(Photograph) - Recent initiatives to improve the educational performance of children in care are paying off, school inspectors say. Nationwide, the picture is uneven, but in local authorities where the Government’s drive to raise the performance of these children is taken seriously, provision is improving. Initiatives, such as setting a time-limit for those incare to be found a school place, have helped spur some councils to launch projects for raising achievement. Three-quarters of under-19s in care (currently numbering 58,100) leave school at 16 with no qualifications. In 1995 the Officefor Standards in Education reported that children in care were being failed by those responsible for their education.