Daily roundup: Rochdale's social care chief steps down, primary admissions appeals and statistics on heroin addiction

The head of children’s social services in Rochdale has resigned in the wake of the child abuse scandal engulfing the authority. The council said Steve Garner, who became service director in 2009, decided to move on during a review of senior jobs. His department came in for criticism last week in a report that highlighted missed opportunities to safeguard young people who were being sexually exploited. Nine men were jailed in May for grooming and abusing girls as young as 13 in the area.

Increasing numbers of parents are appealing against primary school admissions decisions, figures from the Department for Education have shown. For 2010/11, 46,905 appeals were lodged regarding admissions to maintained primary schools, compared to 42,070 for 2009/10. A total of 7,380 appeals were decided in favour of parents for 2010/11 compared with 7,045 in 2009/10. Despite this, there was a decrease in the number of appeals lodged for admissions to state maintained secondary schools from 43,095 in 2009/10 to 36,565 in 2010/11.

The number of young people being treated for heroin addiction has fallen to its lowest level. Statistics released by the National Treatment Agency show that the number of 18-to 24-year-olds being treated for heroin has fallen by 23 per cent in the last year from 5,532 to 4,268. Paul Hayes, NTA chief executive, said: "The number of heroin and crack addicts is shrinking as fewer are starting to use the most harmful drugs, and more of them are recovering from addiction. The sharp drop in the number of young adults needing treatment is particularly encouraging.”

Two workplace nurseries have won a reprieve from closure. Parents working for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in Cardiff and East Kilbride have been told that on-site nurseries will stay open for another three years. HMRC previously stated that it would close the settings because most of the parents of children at the nursery did not work for the organisation. But it said it now "recognised" that the majority of users were in fact staff. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This is very good news for parents in Cardiff and East Kilbride and would never have happened if they had simply accepted the decision, which HMRC now accepts was flawed.”

A “traffic light” toolkit has been launched by sexual health charity Brook to help professionals working with young people identify harmful behaviours. The tool uses a system of red, amber and green to aid decision making in identifying risky behaviour and highlights support that can be offered to help young people to stay safe and healthy. Sian Brady, who managed the project for Brook, said: “We know that even professionals can sometimes struggle to identify risk. The traffic lights tool provides a simple way to distinguish between healthy and harmful behaviours and provides a unified approach for all professionals working with young people.”

And finally, a community group has received a boost in its bid to save a Worcestershire youth centre after being given more time to raise funds to take it over. The BBC reports that Worcestershire County Council has extended an autumn deadline for the closure of Redditch Youth House, until Christmas. A group called Redditch Youth and Community Enterprise is attempting to raise £150,000 to buy the building and keep the youth club open.