Neil brings more than 20 years’ international leadership experience across workforce management and talent services. He most recently served as Head of Europe, Tapfin at ManpowerGroup and has previously held senior roles at Geometric Results (GRI), AMS, Pontoon Solutions, and as CEO of Adecco Australia and New Zealand. His career has spanned Europe, Asia-Pacific and Australia, where he has consistently delivered transformation and innovation at scale.
“I am delighted to join the Matrix family,” said Jones. “The broad customer base, impressive product portfolio, technology expertise and strong reputation for delivery give us an ideal platform to grow the business. I am looking forward to working with the talented team at Matrix, and with the Board and our investors.”
Richard MacMillan, Chairman of Matrix, added: “Neil’s proven track record and leadership will strengthen the services we provide to both existing and new customers. His experience and focus will help us build on our strong position in workforce management and pre-employment screening, ensuring we continue to deliver the highest standards of service, innovation and value.”
Dräger, an international leader in the fields of medical and safety technology, will showcase a range of sophisticated capabilities to further the safety, health and wellbeing of defence and security personnel at DSEI 2025.
Technology in operation with smoke/protective equipment for military and safety forces
Leading Dräger’s lineup is the Breathguard 2500, a carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide gas detection device designed for continuous air monitoring when crews are within confined environments, such as military defence vehicles. The Breathguard is customisable with different alarm levels, and is designed to withstand extreme conditions such as shock, vibration, and high or low temperatures with electromagnetic compatibility.
Dräger’s pilot mounted, in mask gas and pressure monitoring system, AviAir, will also be an important feature of Dräger’s stand. Developed to help explain ‘Unexplained Physiological Events’ (UPEs) during flight, the AviAir is designed to monitor pilots at the point of ‘most environmental challenge’, not only monitoring the pilot, but also the physical environment, including aircraft manoeuvres. The aircrew-worn data collection and monitoring device utilises Dräger core gas sensors from Dräger medical devices for Oxygen (PIA) and Carbon Dioxide measurement (ILCA2), in use globally within the medical industry today. Benefits include visualised respiration, identification of trends and learning from cause and effect.
Providing long-duration critical gas detection capability in austere environments is Dräger’s X-GEM. Visitors to the event will see how this intelligent gas detection module has the potential to form the basis for a new generation of gas measurement devices. It can evaluate Dräger’s electrochemical sensors, to provide a digital and easy-to-read total measured value. It has stripped back all the features of a gas detector to purely focus on the measurement functionality, which will allow the device to rapidly integrate into third party systems or bespoke capabilities for Defence & Security.
Attendees will also be able to view ColPro, a Dräger Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) respiratory protection system that safeguards military personnel against CBRN threats. ColPro is designed to produce a positive pressure inside the protected cell, ensuring that contaminated air can’t reach the interior. The device offers effective protection against threats such as respirable dusts, contaminated particles, aerosols, bacteria, viruses, toxins, chemical warfare agents and toxic industrial chemicals (TICs). Dräger tailors the system to the specific application for either stationary or mobile use.
Tom Pearson, Marketing Manager, Engineered Solutions and Government Agencies at Dräger says Dräger is looking forward to an important opportunity to exhibit its capabilities at the pivotal event for the global defence industry: “Our established expertise in medical and safety technology means we have solutions to a vast range of threats and hazards. At Dräger, our openness to new and innovative approaches drives us to apply the latest technology to our devices and leverage a deep understanding of our customers’ needs. DSEI is an important event to share details on our lifesaving technology.”
DSEI UK 2025 takes place on 9-13th September at Excel London.
There’s a phrase Johann Hari uses that resonates deeply with me: our schools have become factories of compliance. I see it everywhere. Young people drilled to tick boxes, to pass tests, to fit into standardised categories. What they’re not learning is how to think, how to imagine, or how to adapt. We are shaping students to survive in systems that no longer exist, rather than preparing them to thrive in the unpredictable realities that lie ahead.
The result? Graduates who are disengaged, employers frustrated by their lack of readiness, and a generation taught to play safe when the world needs them to take risks. It is a crisis we can no longer afford to ignore.
And the urgency is only increasing. By 2030, AI is predicted to replace 300 million jobs, with 41% of companies worldwide planning to reduce their workforce. Think about that. If our schools continue producing risk-averse learners who can only follow instructions, they will be the first to be left behind. The future belongs to those who can do what machines cannot: think critically, create boldly, and connect human to human.
Georgina Badine
I have worked in big corporations and with young people alike, and the gap between what our schools deliver and what our future requires could not be starker. Creativity, the UK’s most powerful export is treated as an afterthought. The irony is unbearable: we are brilliant at creativity, but we fail to teach it.
Sir Ken Robinson once said that schools kill creativity. He was right. We don’t grow into imagination; we are educated out of it. And still, more than 15 years after his words shook the world, little has changed.
Instead, we continue to prize the “right” answer above the right question. We value conformity over curiosity. We produce cautious, risk-averse learners when what the future needs are innovators, collaborators, and problem-solvers.
