Extra cancer scans for women with dense breasts could save 700 lives a year – UK study

Hundreds of lives could be saved every year with extra cancer checks for women with very dense breasts, a study suggests.Millions of women undergo breast screening, but regular mammograms can be less effective at spotting cancer in the 10% with very dense breasts, as the tissue can hide tumours on X-rays. This is because very dense breasts look whiter on scans, making it harder to detect early-stage disease, which also appears white.Offering this group of women enhanced scans could find 3,500 more cases of cancer and save 700 lives a year in the UK, researchers from the University of Cambridge said. Their findings were published in the Lancet

‘It’s all people wanted to talk about’: How Labour U-turned on winter fuel payment cut

Rarely are British voters united by one issue, but Labour MPs returning to Westminster after the local election campaign this month all reported a single policy dominating all others: cuts to the winter fuel allowance.“It is all people wanted to talk about on the doorstep,” said one. “Some were upset about the coming cuts to disability benefits, some were exercised by immigration. But everyone was angry about winter fuel payments.”And so when Keir Starmer confirmed on Wednesday his government would change the threshold at which the cuts bite, it should not have come as a surprise

More community sentences in England and Wales could be ‘catastrophic’, warns watchdog

Plans to allow thousands more criminals in England and Wales to serve their sentence in the community risk “catastrophic consequences” unless the Probation Service is overhauled, a watchdog has told the Guardian.Martin Jones, HM chief inspector of probation, said government plans to hand responsibility for overseeing offenders from prisons to probation officers meant the risk “is carried directly into the community”.He called for extra funds, greater staff numbers, a slashing of red tape and better retention of experienced staff, saying that “any response to simply shift demand from prison to probation will be ineffective at best, and dangerous at worst”.His comments come as Shabana Mahmood prepares to announce an overhaul of criminal justice on Thursday after the publication of an independent review carried out by David Gauke, a former Conservative justice secretary.Judges and magistrates in England and Wales will be told to move away from handing out short custodial sentences in favour of community based alternatives, increasing pressure on the probation service

It’s not ‘grit’ that children lack, but proper support | Letters

Comments by the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, about children’s “grit” are a distraction from the huge missed opportunity in the government’s expansion of access to mental health support teams in schools (‘Grit’ no substitute for better mental health funding for pupils in England, say experts, 16 May).Children are resilient – but they are living in an increasingly complicated world of challenges and conflict. They’re having to cope with the consequences of the Covid pandemic, the cost of living crisis, social media, and school, family and relationship pressures.We at the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy are pleased that the government recognises the importance of supporting children in all schools, but this announcement falls short of what’s needed. The plan will do little to meet the needs of children who need more than pastoral care and the low-level interventions provided through mental health support teams (MHSTs), but don’t require a referral to psychiatrists or child and adolescent mental health services

Texas model cuts costs and prison numbers | Letters

We welcome Gaby Hinsliff’s call for “a more enlightened approach to cutting crime” (Republican Texas is a surprising model for solving the UK’s prison crisis – but it just might work, 16 May). To achieve this and deal with the problem of prison overcrowding, we do not need to build more prisons. Community sentences require more resources so they can constructively challenge offending behaviour while keeping convicted individuals in touch with their responsibilities to families and communities.For those in prison, this would also allow for the application of the Texas model – a promising form of prison reform that is not only cost-saving but has also reduced crime and recidivism rates in that state. Its success lies significantly in prioritising incarceration for violent offences

Britain should adopt the Passivhaus standard to cut energy costs in new homes | Letters

Regarding your article (Poor building standards add £1,000 to energy bills of new homes, analysis finds, 16 May), the solution is very simple: the government should adopt the Passivhaus standard that has been established in Germany for over 25 years.Its use there results in buildings with little or no heating requirements as the buildings are super-insulated and extremely airtight, and have mechanical ventilation and heat reclaim systems to distribute filtered air throughout the property.This can obviate the need for solar panels and heat pumps, which have a lifespan of around 25 years. However, housebuilders in the UK do not yet have the desire to build houses this way as it requires site staff be motivated to build in a way that prevents air leakage and to care about build quality, something that is sorely lacking here.The higher build cost for the fabric would be offset by the absence or reduction in the cost of heating installation