Society daily 03.07.12

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Children in care to get more protection against 'export trade' • Number of teenagers with Saturday jobs slumps • Better use of public data could save government £33bn • Debates after the riots find local differences and a common theme • John Harris: This cruel welfare system is steadily crushing lives – where is the anger? • Polly Toynbee: This lost generation will cost us more than the cuts save • Robert Skidelsky: Let's abolish retirement • Ellie Mae O'Hagan: Bangor's curfew will alienate its teenagers • Homeless performers take over Royal Opera House All today's SocietyGuardian stories In tomorrow's SocietyGuardian section • Dr Gabriel Scally resigned from the Department of Health to voice his fears for the NHS . In his first interview since quitting, he speaks to Denis Campbell • Organisations may be sighing with relief at the government's U-turn on charitable tax reliefs , but traditional sources of funds are drying up, says David Brindle • The politicians who spoke of their own mental health experiences during a House of Commons debate should be warmly applauded, says Clare Allan • Prisoners in south London have been running a restaurant since 2009 – boosting their chances of finding work when released • Government plans to reform the civil service will fail unless its people have the skills, development and leadership required to deliver it, warns Andrew Jackson • Unused medication returned to chemists is not redispensed but incinerated – at a huge cost to the NHS On the Guardian Professional Networks • A minister for older people would be a victory for all ages , says Mario Ambrosi • Foodbanks fed more than 128,000 people nationwide last year. Photographer Kayte Brimacombe visited four London branches • Professor Tony Rudd discusses the transformation of London's stroke care and his fears about the impact of NHS reforms • Geof Cox looks at the important role inspirational social entrepreneurs play in employing people with disabilities On my radar ... • Reverse Riots , a new campaign launched by youth volunteer charity vInspired. More than three-quarters of Britons believe that 14 to 25-year-olds have the worst reputation of any age group in the UK, research for the charity has found, and two-thirds blame young people for last August's riots. Reverse Riots , vInspired's first "Do Something" campaign, aims to tackle some of the negative portrayals of young people. It will be encouraging the young to make statements about their positive contribution to society. vInspired has brought the Do Something movement to the UK from the US this summer to engage young people with social action. It is hoped the online initiative will help to show young Britons as a collective force for good. • Analysis of the impact of council tax benefit reforms from the 24dash website. Ross Macmillan, deputy editor of 24housing magazine, writes that the reforms will disproportionately effect people in low-paid work . He writes: It's perhaps a marker of this Government's haste that in a bid to make things simpler, we'll soon have a council tax benefit that people go to the local authority for and a housing benefit that people apply for online and claim centrally. Crazy when you consider that there are 4.4m people claiming both housing and council tax benefit. Most people welcome the concept of Universal Credit – because as its name implies – it should be universal. But leaving out the most widely claimed means-tested benefit or tax credit (5.9m claimants) is a messy oversight. What's more, there are some serious practical issues being flagged up by councils as the Government looks to save £500m through the measure. • Micropore . In this post from her Trying my patients blog, ambulance driver Ella Shaw writes about the many uses for medical tape : The entire ambulance service, infact the entire NHS, is held together with micropore. It is used for everything. It has become a running joke that if something breaks, it's nothing that micropore tape cannot fix. You would struggle to find an ambulance in service that doesn't have micropore tape holding something together. The same applies to the newest vehicles. As with everything in the NHS our vehicles are provided by the lowest bidder and as such the quality of workmanship and materials used is poor. There are 100s of vehicles less than 3 years old and a quick look through their defect books will reveal just how much has gone wrong with them in such a short space of time! It can be embarrassing when a patient gets on board and you see them looking around at the bodge-job of a truck they are in! ... I guarantee everyone, in any ambulance service, all over the world has used or seen micropore used for something other than what it was intended! It really is the glue that holds everything together! Without it there would be no ambulances on the road! I know in an ideal world broken parts would be replaced, things would be fixed properly, and vehicles would be replaced after a certain amount of years served. Sadly, our government won't allow that. I shudder to think how many ambulances could have been bought with the fines for missed targets. Services are left with making the best of a bad situation. I just wonder how David Cameron would feel if it was his loved one in cardiac arrest in the back of an ambulance and there is a delay getting them into hospital because the micropore on the tail lift has come off?! Hmmmm... maybe taking the money and resources away from the emergency services wasn't such a good idea after all! Other news • BBC: Nurse regulator 'failed' public • Children & Young People Now: New mums lack support to cope with isolation and depression • Community Care: Call to trust social workers' judgement over personal budgets • Independent: East London worse off than before Olympic bid • Inside Housing: Number of new homes in Wales trebles • LocalGov.co.uk: Report shows support for Boris Bike-style car rental scheme • Public Finance: Public sector Network Rail would save £150m a year • Telegraph: Andrew Lansley: hospital wards may close under reforms • Third Sector: Sector morale hits an all-time low, survey shows Guardian Public Services Awards 2012 - Entries open until 13 July Time is running out to enter the Guardian Public Services Awards 2012 . The awards aim to cast a spotlight on new ways of working, showcasing genuine innovation and recognising achievement. If your team has made an outstanding contribution, then we want to hear about it. Enter the awards here . 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]