Society daily 12.06.12

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Public satisfaction with NHS slumped during reforms debate, thinktank finds • Theresa May announces blanket ban on age discrimination of patients • Breast cancer recurs in almost one in four patients, British study says • Public spaces in Britain's cities fall into private hands • Dead teenager's parents warn of 'legal high' risks • Abused children turn their fears into artwork for groundbreaking exhibition • Clean-up at second Edinburgh firm as legionnaires' disease source is sought • Why our food is making us fat • Polly Toynbee: Tory vilification campaign against the poor is so clever • Louise Foxcroft: Body anxiety is nothing new All today's SocietyGuardian stories In tomorrow's SocietyGuardian section • Campaigners are hoping that the HPV vaccination given to protect against cervical cancer will be widened to include gay men • Award-winning independent social worker Kelly Hicks believes that people can be empowered to help themselves • When David Behan takes over as chief executive of the Care Quality Commission next month he has a chance to overhaul the health and social care regulator, writes David Brindle • There is a close link between the increases in financial support for families with children over the past decade and the fall in child poverty , says Mike Brewer • Changes to the way that pharmacies operate will allow people to buy medicines that currently require professional advice, writes Peter Dawson • GPs are at last realising that giving support early on can reduce the strain on those who care for family or friends • Companies must be free to challenge the NHS if we are to meet long-term health needs , says Craig Dearden-Phillips On the Guardian Professional Networks • Live Q&A from 1pm: Women leaders in the voluntary sector • What is social housing for , asks Matthew Taylor, the chief executive of the RSA • How can we help people who can't stop hoarding ? • Will firefighters help lead Scotland's public services through a radical move towards prevention ? On my radar ... • New research on fathers and disability published by disability charity Scope and online community Netbuddy. Saba Salman's Social Issue blog says while an estimated 5% of the population are carer dads, so far there has been little research into their experiences. The researchers spoke to 500 dads and found some felt under pressure to keep their child a secret from their employer, while others had abandoned by friends for focusing too much on their child's needs. One father said: My friends have abandoned me because they don't understand why I have to care for my child so much. And I know she won't ever get better….My career, once promising to put me at number one in the world at my specialist area, is now going nowhere as permanent exhaustion means that talking intelligibly is a major achievement. But I love and care for my child. It isn't her fault. There's more on dads of children with disabilities on this edition of You and Yours (chapter four). • A claim on the investigative news site Exaro that more than one in three care homes for older people in England have gone uninspected for at least a year . It reports that the Care Quality Commission has failed to inspect 3,800 of 10,000 such homes in 12 months. • Fascinating statistics on perceived fraud in the benefits system , shared by Ben Baumberg on the Inequalities blog. He says the British Social Attitudes survey asked how many recipients of sickness or disability benefits and unemployment benefits are making false claims . The headline finding is that the British population believes that an average of 34 disability claimants and 37 unemployment claimants in every 100 are falsely claiming. He writes: ... people seem to considerably over-estimate the share of false claims among benefit claimants. Even if we put together fraud AND customer error, the latest figures show that 3.3% of unemployment claims are 'false claims', and a mere 1.1-1.2% of disability benefit claims. (I've talked about fraud figures previously on the blog here). So for people on average to think that 30-40% of claims are false is a massive, massive over-estimate – far more than could be explained by the difficulty in getting good estimates of fraud rates. ... despite this over-estimate of false claims, most people think that most claimants are genuine. It's easy to lose sight of this, but it's (hopefully!) clear from the chart above. It's also what the YouGov Prospect poll found, despite all of the magazine's slightly over-the-top reporting about 'the end of welfare' – 70% of those giving an answer said that only a minority were scroungers, while only 7% thought that more than half were scroungers. Amazingly even Conservative voters thought this (62% believing only a minority were scroungers). So people over-estimate false claims, but not to the extent that they think that genuine claimants are the minority. • News that the UK government has signed Council of Europe convention on violence against women . On the TUC's Touchstone blog, Scarlet Harris writes This is not just a symbolic gesture. The UK may be streets ahead of many other countries in terms of our efforts to tackle violence against girls and women but that is not to say that we've got all the answers. Far from it. According to the excellent EHRC and EVAW report Map of Gaps, each year, around 1 in ten women in Britain will experience rape and or other violence. One in four local authorities leave female victims of violence without the specialised support they need. Map of Gaps was carried out in 2009. Since then specialist Violence Against Women and Girls services have been decimated by spending cuts. Freedom of Information requests by the False Economy website found that 31% of funding to the domestic violence and sexual abuse sector from local authorities was cut between 2010/11 to 2011/12. That's a reduction from £7.8 million to £5.4 million. We've still got a long way to go. Signing this important international Convention is a step in the right direction. Other news • BBC: Doctors' strike 'will harm care' • Children & Young People Now: Youth offending teams plan mergers to deal with budget reductions • Civil Society: Sir Stuart heads selection panel for ATM giving • Community Care: Child protection guidance Working Together cut to 21 pages • Independent: Medical expert presses for change in law to allow for 'three-parent IVF' • Inside Housing: Premium phone line fined for targeting vulnerable • LocalGov.co.uk: Public sector commits to reducing its carbon footprint • Public Finance: Charities are tools of government, argues IEA • Telegraph: 60,000 grandparents give up work to raise grandchildren • Third Sector: There are more sector staff than was thought, says research Guardian Public Services Awards 2012 - Entries open until 13 July Enter the Guardian Public Service Awards to showcase your teams' innovative approaches. The awards are designed to reward creative achievements and contributions that have helped to establish more effective and best practice across public services in a tough spending climate. Enter today to ensure you get the recognition you deserve. Events and seminars Scrutiny: making an impact Tuesday 26 June, Kings Cross, London This interactive seminar challenges traditional approaches to scrutiny, demonstrating in-depth questioning techniques and exploring the use of video evidence. It also considers the difference between a finding and a recommendation, how to word recommendations so they can't be ignored and work through good practice to evaluate each scrutiny process. Making the most of social media for social housing Friday 29 June, Kings Cross, London This overview of social media channels will show you how to use them to maximum effect, with clear, practical examples of ways to save money, improve your communications and form a social media campaign 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]