Society daily 20.06.11

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Today's top SocietyGuardian stories • Police are failing people with learning disabilities, says study • Lord Hutton calls on Ed Miliband to support pension reform plans • Home care of elderly 'abuses human rights' • Whitehall pores over 'big society' bill • Rowenna Davis: In defence of my live NHS blog • Boris Johnson calls for end to 'soft justice' All today's SocietyGuardian stories Other news • The chief executive of Guide Dogs has responded to criticism of his organisation by the chief executive of the RNIB. The RNIB's Lesley-Anne Alexander reportedly told an event last week that Guide Dogs was "insular" and had "put up reasons that simply aren't true" to reject the offer of a merger (see last Friday's Society daily ). But the Guide Dogs chief exec, Richard Leaman, has countered that his charity has a "unique brand and a strong fundraising proposition", and he did not want to see those damaged. Leaman told Third Sector he felt the sector would lose out if a central "command and control" structure was imposed from above, but he was in favour of closer work between charities. He said his charity had "willingly discussed collaboration with RNIB at the highest levels". • Critical talks between ministers and the unions over public-sector pension reform have a 50-50 chance of being cancelled , reports the Independent. It says union leaders are close to pulling out of a meeting with ministers next week to hammer out a broad agreement for ongoing discussions, and if the talks collapse it makes the prospect of widespread strike action among more moderate unions - involving more than two million public sector workers - much more likely. • Community-based care for people with complex learning disabilities and challenging behaviour saves money and vastly improves their quality of life compared with institutional care, according to Community Care. It says research following former residents of Orchard Hill hospital in Sutton, south London, which was at the centre of an abuse scandal in 2007, found their quality of life score rose from 106 to 207 over 18 months after moving to community-based settings. • Treatment for breast cancer is now so effective that the leading cause of death for older people with the condition is heart disease, reports the Telegraph. • Government policies for treating drug addicts in England are flawed and "doomed to failure", according to the BBC. The Centre for Policy Studies says rehabilitation is a better use of the £3.6bn now spent on treating users with drug substitutes like methadone and keeping them on benefits each year. On my radar ... • What is next on the agenda for the NHS reforms and what should we be looking at? Our live blogging of the NHS reforms has come to an end in its current form, but we'd like you to tell us how you'd like us to cover the health and social care bill's progression , let us know about anything you think we've missed, or make more general suggestions about our coverage of the NHS. • Philip Davies , the Shipley MP who suggested that disabled people should work for less than the minimum wage to increase their chances of being taken on by employers. Thanks to the Broken of Britain for pointing me to this post on the Independence Red blog : "The thing about what Philip Davies said, was not so much what he said, but that in so many circles it was treated seriously and that he felt able to repeat it again and again. He obviously believed that he had the approval of his supporters, despite the fact that his rationale was evidently discriminatory from the outset and as such he was arguing for something that at the moment would be against the European Convention on Human Rights. In taking a stance against the convention he may well be right to believe that he has the support of the Conservative grass roots." I liked the suggestion from Mike King on our Facebook page : "Perhaps this idiot would like to work on minimum wage for a year and give his salary to disability charities." Apparently, Davies is parliamentary spokesman for the Campaign Against Political Correctness . Says it all, really. • Elected mayors. According to Local Government Association vice-chairman Richard Kemp, none of the 11 cities slated to hold mayoral elections look like they will back the idea. In his latest blogpost, Kemp speculates on the next possible direction for mayoral policy • This excellent post by Andrew Simpson on the Disability_Blogged site on privatisation in social care : "...it's clear the current government wants to reduce the 'burden' placed upon the state by those who have the temerity to have complex and often expensive needs. Additionally, private care organisations see this as a boom time and a profitable business opportunity, but there, for me anyway, is the problem. Care should not be provided by "for profit" businesses, it shouldn't be determined by profit-margins and 'costs per unit', to do so results in some inevitable consequences. ... people with disabilities have a right to a good and valued life, with their needs, however expensive, met. They're not a burden on the state, they're not the ones who have created either this recession or the nation's debt, yet somehow they're the ones deemed appropriate to pay for it. There's much talk about returning to morality and values; what greater morality can there be than ensuring those most vulnerable are supported and protected? What greater measure of a society's civility and success?" • This interesting blogpost from Andrew Grant-Adamson comparing outsourcing experiments by Barnet and Suffolk councils . • Isolation Week, the experiment aiming to highlight the problems of loneliness and social isolation among older people (mentioned in Society daily a couple of weeks ago ). The week begins today, and will see 10 volunteers cut off from their usual social contact . They will be recording their experiences with video diaries and posting one-way Twitter updates. See the Twitter hashtag #isolationweek • London 360 , a new fortnightly television magazine show, airing on Media Trust's Community Channel from today. Produced by a team of young reporters and backed by writer and actor Noel Clarke, it will report on the capital's community stories and local campaigns "as well as bringing a fresh viewpoint to the stories on the news agenda". The trust is inviting young people to become citizen journalists and contribute stories that matter to them. It has launched a one-year community reporters scheme, which aims to give media training to 120 young Londoners aged 18 to 25. • New parenting site Daddy Be Good , which has launched today as a counter to Mumsnet. Contributors include Toby Young and Big Issue founder John Bird, and the site says: "Our aim is to not only provide tips and advice - some humorous, some more sensible - on how to be a great dad but also to provide dads with the ability to share experiences and get that sense of community, online." It will be interesting to see whether vote-chasing MPs will be as keen to court the dads as they have been mums. • Latest research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on sustainable urban neighbourhods . • Tweet of the day is from financial journalist Paul Lewis , who points out: "Benefit claimants face instant fines for errors in claiming benefits (cost £1.3bn). DWP staff will not face fines making errors (cost 0.9bn)" The pick of the weekend's SocietyGuardian stories • Parents of disabled children could lose £1,400 in welfare shakeup • Cameron's guru attacks failings of the 'big society' • Twenty hospitals 'must shut to tackle crisis' All Sunday's SocietyGuardian news and comment All Saturday's SocietyGuardian news and comment On the Guardian Professional Networks • Decent housing is not just a wish, it is a human right, says former US president Jimmy Carter • How the Cabinet Office wants to extend its squeeze on suppliers • Should social enterprises be CLGs, CICs or CLSs? 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