Society daily 05.05.2010

Today's top SocietyGuardian news and comment Teen's asbo for wearing low-slung trousers dropped Sainsbury's to sponsor 2012 Paralympics Mental health charity hits out at 'epic failure' to protect public Controversial paediatrician wins appeal Less than six hours' sleep a night leads to premature death, claims study Amelia Gentleman on the shortcomings of Tory proposals to tackle child poverty All today's SocietyGuardian content Other news George Osborne has rejected claims that Conservative plans to make deep public spending cuts would lead to Greek-style protest and unrest, in an interview in the Financial Times. A leaked Humberside police report details how the force is planning to replace officers specialising in rape cases with civilian staff , according to the Daily Mail. Today's SocietyGuardian supplement highlights A Devon community's fight to stop their area becoming a "Tesco Town" How volunteers are successfully helping families with at-risk children Peter Hetherington on how local government shows hung parliaments can work Interview: Midwives leader Cathy Warwick spells out her fears for the merger of maternity services I liked ... • Birmingham Post public affairs editor Paul Dale's take on the Birmingham council equal pay court ruling. "There are occasions in Birmingham local government when even seasoned observers are forced to sit back, take a deep breath of fresh air and check that they have not somehow been transported to a Victorian rotten borough or, perhaps, the set of an edgy satirical political television drama." • Social care worker Winston Smith on why his blog, Working With The Underclass, has a limited shelf-life: "There is a thin line between the cathartic relief this blog provides me with and the negative reinforcement of seamlessly dysfunctional lives and the ludicrously insane policies and initiatives that purport to act as a solution." • Tim Williams, a former government housing adviser, on the lessons of the economic crash : "This is why I no longer allow anyone to get away with using the phrase 'evidence-based policy making' when the reality of governments has been more 'policy-based evidence making'!" • Reform's Nick Seddon on why it's up to charities and civil society to get stroppy and lead the way if politicians don't deliver change : "It shouldn't be the summit, as it often seems to be, of a campaigner's career to shake hands with the incumbent at 10 Downing Street. Maybe Bob Geldof should be swearing at and sweet-talking the public, rather than prime ministers and presidents, to change its ways." • Christina Patterson in the Independent on the lessons we can learn from the Swedish way of doing education . "It's high taxes and massive public spending which have made Sweden the equal society that [Tory shadow education secretary Michael] Gove says he admires. It was a system of near-universal state schools, without much in the way of choice, that produced the educational standards that have made it thrive. Not faith schools, not 'free schools', not grow-your-own or pick 'n' mix schools, and not Eton." • The fact that apparently only 15% of people who attempt the King's Fund interactive Election Check-Up quiz have correctly completed the question that asks you to identify the three main parties' candidates for health secretary . • Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales' link to the "world's worst PowerPoint slide" to illustrate his blog post on why PowerPoint is so beloved of managers the world over: "Even the most spurious data can be made to look scientific if it is put it into a set of whizzy graphs and charts. Baseless assertions and poorly thought through strategies can be made to look original and insightful if illustrated by a PowerPoint graphic that no one has seen before. If you have only a vague understanding of the problems facing your organisation and no idea what to do next, a PowerPoint presentation can help you to cover all that up." SocietyGuardian events National Commissioning conference 10. Beyond efficiencies, doing things differently. 15-16 June, Lowry Hotel, Manchester. Speakers include: Solace chief executive David Clark , former Department of Health lead on social care personalisation John Bolton, new King's Fund chief executive Chris Ham , and Social Care Institute for Excellence chief executive Julie Jones . The Public Procurement show . The UK's leading event for public sector procurement. 15-16 June, ExceL, London. SocietyGuardian Social Enterprise Summit We are starting to plan this year's Society Guardian Social Enterprise Summit. Last year's summit was a great success - you can read about it here . Once again we are looking to showcase inspiration, innovation and practical ideas on how social enterprises can deliver public services. Whether you are from the public sector or from a social business, we want you to tell us who you'd like to see and what you would like to see discussed. Email [email protected] . You can Follow Guardian Social Enterprise on Twitter . SocietyGuardian blogs Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog Society Daily blog Society Daily blog editor: Patrick Butler Email the editor: [email protected] Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Sign up to Society Daily email briefing SocietyGuardian links SocietyGuardian.co.uk Follow SocietyGuardian on Twitter 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 SocietyGuardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected]