Code: E09000028
Director of Children's Services: Alasdair Smith


Summary of Ofsted findings

Summary of Ofsted findings

Inspection of Southwark’s local authority children’s services

These inspections focus on the effectiveness of local authority services and arrangements:

  • to help and protect children, and enable families to stay together and get the help they need
  • the experiences and progress of children in care wherever they live, including those children who return home
  • the arrangements for permanence for children who are looked after, in stable, loving homes, including adoption
  • the experiences and progress of care leavers.
Inspection type Inspection start date Overall effectiveness Impact of leaders Help and protection Children in care Care leavers
ILACS Short Inspection 26 September 2022 Good Good Good Good No outcome

Data source

Area SEND inspection of Southwark Local Area Partnership

The purpose of an area SEND inspection is to:

  • provide an independent, external evaluation of the effectiveness of the local area partnership’s arrangements for children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND)
  • where appropriate, recommend what the local area partnership should do to improve the arrangements.
Inspection outcome

Southwark local area partnership has not yet been inspected under the current Area SEND framework.

Data source

Joint targeted area inspection of Southwark local authority

The agencies for these inspections can include the police, children’s social care, probation services, education and relevant health services. Inspectors will also evaluate how local agencies work with education and childcare providers. The focus of these inspections is how effectively the local safeguarding partners work together at the practice and strategic levels.

Theme Inspection start date Link
There have been no JTAI inspections for this local authority.

Data source

Ofsted inspection reports and tools


Local authority context

Population 18 and under Number %
Southwark 59,098 18.8%
National 12,869,368 22.0%

Data source

Children looked after Number Rate per 10,000
Southwark 387 70
National 81,770 67

Data source

School-age pupils eligible for free school meals Number %
Southwark 15,095 40.7%
National 2,085,168 26.7%

Data source

School-age pupils eligible for extra funding (pupil premium) Number %
Southwark 16,104 44.1%
National 2,266,608 29.3%

Data source

Pupils with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in state-funded settings Number %
Southwark 9,973 20.9%
National 1,766,924 19.6%

Data source

School-age pupils with English as an additional language Number %
Southwark 13,485 32.6%
National 1,806,029 21.4%

Data source

% of children in income-deprived families (IDACI) Average %
Southwark 43.0%
National 38.0%
Health Index (children and young people) Health Index score
Southwark 86.4
National 100.8
More details about the health index metric

Indicates the health of an area measured in three domains: Healthy People, Health Lives and Healthy Places.

A score of 100 represents health in England in 2015. A higher number means better health and a lower number means worse health.

Data source

Remit overview

Contents

Early years

Population Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
Aged 0 to 5 years 18,175 5.8% 6.4%
Aged 0 3,215 1.0% 1.0%
Aged 1 3,214 1.0% 1.0%
Aged 2 3,101 1.0% 1.1%
Aged 3 2,761 0.9% 1.1%
Aged 4 2,909 0.9% 1.1%
Aged 5 2,975 0.9% 1.1%

Data source

Disadvantaged Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
Early years pupil premium 764 4.2% 3.3%
Children looked after (under 1 year) 11 0.3% 0.6%
Children looked after (1 to 4 years) 25 0.2% 0.4%

Data sources:

Special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) /
Education, health and care plans (EHCP)
Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
SEN support in state-funded settings (age 2 and under) 73 0.8% 0.3%
SEN support in state-funded settings (age 3) 204 7.4% 3.7%
SEN support in state-funded settings (age 4) 375 12.9% 9.4%
SEN support in state-funded settings (age 5) 427 14.4% 12.1%
Total: SEN support in state-funded settings (age 5 and under) 1,079 5.9% 4.5%
Children with an EHCP (age 2 and under) 4 0.0% 0.0%
Children with an EHCP (age 3) 15 0.5% 0.7%
Children with an EHCP (age 4) 93 3.2% 3.5%
Children with an EHCP (age 5) 178 6.0% 4.7%
Total: Children with an EHCP (age 5 and under) 290 1.6% 1.6%

Data sources:

Funded early years places for 2-year-olds Population aged 2-years-old Number of eligible 2-year-olds % of population aged 2 % take-up of funded places
Southwark 3,101 836 27.0% 54.0%
National 630,059 145,824 23.1% 65.2%

Data source

Funded early years places for 3-year-olds Population aged 3-years-old Number of eligible 3-year-olds % of population aged 3 % take-up of funded places
Southwark 2,761 All 3-year olds are eligible 72.5%
National 625,948 90.6%
The 2 and 3-year-old funded places tables look different because they measure different things; funded places for 2-year-olds are only for children considered to be disadvantaged, while for 3-year-olds everyone is entitled to a funded place.

