Teenagers from care are leaving school with fewer qualifications

Jack McConnell said Scottish councils do not have high enough ambitions and are allowing youngsters to fail.

Six out of 10 children in care leave school without even basic exam passes in key subjects.

However, local authorities rejected the criticisms and accused ministers of "opportunistic council-bashing".

Earlier this year, a report from Audit Scotland revealed that 60% of children in care leave school without Foundation Standard Grades in maths and English - compared with 7% of the school population as a whole.

The same proportion have no jobs or training to take up when they leave school.

No young Scot should think that they are born to fail Jack McConnell

The first minister urged education authorities to do more for these children during a speech at Barnardo's annual conference in Edinburgh.

Mr McConnell said he was not prepared to stand by and let children fail because those who are responsible do not have high enough ambitions for them.

He said: "I believe that every single child should be given the chance to achieve their full potential - wherever they live in Scotland, whatever their background.

"No young Scot should think that they are born to fail.

"We have a particular obligation to those children and young people leaving care as they are particularly vulnerable.

Council commitment

"We have to do much, much more to stop our children from entering into a cycle of poverty and despair.

"I need our local authorities to do more and I am looking for a commitment from each and every one of our local political leaders to make sure this issue gets more and more high level attention."

To prove his point, he spoke of his disappointment that only 18 of the country's 32 councils applied to a new �6m fund for educational support programmes to help children in care.

Jack McConnell wants councils to do more for children in care

He added: "I am determined to press council leaders and others to make sure the education of looked after children is taken as seriously as most parents take the education of their own children.

"Children in care need to be treated as part of our family.

"Everyone in the chain has got a job to do - whether it is the GP or the housing officer, the voluntary organisation or the local authority, the individual or the social worker."

During his speech, the Labour leader also spoke of his hopes of a "balance shift" towards a greater involvement of the voluntary sector in delivery care services.

Education Minister Peter Peacock announced the release of more than �2m in funding from the fund mentioned by Mr McConnell.

Project evaluation

He explained how seven projects across Scotland had received financial support which would be used to pay for everything from IT study programmes to new staff for residential units.

Mr Peacock, who initially offered the money to local authorities, said: "It isn't just disappointing that only 18 councils came forward with ideas but, of those 18, we have only been able to approve seven at this stage as the remainder didn't score highly enough in the project evaluation.

"We plan to work closely with those councils to improve their applications and ensure the money that we have available will really make a difference for this group of young people."

If the Scottish Executive wants a national pilot for all councils they need to put their money where their mouth is Cllr Eric Jackson Cosla spokesman

However, local authority umbrella body Cosla's social work spokesman Councillor Eric Jackson hit back at the claims.

He said local authorities did not shy away from their responsibilities for vulnerable young people.

The executive had initially only been looking to fund six pilot projects, for which it received 18 proposals from Cosla.

Mr Jackson said: "Six million pounds between all councils won't go very far.

"If the Scottish Executive wants a national pilot for all councils they need to put their money where their mouth is."

He also accused the executive of having an "obsession" with exam results.

Little choice

Mr Jackson added: "This mitigates against children with additional needs as councils are forced to concentrate resources on those children likely to get good grades.

"The number of standard grade passes is an obtuse measure of the educational attainment of looked after children.

"For many children and young people in care attending classes and engaging positively with education is an achievement, but the Scottish Executive don't recognise this, choosing to highlight a child's failure to gain a standard grade."

He said that it had taken the executive eight months to decide that it did not like the bids.

Cosla said ministers were obsessed with exam results

"This looks like opportunistic council bashing," Mr Jackson said.

Meanwhile, the Scottish National Party is calling for a review of the policy of encouraging children with disabilities to go to ordinary schools.

Fiona Hyslop, the party's education spokeswoman, said she was concerned that special schools may close because of falling rolls.

She said that could leave parents with little choice over the school that their children attend.

Baroness Warnock, who 30 years ago was the architect of the policy of educating all children together, also wants a rethink.

She said it had been taken too far and was letting children down.