Kate Fleming says the government must look beyond the models it rewards today, while Jenny Haigh says unlocking potential means recognising that creativity and science are partners

Gordon Brown wants Britain to invent, invest in and own the future (British households would be £5,000 richer if we were more innovative. Let’s unleash our talents, 9 October). But invent what, and for whom? His hunt for “lost Einsteins” rests on a narrow vision: a lone genius invents, commercialisation scales, the problem is solved.

That may suit a cancer drug, but not the wicked problems of our time – social care, education, climate – which demand not silver bullets but new technologies and practices for collaboration, distributed ownership and collective innovation.

Yvette Cooper acknowledges ‘unthinkable pain’ caused by practice between 1930s and 1980s after campaign by Wirral woman and others

The health secretary, Yvette Cooper, has issued a “profound apology” for the “unthinkable pain” caused to parents whose stillborn babies were buried in mass graves.

Parents spent decades not knowing where their babies were buried, owing to a practice in which stillborn babies were taken from mothers at hospital and buried in communal graves.

Tom Watson has said ‘mob rule’ must not decide public contracts. Perhaps he should take a look at his new employer

What a world we live in. Imagine: gangs dragging civil servants off commuter trains and beating them up because they handed government data jobs to the wrong contractor – and the government is changing its procurement decisions as a result. Well, OK, it might not have happened yet, but it’s only a matter of time. As the former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson asks: “Do you want to let the rule of law lead procurement practice, or do you want mob rule to lead procurement practices?” No, I absolutely don’t want the latter, and it’s always good to get ahead of trouble.

But then I remember there are two common meanings of mob rule. One is intimidation by crowds of thugs. The other is a pejorative term for democracy. And while I’ve yet to see government procurement practices in the UK determined by pitchforks and flaming torches, democratic transparency could be a genuine threat to certain contractors. One might have hoped that Watson, who once took on the Murdoch empire, would have recognised the distinction. But then again, one might have hoped that Watson would not have taken a job as a senior vice-president at Palantir.

Readers respond to John Harris’s article on the need to consider disabled people of working age when reforming the care system

I found myself nodding in agreement at John Harris’s worries about his son’s future as he leaves full-time education to enter the world of adult social services (Social care for disabled adults is in as much crisis as support for elderly people – so why is the government silent about it?, 5 October). John’s concerns were shared by my wife and I as our disabled daughter moved from her specialist residential further-education setting 17 years ago.

However, with her gutsy approach and strong financial support by way of 24-hour care from our local council, she is able to say, “I love my life”, and has expressed this in a little book, How I Flourished, published by Lewisham Adult Learning. This despite being quadriplegic, having no speech and being dependent on her personal assistants for all the necessaries of life.
I could wax at length about her wheelchair dancing, the “proper job” she secured with a wonderful charity (the Deptford-based Entelechy Arts), her painting, thirst for maintaining social relationships involving long and tiring overseas travel, and so on. The blunt truth, however, is that we, as her parents, have always needed to be closely involved in managing her care and safety, and for taking up the opportunities to broaden her landscape. We are aware that she has had a much better deal than so many people in adult care institutions.

Parity of esteem with physical healthcare remains a distant prospect. Ministers must do more to tackle rising distress

Perhaps the single most important finding of the independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism in England, published last Friday, is that mental distress across the population, and particularly young people, has substantially worsened. Its chair, Prof Peter Fonagy, told the BBC that the former health secretary Wes Streeting had been “completely wrong” to suggest that conditions and disorders were being overdiagnosed.

Mr Streeting acknowledged his mistake. But some rightwing politicians and commentators have leapt on the notion that medicalisation of ordinary states of mind is behind the huge rise in young people seeking help. This review should bury that idea. Instead, this should be a moment to face facts. First, that the rises in psychological distress, and the need for support with neurodevelopmental differences, are real and tied to social changes. Second, that current services are not up to what is being asked of them.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

There is much to agree with in the Fonagy review into mental health support. Without serious public funding, however, its approach won’t work

Back in late 2025, when Keir Starmer’s grip on the Labour party was loosening and Reform UK was still in its pomp, the then health secretary, Wes Streeting, commissioned what the government called its “Independent review into prevalence and support for mental health conditions, ADHD and autism”.

