BOLTON is to get a "children's champion" to make sure Bolton Council is a good parent to youngsters in care.

The local authority is to employ a guardian angel to speak up for the children looked after in council-run homes.

And one of their first tasks will be to make sure children in care do better in school.

Money has already been earmarked to take on the children's champion next year and education chiefs have applied for a government grant to finance research to help them with the job.

Detailed information will be gathered about how looked-after children fare at school and what can be done to improve their attendance and exam results.

Terry Piggott, deputy director of education, said: "By the very definition, looked-after children have often had the most difficult childhood experiences.

"They need all the help they can get to succeed and this person will act as a collective voice of vulnerable children and champion their cause.

"We need to know precisely how children in the care of the local authority are doing and what their needs are.

"Soon we will have someone whose sole job is to concentrate on that. It will be the first time we have been able to focus on the educational progress of children looked after by this authority."

The idea of children's champion was raised when social services and education chiefs decided to work more closely together to give a higher priority to youngsters looked after by the local authority.

Education chiefs want to tighten up the education section of care plans for each individual child and aim to make sure 65pc of their school leavers have at least one GCSE or GNVQ to their name by 2002.

Conservative Cllr Alan Wilkinson welcomed the initiative but said it should have come sooner.

Weak

He said: "A number of children in these homes are absent from school for months on end and we, as corporate parents, have been failing them.

"If we had been normal parents we would have been brought before the school attendance panel. We should have done something before now because we are letting these kids down at the moment."

Education director Margaret Blenkinsop said weak links had been identified but added : "We can look at this now because there are new resources coming in, particularly in relation to disaffection and social exclusion."

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