Society daily 16.03.2010

Today's top Society Guardian news and comment Audit Commission calls for claw-back of council chiefs' six-figure payoffs Politicians "in denial" about rising bill for welfare state, says commission Child protection court fees scrapped Universal care for the elderly "would benefit the very wealthy" Prison education threatened by plans to axe 300 jobs All today's Society Guardian stories Other news Teenage mothers are to get one-to-one "life coaching" sessions , reports the Daily Telegraph Having twins leads to divorce, poverty and unemployment , according to the Times Just decision The decision by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to abolish fees for child protection court applications will be widely welcomed by councils and many lawyers. No one wanted the big fee increases – not children's services, social workers or lawyers – but they got them anyway. Vulnerable children may have suffered as a result. Financial chaos ensued. Straw sneaked out the report without fanfare yesterday evening – it had been on his desk since last autumn – and now we can see why. Francis Plowden's report is withering in its dissection of Treasury incompetence, and the sheer pointlessness of the initiative, which had no positive impact on child protection and yet almost inevitably cost more to administrate. It came to grief partly as a result of the mass panic in the wake of Baby P. I've written a blog on the Plowden report here. Measuring up How do we know that charities do what they say they do? In many cases we don't, says New Philanthropy Capital's manifesto for social impact . We take charity performance largely on trust. It wants the government to fund a social impact study to help charities measure impact. "Hotly contested questions about issues like public benefit and charities' independence from government cannot be answered unless we understand the results they are achieving. If government is to ensure that every penny of taxpayers' money is spent as wisely as possible, then it cannot afford to ignore this issue." It estimates that creating standard frameworks to allow public services delivery charities to measure – and compare – impact could save the state £150m. Preview: Wednesday's Society Guardian supplement With local libraries likely to face closure as they are targeted in council cuts, Amelia Hill discovers volunteers may be the only way to keep branches open. Mark Johnson on why children who offend need our help, not our hatred. Randeep Ramesh reports on the tough new powers being given to The Care Quality Commission. Moira Gibb argues that social workers need to stick together to create a strong national college for the profession. How TV show Come Dine With Me is helping Manchester youngsters at risk of offending. Sir Andrew Foster on the necessity of taking public services beyond Beveridge. And an interview with the shadow children's minister, Tim Loughton , in which he reveals his plans to penalise young people for underage sex. Society Guardian events The Public Procurement show . The UK's leading event for public sector procurement. 15-16 June, ExceL, London Society Guardian 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 Society Guardian editor: [email protected]