Children need a great deal of encouragement and support

Professor Sonia Jackson

Professor Sonia Jackson, author of the report, said that the lack of understanding between the educational and social sectors needed to be addressed.

Ms Jackson said one of the main reasons for poor educational performance among children in care was the lack of encouragement and support.

"Children need a great deal of encouragement and support, and we know from our research that children who are looked after in care do not get that kind of support."

She said that the disruption to children when placed with different carers impacted on their performance at school.

'Vicious circle'

"These children have had a lot of very difficult experiences in their lives and missed a lot of early school.

"They can come into school without the basic skills that they need to take advantage of education,"she said.

Ms Jackson described it as "a vicious circle" and called for quick intervention to "change things, because otherwise what happens is these children leave school with no qualifications".

"They can't get jobs and they can't get accommodation and that is why we see so many ex-care people on the streets or in our prisons."

The report compared the regions of the UK and found that Northern Ireland had a great deal of good practice in the area.

However, Mr McMillan said there was still a need for improvement in the Northern Ireland care system.

"The practices in Northern Ireland are improving. But the report highlights some of the best practice we would like to see more widely adopted within the province," he said.

Northern Ireland: "lack of understanding"

"Young people need more support and one of the things that Barnardos is calling for in Northern Ireland is the introduction of a Quality Projects Regime that operates in England.

"This sets down standards for educational achievement among other things for children within the care system and we feel that those standards are necessary to raise standards generally."

Ms Jackson said that a lack of understanding between education and care professionals was one of the main reasons for poor performance.

"What hasn't been understood in this country is that care and education are absolutely inseparable and if you don't get the education right you can't get the care right either," she said.

"One of the main reasons for placement breakdown we found is lack of attention to education, children being out of school, children not doing well at school and being unhappy there.

'Lack of communication'

"The other major problem is a lack of communication between the school and placements, and that is partly because people are not clear as to whose responsibility it is.

"I think we could do a lot more by encouraging and supporting foster parents," she said.

Ms Jackson added: "We feel that children in public care are are uniquely vulnerable to falling through the gaps in services.

"What has happened in some trusts is that teachers have been employed to liaise with schools carers residential units to make sure that they don't fall down through these gaps."

The report found many examples of good practise in Northern Ireland and said that because people were aware of the problem, things could be improved.