Society daily 27.10.2010

Residents play bingo on Barnet's Prospect House estate. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Today's top SocietyGuardian stories

Fraud cost councils £135m, report finds

'easyCouncil' finds it hard to cut, as reforms fail to deliver savings

Clegg rejects 'social cleansing' claim over housing changes

Flu pandemic in England killed 60 children in 2009

Reformed youth jail restraint rules 'still not introduced'

Baby P's death 'could have been prevented'

Tories' star teacher ponders next move

Patrick Butler: politicians must learn the lessons of Baby P too

Dave Hill's London blog: council mergers and false economies

Jo Williams: are community treatment orders overused?

All today's SocietyGuardian stories

Other news

• The coalition's new regional enterprise bodies will not receive any money to help them tap into the government's £1.4bn regional growth fund - potentially leaving the most vulnerable parts of the country struggling to apply for much-needed public investment, reports the Financial Times.

• Councils in England recovered 1,600 social homes that had been unlawfully sublet last year, reports Inside Housing.

Today's SocietyGuardian supplement highlights

Cuts could put paid to fledgling 'big society' schemes

Richard Wilson on participatory budgeting

Tom Clark: will the coalition unleash a new poll tax protest?

Rod Morgan: I won't mourn the Youth Justice Board

Interview: Sam Younger, head of the Charity Commission

All SocietyGuardian supplement stories

Guardian and Observer Christmas Charity Appeal 2010

Nominations are now closed for our Christmas appeal 2010, which will support charities working with vulnerable teenagers and young adults. Many thanks to everyone who applied.

Our Christmas charity 2010 partner New Philanthropy Capital is now sifting through the 300 applications we received. A shortlist of projects will be submitted to a selection panel comprising Guardian/Observer and NPC staff at the end of October. Ten projects will be chosen.

We will contact successful and unsuccessful applicants once the panel has reached it decision in early November. The appeal will launch towards the end of November and run until mid-January.

Events

Transforming Social Care through IT, finding your way in a changing service environment. 8 December, London. Take a practical look at social care provision, address the changing face of services and explore the reasons why technology is fundamental to the future of care. Register now and save 30%.

Information Security and Identity Management in the Public Sector, keeping pace with new threats. 3 November, London. Hear from Christopher Graham, information commissioner and Belinda Lewis, Ministry of Justice.

Capital Ambition, delivering services for London in an age of austerity, 15 November, London. Join leading practitioners across London to rethink, redesign and reassess the way services are delivered.

Guardian Social Enterprise 2010, 16 November, London. An interactive conference for anyone delivering public services or supporting social enterprises. Speakers include: minister for civil society Nick Hurd; Peter Holbrook, chief executive of the Social Enterprise Coalition; Allison Ogden-Newton, chief executive, Social Enterprise London; Lord Adebowale, chief executive, Turning Point; Rod Schwartz, chief executive, Clearly So; Dai Powell, chief executive, HCT; Alastair Wilson, chief executive, School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Transforming Blue Light Services, innovating ICT for the emergency services, 24 November, London.

Discover how the innovative use of technology will improve performance and response in difficult financial times.