Here, it seemed, was not just an inquiry into England’s ever-extending waiting lists for the diagnosis of mental illness and neurodevelopmental conditions, and the dire lack of support for people who experience one or both of them. The review would also dovetail with two other huge issues: mounting claims of “overdiagnosis”, which Streeting had appeared to partly endorse, and the government’s drive for the reform of so-called welfare. An apparently well-briefed piece in the Times seemed to speak volumes: work led by the renowned psychologist Peter Fonagy, it said, was commencing just “as Labour seeks a fresh crackdown on welfare spending” amid diagnoses “which have become the most common reason for a sickness benefit claim”.

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

When the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana was transferred from a category A prison to Broadmoor hospital, many observers complained that he was getting off lightly. But these places are anything but ‘cushy’, says the mother of one patient

Rampton high-security hospital in Nottinghamshire was built in 1912. Everything about the bleak, remote facility for mentally ill people is forbidding, says Jan Neate. “I get really upset going there,” she says. “Even though I really want to see Jake, visiting is an ordeal.”

Jake, 45, is Neate’s son. He has been held at Rampton for eight years. In 2017, many years after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he killed his partner, Suzanne Brown, and was deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.

Brain drain of psychologists, psychiatrists and nurses leaves NHS ‘weaker’, driving patients to seek care elsewhere

• Full report | NHS at risk of ‘system failures’ as demand for ADHD and autism care soars, inquiry finds

The NHS is facing an exodus of staff quitting its ADHD and autism services to join private clinics amid huge demand from children and adults to get a diagnosis.

The loss of specialist personnel to the private sector has already forced one NHS trust in England to limit access to its neurodevelopmental service to only the most urgent cases.

Former Labour deputy leader says tech firm would work with a Reform UK government on immigration crackdowns

Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader who recently joined Palantir, has warned against “mob rule” when it comes to awarding public contracts.

Lord Watson, now a senior vice-president at the US tech corporation, said UK ministers could get themselves “in a lot of trouble” as he was questioned about concerns raised about the government working with his new employer.

Decision by Royal College of Pharmacy to end sponsorship comes after concerns over Teva Pharmaceuticals’ ‘activities’

A second major UK health body has cut ties with an Israeli drug firm after coming under pressure from pro-Palestine campaigners.

The Royal College of Pharmacy has dropped Teva UK, the British arm of the global medicines producer Teva Pharmaceuticals, as a sponsor of and exhibitor at its annual conference next month.

England-focused mental health review returns stark warning and calls for shift to ‘needs-led’ system

• Explainer | What has the Fonagy review found and what does it recommend?

• Analysis | No ‘snowflakes’: mental health review says today’s youth have it harder and harms are real

The NHS in England is heading into a “world of system failures” as it struggles to cope with relentlessly rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism care, leaving those affected desperate for support, a government-commissioned inquiry has found.

The stark warning was made in a review led by Prof Peter Fonagy into the sharp rise in demand over recent decades for help with mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions.

More research into the troubling rise in early onset cancers is needed. But we already know that food is among the culprits

The latest findings about the rise in cancers in people under 50, from the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF), are extremely concerning. While a cancer diagnosis is bad news at any time, it is a particular blow for those in younger age groups where most people are in good health. Overlapping trends observed in England, the Netherlands and the US include a troubling rise in the incidence of colorectal (or bowel) cancer. Other diseases that have increased in England include uterine and kidney cancers.

These diseases are still rare in young people: 10 times more adults in their 50s, 60s and 70s are diagnosed than those in their 20s, 30s and 40s. Earlier detection is thought to be one factor behind the rise in younger patients. Diagnosing more cancers sooner is an explicit policy goal in England, where late diagnosis and lower uptake of screening are two reasons for mortality rates that are higher than elsewhere in Europe.