Daily roundup: Improving maternity units, failing schools, and teenage alcohol abuse

More than 100 hospitals are to receive a slice of £25m to improve maternity units. The Guardian reports that the money, announced by health minister Dan Poulter, will go towards new birthing pools, more family rooms so that fathers can sleep over and extra midwife-led units. “These will make a big difference to the experience mums and families have of NHS maternity services, with more choice and a better environment where women can give birth,” Poulter said.

Government figures show that around 170,000 pupils attend secondary schools where less than 40 per cent of children get good GCSE grades. The Telegraph reports that in total 195 schools in England fall below the government’s floor targets for exam results. The statistics also show that around a quarter of schools and colleges failed to produce a single student with top A-level grades in subjects seen as a “stepping stone” to leading universities.

Teenage alcohol abuse can be tackled through providing mental health support to young people in schools, whereby pupils classed as being at ‘high risk’ of developing future alcohol dependency are taught to better manage certain personality traits, research has found. A study commissioned by Action on Addiction found that such “targeted psychological interventions” for pupils at risk of emotional and behaviour problems can significantly reduce their future drinking behaviour.

Calls to lower the voting age to 16 will be debated by MPs in parliament today. Bristol 24-7 reports that local Lib Dem MP Stephen Williams will introduce a fresh private members bill on the issue after a similar bill was defeated by eight votes in 2005. Today’s debate will not force a change in the law, but if MPs vote in favour it would signal to government that members of the House of Commons want a change to take place. “Giving the right to vote to 16- and 17-year-olds now has widespread support across the political spectrum,” Williams said.

All nursery children in Scotland should receive a full two years of pre-school education, a think-tank has said. The BBC reports that Reform Scotland said the current system, in which children are entitled to receive government-funded nursery education from the age of three until they start primary school, leads to some children receiving the full two years, while others get only 15 months. It said the “birthday discrimination” can lead to a gap in learning for some children.

The numbers of children on the child protection register in Northern Ireland has increased by nearly a fifth since 2007, research has found. The Belfast Telegraph reports on research by academics at Queen’s University, Belfast, which found that 2,127 children were classed as being at risk in 2012, compared to 1,805 in 2007. John Devaney, a lecturer in social work at the university, said child protection services had been stretched because of the increase in demand.