A leading figure in children's services has called for local education authorities to be measured on school exclusions more vigorously.

Andrew Christie, director of Hammersmith and Fulham's children's trust in London, said there was a need for an assessment of LEAs that went "beyond" measuring the number of formal exclusions.

"The reality, if you look at kids in care, is that they are not actually formally excluded but it has been made very clear to them by some schools that they are not welcome," he said.

Children not in care were also informally excluded, said Christie. While social services are held to account by a performance indicator measuring the number of looked-after children who miss more than 25 days of schooling, there is no parallel indicator for the children LEAs report on.

"The LEA gets measured only on the number of kids who are formally excluded," he said.

Christie added that, although many councils placed looked-after children into care in other local authorities, the LEAs in those areas failed to take adequate responsibility for the children.

Christie said the government should measure the performance of LEAs for such children to ensure it took responsibility for all looked-after children living in its area, not just those from its own authority.