Society daily 01.07.11

Sign up to Society daily email briefing A textbook lesson in protest Michael White assesses yesterday's public sector pensions strike "a respectable, but not sensational, success". Guardian reporters joined the marches and demos around the country , and today the debate continues about the affordability of public pensions . Our poll revealed strong public support for the strikers and for the Independent, Andy McSmith writes : "Instead of being a test of industrial muscle, the current dispute is ultimately a battle for public support. The unions lack the power to force the Government to surrender, but if they can convince the public that it is the unreasonableness of the Government that provokes them to strike, they can make the political price the Government must pay to win dangerously high." But the Telegraph declares in its editorial that the day "proved the unions will not win" . For the full report on how the day unfolded, do have a read of Paul Owen's excellent blog , and there's a collection of photographs here Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Palliative care review calls for end to inequalities • Tougher penalties planned for NHS data losses • Housing benefit cuts: Tory flagship prepares to give 5,000 households their marching orders • Heart surgeon: the system for children wrecks confidence - it must change • Wandsworth U-turn over Battersea park playground fee • Failed fire service shakeup sent £469m up in smoke • Report attacks care of mental health patient who killed Wales pensioner • Blue Labour guru Maurice Glasman sets out public service vision • Recession makes educated women in rich countries postpone having babies • Sightseeing for blind people • Taylor Wimpey reports 'incremental' improvement in housing market All today's SocietyGuardian stories Other news • Ministers in England must not shy away from finding more money to fix the "broken" social care system, Andrew Dilnot tells the BBC ahead of the publication of his Commission on Funding Care and Support's report next week. • Senior doctors from Great Ormond Street hospital are to call for independent investigators to be brought in amid mounting accusations of management cover-ups, bullying and falling standards, according to the Independent. Great Ormond Street paediatricians want an investigation into allegations that senior managers withheld critical information about the hospital's role in the events leading to the death of Baby Peter Connolly . • Councils are drawing up plans to borrow billions on the bond market to fund new homes, according to Inside Housing, which says the move which could hike costs for housing associations . • The government has shelved consultative plans to remove councils' social care duties after an outcry, reports Community Care. The Department for Communities and Local Government prompted outrage earlier this year when it launched a consultation reviewing all duties placed on local authorities , including in social care, with a view to slashing "burdens". But, after more than 6,000 responses to the review, the plans have been dropped and the department has said any further action to reduce the "burdensome" duties on councils would be subject to a further consultation. On my radar ... • Katie Price , who has spoken out about disability discrimination and the Frankie Boyle row. In a TV documentary last night, Price discussed raising her eight-year-old son Harvey, who is autistic and has septo-optic dysplasia, and also explored the problems encountered by other people with disabilities. The programme will be screened again next Monday, 4 July, at 9pm on Sky Living. See also this interview with Price on the Daily Mail site : "Of course, I am so much more fortunate than many parents who are caring, bravely and often without outside help, for disabled children. I know this and I appreciate that, in this respect at least, I am blessed. But there would be no difference in the care a boy like Harvey needs whether he was born into privilege or poverty, and I understand the pressure that having such a child can put on any family." Price is backing Mencap's campaign against hate crime , Stand by me. • This guest post on Alastair Campbell's blog from Eileen O'Hara, who recounts her experiences of going through a Criminal Records Bureau check . Police have flagged up O'Hara's mental health history during the CRB process, leading to her being turned down for a job. She writes: "I am appalled and distressed that despite having no criminal record and no history of violence, an episode of mental illness is now officially recorded by the police and will follow me around forever, potentially blighting my employment prospects and otherwise restricting my freedom. It is clearly discriminatory and reflects the police's prejudice and lack of understanding, not any 'risk' that I might pose. I have since learnt that there is no way of erasing this record. The Information Commissioner not only has no power over what the police deem relevant to include in a CRB but, in a test case, actually overruled the complainant in the police's favour. Quite simply, if the police deem the information to be relevant then it is. To be officially labeled in this way without a right of appeal seems to me to be a clear breach of both the Equality Act (2010) and my human rights. I have also learnt that I am not alone in suffering this discrimination – many people who have experienced episodes of mental ill-health have it recorded on their CRBs. But a legal challenge would be long and costly and no one, not even Mind, has summoned up the will to take it on. Needless to say, my own struggle to get this reference to my medical history taken off my CRB has had a bad effect on my health. I feel an unanswerable government agency simply has unwarranted control over a vital area of my life. The saddest part of the story is that this battle has adversely affected O'Hara and she's been referred back to mental health services. • This interesting video on Planning Magazine's YouTube channel, in which writer Owen Hatherley discusses New Labour's regeneration legacy , and says that the coalition's localism agenda is "a many pronged assault on the planning system". • A new report from the MS Forum (pdf), which has found a postcode lottery in treating multiple sclerosis . The forum says that the four most common drugs for MS were prescribed by at least 90% of the English hospitals and specialist centres it surveyed, but there is wide variation in the prescribing of newer drugs, and access to quality healthcare for people with MS varies wildly. The forum, set up last year by the All Party Parliamentary Group for MS to investigate current and future challenges in accessing MS treatments, includes parliamentarians, MS clinicians, policy experts, patient organisations and people affected by MS. MS Society chief executive Simon Gillespie said there was an urgent need for medicines regulator Nice to update its eight-year-old MS clinical guidelines. On the Guardian Professional Networks • The UK is looking to the US for ideas on how to solve its regeneration funding crisis Andrew Stunnell has made a "promise and challenge" on localism , says Rob Dale of the Local Government Information Unit Social enterprises that say they want to change the world should share more , says Benita Matofska, founder and social innovator behind People Who Share SocietyGuardian blogs Patrick Butler's cuts blog Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog SocietyGuardian on social media Follow SocietyGuardian on Twitter Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Follow Clare Horton on Twitter Follow Alison Benjamin on Twitter SocietyGuardian's Facebook page SocietyGuardian links SocietyGuardian.co.uk Guardian cutswatch - tell us about the cuts in your area Public Leaders - the Guardian's website for senior managers of public services The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs SocietyGuardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected] SocietyGuardian.co.uk editor: Clare Horton Email the SocietyGuardian.co.uk editor: [email protected] Interested in education policy and news too? 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