NHS seeks 200,000 more blood donors in England to avoid threat to safety

The NHS needs to fill a shortfall of more than 200,000 blood donors in England to avoid a threat to public safety, officials have said.NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) wants to hit a target of 1 million blood donors to meet growing demand as just under 800,000 people – 2% of the population in England – kept the nation’s blood stocks afloat last year.An amber alert was issued last year over supply of blood for hospitals in England, and NHSBT said more was needed to avoid a red alert, meaning supply is so low that there is a threat to public safety.NHSBT’s chief executive, Dr Jo Farrar, said: “Our stocks over the past 12 months have been challenging. If we had a million regular donors, this would help keep our stocks healthy – you’d truly be one in a million

UK government looking at social media ‘app caps’ for children, minister suggests

Ministers are looking at giving children an “app cap” or curfew to prevent them becoming addicted to social media, the technology secretary has indicated.Peter Kyle, whose department is responsible for online safety, said he wanted to do more to protect children from excessive use of smartphones, and help them have a healthy relationship with technology.He was pressed on the issue after the Mirror reported over the weekend that Kyle was looking at further restrictions. He is understood to be considering options such as two-hour curfews for social media apps, or blocks on children accessing content after 10pm or during school hours.Asked on the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday whether he was looking at an “app cap”, Kyle said: “I’m looking at things that prevent healthy activity, I’m looking at some of the addictive nature of some of the apps and smartphones

London residents win £550,000 compensation in cladding defects case

Residents of a multistorey development in London have received £550,000 in compensation from a housing association for cladding defects in a case they hope will set a precedent for other claims.Notting Hill Genesis (NHG) and the contractor United Living have also completed large-scale works at their own cost to remedy the buildings in the Exchange development in Bermondsey, south London.After the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017 it emerged that thousands of buildings had similar combustible cladding and other fire risks.The Exchange development, consisting of five multistorey residential and mixed-use buildings, and constructed for NHG by United Living, had widespread fire safety defects, including aluminium composite material (ACM), combustible insulation and inadequate cavity barriers.In 2020, residents began a legal case to ensure the work was carried out to make the buildings safe and that they would not have to foot the bill

‘No smartphones before 14; no social media until 16’: The Anxious Generation author on how to fight back against big tech

Jonathan Haidt is a man with a mission. You’ll have to forgive the cliche, because it’s literally true. The author of The Anxious Generation, an urgent warning about the effect of digital tech on young minds, is based at New York University’s business school: “I’m around all these corporate types and we’re always talking about companies and their mission statements,” he tells me. So, he decided to make one for himself. “It was very simple: ‘My mission is to use my research in moral psychology and that of others to help people better understand each other, and to help important social institutions work well

UK supermarkets exploit tax loophole to produce cider at ‘pocket-money prices’

Supermarkets such as Tesco, Aldi and Lidl are exploiting a tax loophole to produce and sell cheap cider that harms health and causes social problems, alcohol campaigners have claimed.Over recent years, ciders – sometimes containing as much as 7.5% alcohol – have become cheaper or barely risen in price, despite the cost of beer, wine and spirits soaring, according to research by Alcohol Change UK.Supermarkets are able to sell high-strength ciders at “pocket money prices” in England and Northern Ireland by taking advantage of a subsidy intended to boost apple production, Alcohol Change UK says. Prices will differ in Scotland and Wales, which have both introduced a minimum unit price of alcohol

‘How did it get to this?’ What happens when care in a residential home breaks down

“If we had known what was really going on, we’d have taken her out of there straight away,” said Greg Gillespie. “It makes you question your decision-making. But the real shame of this is we just didn’t know. It was hidden so well.”Gillespie’s elderly grandmother lived at The Firs, a Nottinghamshire care home that was dramatically shut down by the Care Quality Commission in April due to a catalogue of shocking failures – everything from meeting nutritional and hydration needs, staffing, equipment, fire safety and governance was found to be lacking