And we see the consequences everywhere. More than one in ten graduates are unemployed, and many more are underemployed. At the same time, apprenticeships in tech, digital entrepreneurship, and creative industries are growing faster than traditional roles. Yet our schools behave as though the pinnacle of success is simply getting into university.
This is not just an academic failure. It is a social and economic one. The creative industries add more than £100 billion a year to the UK economy and employ millions. Advertising alone brings in billions in exports. Yet if you walk into a classroom today, you will rarely find creativity treated as core. Children who shine in art, music, or design are still told these are hobbies, not careers.
And the human cost is heartbreaking. Parents are told their child is “struggling” because they don’t excel at maths or English, but almost never because the system is failing to recognise their true strengths. I have seen too many children lose confidence before they even have the chance to discover what they might bring to the world.
This is about more than jobs. It is about citizenship. The challenges ahead, climate change, AI, global inequality, cannot be solved by passive learners trained to repeat facts. We need young people who can think critically, empathise deeply, and act imaginatively. If we continue down the path of compliance-first education, we risk raising a generation unprepared for both democracy and the economy.
At Invicta Vita, I have seen what happens when you flip this narrative. When creativity and empathy sit at the centre of learning, something shifts. Young people come alive. They stop asking, “what do I need to do to pass?” and start asking, “what do I need to do to solve this?” They grow resilient, collaborative, and confident.
I know this because I’ve lived both worlds, from the fast moving financial sector to the frontlines of social change. And I am convinced that we are educating for yesterday, not tomorrow.
The good news is that change is possible. We can build schools where creativity is treated like literacy and numeracy: fundamental. We can embrace real-world learning collaboration, experimentation, presentation, digital storytelling, as essential skills. We can acknowledge multiple pathways to success, instead of insisting that university is the only one.
This is not about lowering standards. It’s about raising them to meet reality.
So here is my message: if the UK is to thrive, we must align our schools with our true strengths. Creativity is not a luxury. It is survival. It is the beating heart of our economy, our democracy, and our shared humanity.
Compliance may have served the industrial age. But for our children’s future, creativity is everything. The time to act is now.
Alcidion has announced the addition of three new appointments to their UK-based team, with one internal promotion and two external recruits. Dr Paul Deffley has been announced as the UK Managing Director, with Tracy McClelland and Darren Ransley joining as global Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) and Chief Revenue Officer (UK), respectively.
Dr Paul Deffley has been Alcidion’s Chief Medical Officer since 2022 and will continue in this capacity in addition to taking on the UK Managing Director responsibilities.
Darren Ransley
With 28 years of healthcare experience, Tracy McClelland joins Alcidion with a combination of deep frontline clinical expertise and senior clinical leadership in digital transformation across the UK and Australia. Tracy began her career as a Haematology and Oncology Specialist Nurse, transitioning into a global CNIO/CCIO role in digital health nine years ago.
Darren Ransley brings more than 25 years of experience in enterprise sales, growth and strategy development in healthcare. He has specialised in selling, marketing, and supporting delivery of healthcare solutions and digital health platforms. Darren will lead business development and account management for Alcidion in the UK, supporting the NHS to realise its vision of a digital future.
The appointments build on Alcidion’s established presence supporting the digital capability of the NHS. The Company’s flagship platform, Miya Precision, has been adopted by a growing number of trusts delivering data interoperability and clinical workflow transformation. Miya Precision is known as a highly user-friendly, clinician-focussed platform that supports trusts to streamline patient flow, unify patient records and deliver AI-powered clinical decision support.
Tracy McClelland
The expanded team comes at a unique moment for the NHS and UK market, following the release of the ambitious NHS 10 Year plan and increasing digitisation of healthcare.
Kate Quirke, Alcidion CEO & Managing Director said: “This is truly an exciting time to be working in healthcare in the United Kingdom, and having Paul step into the MD role is great for both our customers and the future of the company. I look forward to having Tracy and Darren’s expertise on board, complementing the established capabilities of our UK and global team. Both will be crucial contributors to how we support our new and existing customers to deliver on the new NHS goals.”
Dr Paul Deffley noted: When we are building and supporting digital solutions for health, it is absolutely critical that we have the clinician’s viewpoint and that level of safety built-in. Tracy’s clinical perspective will be invaluable in helping us build software that truly improves patient outcomes and supports safe, efficient operations. I am also delighted about Darren’s expertise in expanding our reach across the UK and building on the strong relationships we’ve already established in the market.”
Both Darren and Tracy commenced with Alcidion on the 1st September, 2025.
Managing the complexities of council assets and the diverse impact they have on local communities is no mean feat, particularly when funding from central government is only heading in one direction: downwards!
With budget cuts, rising community expectations, environmental responsibilities and evolving legislation – all on top of managing physical assets – it is clear why councils need to invest in more sophisticated asset management processes.
Within a council, there can be many different factors and suppliers at play, sometimes adding unnecessary levels of complexities to any one job. With multiple suppliers, data can become disjoined over time, which can ultimately lead to reactive maintenance, rather than a proactive outlook. Fixing problems is always more expensive in the long-run rather than preventing them from happening in the first place.
Councils have a multitude of assets to monitor and manage at any one time – drainage, parks and grounds, highways, bridges and structures, and more – and understanding the characteristics and patterns of these assets takes time. However, by using centralised data across asset classes can help councils to understand these behaviours, as well as the impact between them.
Ruth Hughes, Leicestershire County Council
Take highways and drainage, for example, in this scenario: A gully along a highway is blocked and there is a weather warning for heavy rain. Overnight, the rainfall causes localised flooding which means road closures and diversions are put in place. A subsequent cold snap causes the surface water to freeze, causing icy road conditions and a deterioration of the road’s surface.
With all assets managed in one system, this risk could have been avoided. Councils would be aware that the gully was prone to blockage and that the road condition in that particular area was already fallible. With this information, a proactive plan could have been put in place to ensure regular clearing of the impacted gullies and a priority level set for resurfacing works on the road.
One system. One supplier.
The shift to greater digitisation in asset management is helping councils to meet these challenges by enabling them to interrogate operations, support financial decisions and deliver cost efficiencies that stretch budgets further, while also benefitting communities.
Brightly’s digital asset management tool, Confirm, is an intuitive, user-friendly and robust system that supports smart management to facilitate local authorities’ service
improvements. It centralises assets to simplify and streamline the processes involved with managing them.
With Confirm, everyone works from the same centralised data across each council department, meaning: one point of data input, one system for the team to learn from, and one place to pull real-time information from.
A customer’s perspective
By using Confirm, Brightly’s customers are benefitting from being able to inform and defend decisions, make budgets work harder for their communities and deliver better services more quickly to councillors and members of the community.
Richard Evans, West Sussex County Council
“We started using Confirm in January 2004. The reason we bought this software was because we were unable to defend an insurance claim, because we couldn’t prove the negative. If you haven’t got the information, it’s very hard to evidence. So, finding bits of paper – When did you inspect? Did you inspect? What did you find? Having it all there you can prove the negatives as well.” – Ruth Hughes, Leicestershire County Council
“Hidden data, or data which is not looked after or is locked away somewhere, is an immature sign in an organisation. So, having a system where it’s easy and possible to put that data in, helps us to quicken up the pace to design schemes, respond to councillors and members of the public, and deliver better services.” – Chris Faires, Hertfordshire County Council
“The mobile, offline working with Confirm Connect is fantastic, in my opinion. It’s key to a lot of our field staff and the efficiencies that we get. There’s no double handling of information, for example.” – Richard Evans, West Sussex County Council
“There isn’t an infinite amount of money or resources, so we need to make sure we’re making the right decisions at the right time to get the most out of taxpayers’ money. By using asset data to make decisions, we’re providing the best value to the community.” – Shaun Taylor, Bristol City Council
“We’re a very large council with hundreds and thousands of assets that needed to sit in a proper system. With Confirm, we now have much more granularity and a deeper understanding of our assets. We can see an asset issue right from the time it gets reported to the minute it gets completed. This system enables us to properly account for what’s happened to our various assets right across the network.” – Carol Valentine, Kent County Council
ByGary Haynes, MD of Voicescape, the UK’s leading provider of resident engagement solutions for housing associations and local authorities
Gary Haynes
We now know that 60% of the 300,000 affordable homes to be delivered in the £39bn housing programme pledged in last month’s Spending Review will be earmarked for social rent.
It marks a landmark moment for social housing, with the government signalling its recognition of housing as a critical driver of economic growth, and a lifeline for communities.
The commitment will empower social landlords to pursue more ambitious, long-term development strategies. More importantly, it promises better living conditions for hundreds of thousands of people while revitalising a sector that has been in decline for decades.
Yet delivering on this ambition will be no small feat. To put it in perspective, the 180,000 social rent homes required represent a sixfold increase on the number delivered in the decade to 2024. Achieving this will demand a scale of housebuilding not seen since the post-war era.
A challenging period
And social landlords must deliver this expansion amid a perfect storm of challenges; the cost-of-living crisis, Universal Credit complexities, and rising arrears – with 9% of tenants already behind on payments and another 70% at risk.1
Meanwhile, the sector itself faces mounting financial pressures. Debt levels are projected to reach £120bn by 2026, driven by rising repair, maintenance, and decarbonisation costs, alongside refinancing needs.2
Add to this the imminent Decent Homes Standard updates and the Renters’ Rights Bill, and it’s clear that regardless of the significant capital expenditure pledges, in the day-to-day
social landlords will be required to achieve more with less, under greater scrutiny than ever before.
None of this will surprise industry readers, nor should it suggest reluctance to embrace the Government’s plan. This is a transformative opportunity. But continuing with business-as-usual approaches won’t suffice. To manage expanding responsibilities, and seize new opportunities, the sector must continue to innovate.
