Society Daily 12.10.10

Follow Society Guardian on Twitter Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Sign up to Society Daily email briefing Vote for Guardian Public Servant of the Year Today's top Society Guardian stories Benefits system: More changes to come, says Iain Duncan Smith NHS reforms create risk of failures in care Prison governors call for release of 2,500 inmates Boris Johnson and Lottery Fund announce £5m funding for black cultural centre in Brixton Baby P doctor applies to leave medical register Drugs advisers to consider qat ban All today's Society Guardian stories Other news • More children from working homes, where at least one parent works, live in poverty than in jobless households, the Daily Mail reports. • A prostate drug has been found to increase the lifespan of those with advanced prostate cancer , according to a study that involved 800 men, reports the Daily Telegraph. • An editorial in the British Medical Journal suggests that cannabis should be licensed like alcohol and cigarettes , the Daily Telegraph reports. On my radar... • The suburbanisation of poverty. It's happening already in the the US , and with housing benefit cuts on the way here in the UK, the phenomenon is possibly coming to an "inner ring suburb" near you. And what are the consequences? Here's Bruce Trachtenberg in Nonprofit Newswire : "The fact that poverty is up in cities in the US and service providers are struggling to keep pace with demand isn't news. The news, though, is that many suburbs also are seeing a jump in poor people and few of the affected communities are equipped for the problem." • Topshop billionaire Philip Green's review of government efficiency . Its findings (centralise government procurement) are embarrassing for self-proclaimed localist David Cameron, says Polly Toynbee . Systems thinker Professor John Seddon thinks Green's "economies of scale" approach actually waste more money, because excessive standardisation creates hugely innefficient "failure demand". If you don't fancy Seddon's rather long tract explaining all this , he would point you towards this clip from the Simpsons instead. Here's Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell's take on it all . • Guardian blogger Roy Greenslade on how local government (ab)uses Freedom of Information to avoid answering difficult questions . • Blogger Angry Mob on Bannatyne-gate : or how the Dragon's Den tycoon and the Daily Mail got it all hopelessly and embarrasingly wrong over the Equalities Act. Summed up here brilliantly . • Blogger David Barrie on austerity-era solutions to failing urban economies : "The economic survival of cities – not just magical 3%+ growth – may well require a major heart bypass operation.However, it stands to reason that there's value in performing intricate 'surgery' at a civic, local scale, small pieces of tactical activity that make a difference. Call it 'urban make-do'." • NHS Foundation Trust Network director Sue Slipman, who has been suspended by the NHS Confederation . Sounds like foundation trusts ultras were plotting a breakaway from the NHS family (as represented by the Confederation). • Blogger Guerrilla Mum on why she started singing Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, while thinking of the cuts generally, and the government's approach to special educational needs ( consultation on the SEN green paper closes Friday ). These are the lyrics in question: "Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone They paved paradise And put up a parking lot…" • The gender pay gap, and blogger FlipChart Fairy Tales' take on it here. • Blogger Andrew Bartholomew, who curates the row which followed on from Tory MP Nadine Dorries's attack on people on disability benefits who tweet . • Agony aunt and journalist Claire Rayner, who has died . She made it known that her preferred "last words" (retweeted everywhere this morning) were: "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS, I'll come back and bloody haunt him." Guardian and Observer Christmas Charity Appeal 2010 Nominations are now closed for our Christmas appeal 2010, which will support charities working with vulnerable teenagers and young adults. Many thanks to everyone who applied. Our Xmas charity 2010 partners New Philanthropy Capital are now sifting through the 300 applications we recieved. A shortlist of projects will be submitted to a selection panel comprising Guardian/Observer and NPC staff at the end of October. Ten projects will be chosen. We will contact both successful and unsuccessful applicants once the panel has reached it decision in early November. The appeal will launch towards the end of November and run until mid-January. Events Information Security and Identity Management in the Public Sector , 3 November 2010, London Keeping pace with new threatsHear from Christopher Graham, Information Commissioner and Belinda Lewis, Ministry of Justice Capital Ambition Delivering services for London in an age of austerity, 15 November 2010, London. Join leading practitioners across London to re-think, re-design and re-assess the way services are delivered Guardian Social Enterprise 2010 , 16 November, London. An interactive conference for anyone delivering public services or supporting social enterprises. Speakers include: minister for civil society Nick Hurd; Peter Holbrook, chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition; Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive, Social Enterprise London; Lord Victor Adebowale, chief executive, Turning Point; Rod Schwartz, chief executive, Clearly So; Dai Powell, chief executive, HCT; Alastair Wilson, chief executive, School for Social Entrepreneurs. Transforming Blue Light Services Innovating ICT for the emergency services, 24 November 2010, London. Discover how the innovative use of technology will improve performance and response in difficult financial times. Society Guardian blogs Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog Guardian awards Guardian Public Services awards 2010 Guardian charity awards 2010 Society Daily blog Society Daily blog editor: Patrick Butler Email the editor: [email protected] Society Guardian Links SocietyGuardian.co.uk Guardian cutswatch - tell us about the cuts in your area Public - the Guardian's website for senior public sector executives The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs Society Guardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected]