• Payment by results, which has determined the funding of hospitals in England for 10 years could be rolled out to other services, including, potentially, adult social care, predicts Community Care. Ministers believe that paying providers according to what they achieve will offer incentives for improvement.

• Patients could be told to email their doctor after assessing their symptoms at home rather than visiting in person, under proposals to free up GPs' surgeries, according to the Telegraph.

• The John Lewis Partnership is offering charities the chance to take its staff on six-month secondments, reports UK Fundraising. The company funds employees from John Lewis and Waitrose to take six months from their usual job, fully paid, to spend on secondment in a charity of their choice. Charities that have benefited in recent years have included the National Trust and the RSPCA, as well as local hospices and Citizens Advice Bureaux.

On my radar ...

• The big society project - has it hit the buffers? According to the Times today [paywall] David Cameron has been warned that "the label is harming the government":

"Steve Hilton, the prime minister's director of strategy, has privately made clear his worries that the Big Society message is being drowned out by Labour and cash-starved charities that are defining his project in a negative light."

Meanwhile, in an open letter to the PM, Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary organisations says charities face a "tidal wave" of growing needs and rising cuts:

"As we face cuts, we also face increased demand for our services. Every cut has a consequence. And those consequences are being played out in the lives of individuals and on the streets of our communities. You saw this yourself in the tragic case of the disabled child denied caring support. That was but the tip of the iceberg that confronts our sector."

And who will deliver these big society promises anyway? The government's own annual Citizenship Survey reveals that volunteering has fallen for the fifth consecutive year.

On his Cutsblog, my colleague Patrick Butler has posted an update on the "scandal" of Supporting People cuts:

"A survey published this morning finds nearly three quarters of supported housing charities have been warned by their local authority to expect 'disproportionate' cuts to services which support homeless people, mentally ill people, refugees, women fleeing domestic violence, care leavers and teenage parents. One in five have been told to expect cuts of over 30% ... There's still more bad news to come, with 42% of respondents saying the councils they contract with have yet to announce cuts. This, when you think about it, is extraordinary: that two months before the start of the financial year, at a time of seismic funding upheaval, many charities do not know whether their services will be required or they will have to close."

A new project being launched today aims to map the cuts being made to the voluntary sector. Newcastle Council for Voluntary Service has already conducted its own survey and concludes that two-thirds of voluntary organisations in the city only have enough funding to provide their services for up to a year. (thanks @MarkOneinFour)

• Protests against benefit cuts, which are taking place around the country today. On the New Statesman blog, Laurie Penny calls on others to join the protests.

• Two takes on the health and social care bill. Firstly from the British Medical Journal's deputy editor, Tony Delamothe, and editor in chief, Fiona Godlee, who are alarmed at the speed of change planned for the health service:

"The government's recent 'bonfire of the quangos' provides an instructive example of how a rush job doesn't necessarily guarantee the best outcome. Earlier this month, the parliamentary select committee on public administration criticised the axing of 192 public bodies and the merging of 118 more as poorly managed. It also said that this move would not deliver significant cost savings or better accountability—two of the government's key aims. The committee's chairman said that, "The whole process was rushed and poorly handled and should have been thought through a lot more."13
Rationalising a few hundred arm's length bodies hardly compares with turning the NHS upside down, yet the proposed timescale for the health reforms is dizzying."

And junior doctor Max Pemberton on the Telegraph site writes:

"I had hoped the bill would deftly remove the unwanted and unhelpful elements within the NHS, but instead the scalpel has been used to stab it in the back. The proposed reforms signal an end to the NHS as we know it. It will not be reformed, it will be murdered. What Lansley's bill achieves is the atomising of the NHS. It will be spliced and diced into bite-sized portions to be thrown down the gullet of the corporate sector."

• Homelessness. My colleagues at Comment is free have compiled this "people's panel" on homelessness, which asks readers to share their thoughts an experiences. Among the contributors, Wayne Stubbs says if London hotels can offer £30-a-night rooms and still make a profit, why aren't there a network of crisis beds:

"My advice to policymakers is that there needs to be housing of last resort available to those who need it which those with no options can access before they end up on the streets. Councils have a statutory duty to house children and those deemed vulnerable, but this should be extended to everyone. It need not be expensive or squalid, and should be a stepping stone to getting people back on track, not a long-term solution."

• Library flash mobs, the very latest in anti-cuts protests. First, they took all 16,000 volumes from Stony Stratford library, Milton Keynes, and then the people of Newport on the Isle of Wight followed suit.

• Abducted British aid worker Linda Norgrove, who has been posthumously named winner of the 2011 Robert Burns Humanitarian Award. Ms Norgrove, who died last October during a US military-led rescue mission to free her from Afghanistani captors, was given the award in recognition of her work in Afghanistan. The award is presented annually to a group or individual who has saved, improved or enriched the lives of others or society as a whole, through personal self-sacrifice, selfless service or 'hands on' charitable work.

• This clever app from the BBC's Newsbeat, which allows users not only to calculate how many units of alcohol they consumed last night, but also the calorific value, how much the session probably cost and how long it will take for the body to process the alcohol consumed.

On the Guardian Professional Networks

• The government does consult the voluntary sector on policy changes, but with less than a month allowed for a recent consultation, there is still room for improvement, writes Saba Salman

• How the Stroke Association is trying to find corporate money to raise awareness of Britain's second biggest killer.

• Why can't medicines use standardised packaging asks the Patient from Hell, after dealing with a pack which mistranslated French days of the week.

In case you missed them ... SocietyGuardian weekend highlights

• Adoptions need to quadruple, says outgoing Barnardo's chief

• Government cuts aren't terminal for public sector jobseekers

• Simon Hattenstone meets Laura Hall, the only person to have been given an alcohol asbo

• All yesterday's SocietyGuardian news and features

• All Saturday's SocietyGuardian news and features

Do you work in public sector HR?

The XpertHR benchmarking survey of public sector HR practitioners and employment professionals wants to hear from you about the employment implications of the coalition's public spending cuts. It will look back to what happened in 2010, and forward to the implications for 2011, covering topics including

• Cutting wage bills, use of outsourcing to reduce wage bills, use of shared services to reduce wage bills;

• Voluntary and compulsory redundancies;

• Closure of offices or sites;

• Relocation of staff or offices;

• Schedules and outcomes of cost-cutting measures.

The survey, in association with SocietyGuardian, is running on the XpertHR benchmarking surveys website until 24 January.

Events

Public Services Summit New models, new relationships, a new era. 10 & 11 February, St Albans.

Join leading thinkers, practitioners and policy makers for discussion and debate about the future of our public services.

Mobile and Wireless Healthcare Enabling access to care at the point of need. 16 February, Birmingham.

This conference is aimed at ICT and service delivery teams in the NHS to give them practical advice and guidance at a time where all we can be certain of is a reduction in public sector budgets. 2 for 1 delegate place offer available.

Public Sector Procurement 17 February, Manchester. Only £99 to attend.

A one-day conference for public sector buyers and suppliers, exploring new policy and innovation from across the north of England.

Managing Public Sector Information 2011 Making the transparency agenda happen. 1 March, London.

An essential forum for professionals involved in managing, storing, use and governance of information in the public sector, when the push is for increased openness and transparency. Save 20% when booking before 31 January.