Society daily 16.02.10

John Lewis, a model for our politicians? Photograph: David Moir/Reuters

All today's top Society stories

NHS hospitals ignore patient safety orders

New report says some courts are up to 10 times more likely to issue custodial sentences for young offenders than others

Charities face pensions crisis with shortfall of £1bn

Scientists link poverty to breast cancer gene damage

Drinks companies could be forced to put health warnings on alcohol

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Other news

her brand of "rugged independence"

• English councils say they are struggling to cope with immigration despite ministerial claims that numbers have peaked, the Financial Times reports.

Manifesto for change

promise "John Lewis-style" plans

This is excellent timing for the Social Enterprise Coalition, which today launches its manifesto. Central to the document is a call for all public sector teams to be able to apply to "spin off" as social enterprises. But it also recognises that it is not enough simply to liberate frontline staff: you need to change the way public service commissioning works, to lock in the social and environmental value that social enterprise can deliver, and to give smaller social businesses a chance to compete.

It also points out that a government committed to social enterprise will have to tackle the problems social businesses have in accessing capital – and that needs some serious thinking about creating tax incentives for investors and twisting a few arms at the mainstream banks in which the government holds a stake.

None of this is easy. Mutualism, co-ops, social enterprise: great, suggests the manifesto, but getting there is a lot harder than simply changing the badge above the health centre door.

SocietyGuardian events

Family Futures conference 2010:

Managing New Realities 2010: integrated places – health, housing and social care for the community. London, Tuesday 2 and Wednesday 3 March. Speakers include: Lord Warner, Sir Bob Kerslake, David Halpern, Polly Toynbee.

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• In an interview with the Times, the former chair of the Care Quality Commission, Baroness Young of Old Scone, said had collided with the Department of Health's desire for someone "much more emollient" to scrutinise the NHS and social care system. This was undermining efforts to improve standards, she said. David Cameron has made the headlines with his to allow public sector employees to set up co-ops. But Labour is developing its own to emulate Cameron's desire to "unleash a new public sector culture of enterprise and innovation". Mutualism and social enterprise as a kick up the backside for the moribund public sector have emerged as the name of the political game (public servants would have to choose voluntarily to become a co-op, and it remains to be seen how many would vote to go down this route). what's next for services supporting children, young people and families? London, Wednesday 24 February. Speakers include: Dawn Primarolo, Claire Tickell, Tim Loughton, Sue Berelowitz.