Daily Roundup: Improvement notices, gay adoption, and Shannon Matthews report

The London Borough of Sutton and Wiltshire Council have received improvement notices from the Department for Education (DfE). Sutton’s safeguarding services and Wiltshire’s safeguarding and looked-after children’s services were both found to be failing by Ofsted earlier this year. The councils now have just more than a year to improve. “Any failure in children's services is very serious. It is vital there is a relentless focus on local arrangements for the protection of children and that Ofsted inspections are rigorous,” said a DfE spokeswoman. “The DfE is in contact with Sutton and Wiltshire to make sure their plans for improvement are robust and undertaken as a priority.” Birmingham City Council’s child protection services have also been judged “inadequate” by Ofsted, the BBC reports.

Gay and unmarried couples will be able to adopt in Northern Ireland after the High Court ruled a ban on those in civil partnerships adopting was discriminatory. At present, single gay or lesbian people can adopt, but not if they have partners. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) welcomed the ruling. “Given the high numbers of children in care who need a family in Northern Ireland, the importance of this case in widening the pool of prospective parents cannot be overstated,” said NIHRC chief commissioner Professor Michael O'Flaherty. But health minister Edwin Poots said he would appeal the judgment.

The publication of a report into the case of abducted schoolgirl Shannon Matthews has been halted by the High Court, after her father claimed it would compromise her welfare. Leon Rose presented “powerful new welfare material”, the BBC reports, which led to Mr Justice Holman granting an adjournment to Kirklees Safeguarding Children Board. Rose argued that the report, even if published in a redacted form, would affect his daughter’s recovery. Matthews was abducted from her home in Dewsbury Moor in 2008 and was discovered 24 days later at a relative’s home less than a mile away.

Research into the care received by women who suffer a miscarriage has revealed a good standard of care, but suggests improvements must be made. A freedom of information request made to hospital trusts by Mumsnet found 67 per cent of trusts separate women miscarrying from those receiving routine outpatient antenatal or postnatal care. More than 100 trusts responded to the request, revealing that 81 per cent treat miscarrying women separately as inpatients. “We are pleased to see that many hospital trusts have good policies in place to ensure that the care they provide to women miscarrying is timely, appropriate and empathetic,” said Mumsnet co-founder Justine Roberts. “Now we need to make sure that these policies are implemented consistently so that women and men get the care they deserve.”

UK sex offenders who seek to work with with children abroad through teaching, charity or volunteering roles will face new checks to prevent them offending overseas. The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) has undertaken more than 1,200 investigations into travelling UK sex offenders since 2006, but the organisation believes its International Child Protection Certificate (ICPC) will prevent harm to children abroad in the future. “There is clear evidence to suggest that serious sex offenders who are known to authorities in the UK will often seek out opportunities to work or volunteer abroad,” said Peter Davies, chief executive of Ceop. “The ICPC is intended to be a world-wide safeguard which will give employers and voluntary organisations reassurance that applicants have no convictions in the UK which would make them unsuitable to work with children.”

And finally, London students have achieved the strongest GCSE results in England and Wales for the fourth year running. National results published by the DfE showed 61.3 per cent of students in London achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A* to C including English and mathematics, compared to the national average of 58.6 per cent. But the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said a drop in the number of students gaining the top grades in subjects including English and maths was related to examiners moving grade boundaries. “We can see from the data that schools are continuing to make excellent progress but nevertheless, thousands of young people have had their results and their futures hampered by the GCSE marking fiasco,” said Russell Hobby, general secretary of the NAHT.