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Service children who face regular moves from home and school can suffer high levels of anxiety and stress, especially when their parents deploy to armed conflicts overseas, according to an Ofsted report launched today.

The report, ‘Children in Service families. The quality and impact of partnership provision for children in Service families’, found that this problem was exacerbated because systems of transfer of children's records between schools were not always properly coordinated and important information was therefore delayed or did not arrive at all.

Although many Service children, with support, do catch up or exceed the achievement of their civilian peers, some did not achieve the grades they might have achieved if they had not been moving around so much.

A key shortcoming was that there is no accurate single database of Service children or effective system to track their movements. There was also generally a lack of continuity of support and provision for children from Service families as they move between schools, heightened in areas where small numbers of Service children were being catered for and where there was less understanding of their needs.

The report, requested by the Ministry of Defence, also found that Service children were potentially susceptible to social and emotional disturbance while a parent or other family member was on active deployment.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, said:

‘Service children often attend many different schools over the course of their school life. This makes continuity and progression in learning hard to achieve and there is more we should be doing.

‘Information about each child’s standards, progress and needs should be passed effectively from school to school in order to ensure their learning and development is as good as possible. Too often this is not done well enough and many Service children are missing large parts of their curriculum and essential training in key areas and they struggle to catch up. This is made all the harder for them given their anxieties about their parents when on active service. Comprehensive data, following children as they move, would make a real difference.

‘Many schools give excellent support to Service children. The report highlights the good practice found by inspectors and contains, for example, information on effective pastoral systems in a number of schools. It is important that good practice is shared widely and that other schools emulate it.’

The report recommends that an accurate database is developed to track where Service children and young people are here and overseas.

It recommends that the Department for Education should collate and disseminate the most up-to-date research and good practice relating to Service children and their families to help schools and local authorities better understand and respond to their needs. The Department should also ensure that national policy includes Service children as a distinctive group so that their specific needs remain visible.

The Ministry of Defence should, as far as operational priorities permit, allow greater flexibility in relation to movement dates for the families of serving personnel.

Schools should be aware of the distinct needs of Service children and make any necessary provision for them. They should improve the system for the transfer of Service children and their records from one school to another. They should use all available information to carry out a prompt assessment of children’s needs.

Local authorities should ensure the timely assessment of Service children’s particular needs and work with schools to develop an effective system for the transfer of documentation of any child with special needs or disabilities. They should re-evaluate their admissions processes to ensure they take appropriate account of requests from Service families for school places.

The report looks at the impact of partnership provision for children in Service families and identifies several positive examples of partnership working between schools and external agencies.

Notes for Editors

1. During the survey, inspectors visited 30 maintained and three independent schools in England with varying percentages of Service children on roll in 16 local authority areas. They also visited 11 Service Children's Education schools and four Pupil and Family Service Centres in Germany and Cyprus. Interviews were held with children and young people, parents, school staff, governors and associated professionals from military and civilian backgrounds. Inspectors also held discussions with 16 local authorities who had varying numbers of Service children within the school population. In addition, 166 maintained schools in England responded to a survey questionnaire and the views of Service Children’s Education schools located outside of Germany and Cyprus were also gathered.

2. There is currently no single definitive record of how many children from Service families are living in the UK and/or overseas. In January 2010, the Department for Education’s Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) identified 37,940 Service children in England while in November 2010, Ministry of Defence Service personnel records indicated that there were 90,450 dependants aged 18 and under of military personnel in the Service population, in UK and overseas.

3. The report can be found at: www.ofsted.gov.uk/publications/100227

4. Ofsted was created as the single inspectorate for children and learners in April 2007. Its care and education remit was intended to mirror the roles and responsibilities of children’s services departments in local authorities, and those of the relevant government department, now the Department for Education.

5. The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) regulates and inspects to achieve excellence in the care of children and young people, and in education and skills for learners of all ages. It regulates and inspects childcare and children's social care, and inspects the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass), schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning and skills training, adult and community learning, and education and training in prisons and other secure establishments. It assesses council children’s services, and inspects services for looked after children, safeguarding and child protection.

6. Media can contact the Ofsted Press Office through 020 7421 6574 or via Ofsted's enquiry line 0300 1231231 between 8.30am - 6.30pm Monday - Friday. Out of these hours, during evenings and weekends, the duty press officer can be reached on 07919 057359.