The potential of digital transformation
Digital transformation will be key to sustaining this affordable housing agenda. Only through technological innovation, particularly AI, can the sector revolutionise service delivery to enhance quality while driving long-term efficiencies as numbers of residents increase.
AI’s potential spans arrears management, compliance, customer satisfaction, and income recovery and leading providers are already proving its value. For example, Housing Association Thirteen Group cut manual rent-arrears actions by 65% using the AI-powered Caseload Manager solution, freeing staff to focus on complex cases and personalised support.
The scope for automation extends further. Another of our solutions is designed to reduce the costs of no-access appointments for repairs, maintenance and compliance reporting, for example. This system saved Platform Housing Group over £70,000 in just six months across one business function, for example, while also making a marked improvement in customer engagement.
Collectively, embracing automation across organisations and teams could free up vast amounts of time, all of which can be put to better use.
Indeed, AI-enabled systems won’t replace human roles in social housing – one of the early concerns about welcoming such technologies into the sector too quickly. Rather, the optimal role for these technologies is in supporting and enhancing human expertise, taking care of repetitive tasks while allowing operatives to prioritise critical cases, make informed decisions, and deliver better services when and where they’re needed most.
Embracing the opportunity
As the sector scales up to meet its targets, such innovations must become the norm. That’s why we also welcome the Chancellor’s £2bn commitment to ‘homegrown AI’ as a tool to ‘solve challenges’ in the Spending Review.
Social housing is a prime example of how AI can tackle significant national challenges. We’re optimistic that the combined outcomes of the Review will act as a catalyst for accelerating tech-enabled service delivery for communities and social housing providers across the UK.
Joseph Rooke, Director Risk Insights (Insikt Group) at Recorded Future
High-profile cyber-attacks have shaken the private sector in recent months, with their devastating consequences dominating headlines. But while commercial businesses have been in the spotlight, organisations across the public sector are now asking a critical question: could we be next?
Joseph Rooke
Unfortunately, and perhaps inevitably, the answer is likely yes.
The UK Government has acknowledged that schools and hospitals are “very likely” to be targeted by cybercriminals. It has also warned that major public bodies, such as the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, are not adequately prepared for a cyberattack that could contribute to a national crisis.
Cyber threats are not a new challenge. The public sector has long been vulnerable, and the risks are growing. The potential consequences are severe, ranging from the erosion of public trust and regulatory penalties to political fallout and national security concerns.
So, what threats is the sector up against, and what can public sector organisations do to protect themselves?
Why is the public sector being targeted?
Public sector institutions such as schools and hospitals are becoming increasingly attractive targets for cybercriminals. These organisations manage vast amounts of sensitive data – including personal information, intellectual property, and critical research – while also delivering essential services that the public depends on daily.
This combination makes them uniquely vulnerable. Any disruption to education or healthcare systems creates immediate public pressure, a fact that attackers are quick to exploit to extort payments or gain publicity.
Yet despite the high stakes, many of these institutions often continue to rely on outdated infrastructure and legacy IT systems. Cybersecurity budgets are often limited, and dedicated security teams are scarce or non-existent. These vulnerabilities, when taken together, make public sector organisations low-hanging fruit for increasingly sophisticated cyber threats.
Ransomware, DDoS, and supply chain attacks: today’s top threats
As technology continues to evolve, so too do the tactics employed by cybercriminals. Public sector organisations are increasingly in the crosshairs of sophisticated cyber threats, and risks are not only escalating in volume but in their potential impact on public safety, trust, and national security.
Ransomware: a tangible and costly threat
The National Crime Agency (NCA) and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) deem ransomware as the greatest of all serious and organised cyber crime threats and a risk to UK’s national security. By infiltrating systems through malware, cybercriminals gain unauthorized access, often encrypting or exfiltrating sensitive data. They then demand ransom payments in exchange for restoring access or withholding the publication of the stolen information – sometimes threatening to leak it on the dark web or release it publicly.
The real-world consequences of such attacks are becoming alarmingly clear. A recent example is the ransomware attack on Synnovis, a pathology service provider used by the NHS. The breach led to delayed blood test results, postponed surgeries, and serious disruption to patient care. This underscores the reality that ransomware attacks on the public sector can have life-or-death implications
DDoS attacks: crippling public access
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, which involve flooding an organization’s servers with traffic from multiple sources, continue to be a favoured method for causing widespread disruption. The goal: to crash systems, deny access, and generate chaos – especially during critical periods.
In the 2022 U.S. elections, political websites experienced a staggering 400% increase in weekly DDoS attacks. One notable incident saw Mississippi’s election website temporarily taken offline, an attack claimed by a pro-Russian hacking group. These disruptions erode public confidence and highlight the geopolitical motivations behind many cyber threats targeting the public sector.
Supply chain vulnerabilities: an expanding attack surface
As public sector organizations increasingly rely on complex, interconnected supply chains, they also inherit the cyber risks that come with them. Emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, and cloud-based platforms are transforming operations – but they’re also creating new entry points for threat actors.
