A perturbing hint on how next year's general election campaign might pan out emerged this week when David Cameron attempted to outsmart Gordon Brown on the funding of two Islamic schools.
Which is the best way to spend public money: by developing treatments for dementia and cancer or on counselling for couples at breaking point?
It is a poor indictment on the quality of care when a patient leaves hospital in worse shape than when they went in.
A book I have focuses on deprivation in Hackney, east London. In a chapter entitled Schooling for Failure, the author discusses the cramped conditions in which too many children were living as he researched his book and the effects these had on their development, at play and in study.
David Cameron has been turning his thoughts this week to poverty - and also to the voluntary sector which he sees as key to reducing it.
If anyone needs confirmation why the abuse of disabled people is a major issue they need look no further than a court case in Devon.
There are today 995 days until the start of the London Olympics and 1,028 until the Paralympics get under way. But could the London games become the first where disabled athletes line up against their mainstream counterparts?
It could become even more expensive to practise as a social worker.
The countries deemed "safe" by the British government now include Zimbabwe, Iraq and Afghanistan. Because they are "safe" it is reasonable for ministers to announce the resumption of the forced return of failed asylum seekers.
| Outside Left questions the thinking behind today’s social policy, with a sometimes wry, occasionally cynical, always straight-talking look at the political elite that shapes it, written by sub editor, Mike McNabb. |
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