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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories
• Department of Health apologises over tax deals 'misunderstanding'. Exclusive: Andrew Lansley faces questions after leaked emails reveal at least 25 senior staff have salaries paid to companies
• Tens of thousands of unemployed people made to work without pay
• Woman jailed for withdrawing rape allegation appeals against conviction
• Can David Cameron be made to understand what women want? A roundtable panel of prominent women discuss what the PM's adviser for female voters should say to her boss
• David Cameron edges towards minimum price curb on binge drinking
• Alcohol pricing: a battleground between health groups and drinks industry
• Zoe Williams: False optimism alone won't find jobs where none exist
• Nicholas Lezard: Sorry, David Cameron – the British love drinking, and love drinking lots
• Suzanne Moore: Instead of being disgusted by poverty, we are disgusted by poor people themselves
All today's SocietyGuardian stories
Other news
• Though 942 children who were trafficked to the UK in 2007-2010 were rescued, 301 of them went missing. Now the Home Office is considering asking the Children's Commissioner for England is to review how these children are looked after once they're rescued, reports the BBC. [See footnote]
• The Independent is focusing on new statistics revealing that women are currently losing their jobs at a far faster rate than men. In local government 75% of the workforce is female, and projections are that 10% of the staff will have to go.
On my radar ...
Depression has been said to be more prevalent among people working in the arts than many other professions. This may be one of the reasons charities helping people suffering from it are often championed by musicians.
Now the Factory Foundation has pulled together an impressive lineup of Manchester musicians for the double album Thirty One, in aid of the charity CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), which is working to combat the high suicide rates of young men in the UK. Included on the record are Elbow, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds and Everything Everything. For more information and to buy the album, go to thirtyonesongs.com.
On the Guardian Professional Networks
On the Local Government Network ...
• Is local government becoming obsessed with social media? To mark social media week, a communications expert says it's time to ask whether councils are making the best use of it
On the Public Leaders Network ...
• Making the case for rigorous, evidence-based policymaking. Proper evaluation of policy is important, but won't be enough on its own, says the programme director at the IfG
• Whitehall complexity is stifling the coalition's efficiency drive. Some government departments are 30% more complex than the world's 200 largest companies, a report has found
On the Voluntary Sector Network ...
• Charities need to adopt more commercial principles and talent to survive funding cuts, says David McHattie, head of charities at Barclays Corporate
Events and seminars
• How has the prison experience for vulnerable women moved on since the Corston report?
The review outlined "the need for a distinct radically different, visibly-led, strategic, proportionate, holistic, woman-centred, integrated approach". But what progress has there actually been in the five years since the report? Find out by attending this lecture at Sussex University on Wednesday 29 February, given by HM chief inspector of prisons, Nick Hardwick. Closing date for RSVP is 17 February. Find further details and reserve a place here.
• National Learn to Play Day
Music for All, the charity of the UK musical instrument industry, has just announced its first annual National Learn to Play Day taking place on 31 March, 2012, when the UK's musical instrument shops will open their doors and offer free instrument "taster" lessons to the general public.
There are 15 million people in the UK that either want to play an instrument or used to play one. The Play Day is designed to welcome people into music shops and to inspire them to get playing. It will offer free lessons on a variety of instruments, supported by music teachers and additional guidance on getting started learning to play music. The UK's instrument manufacturers will also be supporting the event with staff, instruments and special offers.
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SocietyGuardian editor: Alison Benjamin
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• This article was amended on 15 February 2012 because the original referred to a news report saying that the Home Office had asked the Children's Commissioner to review how trafficked children are looked after once rescued. The BBC later issued a correction saying that the request was under consideration but had not yet been made.
