The number of managed moves between schools has more than doubled since the height of the Covid pandemic, an analysis suggests.
Researchers have also warned that pupils involved in such moves are more likely to come from disadvantaged backgrounds and less likely to achieve grade 4 passes in GCSE English and maths than their peers.
FFT Education Datalab estimates that there were more than 5,000 such moves in the 2021-22 academic year from and between mainstream schools.
This figure has increased sharply compared with the two previous academic years, which were hit by Covid lockdowns. In 2019-20, FFT found just over 2,000 managed moves and in 2020-21 it was just over 4,000.
However, the latest figure for 2021-22 is still lower than the numbers seen between 2016-17 and 2018-19, when researchers believe there were around 6,000.
What are ‘managed moves’ between schools?
DfE guidance describes a managed move as the permanent transfer of a pupil between mainstream schools.
It says that managed moves should be voluntary and agreed with all parties involved, including the parents and the admission authority of the new school, and done in the best interests of the pupil.
There have been concerns that data is not collected nationally on the prevalence of use of such moves. The Education Policy Institute warned earlier this year that the system lacks “transparency and oversight” regarding the reasons why pupils move between schools.
FFT Education Datalab has revealed the findings in two blogs published today, which attempt to shed more light on the situation after analysing data from the school census.
The FFT blog said it had made use of the fact that pupils who experience managed moves have overlapping enrolment records in the census.
The analysis has looked at managed moves from mainstream schools. It said that three-quarters (75 per cent) of the moves it found were to other mainstream schools and 22 per cent of moves were to alternative provision schools.
FTT’s chief statistician, Dave Thomson, said: “We do not claim definitively to have identified managed moves. However, we think that some of the things we have discovered in the process are worthy of wider attention.”
The research has also looked at the profile and outcomes of pupils involved in a managed move. This focused on pupils aged 11 in 2018-19 who would typically have completed their GCSEs last summer.
It found that only just over a quarter (27 per cent) of pupils thought to be involved in managed moves in this year group achieved grades 9-4 in GCSE English and maths, compared with 64 per cent of the full cohort.
An analysis of the characteristics of the pupils suspected of having managed moves shows they are more likely to have special educational needs or disabilities or be known to the social care system than their peers.
FFT found that 29 per cent of pupils they identified as potentially having had a managed move were known to social care, compared with 13 per cent of the entire year group.
The findings also show that 49 per cent of pupils believed to have had a managed move had been classed as having SEND at some stage of their education, compared with 29 per cent of the cohort.
Higher levels of disadvantage among managed-move pupils
Some 18 per cent were classed as long-term disadvantaged, compared with 8 per cent overall.
The research found that the level of disadvantage faced by pupils with a managed move was higher than the year group as a whole, but lower than for those pupils who had been permanently excluded.
Concluding the blog, Mr Thomson said: “Pupils who experienced managed moves tend to have experienced multiple forms of disadvantage, however, less so than pupils who experienced exclusion.
“Where we can find like-for-like matches between the two groups of pupils, we tend to find that those who experience managed moves tend to be higher-attaining.
“This is not to say that managed moves are appropriate in place of exclusion. Perhaps the cases we have studied here have not reached the bar where exclusion is appropriate.”
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