These extended networks mean that a single weak link, often a third-party vendor, can expose an entire system. The larger and more fragmented the supply chain, the broader the attack surface, making public sector bodies more vulnerable to attacks that could disrupt critical operations, delay services, or compromise sensitive data.
Organised cyber gangs and State-backed hackers: know your enemy
The most prevalent cyber threats today come from organised criminal groups. These hacker collectives operate like professional businesses, with defined hierarchies, specialised roles, and clear objectives. Their motivations are typically financial gain or notoriety, often achieved by stealing valuable data or disrupting operations to pressure organisations into compliance.
However, an even more insidious threat comes from state-sponsored actors. These attackers are either directly employed by nation-states or indirectly supported through funding and infrastructure. Unlike financially motivated groups, state-backed hackers pursue strategic national objectives – such as cyber espionage, surveillance, or critical infrastructure disruption.
State sponsored attacks in action
This threat is far from hypothetical. In 2024, a Chinese state-sponsored group known as Salt Typhoon infiltrated major global telecommunications providers, gaining access to the communications of senior U.S. government officials in Washington.
A recent example includes North Korean threat actors applying for remote jobs in foreign companies, using AI tools to mask their identities and infiltrate critical infrastructure. This evolving tactic, known as an ‘insider threat,’ presents a growing risk to organisations across both public and private sectors.
As geopolitical tensions continue to rise, these types of attacks are expected to become more frequent. Cyber warfare offers governments a low-cost, low-risk alternative to conventional conflict – a way to weaken adversaries, gather intelligence, or destabilise critical systems without firing a single shot.
How can public sector organisations protect themselves?
Government intervention plays a crucial role in combating cyber threats. In 2024, for example, an international task force led by the UK’s NCA and the US FBI – Operation Cronos – successfully dismantled LockBit, one of the world’s most damaging cyber gangs.
The Government is actively addressing the increasing cyber threats faced by organisations, including those posed by hostile states and criminal groups. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill – currently progressing through Parliament – places a strong emphasis on combating ransomware. In parallel, the Government has recently concluded its consultation on further ransomware-specific proposals.
But government action alone isn’t enough. Public sector organisations must take proactive, holistic steps to improve their own cybersecurity.
People as the first line of defence
Strong cyber defence starts with people. Awareness and training should go beyond generic modules and focus on real-world threats. While phishing remains a common tactic, attackers are now using deepfakes and AI-generated content to impersonate trusted individuals and manipulate employees. Training must evolve to help staff recognise and report these more advanced threats.
Keeping systems secure
On the technical side, routine patching and timely system updates are essential to eliminate known vulnerabilities. Network segmentation, especially for systems handling sensitive data, can limit the spread and impact of breaches.
Share insights and intelligence
Equally important is access to actionable threat intelligence. Threat intelligence can enable organisations to better understand threats and repel them before they materialise into breaches. Additionally, sharing such intelligence across public sector organisations helps detect patterns, anticipate attacks, and coordinate responses. When agencies operate in isolation, attackers gain the upper hand. But with collaboration and shared situational awareness, the entire sector becomes stronger and more resilient.
Time to act
The public sector faces an escalating and complex cyber threat landscape that demands urgent attention. With attackers growing more sophisticated and motivated, there is no room for complacency. By investing in people, modernising systems, and fostering greater collaboration across agencies, public sector organisations can build stronger defences and reduce their vulnerability. Ultimately, safeguarding critical public services and national security requires a unified, proactive approach that evolves alongside emerging threats. The time to act is now, before the next devastating attack hits.
A World War naval base and a centuries old Swedish ship have both been named as Scotland’s newest Historic Marine Protected Areas.
The Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy Gillian Martin confirmed the designation of the two sites off the coasts of Orkney and Shetland to recognise the national importance of the historical marine assets and provide legal protection to ensure their preservation.
The Scapa Flow site off the coast of Orkney has a number of different historic marine assets including the largest concentration of warship wrecks and other wartime artefacts in the UK. It played an important role as a naval base during the two World Wars of the 20th century and was the location of the internment and scuttling of the German High Seas Fleet at the end of the First World War.
Queen of Sweden wreck site
The Queen of Sweden is one of the best-preserved remains of a Swedish East India Company ship located in waters around Scotland. She was built in Stockholm in 1741 to trade with China – the largest ship built for the company at that time – and sank off the coast of Shetland in 1745 during strong winds.
The first Historic Marine Protected Areas were designated by the Scottish Government in 2013 to identify and protect marine historic assets of national importance which survive in Scottish territorial waters. It is a criminal offence to remove, alter or disturb any of the protected sites across the country.
Confirming the designation of the two sites today, during a tour of the Scapa Flow site, Ms Martin said:
“These two new Historic Marine Protected Areas – at Scapa Flow, and the Queen of Sweden wreck site in Shetland – are important additions to our network of Historic MPAs, which protect the most significant wreck sites across Scotland’s seas.
