Society daily 18.03.2010

Today's top Society news and comment Lords kill off 'free care at home' bill £1bn Whitehall reforms 'a waste of money' Balls warned by top adviser over child protection funding Deborah Orr: a smarter way to cut public spending David Nutt on mephedrone and 'legal highs' Patrick Butler: Singleton's clear message on safeguarding All today's Society Guardian stories Other news * Public sector employment has soared over the past year as private firms shed jobs , with the numbers working in the NHS jumping to a 60-year high, reports the Financial Times • One in 10 doctors on the UK medical register comes from the EU and has not had to take language or competence tests before working in Britain , claims the Daily Mail. • A private health clinic has launched the first rehabilitation programme for children addicted to the internet and computer games , reports the Daily Telegraph • High-profile social entrepreneur Trevor Lynn, founder of Mow & Grow, a gardening firm that employs long-term jobless people, has been suspended as joint CEO , reports Social Enterprise Staff shine a light on the NHS It's a kind of "Ratner test" for the NHS. Would you recommend that your friends and family are treated at the hospital where you work? A worryingly high percentage would advise their nearest and dearest to go elsewhere, according to the latest NHS staff survey . Staff confidence is highest at specialist trusts, such as Moorfields and the Royal Marsden, and lowest, predictably, at well-known "problem" trusts such as Mid-Staffordshire. But there are surprises, too. As the Financial Times points out: "A few low-scoring trusts, including Tameside in Lancashire and Sunderland, are foundation trusts that are meant to be among the country's best." Well, you might well conclude, the staff should know. Have social enterprises found the magic ingredient? Ace blogger Rob Greenland kicks off his new, improved Social Business blog by asking what makes a good social enterprise. He reports from the Social Enterprise Coalition health and social care conference, where he finds that successful enterprises share a common theme: they treat their staff well and involve them in decision-making. As he points out of Sandwell Community Caring Trust : "Their big success has been to re-connect their staff with the wide-eyed enthusiast who decided to be a social worker 20 years previously." That makes for a more effective, more efficient service. But is being nice to staff the key? "For me personally at least, it's still not completely clear what the magic ingredients are in these social enterprises, and whether those ingredients can be shared. The suspicion remains that they are one-offs, founded by charismatic, maverick entrepreneurs, deeply rooted in their communities. As such, are they replicable? And do we waste our time trying to work out how we can be a bit like them?" That's Greenland in pessimistic mode. But a post today suggests why he's been so thoughtful: he's setting up a new social enterprise himself, one that will offer solutions to the age-of-austerity challenge now facing public services: how to do more with less. "I'm setting up a new social enterprise – and one of the things we'll do is to work with businesses on how to do more with less. Looking at how they can innovate and win new business by finding new markets – particularly through delivering more social benefit. Looking at how they can cut their overheads, or collaborate with others. I don't pretend it's easy, and I certainly don't think we'll have all the answers. But I care enough about society not to just see a decline in services as inevitable. That, for me, is what being socially enterprising is all about." SocietyGuardian blogs Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog SocietyGuardian events The Public Procurement show . The UK's leading event for public sector procurement. 15-16 June, ExceL, London SocietyGuardian links Sign up to Society daily email briefing Society on Twitter SocietyGuardian.co.uk Public - the Guardian's website for senior public sector executives Get ahead: the Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs Email the Society daily editor: [email protected] Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected]