Alex Kennedy

A sickening society is clear in these statistics

So why is it not in the news?

Powerful wake-up call from @chakrabortty.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Interesting that lifting the two child benefit cap, the planned PIP cuts and the eventual PIP U-turn are all roughly net neutral on popularity.

Suggests electorate is split, rather than ambivalent, given awareness v high on the cap and other polling.

They used to have a mention on there last year, not as cabinet committees per se, but there was a para about them that's been taken off

List of Cabinet Committees and their membership

Just looked at the transcript of this session. A v interesting, informative discussion. Noticed that DJ said that Mission Boards still exist... but they do seem to have disappeared from the page listing Cab Cttes www.gov.uk/government/p...

Whitehall Monitor 2026: Part 1 - The government | Institute for Government Analysis of the political and permanent secretary changes of 2025, and the progress of 'mission-led' government.

Darren Jones: "I felt from the whitehall monitor section on missions that you were a bit sad."

As the author of that bit, I am happy to confirm that yes I was a bit sad about the missed opportunity for reform. But have a read for yourself!

www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/...

That's why we have to keep pushing for a X-govt strategy for health: so that work across depts - e.g. on welfare, family policy and mental health support - is far more joined up

More on the research in this blog: www.health.org.uk/features-and...

AND (encouragingly) that strong emotional support can mitigate up to 18% of the effect that family adversity and poverty have on mental health at age 14 (and 13% of the effect at age 17)

As part of a @healthfoundation.bsky.social programme, Uni of Liverpool used Millennium Cohort data to find that children with experience of family adversity & poverty were almost 3x more likely to experience poor mental health at age 14 and age 17.

In a week of good news on child poverty policy, here's new research on the impact of poverty on teenager's mental health + how strong family relationships can mitigate that.

AND (encouragingly) that strong emotional support can mitigate up to 18% of the effect that family adversity and poverty have on mental health at age 14 (and 13% of the effect at age 17)

A prevention revolution – or another missed opportunity? The UK’s health is in trouble, and it’s holding us back, write the chief executives of the Health Foundation and The King's Fund.

With the government's health mission missing in action, @jenniferthf.bsky.social​ & @thekingsfund.bsky.social​ Sarah Woolnough reflect on diluted ambitions & call for a prevention revolution

Read our full response⬇️

New @healthfoundation.bsky.social blog from Nicholas Kofi Adjei (@liverpooluni.bsky.social).

...showing how family circumstances influence young people’s mental health AND the protective effects of good emotional support.

www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Young people's mental health is under serious strain.

Although emotional support from parents etc is crucial, it's often missing from media and policy debate.

NEW paper with evidence on the value of emotional support

& how factors like poverty and employment affect it

& what govt should do.

Public health: inequalities and prevention How can we address growing public health challenges? How can we mitigate health inequalities and ensure fair and timely access to healthcare?

Also, published today, a shorter horizon scanning piece on public health, inequalities and prevention post.parliament.uk/public-healt...

Geographical differences in healthy life expectancy Healthy life expectancy varies widely across England. It is linked to the conditions in which people are born, live and work. How can prevention and policy interventions reduce inequalities?

For anyone interested in health inequalities, this POSTnote briefing is well worth a read.

It's on regional differences in Healthy Life Expectancy - but takes a broad perspective - looking at what causes disparities and options to tackle them.

post.parliament.uk/research-bri...

In its 10 Year Health Plan, the government recommitted to halving the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between the poorest and richest regions. But how? Our new analysis with the ONS points to the underlying factors which any plan will need to take account of. 🧵

An HLE ambition without a target date or a clear plan to get there is...lacking something

Hi Steve, I'd seen your piece on indices previously and very much agree. I don't think its that we need new measures - esp complex composite ones.

As you say, my focus more on govt need to say what success looks like + the actions needed to get there + who responsible etc.

Health inequalities are cutting lives short by up to 16 years in parts of the UK. 🔴

We don’t think this is fair – and neither do the 7️⃣7️⃣ Health Equals Parliamentary Champions.

Tomorrow, we're heading to Parliament to reflect on how to #MakeHealthEqual a reality.

Stay tuned for more. 👀

Is it new news that the government plans to "restore the value of Healthy Start from financial year 2026 to 2027" - as set out in the 10 Year Plan?

I'd not spotted that before, but could have missed it

NHS 10-year plan announces a "moonshot to end the obesity epidemic". So what's in it?

RISK: But vital to communicate in a way that gives people a sense of agency, rather than playing into feelings of fatalism - or blaming minoritised groups - that could make positive change more difficult.

OPPORTUNITY: All this could mean new opportunities to make the case about the impact of health inequalities – thanks to the greater understanding of poverty, the cost of living and how systems shape health and the economy.

It finds more awareness of (and less scepticism about) poverty, and more support for action to tackle it.

But also that many feel that the “system is rigged” and that decisions are made by politicians seen as “not like us”.

The report out this week is broader, also looking at attitudes to wealth/poverty and to government. Those shifting mindsets really matter - to those of us seeking to improve health, and more widely too.

So that, increasingly,

- Health is seen as a national – and collective – resource
- More of us recognise that society shapes health
- There’s broad support for a whole-government approach to health

Moving Mindsets: How British people think about health has changed - FrameWorks UK

It follows paper last year on mindsets about health frameworksuk.org/resources/mo..., which found that people are using less individualistic / more collective ways of thinking about health (though individualism still v powerful)

Moving Mindsets: Emerging opportunities to shift culture on health, wealth and government - FrameWorks UK This report contains six key findings about the state of British culture – and what this could mean for those of us working to change culture nationwide.

Great to see the new report (supported by @healthfoundation.bsky.social)‬ from FrameWorksUK on how mindsets that underpin public attitudes are shifting

frameworksuk.org/resources/mo...

Lots more interesting insights in the paper, but some key points below...
🧵

Reforming local government funding in England: the issues and options | Institute for Fiscal Studies A new, up-to-date system for allocating funding between councils is vital, and reforms must align with the broader vision for local government.

He also made a wider case for rebalancing funding towards more deprived areas that have lost out – he called it a “reverse Tunbridge Wells strategy”.

We funded IFS work looking into options for local gov funding: ifs.org.uk/publications...

He was strong on principle of NHS free at the point of use, saying alternative is a “poor service for poor people” and that advances in genomics now challenge insurance-based models.

We've said policymakers should recognise strengths of our system www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...