Society daily: 14.09.10

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Today's top Society Guardian stories

Unions threaten mass strikes over spending cuts

Abused children "better off in care"

Public services need to shift power to citizens, says commission

Cannabis "should be sold in shops," says expert

Police: cut us, and we won't be able to tackle cuts protests

Thousands of Leeds council workers offered redundancy

Half of special needs children misdiagnosed

Gove to let schools prioritise poorer pupils over middle class

Letters: cuts are a war against the north

All today's Society Guardian stories

The new Guardian Global development website

The Guardian's Global development website, launched today, tracks the world's progress on poverty, hunger, infant mortality, HIV and Aids, adaptation to climate change, and economic development. Reports from the Guardian's network of foreign correspondents, and specialist writers, inlcuding Madeleine Bunting,Sarah Boseley, Larry Elliott and John Vidal. Plus blogs, podcasts, videos, datastore and resources

Other news

• The Charity Commission could lose up to a third of its budget as a result of spending cuts, according to its chief executive, Sam Younger, reports Third Sector

• Being lonely can kill you, while being surrounded by family and friends helps you live longer, reports the Daily Telegraph

• A high-flying British diplomat has had her posting to Kazakhstan revoked after officials ruled her deafness makes it "too expensive" to send her abroad, reports the Independent

• Almost 1.5m Britons haven't had a job since they left school, including 600,000 under 25s who are not in education or training, reports the Daily Mail

On my radar...

• Lord Nat Wei of Shoreditch, who argues (in reponse to Julian Dobson) that bitterness and disapointment over public spending cuts must be channelled into social reform:

"[Big society] requires more than just anger and angry people."

• Ciara Leeming, who investigates Manchester's Roma Community

• More wise observations on the NHS white paper from Paul Corrigan. There's no compelling narrative behind the reforms, he argues, and GPs are dangerously lukewarm about it, so:

"The government really needs to get out and sell – not the detail of this or that mode of commissioning – but why this new way of working will be so much better than what is there at the moment."

• Petra Boynton's informative and amusing blog post introducing Sexual Health week, especially the sexually transmitted infection microbe cuddly toys. Yes, really...

• Latest Cafcass figures on court applications to take children into care. Still rising, with highest-ever figures recorded for summer months

• Interesting addition to the emerging wave of "post-public sector" blogging: From Faceless Bureaucrat to Bad Assed Trader promises to chart the progress of a newly redundant NHS manager who aims to carve out a new career in financial speculation...(thanks @HSJEditor)

• NCVO Foresight's fascinating analysis of volunteering trends: unemployment means "significant increases" in numbers of volunteers, but perhaps unexpected challenges for charities

• Blogger and social entrepreneur Craig Dearden-Phillips, who warns against a kneejerk dash towards outsourcing to the traditional private sector as the cuts bite:

"Rushing straight to traditional privatisation of health and social care... will... deliver short-term saving but little radical innovation or social capital. Privatisation as a sole strategy will get you the same shirt - but cheaper. We need a new type of shirt."

• Joseph Rowntree Foundation's interactive online quiz, which tests your knowledge of poverty in the UK...

• David Ireland of Empty Homes on a tale of two streets:

"There are places in Liverpool that make your heart leap and others that make you want to weep. These two adjacent roads in Granby manage to do both at the same time."

In Society tomorrow:

• The big society: local people who are key to connecting residents and building strong, self-reliant communities are identified in a new RSA report published tomorrow

• Big society architect and minister for decentralisation, Greg Clark, on why he doesn't want to repeal the state

• Danny Dorling on the alarming rise in long-term youth unemployment and what the response needs to be

• Mark Johnson on why treating gang members as individuals and trying to understand what motivates each member is the best way to cut reoffending

• Peter Hetherington on where the successor to Regional Development Agencies will get their funding?

• An in-depth analysis of children and young people behind bars and how they end up in custody

• Why people with learning disabilities are increasingly at risk from so-called mate crime

• Executive downsizing: it's worth it

Events

Driving efficiencies in public sector ICT, 30 September, London: a one-day conference for senior IT professionals to re-examine the way they work, cut costs and deliver vital efficiency savings.

Public sector online, 4 October, London: a one-day conference examining how public sector professionals can engage with their audience to deliver services more effectively and strategically online.