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.

Ministers are making struggling schools become academies even when the costs are disproportionate to the benefits, a government document leaked to the BBC suggests. Civil servants planning for budget cuts at the education department suggested ministers consider value for money before forcing academy conversions. But Education Secretary Michael Gove overruled this cash-saving idea as "totally wrong", the document reveals.

Neighbouring councils Knowsley, Halton, and Cheshire West and Chester have formed a partnership to address a shortage of adopters across the region. The collaboration, Together4Adoption, has a website offering information about adoption and advice that tackles myths on the process, and should help to respond more effectively to enquiries from potential adopters. Across the collaboration area,  28 children are in need of adoption across the collaboration area, but only 12 families are on the list as approved adopters.

A report by the Skills Commission, an independent body of leaders from across the education and policy sectors, has called for further education providers to focus more on increasing the quality of education provision for learners. Chaired by Dame Ruth Silver and Barry Sheerman MP, the Commission report highlights shortcomings in the current FE governance and the need for better self-scrutiny if standards are to be improved. It makes a series of recommendations on how to improve governance arrangements.

The Anti-bullying Alliance has published education resources for children's professionals to be used during Anti-Bullying Week, which runs from 18-22 November. The resources are for use in school, further education and youth work settings and include lesson plans and briefings on the issue. The Alliance is hosted by the National Children's Bureau.