CYP Now has spoken to the 10 councils involved in a two-year pathfinder project to test the effectiveness of boarding provision as an alternative for vulnerable children, which launched in November 2006. But more than a year on and only two of the pathfinders, Hertfordshire and Suffolk, have taken part, sending just five children between them.

In the other eight authorities not a single child has gone to boarding school as part of the scheme, although a few had sent children prior to the pathfinder's launch. Most authorities said they have not been able to identify any children who would be suitable candidates.

Tim Walker, chief executive of the National Teaching & Advisory Service, an education service for looked-after children, said the objectives of the project were unrealistic. "This is a well-intended project but it is ill-thought out," he said.

Hilary Moriarty, national director of the Boarding Schools' Association, said local authorities' lack of familiarity with boarding schools was stopping them sending children there.

But Moriarty still supports the scheme, which she says will take time to embed. "For some children family breakdown may be such that boarding is a good option for them," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said: "Boarding will not be right for all children in care but we have been making good progress in establishing the procedures needed to identify those young people most likely to benefit."