Daily roundup: adoption incentives, Haringey Council, and academies

Southwark Council has almost doubled the number of potential adopters it is assessing after offering £1,000 "finders fees" to community and faith groups whose members become adopters. The council is currently assessing 56 new adopters, nearly half of whom are from ethnic minority groups, it said. The London borough also recently told schools about the finders fee, and has seen enquiries through its website go up nearly eight-fold since launching an awareness campaign in April.

Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone is calling for an independent review of children's services in Haringey after it has emerged another serious child abuse case is being investigated in the London borough. The launch of the serious case review follows last month's publication of a review into protection failings for Child T, and comes five years after the death of Baby Peter Connelly. "Since then, they have said the same things over and over again – yet these shocking cases keep appearing,” Featherstone told the Haringey Independent.