pension333: Society daily 15.07.13

Today's top SocietyGuardian stories

? Liverpool care pathway should be phased out, independent review finds
? Government accused of 'assault' on the rights of women and minorities
? NHS braces for onslaught from Jeremy Hunt in run-up to report on care failure
? Andy Burnham rejects Tory criticism over past NHS failings
? NHS faces repeat of A&E winter crisis if plans not drawn up, hospitals warn
All today's SocietyGuardian stories

The pick of the weekend's SocietyGuardian news and features

? British child death rates are 'a major crisis', says paediatricians' leader
? David Cameron told to sack strategy chief over link to tobacco giants
? Sex abuse in schools: the parents who want a change to the law
? No review board into early deaths of patients with learning disabilities
All Sunday's SocietyGuardian news and features
All Saturday's SocietyGuardian news and features

Jobs of the week

? Director of child safeguarding, Save the Children: "We see the successful candidate bringing to the role a demonstrated track record within child safeguarding, with an in-depth knowledge of the issues, legal frameworks, policy and best practice."
? Assistant director of children's services, Barnardo's
? Head of SEN and inclusion, Peterborough city council
? Head of HR, Homes for Haringey
The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page
Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs

On the Guardian Professional Networks

? Occupy Wall Street activist and London native Carne Ross explains what 'gentle anarchism' could do for voluntary sector organisations
? New York project takes inspiration from creative councils in the UK
? How Sheffield Hallam University is using augmented reality to teach healthcare students care and compassion
? The public sector, not planning, is responsible for unused land, says Mark Clare
? How to be ... a civil service apprentice

On my radar ...

? The benefit cap. The cap on the amount of benefits people can receive has begun to be rolled out across England, Scotland and Wales. It will see couples and single parents receive no more than �500 a week in benefits, while the limit for single people is �350, although there are some exemptions. The work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has insisted he was right to claim that benefit claimants subject to the new cap are being forced into work, even though he has been criticised by the government statistics watchdog for making the assertion. Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Duncan Smith said, "I have a belief I am right," as he published polling showing how popular the measure was with the public. The cap has already been trialled in four London boroughs.
Writing for Comment is free when the cap was passed by the Commons in 2011, Tom Clark predicted:

The effect will be most pronounced where rents are high, and consequently housing benefit entitlements can be large. But for large families renting privately, there will be pain across great swaths of London and the south-east.

On the New Statesman's Staggers blog, George Eaton lists five things Iain Duncan Smith doesn't want you to know about the benefit cap, including why it will cost more than it saves.
Meanwhile, Jules Birch writes for Inside Housing on Duncan Smith's Today interview, and his claims of public support for the cap. He argues:

The principle that nobody should earn more out of work than average earnings for someone in work does get wide support, especially among people who cannot conceive how much rents cost in London. Except of course that it a false comparison based on a fictional benefit system. Anyone in work with a high rent or a large family (the two main groups affected by the cap) will also be getting tax credits and housing and other benefits too.
All of which is why the benefit cap and the faith-based politics of IDS are so pernicious. Using the same logic, he could just as easily argue that it is wrong that someone working part-time should apparently get more than someone working full-time, or that the cap should be reduced still further (which is already a serious proposition among some Conservative MPs).

? Homecare. The Guardian, in partnership with the Department of Health, has today launched a survey on how to improve homecare services. The survey is launched at a time when concern is growing over the quality and safety of care delivered to older and disabled people in their own homes. Some homecare providers have been accused of failing to provide a complete service, while ministers say councils are too often engaged in a "race to the bottom" when commissioning care, choosing the cheapest bid. The survey is open to care providers, service commissioners, frontline staff, those receiving homecare and their family and friends. A "best practice exchange", showcasing the best of these ideas, will be published on the Guardian's Social Care Network, before the government announces in the autumn how these suggestions can be woven into policy.
Writing for the Social Care Network today, Andrea Sutcliffe, chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence, shares her thoughts on what good homecare services look like - and says it's the small things that make a difference.

? A new report from the Resolution Foundation, which claims a third of Britain is "effectively off-limits" to lower income families because they are unable to afford the private rents for homes there. The Home Truths report (pdf) says that in 125 of the 376 local authorities in Britain, a couple with a net income of �22,000 a year and one child would have to spend more than 35% of their income to rent the least expensive two-bedroom property. And in one in 10 local authorities, the same family would have to spend more than half of their income on rent. Monthly rents on a two-bedroom property range from �340 in the cheapest part of the country ? Blaenau Gwent in Wales - to �2,380 in the most expensive area ? the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The thinktank says the government's schemes to kick-start the housing market might help thousands of people to buy homes, but they would do little to meet the needs of low- to middle-income families who are increasingly faced with no option but to rent privately. Vidhya Alakeson, the report's co-author, said:

"[Low- and middle-income families] are increasingly unlikely to be able to afford the deposit to buy their own home, so turn to the private rented sector ? but here too they are now struggling to find decent, affordable housing.
Only an increase in the stock of housing for rent can improve the situation, and the government should make this a strategic priority. People should not have to choose between decent, affordable housing and other essentials in life such as clothing, food or furniture ? yet that is increasingly what is happening as housing costs escalate.

The BBC has a calculator tool to show where in the country people could afford to live - and whether it would be cheaper to rent or buy.