JACK McCONNELL has indicated that he is prepared as a last resort to take responsibility for the education of children in care from local authorities.
The First Minister is exasperated that too many councils are not providing these 12,000 children with good enough schooling and support.
The latest statistics show that 60 per cent of children in care leave school without the most basic of examination passes in English and maths (compared with only 7 per cent of the school population as a whole). The same proportion are not in education, employment or training after leaving care.
The Scottish Executive has set up a £6 million fund to increase educational attainment for these “born to fail” children. The idea is that councils come forward with ideas, such as IT study programmes or tutorial and homework support. If the local authority initiatives are approved by ministers, they get access to the fund.
But around half of councils have failed to apply for a share of the cash and, of those which did, only seven applications, totalling £2 million, were approved after evaluation.
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Mr McConnell underlined his concern yesterday in a speech to mark the 100th anniversary of Barnado’s. He suggested councils did not have high enough ambitions and allowed too many youngsters to fail. A source close to Mr McConnell, asked if the First Minister was considering removing educational responsibility for children in care from councils, said later: “We are not at that stage because there are some examples of some authorities doing well. However, we are keeping it under review.”
Mr McConnell’s remarks will add to speculation that the Executive may be prepared to see voluntary organisations such as Barnado’s playing a greater role in how these children are supported. Such a move would fit with the emphasis on standards of leadership in schools.
The First Minister told yesterday’s conference at Barnado’s in Edinburgh: “I believe that every single child should be given the chance to achieve their full potential — wherever they live in Scotland, whatever their background.”
The councils claim the Executive is not providing enough funds for children’s services generally and that councils did spend more on these services than ministers had claimed.