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.
151 Local Authorities in England access NCER CLA Analysis within Nexus
NCER CLA data enables 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 multiple reporting filters for example Periods of Care, SDQ Score and CLA 12 Months.
Virtual School Heads (VSHs) welcome this data 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 nationally. NCER CLA Analysis provides this evidence base and more using filters and aggregations.
The NCER CLA Project has also recieved favourable publicity in The Guardian and Children and Young People Now.
Project Timeline
Autumn 2018
Developments are progressing on the SSDA903 import functionality in Nexus to enable the earliest possible NCER CLA analysis for LAs.
Summer 2018
Phase three is focusing on the feasibility of early NCER emerging CLA analysis, where we are hoping to collect the SSDA903 data early from local authorities via an LA import, and match to attainment data held in Nexus.
Spring 2018
Phase two 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.
Winter 2017
Release of 2017 CLA Analysis into Nexus early in January 2018. 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.
Autumn 2017
Scoping has begun for phase two of the NCER CLA project alongside other stakeholders, including the National Association for Virtual School Heads.
Summer 2017
15 interactive reports are now available in Nexus. These analyse the educational outcomes of CLA pupils at KS1, KS2, and KS4 for those children who to whom the LA is corporate parent (even if these pupils are placed in a different LA).
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.
Phase one of the NCER CLA Project went live on March 24, 2017.
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.