Society daily 29.09.10

What's under the bonnet of the NHS white paper? Photograph: Henrik Weis/Getty Images

Today's top Society Guardian stories

Ed Miliband calls for "good society" to take on Cameron's "big society"

Charity should begin with worthiness league table, says philanthropy adviser

Breast cancer in young women "increases risk" of disease in relatives

Why Ken Livingstone still wants to be mayor of London

Health services to publish outcomes on dementia

All today's Society Guardian stories

Other news

• Charity confidence is at "an all time low," with over half of voluntary organisations expecting economic conditions for both the sector and themselves to worsen in the next 12 months as spending cuts begin to bite, reports NCVO.

• 1,600 elderly and disabled people were forced to move after action by the Care Quality Commission led to more than 40 care home closures, the Daily Telegraph reports.

• The government plans to ban benefit fraudsters from the welfare system for life, the DailyTelegraph says.

On my radar

• Martin Brookes, CEO of New Philanthropy Capital, who is giving an RSA lecture tonight on the morality of charitable giving. The Guardian gave us a sneak preview this morning. It's powerful, persuasive stuff: a little too hard-headed and rational, perhaps, for charity romantics, and almost certainly guaranteed to ruffle establishment feathers.

• The brilliant Paul Corrigan, who dissects the BMA's bargaining position on the NHS white paper.

"The publication of a government white paper is an opportunity for the BMA to model itself on the plumber or the car mechanic. Once the white paper is published, the experience is a lot like lifting the bonnet on the car engine or opening up the airing cupboard for a look at the boiler. The immediate response to whatever is in the white paper (under the bonnet, in the airing cupboard) is a very audible and sharp intake of breath followed by the comment, 'If that's what you want to do, it's going to be expensive'."

• This powerful attack on begging and the myths around street begging by an ex-street sleeper (thanks @JeremySwain)

• And here's Jeremy Swain himself, on the crassness and indulgence of sponsored sleepouts for the homeless:

"Last year our street outreach workers came across a sleep-out in central London that was entirely under cover and where copious quantities of red wine were being consumed by well-heeled participants."

• Care home robots. Such as this one, which will wash your hair for you and doesn't complain about low wages (thanks @ThFuturePerfect).

• The communities secretary Eric Pickles, once again demonstrating his iron commitment to local decision-making by decreeing that councils cannot publish their own newspaper ("frivolous town hall propaganda papers") more than four times a year. Cracks in the coalition are already appearing over this: Richard Kemp, leader of the Liberal Democrats in local government has accused Pickles of "hypocrisy and ignorance":

"The fact is that things have changed since Eric was a lad! The number of people who read local newspapers is a small fraction of what it once was... The council and other parts of the public sector have a need and a duty to let all citizens know what is happening."

• Blogger Mind in Flux, who draws attention to this appallling blog post by an Essex GP on "care farm" projects for mentally ill people, published in Pulse magazine. Much anger over this on Twitter. Extreme, flippant and no doubt "tongue in cheek", but not a great advert for GP commissioning.

• Agebomb blogger Geraldine Bedell on the therapeutic value of reading aloud projects for older people

• Coventry city council. Finally named, after pressure from the media, as the council that controversially abandoned a child-care proceedings application at the 11th hour after the defence had run up costs of £400,000.

• This bound-to-be controversial research which suggests most social enterprises are not actually social enterprises. Discuss.

Highlights from today's Society supplement

Will Suffolk really be able to become a virtual council?

Interview: Peter Carter, the angry leader of the Royal College of Nursing

David Brindle: the care minister will need balls of steel

Dawn Howley: care leavers will be deeply injured by short-term cuts

Leslie Morthy: don't be taken in by housing benefit bunk

Public manager: is the public shielded against care homes going bust?

Public servant of the year award: the full shortlist

Guardian and Observer Christmas Appeal 2010

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 that 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.

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 Victor Adebowale, chief executive, Turning Point; Rod Schwartz, chief executive, Clearly So; Dai Powell, chief executive, HCT; Alastair Wilson, chief executive, School for Social Entrepreneurs.