Unhealthy lifestyles in deprived communities are stoking a series of economic and policy challenges in the UK, a new paper from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass) suggests.

The paper says health inequalities between the richest and poorest have reversed the post-1945 increase in life expectancy, while boosting both NHS waiting lists and welfare spending. It has also driven the politically toxic post-Brexit rise in immigration through distorting local labour markets – exacerbating other national challenges such as the housing shortage.

Without a major drive aimed at deterring unhealthy lifestyles, the paper warns, health inequalities and the economic and social pressures they breed will continue to soar.

Wealth alone doesn’t make a nation healthy, according to new collaborative research from the University of Surrey and its international partners which ranks 38 OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries on their progress toward global health goals. 

Therapeutic education has become a dominant influence on the teaching of values in Britain’s primary schools, according to new research from the Universities of Surrey, York and Sheffield. From mindful “body scans” to “Zones of Regulation” charts, wellbeing initiatives are quietly reshaping how children develop and learn about morals, with psychological and therapeutic approaches stepping into roles once filled by religion.

People travel for many reasons—commuting, as part of their job, or to go shopping—and the time spent traveling differs from day to day, from person to person. But remarkably, populations tend to travel for close to 1.3 hours per day (78 minutes), no matter where they live, or how rich they are. This is shown by a new international study from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) and the McGill University in Canada, which concludes that the key to reducing energy consumption at population level lies in designing communities that encourage low rates of energy use during those 78 minutes of daily travel. 

A fundamental rethink of how the NHS trains its future workforce is urgently needed, according to a new paper from the Higher Education Policy Institute (www.hepi.ac.uk), Rethinking Placement: Increasing Clinical Placement Efficacy for a Sustainable NHS Future (HEPI Report 194).