Claire Hilton argues that NHS mental health policy over the last quarter of a century has lacked well-researched, patient-focussed evidence tied to human rights. Services have been adequate for many mentally unwell people, but they have failed many others, including those with the most severe mental disorders, whose overall physical, mental and social wellbeing could be improved. Policy makers require deeper understanding of the realities of mental illness, patients’ needs and relevant research, and the will to steer mental healthcare out of the current quagmire.

The establishment of the UK’s Office of Value for Money (OVfM) in late 2024 was accompanied by a claim that this new initiative would be ‘informed by lessons learned from the past’. Yet these lessons arguably point to the challenges posed by top-down efficiency changes and the creation of new entities. Instead, Michael Wetherburn suggests, the government might usefully draw on best practice from elsewhere within the public and private sectors, or bolster extant organisations like the National Audit Office.

Annie Skinner warns that measures announced in Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ March 2025 budget discriminate against young people leaving the care system, compounding a long history in which they have been stigmatized and poorly supported by the state.

The British government’s recent commitment to raising defence spending as a proportion of the budget, alongside plans to cut spending on welfare, has led to considerable debate over the shift from welfare to warfare. Yet as Jessica Meyer argues, the history of the twentieth century suggests that warfare and welfare are intertwined and effective welfare provision will remain necessary for the successful administration of a policy based around the new priorities.

Dame Judith Hackitt, who chaired the Health & Safety Executive from 2007 to 2016, reflects on the conference History and Policy’s Trades Union and Employment Forum will be hosting on 25 November on the history of health and safety at work.

On Friday 7 June, St John’s College, Cambridge hosted a special colloquium entitled ‘Health and Wealth: debating demography, gender, politics, welfare and policy’ to mark the retirement of one of History & Policy’s co-founders, Professor Simon Szreter.