In many ways, the story of Connor Chalmers is about how successful the care system can be when it is working well, but it also exposes how poor the educational system can be at coping with children and young people who have extra needs.

Mr Chalmers was eight years old when he was taken into care (he is 20 now) and is overwhelmingly positive about his early experiences. He remembers the first day he moved into the specialist unit when a female member of staff hugged him and told him everything would be all right. Up to that point, most of the physical contact he had experienced had been violent.

Despite being suspended ten times by the time he was eight, Mr Chalmers' experience of school was also broadly good - he attended a specialist school where he received the attention he needed and the staff knew how to keep him calm and help him learn. But then Mr Chalmers went to college, which is where the system designed to support him appears to have broken down.

The system should work as follows: Mr Chalmers, who is dyslexic, was the subject of a co-ordinated support plan (CSP) which meant that while at school he could receive the extra support he needs, such as a scribe for exams. This plan should have followed him up to college so that staff there could offer him similar help but at least one lecturer was not aware of the plan or Mr Chalmers' extra educational needs.

This failure in the system could have had disastrous consequences for Mr Chalmers - and indeed he did drop out of college for a while - but he is now back on track and doing well. Even so, it is concerning is that a young man in his position should have had co-ordinated support plan but did not, and just as worrying is the fact that the problem appears to be common. By law, every child in care with additional support needs must be assessed for a CSP, but figures gathered by Govan Law Centre show that of 12,533 children in such circumstances, only 6,374 have been assessed.

That is a dereliction of duty by the councils concerned, but it also helps stacks the odds against children who are already in difficult circumstances. Children in care are less likely to leave school with qualifications, they are more likely to have special educational needs, and they are more likely to struggle when they leave school. There is a system of co-ordinated support to help them, but councils must meet their legal obligations to ensure that it is working effectively for the children who need it.