“The designation of these sites recognises their national value and will help to ensure that future generations can continue to explore, learn from, and be inspired by Scotland’s underwater heritage. I’m grateful for the support from local authorities, heritage bodies, and marine industries in bringing these designations forward.”
Director of Heritage at Historic Environment Scotland Elizabeth McCrone said:
“We are delighted that Scapa Flow and the Queen of Sweden have been designated as Historic Marine Protected Areas. These sites are nationally important parts of Scotland’s maritime history and this recognition will ensure they can be protected and enjoyed responsibly for generations to come.”
Orkney Islands Council Leader Heather Woodbridge said:
“Wrecked vessels, including those of the German High Seas Fleet, are a significant heritage asset and attract visitors from all over the world, contributing to the economy of Orkney. Sadly, the condition of the wrecks is deteriorating, and these important remains will not last forever. Officially recognising and protecting these sites is therefore vitally important to maximise their longevity. This Historic MPA will ensure these irreplaceable assets are protected from future human damage or disturbance while still allowing for responsible access, research and education where appropriate.”
Shetland Islands Council Leader Emma Macdonald said:
“We welcome this Historic MPA designation, which will help preserve an important part of Shetland’s maritime heritage. The Queen of Sweden is one of the best-preserved 18th-century trading vessels, lying in shallow waters and popular with local divers. This designation will provide her with greater protection while ensuring she remains accessible to the diving community.”
Since the early 2000s, the global medical tourism industry has grown at a remarkable pace. Once accessed by the wealthy seeking luxury treatments abroad, it is now a mainstream option for many UK citizens – particularly in the field of elective cosmetic procedures such as breast implants, dental veneers, and hair transplants. Lower costs, faster treatment timelines, and glossy marketing campaigns have driven a surge in outbound medical travel. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 431,000 UK residents travelled abroad for medical treatment in 2023 – an increase of more than 180% since 2016.
But while the demand for overseas cosmetic treatment is rising, so too are the risks. Behind the allure of cheap procedures lies a growing and dangerous regulatory gap – one that threatens individual patient safety and places a growing burden on the NHS.
The current absence of a UK-specific regulatory framework for outbound medical tourism means individuals are often left exposed to poor clinical standards, inadequate pre-operative assessments, insufficient insurance coverage, and minimal – if any – aftercare upon returning home. In far too many cases, UK patients are receiving treatment from unverified clinics abroad that fail to meet basic standards of care. The consequences are serious and sometimes fatal. During a parliamentary debate in March 2024, it was revealed that at least 28 UK citizens had died after undergoing cosmetic procedures in Turkey between 2019 and 2024. These tragic outcomes are not isolated incidents. Complications range from infected wounds and thrombosis to sepsis and life-threatening surgical failures – all of which frequently require emergency NHS intervention.
We must be clear: the problem is not international healthcare itself. Many overseas providers like Longevita deliver high-quality treatment, and patients have the right to seek care across borders. But the lack of coordinated, enforceable regulation for UK medical tourists has created a vacuum – one in which unqualified clinics, misleading advertising, and unsafe practices can thrive.
To address this growing issue, I have written a White Paper which proposes a robust five-pillar framework to protect UK patients and reduce the cost to the NHS. At the heart of this plan is the creation of an independent UK Medical Tourism Accreditation Association (UKMTAA), a regulatory body that would oversee, accredit, and monitor international providers marketing to UK patients.
The UKMTAA would introduce a national accreditation system for overseas clinics offering services to UK consumers. This would establish clear clinical governance, safety protocols, transparency requirements, and continuity of care. Providers that meet these standards would be eligible for UKMTAA certification, allowing patients to identify reputable clinics and avoid unsafe or unscrupulous operators.
In addition to accreditation, the White Paper calls for mandatory medical tourism insurance for UK patients travelling abroad for treatment. At present, patients often rely on
basic travel insurance or no insurance at all – leaving them unprotected if complications arise. Statutory insurance would ensure coverage for surgical risks, emergency repatriation, and essential post-operative care, reducing pressure on NHS resources.
Another critical element of the proposed framework is the introduction of a UK-based aftercare pathway. Many overseas clinics discharge patients within 24 – 48 hours of surgery, leaving them with little support if complications develop. An integrated system that connects returning patients to domestic healthcare providers would enable earlier intervention, reducing the risk of escalation and long-term recovery needs. This would also provide much-needed clarity for NHS clinicians managing overseas complications, who currently face fragmented and inconsistent information from unaffiliated providers.
The White Paper also calls for stricter advertising standards. Social media, influencer endorsements and unregulated online platforms have become the primary marketing channels for overseas cosmetic clinics. Many adverts promote unrealistic results, conceal risks, and present misleading pricing structures. This must change. The UK should work with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to create advertising regulations for medical tourism that mirror those in place for domestic healthcare marketing. Clinics should be required to disclose outcomes data, staff credentials, and the risks of procedures as part of any promotional activity.
