Daily roundup 12 February: Adoption, child health, and charity funding

Outgoing children’s commissioner for England has criticised the government’s “fixation” on adoption as a cure-all for children in care. Speaking to the Guardian, Maggie Atkinson said there had been too much emphasis on adoption at the expense of good-quality fostering and residential care. “In some of the decisions we’ve had in the last five years, we’ve got to the stage where somehow there’s a bit of a fixation on adoption as the key to the door,” she said.


Drivers in England will be banned from smoking in their cars if they are carrying children as passengers. The move, which will become law on 1 October, follows a similar ban in Wales and aims to protect young people under 18 from second-hand smoke. Anyone found flouting the law in England could be fined £50. The regulations were passed in the Commons after 342 MPs voted in favour of legislation while just 74 voted against, the BBC reports.