Data source

Children's overweight and obesity Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
Children's overweight and obesity (reception-age children) 585 25.7% 23.5%

Data source

Oral health Number examined in Southwark % examined in Southwark % in Southwark % National
Oral health (visible tooth decay in 5-year-olds) 388 12.6% 17.5% 22.4%

Schools

Population Number in Southwark % in Southwark1 % National1
Primary-age pupils (ages 5 to 11) 21,230 6.7% 8.2%
Secondary-age pupils (ages 12 to 16) 15,861 5.0% 6.2%

Data source

Population of looked-after-children Number in Southwark % in Southwark1 % National1
Ages 5 to 9 40 0.3% 0.4%
Ages 10 to 15 141 0.8% 0.7%

Data source

Pupils eligible for free schools meals Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 7,713 38.8% 25.3%
Secondary 6,912 42.5% 27.5%
Alternative provision 32 78.0% 64.6%
Special 410 54.8% 49.5%
Non-maintained special 31.0%

Data source

Pupils eligible for pupil premium Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 7,927 40.1% 25.1%
Secondary 7,694 45.9% 28.9%

Data source

Pupils with SEND Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 4,382 21.4% 18.2%
Secondary 3,432 17.4% 16.5%
Alternative provision 38 92.7% 83.4%
Special 856 92.1% 99.9%
Non-maintained special 99.7%
Independent schools 1,116 18.3% 24.1%

Data source

Pupils with English as an additional language Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 7,308 35.7% 23.4%
Secondary 5,799 29.4% 19.2%
Alternative provision 0 0.0% 7.6%
Special 167 21.5% 14.5%
Non-maintained special 11.0%
Attendance of all pupils up to week 4 of calendar year % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 95.4% 95.0%
Secondary 93.6% 91.8%
Special 86.4% 87.1%

Data source

Attendance of pupils eligible for free school meals (summer term 2024/25) % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 93.1% 91.9%
Secondary 90.7% 85.2%
Special 85.2% 85.1%

Data source

Attendance of pupils with SEND (summer term 2024/25) % in Southwark2 % National2
Primary 92.6% 92.1%
Secondary 89.2% 84.3%
Special 85.6% 87.3%

Data source

Primary attainment: Year 1 phonics screening pass Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
All pupils 2,205 79.9% 79.8%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 716 73.8% 66.6%
Pupils with SEND 281 48.5% 43.4%
Pupils with English as an additional language 709 79.0% 79.5%
Primary attainment: Year 4 times table check (full marks) Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
All pupils 1,085 38.5% 36.8%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 423 33.5% 27.4%
Pupils with SEND 137 20.0% 16.5%
Pupils with English as an additional language 439 42.5% 45.2%

Data source

Primary attainment: Key stage 2 reading, writing, maths combined (met the expected standard) Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
All pupils 2,036 70.1% 62.6%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 836 63.0% 47.7%
Pupils with SEND 257 35.5% 23.8%
Pupils with English as an additional language 818 71.4% 66.2%

Data source

Secondary attainment: Attainment 8 Average in Southwark2 National average2
All pupils 51.9 45.9
Pupils eligible for free school meals 44.8 35.0
Pupils with SEND 38.5 28.1

Data source

Population receiving education outside of their local authority Number outside of Southwark % outside of Southwark2 % National2
Primary 1,478 8.1% 4.1%
Secondary 2,427 17.1% 8.7%
Special 111 16.8% 9.0%
Children being home educated Number in Southwark % in Southwark1 % National1
Primary 150 0.7% 0.8%
Secondary 240 1.5% 2.5%
Total 390 1.0% 1.5%
More details about the children being home educated numbers
Local authority data in the source dataset has been rounded to the nearest 10. As a result totals may not equal the sum of their component parts.

Data source

Suspensions (from primary school) Number in Southwark Rate per 100 pupils in Southwark3 Rate per 100 pupils National3
Total number of suspensions 84 0.4 0.9
Total pupils with one or more suspensions 62 0.3 0.5
Pupils with one or more suspensions who are eligible for free school meals 38 0.5 (in group) 1.2 (in group)
Pupils with one or more suspensions with SEND 47 1.1 (in group) 2.4 (in group)
More details about suspensions from state-funded primary schools and totals not summing
Suspensions data on total number of pupils may not match, as a change in a pupil’s category within the same term results in them being counted separately under each category. For example, if a pupil receives multiple suspensions while classified as not having SEN, and then receives additional suspensions after being reclassified as receiving SEN support during the same term, they will be recorded as two separate enrolments in the data.