Finally, a national campaign to educate the public about the risks and responsibilities associated with medical tourism is urgently needed. Patients deserve to make informed choices about their care. This includes understanding the importance of checking provider credentials, seeking proper insurance, and planning for aftercare.
The current unregulated environment for UK citizens seeking cosmetic procedures abroad poses unacceptable risks to both individuals and the NHS. By introducing a national accreditation body, mandatory insurance, coordinated aftercare, tighter advertising rules, and better public education, we can ensure safer outcomes, preserve NHS resources, and foster a more transparent international healthcare market.
Medical tourism is here to stay. But it must be made safe, accountable, and fair. As Parliamentarians, you have the power – and the responsibility – to legislate for the protection of UK patients, and to ensure that the pursuit of affordability does not come at the cost of lives.
· Former US State Department and military veteran, Richard Donnellan joins mission-critical technology company, Quantum Trilogy in a crucial public sector and private finance relations function
· Appointment comes following decades of business success across energy, finance and defense sectors
Quantum Trilogy, a technology company providing mission-critical, agile solutions to urgent government needs, has announced the appointment of Richard Donnellan as Chief Funding Officer.
Richard Donnellan
In his role, Richard will leverage his experience to build and strengthen relationships with the EU, Middle East, NATO, and diplomatic delegates from partner nations, as well as private finance and venture capital institutions. His mission will be to pair funding opportunities with government requirements and to oversee investment negotiations, thereby aiding allied countries in defending their sovereignty. This unique Funding Division forms part of Quantum Trilogy’s groundbreaking governmental offering, which aims to strengthen cross-border relationships and deliver truly bold technological solutions.
Having worked across the energy, finance and defense sectors, Richard is one of the defense industry’s most dynamic corporate assets, bringing fierce negotiation and mediation prowess to ensure fast and secure business growth.
After a successful career in the Parachute Regiment and the US State Department, Richard founded and led businesses in post-conflict regions such as Iraq, Afghanistan and West Africa where he focused on procurement and energy. He led those businesses through two funding rounds from venture capital to private equity, driving expansions in the Middle East as well as expanding into other sectors. This success resulted in a turnover of over $300 million, all whilst safely employing over 1,000 staff. Through this experience, Richard has established and built an excellent network through engagement with governments firstly in the Middle East and Africa, and subsequently in South America.
“Richard brings a vast amount of experience and expertise to a crucial role within our company,” said Alain Obadia, CEO at Quantum Trilogy. “As we continue to build on our mission to drive innovation in the defense sector, he perfectly bridges the intersection of corporate and public sector relations.”
Richard Donnellan commented, “When I was approached by Quantum Trilogy, I was immediately attracted to the company’s fast-paced, innovative approach to transforming the industry.”
“We live in a very important time for defense, where technology is advancing at a rapid rate. It’s an exciting time to be part of this change and to help drive the industry forward every day.”
Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) states ‘schools and colleges should consider carrying out an annual review of their approach to online safety’. To help support schools, edtech charity, LGfL-The National Grid for Learning has developed a free, comprehensive yet easy to use Online Safety Audit, recently updated (Feb 2025) to reflect changes to the DfE Standards for filtering and monitoring.
The simple, downloadable Word document has two broad sections with questions on: Curriculum, General Approach & Communication; and Safe School Systems – technology for safeguarding and safeguarding for technology. Responses to the questions are rated red-amber-green (RAG) along with annotated evidence and actions.
Commenting on the audit, Duvessa Brown, Deputy Headteacher and DSL at Wallington County Grammar School in South London, said, ‘As someone who isn’t IT savvy, when the IT department said, ‘Let’s do an audit’, I felt a bit worried, a bit out of my depth. But actually, I understood the audit, it was super easy to do, and I wish I had done it a lot sooner. We literally downloaded the Online Safety Audit from the LGfL website – we didn’t have to amend it, we just adapted it for our school. Unlike other audits we had previously used, this one covered all aspects of school life.’
Alex Dave
‘We could clearly see what was in place and what still needed to be done. We looked at our filtering systems; student access to Wi-Fi in school and the dangers of that; and the curriculum and what each department was doing linked to e-safety. When we had the Ofsted inspection, our online safety audit basically provided a pile of evidence to say look at what we do. The inspector was very impressed by the level of detail.’
Alex Dave, Safeguarding Education Officer, LGfL, shared this advice for schools, ‘The audit should be led by the DSL, as they have ‘lead responsibility for safeguarding and child protection (including online safety and understanding…filtering and monitoring…)’ DfE, KCSIE (2024). We recommend you link or integrate the audit into your overall Section 175/157 Local Authority (LA) safeguarding audit; and use the filtering and monitoring sections to fulfil your requirement (as per the DfE standards) for an annual filtering and monitoring review. This not only saves time, but above all ensures an integrated, whole-school approach. Work with colleagues across your school to complete the Audit (curriculum
leads, IT support, cybersecurity leads, senior leaders etc) and don’t forget to share the results with your school governors and/or trustees.’
