Darlington has bucked the national trend to improve its adoption services from satisfactory to good over the past 12 months, a report has revealed.

The news comes after other local authority-run adoption services were criticised by Prime Minister David Cameron for not finding children permanent homes within a year.

As well as the "recognisable improvement" in adoption services, two of the four Darlington Borough Council-run children's homes were classed as good or better by the Government's Ofsted inspection, with the remaining two categorised as satisfactory.

Children's services, as a whole, were classed as performing well, which is also an improvement on the last inspection a year ago, when they were graded as performing adequately overall.

Improvements in services for under-fives were also noted in the report, with nursery and primary schools maintaining their "very good" performance, and an increase in levels of development in pre-schoolers, including children from low income families.

Provision for respite care has improved, with Harewood Lodge now classed as "outstanding".

But areas of improvement identified in the report include the pupil referral unit, which is classed as "inadequate", and the quality of secondary education, which is described as "mixed".

The report also said the council should try to improve the quality of good childminding services, and also develop the screening of police referrals for children in need and risk assessments for children who are victims of domestic violence.

Councillor Cyndi Hughes, the council's cabinet member for children and young people, said: "The fact that we have been able to work with children and young people, parents, carers and partners to continue to improve services against a backdrop of reduced funding, is a real cause for celebration and a true demonstration of our ongoing commitment in this area.

"There ismuch to celebrate, but there is always room for improvement, and while we are performing well, there are still areas to address and we will continue to work with our partners to tackle these areas."

The Ofsted report will be discussed at the council's cabinet meeting tomorrow.