Month: February 2026

With many unable to access or afford qualified therapists, AI is filling the mental healthcare vacuum, amid calls for tighter regulationOn a quiet evening in her Abuja hotel, Joy Adeboye, 23, sits on her bed clutching her phone, her mind racing and chest tightening. On her screen is yet another abusive message from her stalker – a man she had met nine months earlier at her church.He had asked Adeboye […]

With Chris Wormald being forced out, Romeo is a frontrunner with a reputation for being forthrightAntonia Romeo is not a typical civil servant, according to almost everyone who has worked with or met her in a professional context.Charming, ambitious and not afraid to publicise her own achievements, Romeo was on the shortlist to be cabinet secretary a year ago when Keir Starmer opted instead for a classic “Sir Humphrey” choice […]

Exclusive: First mapping of youth centres in decades shows poorer areas in north worst affected by cuts since 2010‘We’re on a cliff edge’: the struggle to keep youth services alive in KnowsleyAlmost half of all council areas in England have youth work “black holes” with few or no services despite high levels of deprivation and antisocial behaviour, analysis shows.The first mapping in decades of youth centres across the country has […]

System used for civil servants not thorough enough for those with ‘baggage’ of years in politics or business, Peter Ricketts saysDowning Street cannot appoint politicians or business figures to senior diplomatic posts using the same security vetting it uses to check civil servants, a former national security adviser has said.Peter Ricketts said there had to be more “awkward questions” asked of a person such as Peter Mandelson than the system […]

Despite high needs, the Merseyside borough has the most youth work ‘black holes’ of any local authority in EnglandYouth work ‘black holes’ in half of all council areas in England, study finds“I feel like I’m failing because I can’t reach everyone,” said Toni Dodd, the centre manager at Karma in the Community, a youth service in Knowsley on the outskirts of Liverpool.“I’ll go over and get kids hanging outside the […]