Society daily 28.01.11

letterbox — 'At risk' letters are being sent out to tens of thousands of public sector employees. Photograph: Getty

Today's top SocietyGuardian stories

• Discrimination ruling against voluntary workers 'unfair' says human rights body

• Cuts will force 250 Sure Start centres to close, say charities

• Fewer people drinking as recession hits

• Illegal drug use is in decline, NHS figures reveal

• Tory MP to report BBC over council cuts show

• NHS told to improve child autism diagnosis

• Unlawful restraint 'contributed to boy's custody death'

• Flu cases in decline

• Citizens Advice services face closure

• Jonathan Coxon: For social work's sake, rival colleges should get it together

• Lizz Pearson: Teenagers suffer the kicks of abusive relationships

All today's SocietyGuardian stories

Other news

• The radical NHS reforms in the government's health and social care bill are not justified by health statistics, says the King's Fund's chief economist John Appleby, reports the Telegraph. Appleby disputes the view that Britain is the "sick man of Europe" and says that deaths from heart attacks and cancer are falling despite lower spending on health than in countries such as France.

• Charities are warning that thousands of children placed in care far from home are more vulnerable to criminality, drug abuse and sexual exploitation, reports the BBC. The charities - including Barnardo's, the Who Cares Trust and Voice - say a third of the 64,000 children in local authority care in England and Wales live outside their local area.

• The number of police officers dropped by more than 2,500 in 2010, according to Home Office figures reported by the Independent. In the first significant fall for six years, police strength in England and Wales went down to 142,363 officers. Police grants are to be trimmed by up to 20% over the next four years as the Home Office budget is squeezed by more than £2bn.

On my radar ...

• The language of redundancy. In this guest post on the Cutsblog, Redundant Public Servant discusses the tone of the thousands of "at risk" letters being mailed out to public sector employees:

"... be prepared for the impersonal nature of the language which gets used. Making people redundant almost immediately makes HR people start writing to you in an English dialect called legalese. There'll be timetables, regulations, minima and maxima and sometimes even a heretofore (if you are especially lucky).
Your "at risk" letter is just the start though. There'll be consultation with your union representatives. You may even get offered the chance of an individual meeting with management. I took my employer up on this and enlivened an HR colleague's afternoon up with a melancholy monologue of how I felt about it all."

The subject of letter writing has also been taken up by the We Love Local Government blog.

• This account of the personal impact of cuts from the ever excellent Fighting Monsters, in which the social worker blogger must explain to a carer that her mother's personal budget will not be increasing, despite her needs becoming more complex:

"I had to tell them and negotiate with them about what to cut from their own package of care.
Not the Prime Minister. Not the Millionaires in the cabinet. Not any elected politician or Council Chief Executive. No councillor had to sit in that room with me and look the service user and carer in the face and ask them what they would prefer to give up from their package of care.
I've known this family for many years. I have a good understanding what is at stake for them and how much these cuts are hurting. I also know they won't complain or grumble or shout from the rooftops.
They are not going to be going on any rallies or demonstrations against the cuts – not least because the respite hours have been cut.
We who can, have to demonstrate and shout and scream on their behalf."

• Thoughts on the big society project from Adrian Brown on the Institute for Government blog, who asks whether the end is nigh:

"It will take time for new community groups to take over libraries; for free schools to be set-up; for the Big Society Bank to be established; and for police commissioners to be elected. This is to be expected, change on this scale is bound to take time. That doesn't mean the entire project is doomed but rather the importance of sticking the course if you are embarking on any change of this scale."

• Philip Pullman, whose speech against library cuts earlier this month has become a viral sensation. The author's speech, delivered to two or three hundred people at an Oxfordshire library campaigners' meeting, was read some 20,000 times in two days after it was posted online. His speech, hailed a masterpiece of oratory, concludes:

"Leave the libraries alone. You don't know the value of what you're looking after. It is too precious to destroy."

According to the Public Libraries News site, more than 400 public libraries are threatened with closure and the Evening Standard this week reported that a third of London's libraries are at risk. A national day of action, Save our Libraries Day, is planned for next Saturday, 5 February.

• This interesting project from the King's Fund, which aims to track and comment on key aspects of NHS performance, starting with hospital waiting times.

• The New Local Government Network, which has just published a round-up of its annual meeting, held earlier this week, including footage and transcripts of the speeches by Eric Pickles and Caroline Flint.

On the Guardian Professional Networks

• What social businesses could learn from open source software, where programmers and companies share programming code for their common benefit.

• The Scottish government is planning to toughen its Freedom of Information legislation, but has dropped earlier plans to include more organisations such as its suppliers, reports Government Computing

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.