Society daily 28.11.11

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • NHS hospitals have higher death rates at weekends, research finds • Osborne's £5bn gamble to stave off recession • Larry Elliott: Statement will not be ae U-turn - quite • Jackie Ashley: Coalition's Plan P (for panic) owes a lot to Labour • Len McCluskey: Wednesday's strike is just the start • Rise in 'paupers' funerals' among older people • Trafficked people being treated as criminals by officials, inquiry says • Rebecca Front: Let's give the media some credit for its mental health coverage • Dave Hill: Without an increase in social housing London and Londoners will suffer • Peter Preston: Why shops matter All today's SocietyGuardian stories The pick of the weekend's SocietyGuardian news and comment • Public sector strike: 'we have to live too' • Race variation in jail sentences, study suggests • England riots: the personal cost All Sunday's SocietyGuardian news and comment All Saturday's SocietyGuardian news and comment Other news • BBC: Poll suggests support for strike • Children & Young People Now: Loughton urged to resolve dispute over creation of College of Social Work • Community Care: Government U-turn on scrapping mobility allowance expected • Independent: Save the UK's libraries? It's beyond me, admits US guru • Inside Housing: Lord Freud resists benefit cap amendments • Localgov.co.uk: Unions and ministers step up war of words ahead of strikes • Public Finance: Housing Benefit cut may cost more, experts warn • Telegraph: More judges needed to deal with appeals to welfare cuts • Third Sector: Government unable to say whether charities qualify for Youth Contract subsidies On my radar ... • The sad death of the Wales football manager Gary Speed , who has apparently taken his own life at the age of 42. The news of Speed's death has prompted Kevin Betts, whose father committed suicide, to write this incredibly moving blogpost: I read earlier that the last recorded number of suicides in a year was 5,706. If we held a minute's silence for each of those people, we would remain silent for a shade under four straight days! That is way too many deaths. Each one is the result of a unique life experience (or set of them), and potentially, I believe each of those people could have been helped. I'm not saying we can prevent every suicide in the country. But what I do believe is that there are so many people out there who kill themselves not knowing how they might be helped, and how there are people out there who love them, who are willing to support them and who WANT to take up some of the slack that is weighing them down. I would take on a world of my dad's pain if it meant he wouldn't die. I would sacrifice so much to still have him here, and have him know that I love him so dearly that even now, over 8 years after his death, I still look into space each night and mouth 'I love you, dad'. Unfortunately, I can do none of the above. Because it is too late for him. Whilst I've come to terms with him not being around any more, it doesn't stop the dreams I have that mean I sometimes wake up and for a split second think he's still around and just a phone call away. What I can do, though, is to encourage people to challenge themselves to talk about any issues they have. To show people that there are ways and means of getting help. I will continue to slog myself physically and mentally to get the word out there, and I will use my own experiences, no matter how much it hurts to talk about them, to get people talking what's on their minds. (thanks to Shirley Ayres for the link) The Campaign Against Living Miserably, a charity set up to reach out to young men considering suicide, has just started working in London after more than a decade in the north-west of England. On its blog, Martin Cordiner has posted a response to Speed's death : We can ask the question, 'how are you feeling?', but if someone doesn't trust that they won't be thought less of if they answer honestly then what's the point of asking the question? And this isn't just an issue for footballers or sportsmen, we need to get this right for every man, as suicide and mental health problems don't discriminate, they don't just affect the rich, the poor, the young or the old. This is something we ALL have to do something about. As a society, we need to open up. We need to talk to each other, we need to listen to each other and we need to show everyone, absolutely everyone, the same respect that will help them to know that they are a human being and that they are not alone. The silence is literally killing us. CALM's message and your support for our work, enabling us to support men with our helpline, our website and our London text service, has never been so important. The Mental Health Foundation has this information for anyone having suicidal thoughts , or who knows someone who is. • The Guardian's Christmas charity appeal , which launched this weekend. This year, we are supporting eight charities that specialise in turning around the lives of troubled young people . Introducing the beneficiaries, Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger writes: All eight charities we have chosen to support in this year's Guardian and Observer Christmas charity appeal specialise in working with young people who have found it hard to develop and express themselves, or who have to varying degrees become marginalised by or excluded from the communities in which they live. These charities have been chosen for their demonstrable success in helping to turn around the lives of young people they work with. • Social care , which is being debated at a TUC seminar today in London. Andrew Dilnot, who chaired the Commission on Funding and Social Care, is presenting a report on financing social care and speakers include regular SocietyGuardian contributor Peter Beresford and Unison's officer for social care, Alison Roche. The event can be followed via Twitter using the hashtag #TUClive and there will be live video on the TUC's Touchstone blog . • Question of the day, posed on the Philanthrocapitalism blog: What would you do with £300m? According to the blog, the National Fund, created in the 1920s with a donation of £500,000 by an anonymous donor with the purpose of paying off Britain's national debt, is now worth more than £300m, and its trustees are looking at changing its mission: The bad news is that it is still a very long way off achieving its goal: the original gift would have paid off 0.007% of the national debt in 1927; today it would make a 0.04% dent in what the nation owes its creditors. Hmmm. Given that the National Fund is not going to meet its goal within any meaningful timeframe we applaud the decision by Barclays Fiduciary Services, which took over the trusteeship in 2009, to re-examine its mission. Unsurprisingly the voluntary sector has been getting rather excited at the prospect of some new cash. But how should it be used? Even if the National Fund paid out, say, 5% of its assets each year, that would amount to little more than £15 million a year of new grantmaking. So there would be no funding bonanza. Also, without a founder's vision for its grant-making role, there is a risk that all the money would be handed out through mushy-thinking "spray and pray", or would merely by used to prop up uncontroversial 'national treasure' type causes. So how the National Fund should spend its money is an important and interesting debate. • This charming film from charity Coram , about the work of its "life bus" which provides PSHE classes to 800,000 children - from nursery to year 6 - around the UK each year. It's like a little magic kingdom." says primary teacher Kathy Brodbeck. • The role of volunteers in child protection , a subject being discussed at a CSV event today . New research by Anglia Ruskin University examining the benefits of training local volunteers to support families with children at risk of neglect and abuse is being presented at the event, which will also be addressed by the children's minister, Tim Loughton. On the Guardian Professional Networks • Patient from Hell Dick Vinegar explains why we should give Circle a chance to take over the troubled Hinchingbrooke hospital • Laura Sleight, head of media relations at Blue Cross explains how charities can use television appearances to their advantage • Live discussion from noon: What does the housing strategy mean for the sector , what's missing and what should we prepare for? Events and seminars Making your multimedia content work for you Are you using multimedia content as effectively as you can to get your stories seen and heard? This session, in partnership with sounddelivery, will bring together experts and real case studies to ensure you have the vision, strategy and practical know-how to maximise the opportunities at hand. 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Sign up for the daily Cribsheet round-up • This article was amended on 1 December 2011 to correct a subheading. We had originally stated that A&E death rates are higher at weekends, but the research referred to hospital death rates, rather than those in A&E departments