THE education of children in Waltham Forest Council care is among the worst in London.

Pupils who are looked after by the council are continuing to get drastically low academic qualifications with claims that the service is badly run.

In 2000 to 2001, only 19 per cent of care leavers aged 16 plus achieved one or more GCSEs in Waltham Forest.

This compares with an average of 34 per cent in inner London and an average of 24 per cent in outer London for children in care during the same period. In England overall the average was 37 per cent.

There are currently 228 children of compulsory school age in care in the borough. Of these, 124 are attending local schools. Another 76 are at schools outside Waltham Forest.

The schooling for another 28 children is unaccounted for on the council's records.

A recent survey said better data on the children's school careers was needed and a modern computer system was required.

Better communication between the education department and social services was also necessary.

Last week, a joint scrutiny committee was held to look at ways of improving the service.

A spokeswoman for EduAction said the local education authority was having a lot of difficulty with getting up-to-date information on pupils from its database.

There were difficulties dealing with children who had been out of school for a long period. They had slipped through the net and it was not known where they were.

Conservative Cllr Laurie Braham said the authority as a corporate parent needed to interest the children in education and added that the number of permanent exclusions of children in care was higher than the two recorded.

Ron Wallace, chief social services officer, said: "The broad message is we are doing very badly. We are the worst in London for the education of children in care."

Cllr Michael Fish, Conservative, said he was worried that children in care were being moved between different schools too often and the government expectation that they could be shifted up to three times a year was wrong.

He said: "How can you educate a child when they spend approximately a term at a school before they move on?"

EduAction said that all the borough's schools had designated teachers for children in care. But, of the 92 schools, only 65 had proper posts while the others had simply named the headteacher.

Liberal Democrat Cllr Clyde Kitson said sending children out of the borough was expensive and the council needed to come up with more information about the situation.

The meeting heard about a series of projects funded by Quality Protects providing personal development and learning skills which can support work done in schools.

One officer said a proportion of children in care had excluded themselves from education and resisted all attempts at being made to attend.