'Failing standards' in care homes

It identified "inadequacies" in staffing and management, compliance with health and safety regulations and the administration of medication.

The failings were highlighted in the third Safeguarding Children Review, which assesses how well agencies are working at local and national levels to safeguard children and young people.

It found that some of England's most vulnerable children are still not being served effectively by public services, particularly those cared for by their local authority, those seeking asylum or those contained in prisons, young offender institutions and training centres.

According to inspections carried out by Ofsted between April and December last year, 7% of independent and 10% of local authority foster agencies were judged inadequate in terms of keeping children safe.

Similarly, there were concerns about children's homes. While 61% were judged as good or better, 29% were only considered adequate and 10% inadequate.

Ofsted Chief Inspector Christine Gilbert said: "The difficulty we found with children's homes is volatility. Unlike schools, if a school is inadequate it is in special measures and it takes some time for them to progress out of it. With children's homes there is quite rapid change. We can go back in six months and the position looks different.

"Although that is good on one level, with rapid improvement there are sometimes real problems with stability of management and leadership in many of these homes."

The three-yearly report is jointly published by the chief inspectors of eight inspectorates.

It looks at not just protecting children from abuse or neglect, but also insuring that they are growing up safe, healthy and well cared for.