NCER Children
Looked After Project

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