Join us for our Estyn Live webinar at 4:00pm on 15 October 2026 for a discussion around the quality and impact of relationships and sexuality education in schools and pupil referral units
Sign-up now! Estyn yn fyw | Estyn Live
Schools, pupil referral units and local authorities show a strong commitment to supporting care-experienced learners but need to do more to understand how their support improves educational progress and achievement, according to a new Estyn report, published today.
The report, Known, Included and Ambitious: Promoting the Education of Care-Experienced Learners, examines how effectively maintained schools, PRUs and local authorities in Wales improve the educational experiences, well-being and aspirations of care-experienced learners aged 3 to 16. It considered the experiences of children who were looked after, adopted from care, living in kinship care, subject to special guardianship orders (SGO), or children who were previously looked after.
The report finds that care-experienced learners are most likely to thrive when they are known and understood as individuals, included fully in education and supported by adults who remain ambitious for their learning and future.
It shows that many staff know care-experienced learners well and help them feel safe, included, and supported. The strongest providers combine this with ambitious expectations for learning and future opportunities.
A central finding was that providers are generally more successful at describing the support they offer than demonstrating its impact on learners’ progress, attainment, and longer-term outcomes. Attendance, behaviour and well-being are often monitored more consistently than educational achievement.
Schools, pupil referral units and local authorities are generally better able to identify and monitor children who are currently looked after. Support is less consistent for learners who are adopted from care, living in kinship care or under special guardianship orders, or who were previously looked after. This limits providers’ ability to identify emerging needs, intervene early and evaluate outcomes for these learners.
The report also highlights the importance of maintaining educational continuity during placement or school changes, including continuity of trusted relationships and Welsh-medium education where appropriate.
Learners consistently highlighted the importance of trusted adults who listen, understand their circumstances, and provide consistent support. Although many providers seek learners’ views, these do not always influence decisions about their education. Learners also highlight the need for privacy and careful handling of personal information, so that they do not feel singled out because of their care experience.
Owen Evans, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, said:
“There is much to recognise in the commitment of staff who help care-experienced learners feel safe, valued and included. The strongest practice combines this support with high expectations for what each learner can achieve.
“We need a clearer understanding of which approaches help learners make progress and achieve well. Listening to learners, understanding their individual circumstances and maintaining continuity in their education are essential to helping them benefit from future opportunities and evaluate the impact of support on their progress and outcomes.
The report recommends that schools and pupil referral units set ambitious expectations for care-experienced learners, ensure fair access to learning and future opportunities, and assess how well support helps them progress.”
Local authorities should strengthen how they monitor educational outcomes, scrutinise the impact of support and work with partners to maintain continuity when placements or schools change. Estyn also recommends that Welsh Government clarify national expectations and review whether guidance, funding and accountability arrangements support consistent and equitable provision, while respecting learners’ and families’ choices about disclosure and confidentiality.
A new Estyn report published today finds that attendance among post-16 learners in Wales remains below providers’ expectations, with attendance rates across school sixth forms and further education colleges averaging around 80% of timetabled sessions over the last three years. However, differences in how attendance is recorded make reliable national comparison difficult.
The report, Post-16 attendance and participation: An evaluation of attendance, participation and provider practice across Wales, considers attendance and participation among full-time learners aged 16 to 19 in school sixth forms and further education colleges across Wales. It examines attendance patterns, barriers to attendance and the effectiveness of provider strategies to improve learner engagement.
The review found that there is currently no consistent national approach to measuring or reporting post-16 attendance. As a result, attendance figures are not fully comparable across providers and, in some cases, headline attendance data does not accurately reflect learners’ physical presence in lessons. These inconsistencies reduce the usefulness of attendance data for benchmarking, self-evaluation and improvement planning.
The report highlights variation in attendance across different types of provision. Attendance tends to be stronger among Year 12 learners and those studying A-levels and Level 3 vocational programmes. Attendance is generally weaker among Year 13 learners, on lower-level programmes and in compulsory elements of provision such as GCSE English and Mathematics resit courses and Welsh Baccalaureate sessions. Learners were more likely to attend lessons they viewed as relevant to their future progression and career goals.
The report identifies a range of factors that contribute to lower attendance. These include emotional well-being concerns, transport difficulties, financial pressures, part-time employment, family circumstances and challenges associated with managing the increased independence expected in post-16 education. Providers reported that these factors often overlap and require tailored support rather than a single intervention.
Inspectors also found that learners place a high value on positive relationships with staff, engaging teaching and strong pastoral support. Learners were more likely to attend regularly when they enjoyed their courses, understood their relevance and felt well supported.
Providers that supported attendance well set clear expectations, identified concerns early and offered personalised support. They prioritised regular in-person attendance while responding sensitively to individual circumstances, recognising its importance in developing relationships, social skills and preparation for employment and adult life.
Owen Evans, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales, said:
“Regular attendance supports learners’ progress, well-being and preparation for future study or employment. Many providers are working hard to improve attendance through clear expectations, strong pastoral support and approaches tailored to individual learners.
