Category Archives: Society

Target for cutting premature birthrate in England will not be met, minister says

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Gillian Merron tells Lords the goal of reducing rate of preterm births to 6%, which was set in 2019, may be changed

The women’s health minister has admitted there is no chance the government will meet its target of reducing the premature birthrate to 6% in England by 2025.

Preterm birth, when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the biggest cause of death among children under five in the UK. The previous government set a target in 2019 to reduce the preterm birthrate to 6% by 2025.

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YouTube to restrict teenagers’ exposure to videos about weight and fitness

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Platform will ensure algorithms do not keep pushing similar content to young viewers, even though it does not breach guidelines

YouTube is to stop recommending videos to teenagers that idealise specific fitness levels, body weights or physical features, after experts warned such content could be harmful if viewed repeatedly.

The platform will still allow 13- to 17-year-olds to view the videos, but its algorithms will not push young users down related content “rabbit holes” afterwards.

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School exclusions rise by fifth in England in past year, study finds

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Increasing amounts spent on educating pupils outside mainstream ‘where quality and safety is less guaranteed’

Suspensions and exclusions from schools in England went up by more than a fifth in the past year, according to analysis of live attendance data in a new report that raises concerns about children being shifted out of mainstream education into alternative provision.

Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that cash-strapped councils are spending increasing amounts on educating pupils outside the mainstream schools “where quality and safety is less guaranteed”.

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The final Grenfell inquiry report and what it means for families – Politics Weekly UK

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The 2017 Grenfell Tower fire in London was the result of ‘decades of failure’ by central government, the public inquiry into the catastrophe has found. The Guardian’s John Harris looks at the findings of the report with the social affairs leader writer Susanna Rustin. And, as Labour continues to warn ‘things will get worse before they get better’, we are joined by the economists James Meadway and Ann Pettifor to discuss whether a painful period of austerity-lite is the only way through the storm

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‘Better than medication’: prescribing nature works, project shows

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Scheme helping people in England connect with nature led to better mental health, report finds

A major scheme helping people in England connect with nature led to big improvements in mental health, a report has found.

The prescribing of activities in nature to tackle mental ill health has benefited thousands of people across England, a government-backed project has shown.

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Woman, 86, told she no longer has to repay £13,000 in benefits in DWP U-turn

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Exclusive: Case of Sia Kasparis, who has dementia, had been highlighted in Guardian investigation into unpaid care

An 86-year-old woman with advanced dementia has been told by the government she no longer has to repay a £13,000 benefit debt after her case was highlighted by the Guardian.

Sia Kasparis, who is partially blind and has been bed-bound for two years, was ordered to repay the huge sum after officials said she had failed to notify them her son had taken up caring duties.

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Banks warned over denying sex workers business accounts

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FCA gives detailed guidance to lenders after hearing lack of access could lead to ‘significant harm’ for individuals

The City regulator has warned UK banks over denying accounts for sex workers, after hearing that a lack of access to business banking could lead to “significant harm” for individuals.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said that while banks said they were able to provide accounts for the adult entertainment industry in theory, they were often denying or shutting down business accounts in practice.

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Family of British aid worker killed in Gaza call for independent inquiry

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James Kirby was among seven WCK staff killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted their marked vehicle in April

The family of James Kirby, a World Central Kitchen aid worker killed in Gaza, have called for an independent investigation into his death and said neither British nor Israeli diplomats had been in touch, even though an internal Israeli inquiry said his death had been a tragic accident.

Kirby was among seven aid workers, including Britons John Chapman and James Henderson, who were killed when an Israeli airstrike targeted their clearly marked vehicle on 1 April. The Israeli inquiry led to the dismissal of two officers.

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NHS faces ‘tipping point’ in England where most appointments will not be with GPs

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Rapidly falling number of family doctors will harm ‘continuity and quality’ of care according to new research

The NHS in England is heading towards a “tipping point” after which GPs will no longer provide the majority of appointments because their numbers are falling so fast.

That is the conclusion of an extensive piece of new research that also shows one in five surgeries has shut and the number of patients each family doctor looks after has soared over the last decade.

1,625 GP surgeries closed between 2013 and 2023 – a fall of 20% or 178 a year – reducing the total number from 8,044 to 6,419.

The average number of patients on each surgery’s books rose by 40% – or 291 a year – over the same period, from 6,967 to 9,724.

Total patient numbers have grown from 56 million to 62.4 million.

Although the overall number of GPs working in the NHS rose, after taking changes in working hours into account those working the equivalent of full-time fell from 27,948 to 27,321.

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Councils in England draining reserves to stay afloat, leaders say

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Survey of 24 city authorities finds two in five plan to sell off assets and reduce services

Local authority leaders say they are having to drain their financial reserves to keep services afloat and avoid effective bankruptcy.

A survey of the mid-tier group of English city councils, which includes Southampton, Hull, Sunderland and Norwich, found that many that had previously avoided financial difficulties during periods of austerity were close to running out of funds.

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Elle Macpherson refused chemotherapy after secret breast cancer diagnosis

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Supermodel says she is in remission after being diagnosed seven years ago and rejecting traditional medicine

Elle Macpherson has said she was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago but is now in remission despite refusing chemotherapy.

The Australian supermodel and actor, who rose to fame in the 1980s, is publishing a memoir – Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself – in which she says she took a holistic approach to the illness, going against the advice of 32 doctors.

