BY JACK WELCH

FOR many people across communities, the perception of what it means to have a child or young person in care has not fared well over the years.

Often associated with challenging behaviour, disadvantaged to those who live with family and ultimately facing bad prospects with their attainment in education, it is clear that the system itself is one that has lacked attention it deserves.

A report recently published by the National Audit Office exposes the scale of how many local authorities have abandoned young people to their own devices, when many are simply less than prepared for independent living and do not have the means to live in a secure situation.

An estimated 17 per cent of those authorities lack the information needed about the welfare and the most vulnerable care leavers, aged 19-21, are simply lost in the system.

In the last decade alone, over 10,000 young people have left care to often worrying circumstances.

A new assessment from the children’s commissioner for England has proposed that young people should be able to stay in care until 25, with many care centres at the moment requiring those reaching 18 to leave and search for their own accommodation.

Some previous statistics have already indicated the scale of disadvantage those in care face, where 30 per cent leave school with no GCSEs and only 6 per cent at university level.

It is a sign that something must be done now to nurture these troubled groups, so they too will have an equal chance for opportunities.