Following this clinical pathway will help immunology services and teams to make sure babies are referred into diagnostic testing in the required timescales.

Interim fishing quota transfers between the UK and the EU.

Hundreds of older people are set to be provided with new homes thanks to a £40m funding injection from Homes England, the Government’s housing agency.

The loan from the £4.5bn Home Building Fund will accelerate the construction of 255 mid-market retirement homes in Audley Group’s Mayfield Villages portfolio, in a segment of the market that is currently under-supplied and builds on Audley’s recently announced joint venture with BlackRock Real Assets.

Mayfield Villages is Audley Group’s mid-market proposition and the properties in its first village will include extensive health, wellbeing, care and leisure facilities. Property owners and members of the local area will also benefit from access to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated Mayfield Care.

Peter Denton, Chief Executive at Homes England, said: “First and foremost, this will enable hundreds of later life customers to enjoy high-quality, independent living accommodation for years to come. The area will benefit from enhanced care provision and family homes will be freed up for the next generation.

“Our loan directly addresses market funding challenges due to the pandemic and highlights our commitment to ensuring diverse communities.”

Nick Sanderson, CEO, Audley Group said: “The transaction with Homes England is an important milestone for the retirement living sector. A coming of age. Government backing underlines the importance placed on increasing provision in the retirement living sector and developing more innovative housing solutions.

“Our aspiration to transform retirement is shared with both Homes England and BlackRock Real Assets and this will be the focus as we look to the future.”

The shortage of family homes is often attributed partly to a lack of quality retirement homes for older people. The new homes in Watford will provide independent homes with care provision included and will free up family-sized homes for new generations to enjoy.

The development is a cornerstone to the wider Riverwell regeneration scheme in what is a priority location for the agency, allowing it to help deliver more ambitious plans. The project also incorporates elements of Modern Methods of Construction, covering build and project management activities.

Improved services in one of the most deprived councils in England are making a real difference to vulnerable children’s and families lives.

‘Tenacious’ social workers in Sunderland – where services have today been rated Outstanding by Ofsted after having been deemed ‘inadequate’ since 2015 – have been praised by Ofsted inspectors for their persistence in developing powerful relationships with children in their care and for putting their voices at the heart of services.

The swift improvements are thanks to ‘unstinting commitment’ from a voluntary trust established by the Government, in collaboration with Sunderland Council, to tackle entrenched failure, and the ‘significant cultural change’ staff have driven.

It makes Sunderland the first council to jump straight from failing in its children’s services to the highest rating in one inspection cycle.

Services were placed into a trust, Together for Children, in April 2017, part of a major Government reform programme to tackle persistent underperformance in areas where vulnerable children and families have been systematically failed.

Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said:

It is so easy to focus on the challenges facing social workers, councils and children’s services, without taking time to acknowledge or champion success.

The vast improvements in Sunderland demonstrate the importance of Government intervening swiftly and decisively where children and families are being failed, so that the right support is in place to level up outcomes and transform lives.

We have a duty to every child in our care to give them the same opportunities as their peers, so we cannot stand by in the face of entrenched failings.

I’m enormously proud of the positive change leaders and staff in Sunderland have achieved, working tirelessly to continue raising the bar even as the pressures of the pandemic took hold.

I’m also pleased to see the success of its early help and intervention work, meaning more families are supported to stay together safely, breaking the cycle of neglect too many have experienced in the past.

Work is now underway with the Department for Education to explore how leaders in Sunderland and Together for Children can share their experiences with other councils to help make improvements elsewhere in lower performing areas.

The Department will continue working with Sunderland to ensure it stays on track, including through the creation of an ‘Edge of Care’ hub where vulnerable families receive dedicated support, avoiding the need for costly placements and reducing the number of children in care.

Today’s Outstanding judgement means six of the 12 local authorities in the northeast of England are now high performing, despite a high rate of children in care (107 per 10,000) and higher than average deprivation levels.

It joins North Tyneside in the top judgement category, with Gateshead, South Tyneside, Northumberland and Hartlepool now rated Good by the inspectorate. North and South Tyneside and Hartlepool are already working with other councils to share learnings as part of the Department for Education’s Sector Led Improvement Partners (SLIP) programme.

Sunderland is one of eight trusts set up since 2010 to run children’s services on behalf of an underperforming council, including Doncaster where, after years of failure services were rated ‘good’ by Ofsted in January 2018 and in Birmingham where services are no longer inadequate after nearly a decade of failure.

Since May 2010, where the Government has provided support, 50 local authorities have been lifted out – and stayed out – of intervention.

The Children’s Minister recently announced a regional recovery fund for children’s social care, backed by £24 million, to level up outcomes for the most vulnerable and tackling the most pressing issues they face in those areas.

Alongside this, the independent review of children’s social care continues to look at where the system can do more to transform outcomes for children. Led by Josh MacAlister, it will identify how to keep children safe from harm, both at home and outside the home, as well as how to support families to stay together safely and tackling the inconsistencies in practice that exist across the country.