A vote on the NHS reforms at the Lib Dem conference will be tight if Shirley Williams (above) supports the bill. Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian
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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories
• Lib Dem activists in last-ditch attempt to scupper NHS reforms bill
• Nick Clegg vows amendments to health bill – but No 10 says it won't change
• Polly Toynbee: Andrew Lansley's fragmentation of the NHS can be stopped only by Nice
• Social value to become key part of public service contracts
• Free HIV treatment for asylum seekers and non-UK citizens
• Cambridgeshire ecotown plans resubmitted
• Ken Livingstone: I'll take pay cut if re-elected as London mayor
• Child sexual exploitation is 'hidden issue', children's minister warns
• Supermarket parking fines turn to charity gold
• Downing Street wary of 'narrow approach' to measuring child poverty
All today's SocietyGuardian stories
In tomorrow's SocietyGuardian pages
• Patrick Butler on why the work programme is bad for business
• Chugging is under assault from councils. Is that a bad thing? Rachel Beer and Joe Saxton debate the issue
• Tom Clark says welfare reform activists have the lords' backing but not ours
• Paul Rowlinson on the curious case of the missing estate maintenance
• David Brindle on why retirement villages are building in popularity
• Suma Chakrabarti says we should take a measured approach to targets
• Will plans to scrap legal aid for clinical errors put people off claiming damages? Gabby Koppel reports
On the Guardian Professional Networks
• Live Q&A from 1pm: Effective charity CVs
• Tracey Caldwell reports on how Brighton and Hove city council has worked social media into its operations
• The furore over A4e highlights concerns about privatisation of public services, says Pollyanna Perkins
• Do GPs really want plan B for the health bill, asks Patient from Hell Dick Vinegar
On my radar ...
• A blogpost by Stephen Ginn and Jamie Horder on the Frontier Psychiatrist blog (originally published by the BMJ), analysing the figures behind the claim that one in four people will have a mental health problem at some point in their lives. They conclude:
The one in four figure for mental illness prevalence is widely quoted, related variously to lifetime, yearly, or point prevalence. The evidence indicates that it is best supported as an estimate of yearly prevalence. However, estimates of the population prevalence of mental disorder should be approached with caution, as the methods used often have shortcomings. It is important that people know that mental illness is common and that treatment of mental disorder is essential, but it is not clear that championing a poorly supported prevalence figure is the way to achieve this.
(thanks to Rich Watts and The Mental Elf for the link)
• An interesting blogpost by Andrew Grant-Adamson on Suffolk council's New Strategic Direction. The post was prompted by council leader Mark Bee's speech at the Guardian's Public Services Summit earlier this month, Grant-Adamson asks whether the programme has really gone away. Bee told the conference the strategy was a "vision without detail" and a "blunt instrument"; but Grant-Adamson comments:
That leaves unanswered the question of why Mark Bee and the bulk of Conservative controlled council voted unquestioningly for all the elements of this "vision without details" for so long.
Perhaps they have not really given up on the New Strategic Direction but are spinning it with soft words. James Hargrave in his blog last week pointed out that by next year some two-thirds of the staff employed by Adult and Community Services (ACS) would be moved to new employers.
His blog post quotes cabinet member Colin Noble justifying this change in words which closely echo some of those used by Andrea Hill a year ago.
The number directly employed in ACS by the council will come down from 3,557 to 895. Hargrave asks: "Have Suffolk County council brought back the 'new strategic direction'?"
Fair question.
(link via James Hargrave and Flip Chart Rick)
• Social work, social care and the rights of older people, the subject of an online debate from 8pm today (follow it via the Twitter hashtag #SWSCmedia). In this blogpost previewing the debate, Joe Godden writes:
Social workers working with older people are deeply frustrated with the current systems. They rarely have time to assess and support people properly and detest the tick box mentality of the systems that they have to work within. Yet we know that frequently older people and their families want to talk through their concerns and worries and that the oft neglected psycho-social interventions are not only valued but they also lead to better decisions in terms of cost.
Home care services used to be the eyes and ears of social workers, but now that they have nearly all been privatised that relationship has been lost at great cost both financially and in terms of good practice. Increasingly residential care is a dominated by accountants and shareholders. In my view nobody should go into care without the option of trying to return home, but which manager of a residential home is allowed to encourage that?
As those of us who have had first-hand experience of hospitals and older people's services there is the major issue of institutional ageism. Not that there are not bad staff, but in our experience it is so often the system that is at fault and it is very difficult to make any progress if a complaint is about a general issue – older people not being given help to eat for example. Safeguarding doesn't seem to get institutional age discrimination. If you add on discrimination about people who work with older people – nearly all low paid and part time the picture gets worse.
• David Hockney, a frequent correspondent to the Guardian's letters page, who has painted his latest missive
Other news
• BBC: Teen pregnancy rate lowest since 1969
• Children & Young People Now: ADCS blasts proposed adoption targets
• Community Care: Ofsted whistleblowing hotline branded 'toothless'
• Independent: Baby P's father sues The People
• Inside Housing: Report attacks local enterprise partnerships
• Telegraph: UN: drug gangs running parts of British cities
• Third Sector: Corporate giving to the arts down for fourth year in a row, says Arts & Business
Events and seminars
The Guardian Public Health Dialogue
14 March 2012, Kings Place, Kings Cross, London
Join us for the first of an exciting new series of events with experts from the NHS, local and central government, voluntary sector, social enterprise and industry. This evening event offers a forum for debate and discussion, to develop practical solutions and to help shape public health policy, strategy and delivery.
Local Government Leaders Quarterly
19 April 2012, Kings Place, Kings Cross, London
This series of evening events has been designed to help public leaders discuss the key issues facing local authorities as they struggle to manage punishing funding cuts while spearheading a revolution in public service delivery. The event, consisting of a debate followed by round table discussion groups, will offer a forum to share problems and find solutions with your council peers.
Places are free but limited and available by application only.
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