Society daily 24.09.2010

• Growing numbers of patients are choosing private hospitals for their National Health Service operations, latest figures from the Department of Health show, the Financial Times reports.

• A bitter row has engulfed leading charity, the MS Society, over plans to close its respite centres for people with multiple sclerosis, The Independent reports.

On my radar ...

• The cabinet office's quango hitlist. Here's some commentary and analysis on how it will affect disability organisations, the voluntary sector, and social care bodies.

• Blogger Public Value For Money, who reflects on the devilish detail involved in Suffolk council-style privatisation projects (thanks @FlipChartFT):

"The outsourcing project needs to be populated with commercially aware managers who have experience of outsourcing, not with staff seconded from each service who have never seen a contract before. This, inevitably, will cost a lot of money in the short term. Will the council be willing to meet the cost of getting it right or pay the price in the long term for getting it wrong?"

• Pensions. Blogger and HR expert Flip Chart Fairy Tales examines how public sector pensions could put "a spanner in the works" of attempts to transfer public services to the private and voluntary sector.

• The Daily Mash's idiosyncratic take on council outsourcing (satire)

• Acevo Boss Stephen Bubbs' lecture this week on charities and the state, in which he warns of the politicisation of civil society.

• Education secretary Michael Gove's letter to Ofsted chair Christine Gilbert, outlining his plans to remove onerous bureaucratic duties relating to schools' "compliance with peripheral issues". They may have got off to a tricky start, but looks like Michael and Christine are now on the same page.

• Regeneration magic: how a street in central Manchester is being used to shoot a film set in 1940's downtown New York (thanks @kieronflanagan)

Guardian and Observer Christmas Appeal 2010: help us decide which youth charities to support

This year our Christmas appeal will support charities working with vulnerable teenagers and young adults. That bit we've decided on. What we don't know yet is which ones to support. And that's where you come in. There are around 8,000 UK charities out there who operate in this area. We are looking for 10 projects which do innovative, effective work with young people at risk aged 13-24. So if you work for a charity, and you fit the bill, please apply (you can find the link to the pdf download on this page). If you know of a charity which you think we ought to support, then encourage them to apply or nominate them on this blog, and we'll contact them on your behalf. Applications close on 8 October, the appeal will kick off in December.

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.