Society daily 07.10.2010

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 Public sector workers must pay more towards pensions Live reaction to the Hutton report Alzheimer's patients to get drugs on NHS Hospitals allowed to undercut one another Care home residents suffered "severe neglect" Social workers' stress puts children at risk All today's Society Guardian stories Other news • Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt tells BBC2's Newsnight that the state should not finance big families on benefits • The Telegraph has news of a medical advance that would "switch off" high blood pressure • The Independent carries a report that one in four US high school pupils binge drinks • The Daily Mail takes a look at the "sandwich generation" caring for elderly parents and grandchildren On my radar ... • Commons Education committee chair and Tory MP Graham Stuart, for his sceptical words on the government's free schools agenda . I was particularly struck by his description of the free schools movement as: "Gleamy-eyed supply-side revolutionaries" • Reports that Nat Wei's Big society network is to be financially supported by Asda, Cadburys and Starbucks . These multinational brands will "help people take control of their communities," apparently. An ingenious new form of Corporate Social Responsibility? Or the kiss of death for Big society? • Cocaine. Today's National Treatment Agency's report says that demand for the drug (or demand for treatment for addiction to it) is declining. According to DTA head Paul Hayes: "The 'trainspotting generation' that got hooked in the 1980s is growing older, fewer young people are risking getting addicted to heroin, and treatment is beginning to show an impact on drug use." • Tribal Group, the private provider of a range of public services, which has just issued a profits warning . • The King's Fund's assessment of the NHS white paper . Some good things, but, it concludes, overly ambitious: too much, too soon. • This rather lame apology from the editor of Pulse magazine following complaints from readers that a fictional "Dr Copperfield" column he had published (apparently written by the Sun columnist and GP Dr Keith Hopcroft ) was offensive to people with mental illness (thanks to @MindInFlux and @amcunningham) "I'm sorry you found the column offensive. I'd certainly acknowledge it was near the knuckle, but Copperfield has become so popular because of the column's hard-edged and satirical take on general practice, and its willingness to articulate views other GPs might be unwilling to discuss openly. I therefore feel it's important to keep the column as free from censorship as possible, even when it's inevitable that a column will upset some readers. Guardian and Observer Christmas Appeal 2010 This year our Christmas appeal will support charities working with vulnerable teenagers and young adults . That bit we've decided on. What we don't know yet is which ones to support. And that's where you come in. There are around 8,000 UK charities out there who operate in this area. We are looking for 10 projects that do innovative, effective work with young people at risk aged 13-24. So if you work for a charity, and you fit the bill, please apply ( you can find the link to the pdf download on this page ). If you know of a charity that you think we ought to support, then encourage them to apply or nominate them on this blog , and we'll contact them on your behalf. Applications close on 8 October, the appeal will kick off in December. Events 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. 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