Item 12 - Initial School Leaver Destinations
West Dunbartonshire Council · 18 March 2026
Back to Educational Services Committee — 18 March 2026 and its agenda
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by the Chief Education Officer Educational Services Committee: 18 March 2026 ___________________________________________________________________ Subject: Initial School Leaver Destinations 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide an update on the Initial School Leaver Destinations of our young people who left school in summer 2025. 2. Recommendations 2.1 It is recommended that Committee: a) note the position of our Initial School Leaver Destinations, and to commend the work of staff, parents, partner agencies and the young people themselves. 3. Background 3.1 Each year, Insight (the national Senior Phase Benchmarking tool) is updated in February with the data concerning Initial School Leaver Destinations for the cohort that left school at the end of the previous session. The Initial School Leaver Destination is a snapshot of what our young people are doing on the first Monday in October after they leave school. In 2025, our cohort of leavers was composed of 996 young people. In 2024, it was 998 young people. 3.2 Figures are shown as ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ destinations, and ‘unknown’ where the status of a young person has not been confirmed. 3.3 Positive detinations include: ‘higher education’, ‘further education’, ‘employment’, ‘apprenticeships’, ‘training’, ‘voluntary work’ and ‘personal skills development’. 3.4 Negative detinations are classed as: ‘unemployed seeking’ and ‘unemployed not seeking’. 4. Main Issues 4.1 In 2025, the percentage of young people in a positive destination was 93.1%, with 6.9% being in a negative destination. 0.0% were unknown. Nationally, 95.7% of young people were in a positive destination. ITEM 12
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Figure 1 – Percentage of School Leavers in a Positive Destination – 2021-2025 4.2 This is reduction of 3 percentage points on our performance in 2024, when 96.0% of our 998 young people were in a positive destination, and 4.0% in a negative destination. In 2024 we also had no ‘unknowns’. 4.3 In 2025, we were below our virtual comparator by 2.3 percentage points, below the West Partnership by 2.9 percentage points, and below the national average by 3.0 percentage points. 4.4 Figure 2 below shows this broken down by category: Figure 2 – Destinations by category 2025. 4.5 Table 1 below shows this broken down by category, and compared with 2024:
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Leavers 2025 2024 2025 Leavers Cohort 100% 996 100% 998 Positive Destinations 93.1% 927 96.0% 998 Higher Education 36.2% 361 37.27% 372 Further Education 28.1% 280 26.25% 262 Training 5.3% 53 6.41% 64 Employment 22.1% 220 25.85% 258 Voluntary Work 0.8% 8 0.2% 2 Personal Skills Development 0.5% 5 0.0% 0 Negative Destinations 6.9% 69 4.0% 40 Unemployed Seeking 4.6% 46 1.3% 13 Unemployed Not Seeking 2.3% 23 2.71% 27 Unknown 0.0% 0 0.0% 0 Table 1 – Destinations by category 2025/24. 4.6 Whilst there is a small change in the number of young people going to college and university, the biggest change is in the number of young people going into employment, with reduction of 3.75 percentage points of our young people gaining employment on leaving school, and the associated rise in the number of young people seeking employment. Further detailed work will be undertaken to examine the individual stories making up this data to better identify next steps. 4.7 Appendix A gives this detail for each individual establishment. 4.8 Moving to a positive destination post school is the product of a lot of hard work on the part of staff, parents and carers and our partners – universities and colleges, employers and training providers. Most of all, it is the achievement of our young people, who should be commended for making the transition into a successful outcome post school. 4.9 Where we have seen an increase in the number of young people entering a negative destination we will work with our schools and partners to identify barriers, themes or trends that will affect our future work in this area. 5. People Implications 5.1 There are no direct people implications resulting from this report. 6. Financial Implications 6.1 There are no associated costs with this report.
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7. Risk Analysis 7.1 Failure to have young people entering positive destinations would have a negative impact on the wellbeing of our young people, and their financial prosperity. As a direct consequence, this would have an impact on the wellbeing and prosperity of the local area. 8. Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) 8.1 An Equalities Impact Assessment screening has been undertaken for this report. 9. Consultation 9.1 Legal Services and the Section 95 Officer have been consulted on the content of this report. 10. Strategic Assessment 10.1 Young people entering a positive destination post school contributes directly to Outcome 3 ‘our economy is strong and flourishing’ in our Strategic Plan. Gillian Hamilton Chief Education Officer Date: 2 March 2026 ___________________________________________________________________ Person to Contact: Andrew Brown Senior Education Officer Email: andrew.brown@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: Appendix A – Initial School Leaver Destinations by School. Background Papers: None. Wards Affected: All wards