re requesting as a percentage – are
you requesting the total number of looked after children and previously
looked after children added together (in selective grammar schools) as a
percentage of all children in selective grammar schools?
Before we assess this request, it would be useful if you could confirm
your requirements by responding to
the [1][email address] mailbox.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
· Local authority
· Total pupils on roll (KS3 & KS4 only) in a) selective schools b)
non-selective schools.
· Number of pupils who are Looked-after Children (KS3 & KS4 only) in a)
selective schools b) non-selective schools.
· Number of pupils who are Previously Looked-after Children (KS3 & KS4
only) in a) selective schools or b) selective schools.
Please could you also provide the total % of Looked after, and previously
looked after, children in all selective (grammar) schools. I believe there
are 163 grammar schools, so the overall figure for these schools.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kind regards
David Collinge
CLA Statistics
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Dear Mr Collinge,
Thank you for asking for clarification, and I see that my request was confusing. I am sorry and I will do my best to explain what I need.
I could not see the email address you listed that I should respond to (obscured by the whatdotheyknow.com website) so I hope this email will be forwarded to the correct person.
There are two parts to my request.
The first part referred to the authorities of Bexley, Buckinghamshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway, Slough, Southend-on-Sea, Sutton, Torbay, Trafford and Wirral where more than 25% of secondary school places are in grammar schools.
So for each of these highly selective authorities it would be useful to have a figure such as:
Kent grammar schools (32 schools with x pupils in total) contain X looked after pupils and X previously looked after children.
Kent non-selective schools (~68 schools with x pupils in total) x looked after children and x previously looked after children.
If it avoids the risk of redaction then it would be perfectly acceptable to me for you to add BOTH pupil groups together, so providing just one figure for both looked after PLUS previously looked after.
It would also be acceptable to me to receive the figure as a % of the total school roll, if this also helps avoid redaction? Eg. You might tell me that Medway grammar schools have X% looked after and previously looked after children. Medway non-selective schools have X% of the same.
Or, alternatively, if you feel you can only give numbers for larger selective counties that would also be better than nothing. :) I am very grateful for any information you can provide. I'd appreciate your consideration of what might be a format that it is possible to give me without risk of confidentiality concerns and redactions.
The second part of the request was for national England state school figures. So by that I meant in the 163 grammar schools what % of the school roll are looked after or previously looked after children.
And for comparison, in England's non-selective mainstream state schools what % of the school roll are looked after or previously looked after children.
I hope this is a bit clearer now, and I hope you can see the gist of the information I need and understand that I will be very grateful for anything possible to send on this subject! Thank you again and I appreciate your time.
Best wishes,
Joanne Bartley
Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.
We will respond to you within 20 working days.
Dear Joanne Bartley
Thank you for your recent enquiry which was received on 12 August.
A reply will be sent to you as soon as possible. For information; the
departmental standard for correspondence received is that responses should
be sent within 20 working days as you are requesting information under the
Freedom of Information Act 2000. Your correspondence has been allocated
reference number 2022-0031266.
Department for Education
Ministerial and Public Communications Division
Tel: 0370 000 2288
Web: [1]https://www.education.gov.uk
Twitter: [2]https://www.twitter.com/educationgovuk
Facebook: [3]https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk
References
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3. https://www.facebook.com/educationgovuk
Dear Joanne Bartley,
I am writing with reference to your recent freedom of information (FOI)
request, which has been allocated ref 2022 0031266:
"There are two parts to my request.
The first part referred to the authorities of Bexley, Buckinghamshire,
Kent, Lincolnshire, Medway, Slough, Southend-on-Sea, Sutton, Torbay,
Trafford and Wirral where more than 25% of secondary school places are in
grammar schools.
So for each of these highly selective authorities it would be useful to
have a figure such as:
Kent grammar schools (32 schools with x pupils in total) contain X looked
after pupils and X previously looked after children.
Kent non-selective schools (~68 schools with x pupils in total) x looked
after children and x previously looked after children.
If it avoids the risk of redaction then it would be perfectly acceptable
to me for you to add BOTH pupil groups together, so providing just one
figure for both looked after PLUS previously looked after.
It would also be acceptable to me to receive the figure as a % of the
total school roll, if this also helps avoid redaction? Eg. You might tell
me that Medway grammar schools have X% looked after and previously looked
after children. Medway non-selective schools have X% of the same.
Or, alternatively, if you feel you can only give numbers for larger
selective counties that would also be better than nothing. :) I am very
grateful for any information you can provide. I'd appreciate your
consideration of what might be a format that it is possible to give me
without risk of confidentiality concerns and redactions.
The second part of the request was for national England state school
figures. So by that I meant in the 163 grammar schools what % of the
school roll are looked after or previously looked after children.
And for comparison, in England's non-selective mainstream state schools
what % of the school roll are looked after or previously looked after
children."
I apologise for the delay in responding to your query. Your request is
being addressed and I anticipate being able to send you our full response
early next week. In the meantime, I am sorry for the lateness and for any
inconvenience which this may have caused you.
Best wishes,
Ann Claytor
Statistician
School Census Statistics team
Dear Joanne Bartley,
Thank you for your enquiry. Please find attached our response. I apologise
for the delay in responding.
The department takes very seriously its obligations under the Freedom of
Information Act, including the requirement to respond within the statutory
deadline of 20 working days. I am afraid that we have not been able to
maintain this standard in this instance and while there may be considered
to be mitigating circumstances, this delay is not acceptable and I am very
sorry for the inconvenience which it may cause you.
If you have any further queries, please contact me via the Schools
Statistics email copied in ([email address]). Note
that this email originates from an unmonitored email account.
Best wishes,
Ann Claytor
Statistician
School Census Statistics team
Dear Ann Claytor,
Thank you very much for your help here, it was just what I needed and very helpful. No worries at all about the delay.
Could I add a follow-up request, which I hope is not too troublesome if you have the data.
How many of the 163 grammar schools contained zero previously looked after children (PLAA) on census day?
And, how many of the 163 grammar schools contained zero children looked after (CLA) on census day?
This should I believe be classed as a new freedom of information request in terms of timings etc. I am just adding it here because it might be best to go to the School Census Statistics team.
Thank you.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Bartley
Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.
We will respond to you within 20 working days.
Dear Joanne Bartley,
Thank you for your enquiry. Please find attached our response.
If you have any further queries, please contact me via the Schools
Statistics email copied in ([email address]). Note
that this email originates from an unmonitored email account.
Best wishes,
Ann Claytor
Statistician
School Census Statistics team
Dear Ms.Claytor,
Thank you very much for providing this additional information, it's very much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Joanne Bartley
Thank you for contacting the Department for Education. We can confirm that
we have received the Freedom of Information request you submitted.
We will respond to you within 20 working days.
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