Society daily 05.09.12

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Save the Children launches campaign to help UK families in poverty • Call for ban on TV junk food ads before 9pm watershed • Jeremy Hunt under fire for stance on NHS tribute, homeopathy and abortion • Abortion campaigners shed no tears at Anne Milton's exit in cabinet reshuffle • Cabinet reshuffle: a good day for Maria Miller but a bad day for women • Paralympics 2012: £2m boost for disabled sport on another golden day • Peter Beresford: Catch up with the Paralympics vibe – stop excluding disabled people • Sharon Brennan: Docking benefits from sick and disabled people unable to work is barbaric • Seumas Milne: George Osborne has failed. The battle is now on for the alternative All today's SocietyGuardian stories In today's SocietyGuardian section • Community volunteers help village's older people stay independent • Circle: a low-cost model for 21st-century adult social care? • Campaigners push for prisoners to be asked what will stop them reoffending • George Galloway has no respect for disability • Jobseekers are not being given the assistance they need • Councils expect bolder outsourcing solutions from the private sector • 'We're doing medicine in a really inefficient way,' says RCPCH leader • Building social housing is good for the economy – and even the City knows it Jobs of the week • Head of black and minority ethnic communications , the Cabinet Office: "The Cabinet Office communications directorate seeks to appoint a specialist communicator to advise, co-ordinate and deliver better government communications for black and minority ethnic audiences." • Head of membership , Woodland Trust • Market research manager , British Red Cross The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs On the Guardian Professional Networks • Live discussion: what makes a good council chief executive? • How to get ahead in ... NHS management • Kent council's No Use Empty scheme shares the secrets of its success Cabinet reshuffle reactions • The prime minister's "right turn" has seen substantial changes to the cabinet , including a new health secretary, justice secretary and party chairman. Andrew Sparrow is following today's developments on the politics live blog , and the healthcare network has compiled reactions to Andrew Lansley's demotion and the appointment of Jeremy Hunt. Denis Campbell looks at the key tasks in Hunt's in-tray , and notes: Doctors' leaders want new health secretary Jeremy Hunt's arrival to improve relations between the profession and ministers, which became very strained as the coalition pushed through its NHS reforms. It's all change among the junior ministerial team too, with a new housing minister , minister for disabled people and public health minister appointed. On the social care network, Peter Beresford assesses Paul Burstow's legacy as care services minister . He writes: ... the government's record for social care is a far from reassuring one. The promise was for comprehensive and unified policy reform which would transform legislation and practice and at last put social care funding on a sustainable footing. This positive package is, clearly, no longer on offer. What has been left is much more worrying. And the departure of children's minister Tim Loughton prompted some glowing tributes. The government's adoption tsar, Martin Narey, tweeted : Very sad that the excellent, hard working, dedicated Tim Loughton has lost his post. These things happen but he'll be a hard act to follow On the Not So Big Society blog, Abe Laurens describes Loughton as : Unfashionably sticking up for children and young people in care and defending the social work profession whilst simultaneously his Cabinet eviscerated the resources he claimed were in place to support them. Finally, this excellent piece from the Dragon's Best Friend blog asks who won what? On my radar ... • A heartbreaking post on the Purple Persuasion blog in which the writer, who describes herself as 30-something working mother living with bipolar disorder, details her "painful and humiliating" Atos work capability assessment . She writes: ... the Department for Work and Pensions has assessed me as being fit for work. Not only that, but after my WCA, an appointment through which I sobbed as I described how severely my life is limited by my condition, I scored zero points out of the 15 necessary to remain on Employment and Support Allowance (sickness benefit). Despite submitting a lengthy letter detailing how my condition and my meds affect me, letters from my Consultant showing ever-increasing levels of medication, and a medical certificate recording me as unfit for work until at least the end of September, my benefit has been stopped. And she adds I guess I could wait until my current contract is wrapped up and start looking for another job. Of course an employer would have to be happy with me working just a few hours a day and being slow and stupid in the mornings, and with me not being able to commit to actually turning up from one week to the next, and variably crying or bouncing around manically in the office. But I'm sure there are hundreds of employers out there who would be cool with that, especially in a recession, right? Or I can appeal. The Government's own figures show that that of the large number of appellants against WCA decisions, 40% are successful. For me, an appeal is not even about the money aspect; I am only entitled to ESA until October anyway, as I am on the "contribution-based" from which only lasts a year (because that's obviously completely adequate for supporting people with life-long conditions). It's about a system that refuses to tell its subjects who is assessing them and whether the [healthcare professionals] or Decision Makers have any training in mental health issues. It's about a system that requires a horribly distressed person to share the intimate details of how her condition disables her, and takes mere attendance as evidence that she is fit for work. Damn straight I'll be appealing. • An interesting post on the LabourList blog by Teresa Pearce, Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead, in which she argues that Labour should rethink its welfare policies , "particularly the primacy of the ' tough on scroungers ' line". She explains: When that is seen by many as our only message on welfare, we have a problem. The values behind the welfare state our party created; that those that can work should do so, and those that cannot work should be supported, can get lost. 'Tough on scroungers' can slip easily into 'tough on benefits' and stigmatise whole groups of people in the process. The continuation of the 'tough' message is our response to polling data on attitudes towards people on out-of-work benefits, who are frequently categorised as lazy or pretending to be unable to work. If we want to be an electorally successful party, they say, then we need to look at what people think and what they want from a prospective Government. Whilst that is true to an extent, political parties do not exist just to reflect people's attitudes back to them. Political parties should be driven by values and the New Labour obsession with polling as our primary driver needs to take a back seat whilst we look at what, and who, our party stands for ahead of the next election. • A great question from the Same Difference blog, why can't you get wheelchair basketball on Playstation? The topic was apparently raised during Channel 4's Paralympic coverage. Blogger Sarah Ismail writes: I see no reason why today's children and teenagers shouldn't be able to play wheelchair sports games on games consoles. To me this seems like wheelchair dolls and teddy bears. Just like wheelchair using kids play with dolls and teddy bears, and should be able to have these toys in wheelchairs, they also play with games consoles. Wouldn't it be brilliant if they could see themselves on computer games? Wouldn't it be brilliant if non-disabled children could learn through computer games that wheelchair sport does exist? This seems particularly relevant to today's generation who have games consoles of all makes, shapes and sizes and more interest in computer games than pretty much anything else. Other news • BBC: Fat 'doesn't have to mean unfit' • Children & Young People Now: Fears over young offenders held in adult prisons • CivilSociety.co.uk: 23-year-old drugs prevention charity closes • Community Care: 'What we need from the new Working Together' • Independent: NHS 'still not getting basics right' • Inside Housing: Sector warns housing minister has hard road ahead • LocalGov.co.uk: Members reject proposal for Cornwall's £500m partnership with private sctor • Public Finance: Spending Review could boost pooled budgets • Telegraph: Home builders helped by planning reforms • Third Sector: More than half of England's volunteer centres report cuts this year SocietyGuardian blogs Patrick Butler's cuts blog 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 editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected]