Society daily 03.11.10

Heroin needle — Countries with more generous benefits systems have dramatically curbed the spread of heroin. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

Today's top SocietyGuardian stories

Bigger welfare state 'reduces hard drug use'

Children unprepared to go into care

Leap in tobacco sales as smokers trade down

The truth about inter-racial adoption

Patrick Butler: charities hit by the public sector bad guys

All today's SocietyGuardian stories

Other news

• Children without MMR jabs should be banned from school, claims the director of public health at one of the country's largest primary care trusts, reports the Daily Mail.

• Charity Counsel and Care has launched a new guide that can support older people, their families and carers to understand their rights and entitlements before, during and after any stay in hospital (pdf).

• Millions of British workers feel forced to lie to their bosses about having to take stress-induced sick leave, says charity Mind as it promotes Stress Awareness Day today.

• A report launched today looks at how people who have self-directed support and personal budgets can make decisions over their care and support, and manage risks safely. The report by the Social Care Institute for Excellence is being launched at the National Children and Adult Services conference in Manchester.

On our radar...

• Labour MP Stella Creasy's Commons 10-minute rule bill introduced today, which calls for regulation of "legal loan sharking", including a cap on the rates vulnerable people are forced to pay on short-term loans from high street and door-to-door moneylenders.

• Blogger Lucy Sweetman on a Bolton school's adoption of youth work guru Paulo Freire's ideas on involving young people in decision making:

"Here you see clear evidence that when you take young people seriously and give them responsibility, they show you that they don't need to be controlled. They just need to be involved."

• Fairbridge charity chief executive Andrew Purvis, who explains (on Saba Salman's The Social Issue blog) why the Neet label for young people not in education, employment or training should be scrapped.

• Alexandra Jones of the Centre for Cities, who blogs on the leaked ministerial letter warning that the coalition's local enterprise partnerships policy "could be a failure in large parts of England".

• NCVO boss Sir Stuart Etherington's speech to Cass Business school later today, in which he is expected to warn that "big society" needs to be "more than good intentions and hot air".

• Flip Chart Fairy Tales' take on Serco-gate, which he concludes will come to be seen as "a cock-up not a disaster":

"Despite what the government says it wants, big companies, rather than SMEs, are likely to take the lion's share of these contracts. Hard-pressed public sector managers will be eager just to get rid of their problems by accepting large-scale bids at seemingly low prices.
As this becomes clear, the share prices of Serco and other outsourcers will creep up again. The story of 'that letter' will be an embarrassing anecdote repeated at trade events and corporate dinners. Serco's bosses will laugh along with the joke and count their profits."

Today's SocietyGuardian supplement highlights

Clare Allan: Uncertainty over cuts will hit the vulnerable hardest

Randeep Ramesh meets the sociologist influencing Labour's new generation

Peter Hetherington: Eric Pickles can't deliver localism alone

All the stories from today's SocietyGuardian section

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 Christmas charity 2010 partner New Philanthropy Capital is now sifting through the 300 applications we received. 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 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

Transforming Social Care through IT: finding your way in a changing service environment, 8 December, London. Take a practical look at social care provision, address the changing face of services and explore the reasons why technology is fundamental to the future of care. Register now and save 30%.

Information Security and Identity Management in the Public Sector: keeping pace with new threats, 3 November, London. Hear from Christopher Graham, information commissioner, and Belinda Lewis, Ministry of Justice.

Capital Ambition: delivering services for London in an age of austerity, 15 November, London. Join leading practitioners across London to rethink, redesign and reassess 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, London. Free places available. Discover how the innovative use of technology will improve performance and response in difficult financial times. Speakers include Dr Timothy Brain, former chief constable of Gloucestershire; Andy Marles, chief fire officer from South Wales fire and rescue; Jason Killens, London ambulance service's deputy director of operations; Steve Whatson, director of ICT for the Olympics at the Metropolitan police service and Olympic security directorate.