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US gambling sector’s ‘relentless’ social media posts breached own rules, study claims

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Exclusive: University of Bristol academics say gambling industry code ‘not being followed’ after analysis of social media posts by leading firms

As gambling companies target social media users, the four leading online brands appear to be routinely breaching the industry’s self-imposed marketing regulations, according to a new study.

Over one week this summer, academics at the University of Bristol found that BetMGM, DraftKings, ESPN Bet and FanDuel published more than a thousand posts – 75% of their non-sponsored content on Facebook, Instagram, X and TikTok – that did not include problem gambling support messages or a helpline number.

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Starmer criticises Labour MP over tenants’ complaints of mould and ants

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PM says ‘it’s unacceptable’ when asked about Jas Athwal allegations but adds MP is ‘taking action to put it right’

Keir Starmer has criticised a Labour MP who has been accused of renting out flats with black mould and ant infestations, calling the conditions “unacceptable”.

The prime minister addressed the accusations against Jas Athwal, the MP for Ilford South, on Monday after a report by the BBC quoted several of his tenants complaining about the conditions in the properties they rented from him. One said there were ants “everywhere”, adding: “They are on my kid’s body and on their clothes.”

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‘Nothing unusual’ about blindness non-profit Vision Australia being led by someone who isn’t blind, chair says

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Bill Jolley says he was ‘a bit surprised at the intensity of the reaction’ after ex-chair Graeme Innes launches petition calling for appointment of blind CEO

A non-blind person leading Vision Australia is “nothing unusual”, its chair has said, as the organisation faces criticism for seeking a new chief executive through internal expressions of interest only.

Bill Jolley’s comments come in the wake of a petition launched by Vision Australia’s founding chair, the former disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes, urging the organisation to appoint its first blind chief executive.

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Pregnant women and older people in England offered RSV vaccine on NHS

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Programme for respiratory syncytial virus could prevent estimated 5,000 hospitalisations annually in infants

Pregnant women and older people across England will be routinely vaccinated against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for the first time, the NHS has said.

From 1 September the NHS will vaccinate pregnant women from 28 weeks onwards and adults turning 75. Adults aged 75 to 79 will be offered a catchup vaccine to make sure they are protected.

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‘Broken’ prison system sets inmates up to fail, top Scottish inspector says

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Lack of funding, resources and rehabilitation leads to ‘bored and angry’ prisoners, Wendy Sinclair-Gieben says

The prison system is “broken”, with inmates returning to the community “bored and angry” and “set up to fail”, according to Scotland’s outgoing chief inspector.

Wendy Sinclair-Gieben highlighted a succession of failings in a service she described as “the underdog of the criminal justice system”, as she stands down as HM chief inspector of prisons for Scotland at the end of August.

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Seven years after Grenfell disaster, thousands live in fear of cladding fire

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As the final report on the fatal London blaze looms, many developers have not begun safety work

• Rowan Moore: The Grenfell inquiry is exposing a culture of contempt that has run deep in Britain

Grenfell was an avoidable tragedy, the inquiry’s counsel said on the final day of hearings. Yet with the report into the blaze that claimed 72 lives due this week, residents of other tower blocks fear that not enough has been done to prevent another catastrophe.

One of them is Gemma Lindfield. The 45-year-old barrister is still waiting for flammable cladding to be removed from her eight-storey apartment block in east London. It took three years before anyone even realised there was a problem. The following four years have been mired in indecision and wrangling about exactly who will pay to fix it.

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‘They’re about two years behind’: fears for children born during lockdown as they start at school

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Covid’s world of masks and remote health visits has created a generation at risk of social and emotional difficulties

Babies born in 2020 started life in the strange world of lockdown in a small bubble of people with faces hidden behind masks. Social ­experiences, such as seeing extended family, trips to the playground or mother and baby groups, could not happen. And struggling public ­services meant infants were likely to miss out on face-to-face appointments with a health visitor who might have been able to spot developmental difficulties early.

Those babies are now four years old, and in England are arriving at school for the first time this week. Experts say teachers should be braced to encounter – and tackle – problems ranging from poor speech and language development to social and emotional difficulties.

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Oregon: drug possession to be a crime again as decriminalization law expires

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First-in-nation trial comes to an end, as new law gives those caught with hard drugs option of charges or treatment

Oregon’s first-in-the-nation experiment with decriminalizing drugs will expire on Sunday as a new law taking effect will once again make it a crime to possess small amounts of hard drugs.

The new recriminalization law, HB4002, will give those caught with illicit drugs – including fentanyl, heroin and meth – the choice to either be charged with possession or treatment, which includes completing a behavioral health program and participating in a “deflection program” to avoid fines.

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‘My work sells for millions but only a fraction of that came to me,’ says Scottish painter

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Peter Doig says ‘crazy prices’ on the secondary market must be reined in to protect young artists

Peter Doig became the most expensive living painter in Europe in 2007, when White Canoe, his atmospheric painting of a a moonlit lagoon, sold for £5.7m.

The Scot then saw his auction record broken in 2017 and in 2021 respectively, when Rosedale, his depiction of a house in a snow storm, and Swamped, another enigmatic painting of a canoe, sold for the eye-watering prices of £21m and nearly £30m respectively.

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