Extra help for children in care

Education Secretary Alan Johnson, who narrowly avoided being taken into care himself when orphaned as a young child, will announce a series of proposals, which are likely to include a bursary for university education, salaries for foster parents, the right for children to remain in care after 16, and measures to stop them being repeatedly moved between foster homes.

Care leavers are more than twice as likely not to be in education, employment and training by the age of 19, official statistics show.

And they are far more likely to become teenage mothers or end up in jail as the gap between their prospects and other youngsters continues to increase.

They could face regular drug screening in routine health checks, to help them avoid falling into addiction and intensive whole-family therapy sessions could be used in a last-ditch effort to prevent children being taken into care in the first place.

Mr Johnson has dubbed it "inexcusable and shameful" that the care system all too often reinforces the disadvantage suffered by children taken from their parents because of neglect or abuse.

And launching the Government's initial proposals last year, he said he wanted to see the state truly acting as a "proxy parent" and insisting on the same emotional, financial and practical support that any parents would want for their own child.

He and children's minister Beverley Hughes will meet some care leavers as part of the launch of the White Paper.

The Local Government Association said it hoped the policy will give local authorities "the tools to do the job" and the funding to put them into action.

Liberal Democrat spokeswoman Annette Brooke said: "Ten years ago Labour promised to do more to help children in care, but we are still in a situation where these young people are 25 times more likely to end up in prison and nine times as likely to be excluded from school. The time has come for the Government to finally live up to its promises."