Society daily 09.02.12

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Record number of children in England are taken into care • A4e got welfare-to-work contract despite 'abysmal' record, MPs say • NHS reforms: Lib Dems try to table emergency motion at conference • No alternative to NHS reforms, say coalition • Are NHS waiting times really improving? • Ali Parsa: The NHS is a professional service ripe for re-engineering • Editorial: Health and social care bill - A dismal alternative to real reform • Government outsourced more than 1,100 jobs to private sector in 2011 • Comment is free readers on … negative attitudes towards disability • Hospital breached duty of care to psychiatric patient, supreme court rules • Zoe Williams: Ignore the soporific jargon. Privatisation is a race to the bottom All today's SocietyGuardian stories On the Guardian Professional Networks • The DirectScot experiment: Inside Scotland's new public services hub • Stephen Hester's trial by media was wrong . We pay him below market rate for the job he does at RBS, says Jonathan Jenkins, CEO of the Social Investment Business • Review finds 'significant weaknesses' with troubled regulator the NMC , but it will still be controlled by nursing professionals • Social media needs to be integrated into a wider communictions strategy to be truly effective, argues charity communications expert John Suart • Plans to criminalise unauthorised occupation of homes suggest the practice is rife. Futures Housing Group found a different story • Mind the skills gap: SE7 launches tailored degree for council staff On my radar ... • A prediction from Sunny Hundal on the Liberal Conspiracy blog, the NHS bill could be a Waterloo moment for the government . He writes: The row [over the health and social care bill] has already scared some voters. At the election, 33% of voters felt Tories could best handle the NHS. That has declined by nearly 10pts since then. Health is now the third most important issue rated by voters as important to them. The problem for the govt is when things do start to go wrong – and they absolutely will – voters will automatically blame Cameron. In fact, even if it's not directly his fault they will blame him because they will vaguely remember this big fight. ... At the last election, approval of the NHS was at its highest for a generation. If that decreases then the Conservatives have to be associated with that. That is the only way to ensure they pay the political price for the human cost. Randeep Ramesh is hosting our live blog on the progress of the bill today. • A powerful post by Julia Unwin on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation blog, who argues that the welfare reform debate ignores the facts about poverty . She writes: ... a very high percentage of the 'welfare bill' goes to people who work (although the overwhelming majority goes to people of pension age). In a very real sense the welfare budget benefits landlords charging extortionate rents, because they can, and employers paying minimal, erratic and unreliable wages, because they can. Many landlords and employers are massively dependent on benefits. Without benefits they would really struggle. And yet the public and political discourse denies this. It automatically equates benefit recipients with idleness. It ignores the fact that half of all poor children come from working families. It ignores the contribution unpaid carers make to society. It allows poor people to be blamed for an expensive, creaky and inappropriate system of welfare, and ignores the nature of the jobs market, and the operation of the housing market, which together keep people in poverty. And instead of blaming policy and practice for poverty, it lays all the blame at the door of people who are living lives of real complexity, challenge and hardship. • An interesting point made by Chris Mills on his child protection blog in response to the latest Cafcass figures on care referrals : I find it disturbing that we do not seem to hear from either ministers or opposition spokespeople on this issue. We cannot have a situation - at a time of public spending restraints - in which pressure from increased demand is just allowed to grow and grow. Either substantially increased resources are required to meet the needs of these children or policies that will stem the increase in care proceedings are required. But, as we all know, preventative measures do not come cheap. So either way more money is required. • Lord Glasman , who is delivering a speech tonight on Blue Labour and the Politics of Place for the Localis thinktank. The Blue Labour peer will be discussing globalisation and civic identity - as well as giving his verdict on the government's "big society" project, and offering some hints on the opposition's policy strategy in the run-up to the next general election. • Robin Lawler, the Chartered Institute of Housing president, who has warned that welfare reform poses the greatest challenge to the housing sector. Delivering his speech at the CIH president's dinner last night , he added: ... misplaced assumptions about who benefits from welfare, who should benefit and the role of the state, has deflected from the real issue that is the significant challenge thousands of households face in accessing and retaining affordable, good quality housing. • Polly Gowers, chief executive of charity fundraising technology company Everyclick, who has been nominated in the Innovator of the Year category of the 2012 everywoman in Technology Awards . The awards will be presented at the end of next month. Other news • BBC: Repossessions 'lowest since 2007' • Children & Young People Now: Youth involvement in HealthWatch must be mandatory, say sector bodies • Community Care: Essex council unveils plans for social impact bonds • Independent: Senior Tories begin to get cold feet as health Bill is defeated in Lords • Inside Housing: Flint: ban benefit payments for substandard homes • Telegraph: 'Super-complaint' made against 50 websites over junk food advertising • Third Sector: Tax adviser jailed for £70m Gift Aid fraud 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 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]