New Dataset: Service Children and Outreach Hot and Cold Spots in England 2024/25

We’re pleased to share an exciting new resource: the Service Children and Outreach Hot and Cold Spots dataset. This dataset forms part of HEAT’s contribution to the Beyond the Barracks Office for Students (OfS) Innovation fund project, a pioneering initiative aimed at improving access to higher education for students from armed forces families. The project aims to build knowledge and evidence of what works when supporting this group in further and higher education settings, and the new dataset is available to download for HEAT members, Beyond the Barracks partners and the wider public.

This new dataset brings together Department for Education (DfE) data for England and HEAT outreach delivery information for 2024/25, to support a stronger, more strategic understanding of the intersection between Service Children status and higher education outreach delivery across England.

Why this dataset matters

Service Children are a recognised group on the Office for Students Equality of Opportunity Risk Register, yet sector-wide insight into their engagement with higher education outreach has historically been limited. This dataset provides a robust starting point for understanding reach, coverage and potential gaps in outreach provision.

Using the dataset can help to:

• Identify ‘hot spots’ where Service Children are well represented and their schools are well-served with outreach
• Highlight ‘cold spots’ where schools with higher proportions of Service Children may be under-served by outreach
• Support evidence-informed planning and partnership working
• Target outreach more effectively to ensure support is reaching those most likely to benefit

We encourage users of this dataset to explore the data in ways that support their own strategic priorities, evaluation activity and collaboration with local partners.

What does the dataset show?

The dataset maps Service Children (as defined by the DfE) and Outreach engagement at school level in England. For each school included, it shows:

• The number and percentage of pupils identified as Service Children in 2024/25 (where available)
• The number of outreach activities delivered to that school in 2024/25
• The total contact hours associated with that outreach

It also shows contextual data about each school such as its Phase (Primary or Secondary) as well as its Region and Local Authority. Schools are grouped into numeric and colour-coded deciles based on their percentage of service children on roll and the number of outreach activities and the sum of outreach contact hours delivered to a school by HEAT members. This allows users of this dataset to see Service Child representation in relation to outreach engagement, potentially identifying potential ‘hot’ or ‘cold’ spots for outreach delivery. Filtering and combining this dataset with local intelligence could support planning and decision making to tackle cold spots.