Data source

Suspensions (from secondary school) Number in Southwark Rate per 100 pupils in Southwark3 Rate per 100 pupils National3
Total number of suspensions 784 4.0 7.8
Total pupils with one or more suspensions 552 2.8 3.8
Pupils with one or more suspensions who are eligible for free school meals 320 4.1 (in group) 8.2 (in group)
Pupils with one or more suspensions with SEND 195 5.9 (in group) 9.1 (in group)
More details about suspensions from state-funded secondary schools and totals not summing
Suspensions data on total number of pupils may not match, as a change in a pupil’s category within the same term results in them being counted separately under each category. For example, if a pupil receives multiple suspensions while classified as not having SEN, and then receives additional suspensions after being reclassified as receiving SEN support during the same term, they will be recorded as two separate enrolments in the data.

Data source

Suspensions (from special school) Number in Southwark Rate per 100 pupils in Southwark3 Rate per 100 pupils National3
Total number of suspensions 20 2.6 5.1
Total pupils with one or more suspensions 14 1.8 2.9
Pupils with one or more suspensions who are eligible for free school meals 8 1.6 (in group) 4.1 (in group)
Pupils with one or more suspensions with SEND 13 1.7 (in group) 2.9 (in group)
More details about suspensions from state-funded special schools and totals not summing
Suspensions data on total number of pupils may not match, as a change in a pupil’s category within the same term results in them being counted separately under each category. For example, if a pupil receives multiple suspensions while classified as not having SEN, and then receives additional suspensions after being reclassified as receiving SEN support during the same term, they will be recorded as two separate enrolments in the data.

Data source

Exclusions (from primary school) Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Total number of pupils excluded 1 0.0% 0.0%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 1 0.0% 0.0%
Pupils with SEND 1 0.0% 0.1%

Data source

Exclusions (from secondary school) Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Total number of pupils excluded 4 0.0% 0.1%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 1 0.0% 0.2%
Pupils with SEND 2 0.1% 0.3%

Data source

Exclusions (from special school) Number in Southwark % in Southwark2 % National2
Total number of pupils excluded 0 0.0% 0.0%
Pupils eligible for free school meals 0 0.0% 0.0%
Pupils with SEND 0 0.0% 0.0%

1. % of all children in Southwark / England.

2. % of all pupils in state-funded settings across Southwark / England.

3. Rate per 100 pupils in state-funded settings across Southwark / England.

Further education and skills

Population Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
Aged 16 to 18 years 10,078 3.2% 3.6%
Aged 19 to 21 years 14,786 4.7% 3.6%
Aged 22 to 24 years 17,794 5.7% 3.6%
Aged 25 years and over 223,108 70.9% 70.8%

Data source

Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) Number in Southwark % in Southwark % National
16- to 17-year-olds known to LA 6,048 2.1% 2.4%
NEET 68 1.1% 3.4%
Activity not known 89 1.5% 2.2%
Total NEET or activity not known 157 2.6% 5.6%

Data source

16 to 18 progression to higher education or training % in Southwark % National
Degrees (all) 85.0% 66.0%
Degrees at top third higher education institutions 40.0% 24.0%
Higher apprenticeships 2.0% 2.0%
Other study at level 4 and 5 1.0% 3.0%
Progressing to higher education or training 88.0% 70.0%
More details about the further education and skills destinations data

This data reflects the destinations of pupils based on the number on roll when they were aged 16 to 18, tracking where they progressed after completing their studies.

Degree destinations include any study at level 6 or higher such as bachelor degrees, graduate diplomas, and post-graduate degrees. The top third higher education institutions when ranked by average UCAS tariff score of entrants across their best 3 A levels.

Higher apprenticeships are those from level 4 to 7 and are equivalent to a foundation degree and above. Degree apprenticeships are available at levels 6 and 7.

Other study at level 4 or 5 destinations include those students studying qualifications such as foundation degrees, Higher National Certificates (HNCs) and Higher National Diplomas (HNDs).

Data source

Social care

Explore the findings from Ofsted's local authority inspections.

Explore population characteristics for this local authority.