A national system to measure the educational performance and progress of young people whilst in care, across LA boundaries, launched in 2017 to help local authorities and virtual school heads target resources effectively.
Nearly every Local Authority in England is involved in the NCER CLA Project
2017 CLA Analysis went live in Nexus in January 2018 — Phase 2 of the NCER's innovative CLA Project This data release enabled hundreds of Virtual School Heads and LAs across the country to analyse local outcomes for Looked after Children alongside the national context earlier than in previous years.
Project Purpose & Aims
The NCER CLA Project has created a consistent, national evidence-based system for monitoring educational outcomes of children in care.
Utilising the NCER Nexus system enables local authorities to assess, monitor and report on the educational achievement and progress of children in care nationally, locally at an institutional level, and individually. The project includes reporting filters that take into account the recommendations of the ADCS / NAVSH / NCER research paper, based on earlier research by The Rees Centre / University of Bristol.
Virtual School Heads (VSHs) welcome this project because of its contribution to developing a better, holistic understanding of the attainment and progress of children in care and the key vulnerabilities, which VSHs are committed to addressing in partnership with all those who work to enable them to achieve their potential.
Each local authority that has opted in to the NCER CLA Project is able to grant access to their Virtual School Heads, allowing VSHs to benefit from the interactive CLA reports within Nexus.
NCER CLA Analysis provides an evidence base for Ofsted. NCER CLA Analysis enables local authorities to break down local outcomes alongside national context. Ofsted are particularly interested in how local authorities know how their CLA children are doing in comparison to similar pupils. The NCER CLA Analysis provides this evidence base and more using filters and aggregations.
Project Timeline
Spring 2018
Phase 2 reporting to be rolled out throughout the spring to include the following developments: New Virtual School on a page reports for KS1, KS2 and KS4; An enhanced range of comparators within the Nexus CLA Analysis; New pupil on a page analysis; Ofsted outcomes.
January 2018
Release of 2017 CLA Analysis into Nexus. This data release was two months earlier than the 2016 CLA Analysis release into Nexus. It included new trend reporting and enhanced range of CLA filters and aggregations, e.g. the number of periods in care, latest period of care duration.
Summer 2017
Scoping has begun for phase two of the NCER CLA Project, alongside other stakeholders.
March 2017
Phase One of the NCER CLA Project went live on 24 March 2017. This included 15 interactive reports analysing the educational outcomes of CLA pupils at Key Stage 1, 2 and 4.
Spring 2017
System testing was completed using 2015 data, working in partnership with all project reference groups and stakeholders. Further testing and consultation followed the receipt of
2016 SSDA903 CLA data from the
DfE, and training materials were compiled.
Winter 2016
Report prototyping used
2015 national SSDA903 data and related
Key Stage 1 attainment data (received via the
NPD). Work began on building the required import routines and complex data matching functionality (across CLA and attainment datasets).
Autumn 2016
A meeting was held with
the Department for Education (DfE) over project development and data requests. North West
VSHs met with our partners, Angel Solutions, to refine the NCER CLA Project scope and ensure it will meet their needs nationally.
Summer 2016
Stakeholders carried out a
funding assessment and continued with project scoping, including working with the
DfE on signing off 903 data access agreements.
Spring 2016
NCER ,
ADCS and
NAVSH began working on the development of a new analytical tool focusing on educational outcomes for
CLA pupils.