Next Gen News

Full budget coverage, prison governors call for halt to £4bn building plan; and a little light reading

Today's top Society Guardian news and comment

Prison governors call for halt to £4bn prison building plan

Patients with learning "mistreated," says NHS staff

Teenager repellent "mosquito" should be banned, says Europe

Gary Younge on the collapse of the charity Refugee and Migrant Justice

All of today 's Society Guardian stories

Budget: Full coverage

Osborne faces budget backlash

How it works: Politics live blog

Leader: "progressive austerity" - a hollow phrase?

Letters: the sharp reality of budget cuts

David Blanchflower: dole queue beckons for Britain's young

Jackie Ashley: Osborne's big gamble

Polly Toynbee: we must map the detail of these cuts

Other news

• The chief executive of the Fifteen Foundation (now the Jamie Oliver Foundation) Penny Newman, is to depart after less than two years in post, reports Social Enterprise magazine.

• Nurses, teachers, police officers and other public sector workers face a steep rise in pension contributions, the Daily Telegraph claims. It says the a new government commission headed by former Labour minister John Hutton "could" recommend this as early as next Spring.

• Ofsted head Christine Gilbert is under pressure from ministers to quit her £200,000 a year post before her term of office expires in October 2011, reports the Mail on Sunday. The Daily Telegraph this morning reports she has "no plans" to go

I read ...

• Anna Coote's briefing for the New Economics Foundation on the "big society". The best and fairest critique I've read so far.

• And also this blogpost, verging on the mystical, from Lord Nat Wei, entitled: "Why big Society may be confusing - and why this is alright."

"There will always be a part of Big Society which will remain mysterious and yet also enticing â€" like life itself."

• Blogger Public Strategist's thoughts on the uses of government data:

"If you work hard with this data, you can get a sense of what government spent money on. But you can't get much of a sense of what it used the things it bought to do, still less what happened as a result."

• Blogger Artbitrary Constant's reflections on the closure of the Independent Living Fund.

• The Local Government Officer's blog post "Ongoing churlishness about money." Or why Nick Clegg's call for public sector pay restraint is a nonsense ...

• This letter from the Treasury solicitor Paul Jenkins to Mr Justice Foskett, apologising for his department's mishandling of the Sharon Shoesmith case in which large numbers of Ofsted documents relating to the case were presented to the court only at the eleventh hour.

"It is clear that the handling of the case did not meet the high standards that are expected of those entrusted with the conduct of litigation on behalf of the government and for this ... I apologise."

• A PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey report into the (bleak) future of social housing. Its conclusion sounds a little understated:

"The affordable housing sector is bracing itself for a sharp and prolonged period of public funding cuts."

?€? Blogger Family Lore 's thoughts on a class action started (in the International Criminal Court in The Hague) 100 British families claim that their rights were violated when their children were evacuated family courts

In case you missed them ... the weekend's top Society Guardian stories

Wei outlines plans for "big society" ISA to raise funds for social projects

GP admits "hastening" deaths of patients in his care

How facebook changed adoption forever

All Sunday's Society Guardian stories

All of Saturday 's Society Guardian stories

Society Guardian blogs

Joe Public

Sarah Boseley's global health blog

Guardian awards

Guardian Public Services Awards 2010

Guardian charity awards 2010

Society Guardian Social Enterprise Summit

We are starting to plan this year's Society Guardian Social Enterprise Summit. Last year's summit was a great success - you can read about it here. We are again looking for the demonstration of inspiration, innovation and practical ideas about how social enterprises can deliver public services. Whether you are from the public sector or social activities, we want you to tell us who you 'look like and what you would like to discuss. An Email to charmian.walker-smith @ guardian.co.uk . You can Follow Guardian Social Enterprise on Twitter

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