“However, attendance remains lower than providers expect, and learners face interconnected challenges including transport difficulties, financial pressures and well-being concerns. A more consistent national approach to recording attendance would give providers and policymakers a clearer picture and support improvement across the post-16 sector.”
The report recommends that providers strengthen their strategic approach to attendance, make more effective use of attendance data and maintain high expectations for attendance. The report also calls for greater consistency in recording and reporting attendance across Wales and recommends that Medr and Welsh Government work with the sector to develop a national approach to post-16 attendance data.
Estyn will be exhibiting at the National Education Show in Cardiff on 2 October, giving education professionals an opportunity to meet our team, learn more about our work and explore the resources available to support improvement.
Throughout the day, we’ll be at stand 97, where we’ll be talking about our approach to inspection and interim visits, including our enhanced focus on reading. We’ll also be sharing practical improvement resources, with a particular focus on those available to support middle leaders to reflect on and strengthen their practice.
The event is also an important opportunity for us to listen. We’re keen to hear from middle leaders about how well they understand Estyn’s work, how they engage with us and how useful they find our resources in their day-to-day practice. This feedback will help us continue to make our resources relevant, accessible and useful to the education workforce.
Join one of our workshops
As part of the programme, Estyn will deliver two 50-minute sessions exploring how our work adds value to the education system.
Estyn: adding value to the education system
English-language session
13:30–14:20 | Room 1 I (i)
Estyn: ychwanegu gwerth at y system addysg
Welsh-language session
15:00–15:50 | Room 1 I (i)
If you’re attending the National Education Show, come and find us at stand 97. Whether you want to ask a question, explore our improvement resources or simply tell us more about your experience of engaging with Estyn, we’d be pleased to hear from you. We look forward to seeing you in Cardiff on 2 October.
A new Estyn report published today finds that Education Welfare Services provide valuable support to schools, but differences in practice, pressures on staffing and short-term funding mean their impact on persistent absence remains too variable.
The new report, Education Welfare Services: The effectiveness of the support provided to schools and parents and carers to tackle persistent absenteeism, examines how effectively Education Welfare Services (EWSs) support schools, PRUs, and parents and carers to address persistent absenteeism. The report draws on discussions with education welfare services in nine local authorities, as well as 45 primary, secondary and all-age schools.
Regular school attendance supports pupils’ learning, well-being and future opportunities. However, persistent absence continues to be a significant national concern. In 2024–2025, 27.0% of pupils missed 10% or more of school sessions. Rates were particularly high among pupils eligible for free school meals and those with special educational needs or additional learning needs.
The report found that most Education Welfare Services provide valued support and contribute positively to addressing the barriers that prevent pupils from attending school regularly. Their work is particularly effective when education welfare officers have a regular presence in schools and develop strong professional relationships with pupils, families, school staff and other services.
In the strongest examples, officers identify concerns early, visit families at home and work with pastoral, health, social care and youth services to address underlying difficulties. These may include anxiety, trauma, financial hardship, transport problems or other complex family circumstances.
However, nearly all the local authorities involved in the review reported significant capacity pressures. High caseloads and the growing complexity of families’ needs often meant that officers had to concentrate on the most serious cases, reducing their ability to intervene early and prevent attendance problems from becoming established.
Owen Evans, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, said:
“Education welfare officers play a valuable role in helping pupils and families overcome the barriers that prevent regular attendance. When delivered effectively, these services build trust, identify concerns early and bring schools and other agencies together around the needs of the child.
“However, pupils and families do not yet benefit from consistently effective support across Wales. High caseloads, staffing instability and reliance on short-term funding restrict preventative work and make long-term planning difficult. Improving attendance is a shared responsibility, and schools cannot address the complex causes of persistent absence alone.
“A more sustainable and joined-up approach is needed so that services can intervene earlier and all pupils receive the support they need to engage with their education.”
The report recommends that the Welsh Government consolidates national attendance guidance, establish sustainable multi-year funding and strengthen national attendance data systems. It also calls for local authorities to improve the consistency and monitoring of Education Welfare Services, strengthen preventative support and family engagement, make better strategic use of attendance data, and apply statutory processes more consistently.
Estyn welcomes the Welsh Government’s announcement with a clear focus on mathematics and reading. Estyn’s annual reports have highlighted systematic weaknesses in these areas and Estyn has a role to play, as do all education practitioners, in raising standards. In 2025, Estyn announced its enhanced focus on reading. Inspection evidence and our annual reports demonstrate that effective reading provision builds learners’ foundational pre reading skills, phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary, language comprehension and critical thinking, enabling learners to engage confidently with increasingly complex texts.
This enhanced focus is now live with all inspection activities gaining a more in-depth view of a setting’s reading planning, delivery and most importantly outcomes. As part of this enhanced focus Estyn continues to recognise that systematic synthetic phonics approaches are an important component of reading instruction for learners in all main stream schools. Schools will, of course, adopt their approaches depending on the learner’s individual needs.
