Dartmoor prison, which opened in 1809 to hold Napoleonic prisoners of war. Photograph: Barry Batchelor/PA
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Today's top SocietyGuardian stories
• Dartmoor prison facing closure as ministers announce shakeup of jails
• Hunt announces new push to create database of NHS patients' records
• Universal Credit IT programme not fit for purpose, sources warn
• Nurse gets six-month ban over offensive Facebook messages
• Breast cancer drug could save lives of more than 400 women, study shows
• Police referrals of domestic violence cases drop 13%
• Over-50s make up third of inmates at prison for sex offenders
All today's SocietyGuardian stories
In today's SocietyGuardian section
• Bastoy: the Norwegian prison that works
• Charles Walker MP: 'Mental illness is not a weakness'
• My mum could have had better end-of-life care, says Alison Benjamin
• Safe houses offer sanctuary to LGBT youngsters in Manchester and London
• Where are the voices of the healthcare assistants in mental health?
• Fairness commissions: is it possible for politics to play fair?
• What have booze, fags and TVs got to do with benefits?
• Public manager: The personal element in transacting public business is vital
Jobs of the week
• Programme policy manager, Action Aid: "You will have worked on shared advocacy and research projects, effectively lobbied civil servants and government officials and gained an understanding of UK policy institutions."
• Assistant director, policy and research, Barnardo's
• Cumbria safeguarding adults board, independent chair, Cumbria county council
• Senior practitioner, information and assessment, London Borough of Hackney
The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page
Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs
On the Guardian Professional Networks
• Police and crime commissioner Bob Jones: 'Why my job should be scrapped'
• How councils can put a stop to rogue landlords – Martha MacKenzie shares seven top tips
• Bill Grimsey says local authorities need to plan now to save the high street
• Malcolm Preston on why the government's strategy on public procurement is blocking NHS value for money
• Demand for advocacy is rising as funding and access fall warns former Action for Advocacy chief executive Martin Coyle
• Beyond oligarchy and philanthropy: Russia has the resources to make social enterprise work, says Daragh McDowell
On my radar ...
• The campaign for a living wage. After BBC Newsnight political editor Allegra Stratton revealed the government is considering raising the minimum wage earlier this week, new research from the Resolution Foundation thinktank reveals that almost five million people are now earning below the minimum living wage. The report states that, at current prices, the living wage has risen to £7.45 an hour outside London and £8.55 in the capital. Pay below the living rate was found to be most common in the hotels and restaurants sector, where two in three employees (67 per cent) were low paid. The vast majority of those trapped in very low pay (83%) were 16-20 year olds.
Matthew Whittaker, a senior economist at the thinktank and author of the report said:
Britain has a sorry story to tell on low pay. Only a handful of our close competitors do worse and the large majority have much lower rates of low pay – sometimes half as much. The challenge for all parties is to find ways of boosting rates of pay, especially for those who earn less, without putting economic growth at risk.
Meanwhile Rachel Reeves, Labour's shadow Treasury secretary, has hit out at the government over complacency on wages and the cost of living.
David Cameron and George Osborne would like us to think that our troubles are over, good times are here again. But most families know that this complacency is misplaced.
• Primary school places. The Local Government Association now warns that almost half of English school districts will have a shortage of primary places by 2015, some facing a shortfall of up to 20%. Writing for the Guardian, education campaigner Fiona Miller says coalition policies have made the crisis in primary education worse, and the only solution is for Whitehall step back and hand full control of primary education back to local government.
The DfE should just pull out of the process and provide the money for local authorities to get on with planning and providing what is, after all, a basic right for children in their communities. This wouldn't necessarily mean an end to diversity, parent promoters or choice. The Labour government set in train a process of local competitions for providers (from the maintained and academy sector), where there was a need for a new school. That could be revived with immediate effect. But it would mean a big and awkward shift in rhetoric and policy, in favour of local rather than central government control.
• A powerful blog from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which reminds us that the cause of the 'education gap' is poverty, not neglectful parenting. Research shows a direct correlation between affluence and achievement. By age 16 only 35% of children receiving free school meals gain the basic A*-C grades at GCSE, compared to 62% of children not claiming meals. Helen Barnard writes:
For most of the 1.2 million pupils eligible for free school meals, their families are not chaotic or neglectful; they struggle to make ends meet on low incomes, and lack sustainable work or ways to progress in work. Often they do not have very high levels of education themselves, making it harder for them to help with their children's education.
• Regulation of psychotherapists. The coalition's "assured voluntary registration" scheme is designed to protect patients from rogue operators without introducing unnecessary red tape. Under the scheme existing professional bodies can apply for accreditation from the Professional Standards Authority, which oversees regulators. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy has already achieved PSA accreditation, and the UK Council for Psychotherapy is working towards it.
But a post for the Not So Big Society blog exposes loopholes in the "regulation-lite" scheme. If a complaint is made about a practitioner who has already resigned from a register, nothing can be done.
To be fair to the UKCP, the exact same thing would happen if somebody tried to complain to the Nursing and Midwifery Council against a nurse who had previously resigned... But here's the difference. "Nurse" is a protected title and you have to belong to the NMC register in order to practice as one. Any nurse who resigns their registration is effectively striking themselves off. "Psychotherapist", however, is not a protected title, and you can belong to any professional body or none. As AVR becomes more established it's likely that a psychotherapist wouldn't get work from the NHS, social services, schools, universities or the voluntary sector without belonging to a PSA-accreditated body. However, for any practitioner who's outside of that, accepting self-referrals from the public, anything goes.
Other news
• Independent: Academies 'increase divisions between the rich and poor'
• Independent: Blood pressure breakthrough could revolutionise treatment of 'world's biggest silent killer'
• Health Service Journal: One in seven NHS staff made redundant win back jobs
• Telegraph: Elderly care crisis claims a million family homes
• Independent: Labour accuses Government over possible sell-off district general hospital
• Telegraph: Teenagers and online porn: Let's tackle it all – birds, bees, love and 'slags'
• Inside Housing: Housing organisation launches £1.5m jobs scheme
• Local Government Chronicle: Westminster avoiding welfare 'armageddon' (subscription)
• Third Sector: Lobbying bill will not place a gag on charity campaigning, minister argues
• Times: Lethal toll as women quit 'unbearable' cancer drug tamoxifen (subscription)
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