Daily roundup: Substance misuse, social work jobs, and school exams

More than 7,800 newborns have been recorded with "neonatal withdrawal symptoms" in the last five years after becoming dependent on drugs their mothers took during pregnancy. They include 6,599 cases in England, 738 in Scotland and 464 cases in Wales, according to NHS data obtained by the Mirror. The figures show a 22 per cent increase in cases over the last 10 years, from 1,192 in 2004/05 to 1,536 in the past 12 months.

Social work vacancies have soared by 74 per cent in the past year as local authorities struggle to hold on to essential frontline staff. The number of social work roles advertised by local authorities in England rose from 2,700 in May 2013 to 4,700 in the same month this year. The data confirms the battle that local authorities face to keep staffing at safe levels, reports the Independent on Sunday.

Exam boards have lowered some grade boundaries for this summer’s GCSEs to prevent a big dip in results after the former education secretary Michael Gove made the exams more difficult. Children getting their GCSE results this summer will need fewer marks to get a C rather than a D, or an A rather than a B than in previous years, an exam board insider told The Sunday Times.

A new study has found that playing video games for less than an hour a day could have a positive impact on child development. The BBC reports that the researchers at Oxford University found that 10- to 15-year-olds who spent a short period each day on their consoles were better adjusted than those who do not use them at all.

Richard Branson has backed a campaign calling on the government to make it easier for parents to take their children on holiday during school term-time. The Independent reports that the entrepreneur said children will learn more by seeing the world than by sitting in a classroom and backed mother Janice Skelcher, who was given a 12-month conditional discharge and fined £400 for “protecting the mental health of her children by taking them for a break”.

Labour MEP Richard Howitt has said that government cut backs are to blame for Suffolk County Council’s proposals to close nine of its 47 children’s centres. The council says the changes could help save £2.9 million over four years. Howitt told the Eastern Daily Press: “The help and support these children’s centres offer parents and their children in areas of greatest need cannot be overstated, but due to government cutbacks for local authorities there is currently a consultation on their future funding and structure.”