More than half of Scotland's residential care homes for children must make improvements in vital areas such as child protection and physical restraint training, a new study has found.

The Care Commission's report released yesterday found 52% of the 224 homes fell short in at least one of three critical areas.

The key areas for concern were protection from abuse from staff, fellow residents or the wider community; restraint; and care planning, aimed at tailoring care for individuals rather than a blanket approach.

The report also found there is no accurate national picture of restraint usage, with staff using outdated methods in some cases, and that children and young people feel unable to complain freely about their treatment.

The study revealed that in 60% of secure accommodation services, improvements were needed in at least one of the protection, care planning or restraint areas.

The report follows revelations of past practices at Kerelaw, near Stevenston, Ayrshire, shut down in 2006 after a police and council investigation. Two teachers were convicted of sexual and physical abuse and 12 other members of staff were sacked and others suspended.

The commission was also forced to take legal enforcement action on two residential special schools because of concerns about the safety and wellbeing of young people there.

They were Geilsland School in Beith, also Ayrshire, where it suspended admissions, and Moorehouse in Bathgate, West Lothian. Both have since met the commission's requirements.

The watchdog examined all 187 care homes for children and young people, all 32 residential special schools and the country's five secure accommodation services, involving around 2400 young people.

The report added that the Scottish Government, the councils' body Cosla, professional organisations, and the commission should work towards a standardised system for recording when physical restraint is used.

The commission received 25 complaints in just one year from young people or their representatives. It is thought there would have been more if there were better channels of complaint. "We remain concerned about whether or not young people feel able to complain about the service they live in," said the report.

Last night, Scotland's Commissioner for Children, Kathleen Marshall, said her advisers have highlighted the difficulties caused by lack of consistency in care standards.

Anne Houston, of Children 1st, said: "We also need to ask whether more can be done to keep vulnerable children and young people who cannot remain with their parents within their wider family instead of being taken into care in the first place."

Jonathan Sher, of Children in Scotland, said it is the government's role "to ensure the residential care settings have what they need to succeed and are monitored closely."

Bernadette Docherty, of the Association of Directors of Social Work, said: "It is imperative all care providers are training their staff in properly accepted methods of physical restraint."

A Scottish Government spokesman said it has commissioned experts to examine improvements and given councils £2.5m to help children in care over 2007-08.

Ronnie Hill, director of children's services at the commission, said: "We owe it to our children to do everything we can to ensure they grow up in a safe environment and emerge as responsible and achieving members of society."