Thousands of offenders in England to get health support at probation meetings

About 4,000 offenders in England will get targeted healthcare sessions during their probation appointments as part of a new pilot scheme.Offenders are far more likely to have poor physical or mental health or addiction issues, which increases the likelihood of reoffending.A recent report by the chief medical officer for England, Chris Whitty, found that half of offenders on probation smoked, many had drug or alcohol addiction issues and a majority had poor mental health. They were also less likely to receive screening for prostate, breast, lung or cervical cancers.Many offenders do not receive timely care because they are not registered with a GP, meaning often they seek help for any physical or mental health problems only when their symptoms have become acute, turning to A&E

Under-pressure charities face conflicting demands | Letters

Your editorial on charities makes many useful points about their contribution to social life and appropriately highlights the harsh nature of the current funding environment (The Guardian view on hard times for Britain’s charities: struggling to do more with less, 31 December).However, it is overoptimistic about the ability of charities to resist capture by funders when you state that “their priorities are not distorted by the profit-seeking motives of market-based providers”. This is true, but their priorities are frequently distorted by the requirements of their funders. In a target-driven society, funders – state, corporate or charitable – have their own performance indicators to meet.Consequently, as our own research has demonstrated, charity organisations often cannot access funding for the expressed needs of their members and user groups

A rare joy at police station in Huyton | Brief letters

Your letters on the kindness of strangers (2 January) took me back to my days as a duty sergeant at Huyton in the 1990s. A man walked into the station with more than £1,000 in a cash bag he’d found by a bank’s night safe. As we gathered round, another chap burst in, white as a sheet – he’d absent‑mindedly walked off and left the day’s takings behind. Reuniting the two was a rare joy: a small reminder that people can still surprise you. Terry O’Hara Liverpool I don’t like to pick holes in your inspiring article on communities supporting refugees (Report, 7 January), but Ashbourne is not in “the north of England”

Jim Thomas obituary

My father, Jim Thomas, who has died of cancer aged 61, started out on his career in health and social care as a community nurse in East Anglia in 1986, and worked his way up to be head of workforce capacity and transformation at the charity Skills for Care, where he was employed from 2007 to 2022. Throughout his career, Jim fought for people to have more control over their care, and he had a deep suspicion of authority and rules for the sake of rules. He was a lateral thinker who cut through the jargon and asked: what do people actually need?As a young nurse, he was asked to convince an elderly man to move into sheltered housing. But he quickly realised that this man enjoyed living in his isolated countryside home with many cats, a long-drop toilet and a water supply from a nearby stream. To keep the authorities at bay, Jim persuaded the man to connect the house to mains water and get a flushable toilet and litter trays

Guardian readers raise more than £850,000 as charity appeal enters final days

The Guardian’s Hope appeal has so far raised more than £850,000 thanks to generous readers’ continuing support for our five inspirational charity partners, whose work aims to tackle division, racism and hatred.The 2025 Guardian appeal is raising funds for five charities: Citizens UK, the Linking Network, Locality, Hope Unlimited Charitable Trust and Who is Your Neighbour?.The Hope appeal, entering its final few days, is aiming to raise £1m for grassroots voluntary organisations campaigning against extremism, violence and harassment, anti-migrant rhetoric, and the re-emergence of “1970s-style racism”.The appeal has struck a chord with thousands of readers. One emailed us to say: “I am so worried about the division being sown between people in the UK

Hospital patients collapsing while out of sight on corridors, NHS watchdog says

Patients are collapsing in hospitals unseen by staff because overcrowding means they are stranded out of sight on corridors, the NHS’s safety watchdog has revealed.Using corridors, storerooms and gyms as extra care areas poses serious risks to patients, including falls, infections and a lack of oxygen, the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) said.NHS staff told investigators that some patients who end up on a trolley or bed in overflow areas have not been assessed or started treatment “and so may be at increased risk of deterioration, which may go unnoticed or be detected late in a temporary care environment,” HSSIB’s report said.It highlighted that patients in these areas are at risk of not getting prompt attention if they deteriorate and suffer a medical emergency.“Several nurses shared a patient safety concern around calling for help and responding to a medical emergency in temporary care environments,” the report said