Despite progress in recent years, outcomes for looked after children remain unacceptable: for example, only 11 per cent got five good GCSEs in 2005, compared with 54 per cent for children generally. The reforms introduced by Every Child Matters mean that for the first time there is an infrastructure to deal with the problems of looked after children in a co-ordinated way.

Publication of Care Matters is only the start of the process. There will be a genuinely substantive consultation period, and the intention is for the Green Paper to initiate a dialogue about the issues faced by children in care. The aim is to deliver long-term, fundamental reform over the next decade and more.

The school environment and the way in which teachers and other school staff work with them are vital to a child�s chances of success. Looked after children currently have a poor experience of school: they tend to be in lower performing schools, be moved around between schools too often, and receive insufficient support within school to flourish. Proposals for reforming the education of looked after children include:

• Providing local authorities (LAs) with the power to direct schools to admit children in care, even where the school is fully subscribed
• A dedicated budget for each social worker to spend on improving the educational experience of every child in care
• A �virtual headteacher� in every local area, responsible for driving up the performance of schools in relation to children in care
• An enhanced entitlement to free school transport to ensure that when children move placement they do not necessarily also need to change school
• Guaranteed catch-up support in schools
• Asking Ofsted to carry out a regular inspection of how each LA is meeting the education needs of children in care and introducing an annual national stock-take by Ministers of the progress of children in care
• A range of proposals for improving provision in further education

As part of a truly cross-Government agenda, the Green Paper also proposes a range of reforms to social services. Furthermore it aims to ensure that children in care can access all the positive activities and support which children generally tend to enjoy. Key proposals include:

• Raising the quality of foster care and children�s homes through new qualifications and training for the workforce, including a new Centre of Excellence to lead children�s services in improving practice on the ground
• Encouraging LAs to provide free access for children in care to all their facilities including leisure centres, sports grounds and youth clubs
• Support for young people as they move towards adulthood, including a �2000 bursary to enable them to go to university and a boosted Child Trust Fund, with an extra  �100 for each year a child is in care

The consultation
The Government wants to hear a range of views on this package of proposals, particularly those of children and young people who are or have been in care.  There will be a range of ways to take part in the consultation exercise, which runs from 9 October 2006 until 15 January 2007. This will include conferences, focus groups and regional road shows.

There will also be working groups to look at four specific issues: the future of the care population, social care practices, placement reform and best practice in schools.

After the consultation the Government will publish an initial response, including a version for young people in 2007.  Final decisions on proposals with cost implications from 2008-09 onwards will be taken in the context of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.

• Care mattters consultation