Today, Estyn is announcing that in support of the Welsh Government’s ambition, it will develop an enhanced focus on mathematics within all of its inspection and thematic activities, to be developed over the coming year. This enhanced focus is in addition to reading and will be rolled out in September 2027.
Further information and resources related to Estyn’s enhanced focus on reading can be found here:
Building on last year’s successful maths roadshow event,Estyn and Dysgu will hold a national reading conference at Cardiff City Stadium on 17 February 2027, bringing together education professionals from across Wales to explore effective approaches to improving reading standards and developing whole-school reading strategies. Registration opens on 30 September, with further information available on the conference website:
Our annual perceptions survey is now live! For the third consecutive year, we are running this survey which aims to gather views from a wide range of individuals and organisations about our work.
The survey responses will give us a richer insight into the opinions and perceptions of Estyn amongst external bodies and partners. It is one of a number of sources of feedback and evidence that we use to support us in our ongoing efforts to improve the impact of our work.
The short survey can be completed in 5-10 mins. Whether you have a little or a lot to say, your feedback will help us better understand people’s views of us and highlight areas for improvement.
The survey is open for 5 weeks and we look forward to hearing your views: https://online1.snapsurveys.com/Estyn-2026
Estyn is introducing new pupil reports and Easy Read reports to help make inspection findings more accessible and meaningful for children and young people across Wales.
The reports have been designed specifically for learners, using clear and age-appropriate language to explain what inspectors found during a school inspection. They will sit alongside Estyn’s main inspection reports and provide pupils with an accessible summary of key findings about their school.
Learners already play an important role in the inspection process. Inspectors speak directly with pupils during inspections to understand their experiences of school life, teaching and learning, wellbeing, and how supported they feel in their education. These views contribute significantly to inspection findings.
The introduction of pupil reports is a positive next step in ensuring that learners can also access and understand the outcomes of inspections in a format designed for them.
Evidence from inspection activity shows that where learners are engaged in supporting school improvement, progress is often quicker and more sustained By making reports easier for children and young people to engage with, Estyn hopes to encourage greater involvement in conversations about school improvement and strengthen learner voice across school communities.
The reports will help pupils understand what their school does well, areas identified for improvement, and how their experiences and opinions help shape inspection outcomes.
Chief Inspector Owen Evans said:
“Children and young people should be able to understand what inspection findings say about their school and feel included in conversations about improvement. These new pupil reports are an important step in making our work more accessible, engaging and meaningful for learners across Wales.”
The new pupil reports will accompany inspection reports published from the start of term.
This September, join us for a series of 3 Estyn Live webinars, each focusing on Estyn’s headlines for different sectors.
Sectors: Maintained special schools and PRUs
Date: 14 September 2026
Time: 16:00 – 16:30
Sectors: Secondary and All-age schools
Date: 15 September 2026
Time: 16:00 – 16:45
Sector: Primary schools
Date: 16 September 2026
Time: 16:00 – 16:30
These are essential sessions for leaders and staff who want to find out more about Estyn’s priorities in their sector over the coming academic year.
Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) will rollout an updated joint inspection framework for the non-maintained sector from September 2026.
The updated framework introduces a clearer, more focused approach while continuing to feel familiar to providers. It will deliver shorter, more accessible reports with a stronger focus on what matters most for children, parents and practitioners.
While the framework has been refreshed, the way inspectors work with settings will remain largely the same. Inspectors will continue to observe practice, talk with staff and understand children’s experiences
A key change is the move from six themes to three clearer, more focused themes. This will make inspection reports shorter, easier to read and more accessible for parents and practitioners.
The updated reporting approach will also provide a clearer explanation of how practice impacts children’s learning, development and wellbeing, strengthening the link between what settings do and the outcomes for children.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Owen Evans said:
“The new inspection framework for the non-maintained sector is designed to provide a more transparent, supportive and meaningful inspection experience, helping providers continue to deliver the best possible outcomes for children. We will work more closely with CIW throughout the inspection process and hope this strengthened collaboration provides a more consistent experience for providers.
“The new framework has been shaped through extensive review, consultation and testing. Feedback has helped refine the structure, improve clarity of language and ensure our inspection activity focuses on what matters most for children. I would like to extend my thanks to all who have contributed to the development of this work.”
Gillian Baranski, Chief Inspector at CIW said:
“This updated framework is the result of genuine collaboration with the sector, and I’m proud of what we’ve achieved together. By moving to three clear, focused themes, we’re making inspection reports more accessible and meaningful for providers, parents and practitioners alike. The changes reflect our commitment to keeping children’s learning, development and wellbeing at the heart of everything we do, while ensuring the inspection experience remains familiar and supportive for the settings we work with.”
The updated framework will be introduced through a rollout from September 2026. Providers will be supported with refreshed guidance, practical materials and insights from early inspections.
The updated inspection guidance can be found here: