Prisons in England and Wales to cut spending on education courses by up to 50%

Prisons across England and Wales are set to slash frontline spending on education courses by up to 50%, despite promises from Keir Starmer to improve “access to learning” in last year’s general election manifesto.The budget for classroom courses at HMP Leicester will be cut by 46.5%, another men’s prison is cutting spending by 25%, while a women’s prison is cutting its provision in education by 26%, sources have confirmed.In one prison, there will be a reduction in the number of basic English and maths courses, including cuts to the hours of a specialist teacher who helps illiterate prisoners to read.Labour promised in 2024 to “work with prisons to improve offenders’ access to purposeful activity, such as learning”, acknowledging that “prison leavers are more likely to reoffend if they do not have the tools to move away from crime

Government considering compensation for victims of carer’s allowance scandal

The government is considering compensation payouts for unpaid carers who have been unfairly hit with huge financial repayments in recent years after inadvertently falling foul of harsh carer’s allowance benefit rules.Ministers vowed to fix problems with the benefit after a Guardian investigation revealed how draconian penalties coupled with Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) administrative failures had plunged hundreds of thousands of carers into debt.More than 144,000 carers are now repaying £251m in benefit overpayments that typically amount to £5,000 but can be as high as £20,000. Some face life-changing bills after accidentally breaching earnings rules by a few pence a week.The Guardian’s reporting of the DWP’s often brutal treatment of carers who were accidentally caught out by carer’s allowance earnings rules caused public outrage and led to comparisons with the Post Office scandal

‘I kept asking: “Why? What did I do?”’ How come so many young, fit, non-smoking women are getting lung cancer?

For decades, lung cancer has been viewed as a disease of older men who smoked. Now, cases among young women are on the rise and doctors are baffled. Could air pollution be behind it?Towards the end of 2019, Becca Smith’s life was full and hectic. At 28, she had taken on a unit in Chester to convert into a yoga studio, poured in all her savings and hired teachers, while at the same time working as a personal trainer. Her days started at 5am; she was driven, stressed, excited, and had no time for the back pain that just would not subside

NHS access to promising sleeping pill daridorexant is patchy, say doctors

Tens of thousands of prescriptions have been issued in England for a promising and non-addictive new sleeping pill, but doctors say NHS uptake is being held back by cost and patchy awareness.Daridorexant, approved last year, has been prescribed 67,000 times since November 2023, at an estimated cost of £2.6m to the NHS. The drug has been hailed for helping people fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer and wake up clear-headed – without the dependency risks of traditional pills.But access is uneven

Online misinformation putting women off contraceptive pill, study finds

Social media misinformation about the contraceptive pill is encouraging women to view it so negatively that many give it up, a study has found.Researchers have identified myths spread on TikTok and other social media platforms as a key driver of users suffering side-effects that are real but psychological in origin. It is called the “nocebo effect”, the opposite of the better-known placebo effect.Experiencing it is closely linked to anxiety, depression and fatigue, with experts saying people become “wary of anything that they believe might make [the conditions] worse”. This, in turn, spurs on the effect

Has the meaning of life been within us all along? | Letters

I was gladdened to read Moya Sarner’s reflections on a life enhanced by deeper meaning and more textured joy (A better life is possible – but only if you dive deep into your unconscious, 8 September). In a culture that too often celebrates relentless acquisition and action, her words offer timely encouragement towards another way of being.She observes: “We do to stay in the shallows, so we don’t have to be in the depths. But we know the way to a better life sits below the surface, not on it.” This image of the deep sea is an apt and illuminating metaphor for the hidden interior universe of currents and forces that shape us