Sexual extortion – often referred to in the media as sextortion – is a rapidly growing form of abuse where perpetrators use intimate images or videos of their victims to threaten, blackmail or manipulate them, often demanding money, further images, or sexualised content. These cases are rising at an alarming rate, and the impact on victims — especially young people — can be devastating.
The perpetrators can range from a child or young person’s peers or partners from previous relationships, to highly organised international crime gangs using fake profiles on a larger scale to financially extort thousands of victims worldwide. An increase in the use of generative AI to generate fake and deep-fake imagery from innocent, non-explicit images, using ‘nudifying’ apps has further exacerbated this issue. We need to ensure that our young people are aware of these dangers and equipped with the tools to protect themselves.
It can take as little as one hour from initial contact, for victims to be coerced into sharing images and the first demands to be made. The impact can be catastrophic and can not only impact a person’s wellbeing, mental and physical health, but have in some cases led to young victims taking their own lives. In 2024, the National Crime Agency’s (NCA’s) Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) Safety Centre, received 380 reports of ‘sextortion’; and police forces received an average of 117 reports from under 18’s during each of the first five months of 2024. According to statistics from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) , the majority (91%) of these crimes are against boys aged 14-17. Considering that these types of offences are generally underreported, the actual figure is likely to be far higher. Childline’s briefing on Young people’s experiences of online sexual extortion or ‘sextortion’ (Sept 2024) reported that ‘counselling sessions with boys mainly revolved around financial blackmail, whereas girls typically spoke about being pressured to send more nude or semi-nude images rather than money’.
What schools can do
One of the most powerful tools against sexual extortion is raising young people’s awareness of the dangers. NCA-commissioned research showed that ‘74% of boys questioned did not fully understand what sextortion was, the same proportion didn’t see requests for nude images as a warning sign or an attempt at ‘sextortion’, 73% were not aware of how to report incidents and only 12% admitted they may be at risk of ‘sextortion’’.
It’s hugely important for schools to create a positive culture of safeguarding by talking openly and honestly about online relationships and the potential harms of sharing images.
Remember, when a child or young person has shared an image – they have been groomed or manipulated into doing so. Victims often feel it’s their own fault. Offenders are well versed in making them feel they are guilty, in order to dissuade them from seeking help, keep them isolated and illicit more from them.
It’s essential that staff address disclosures in a sensitive and non-judgemental way and avoid victim-blaming narratives – as with any other type of child abuse. They should never be made to feel responsible or complicit. Reassuring them that they are not to blame for what has happened and that help and support is available is also vital.
The key concern for young people who have been sexually extorted, is whether the images can be taken down. Report Remove is a free, online confidential tool enabling them to report an image or video shared online, to see if it’s possible to get it taken down.
Parents and carers can also play a pivotal role in protecting their children from sexual extortion. Having regular conversations about their child’s online life – what apps they’re using now, who they’re chatting with etc, provides opportunities for discussions about online abuse, increasing awareness and understanding. They can also spot changes in their child’s behaviour – signs of anxiety or withdrawal, or unwillingness to interact with friends, which may indicate that something is wrong. The recent campaign by the NCA, to highlight the dangers of sextortion, issued the following advice to parents and carers:
· Do not pay the perpetrator there is no guarantee that this will stop the threats
· Stop all communication and block them on all platforms to prevent further manipulation or harassment
· Avoid deleting anything that could be used as evidence such as messages, images, telephone numbers, and bank account details
· Report to the police or to CEOP. Call 101 or 999 if there is an immediate risk of harm to the child. Use the CEOP Safety Centre to report any online blackmail attempts.
International cooperation has resulted in the arrests of members of organised crime gangs involved in sexual exploitation, but online threats continue. Raising awareness and equipping our young people with the knowledge, understanding and skills to identify potential harms online will help keep them safe in our increasingly digital world. LGfL delivers free training for schools via Online Sexual Abuse and Harms training.
Aiden Van Sertima – Global Sales Director, Integritas Property Group
Aiden Van Sertima
The UK housing market is undergoing a significant transformation, driven not just by economic pressures and shifting work patterns, but also by major demographic changes. Increasingly, the spotlight is shifting to the growing demand for high-quality rental homes in city centres and surrounding areas — especially among younger generations facing rising living costs and limited access to homeownership.
A Generation Stuck Renting and Needing More
A key trend shaping the current landscape is the emergence of a younger demographic that no longer views homeownership as an immediate or realistic goal. For many in their 20s and early 30s, the prospect of buying a property is increasingly out of reach. Wages haven’t kept pace with inflation, interest rates have risen, and support from the “Bank of Mum and Dad” is drying up as families feel the strain of the cost-of-living crisis.
This generation is not just reluctantly renting; they’re becoming discerning renters. They want more than just a roof over their heads. With career-driven lifestyles and increasingly flexible working patterns, they’re seeking well-designed homes in vibrant locations that provide the home of their dreams and needs, as well as convenience and connectivity. As a result, demand is soaring for:
· High-quality apartments to rent, in city centres or inner suburbs
· Smartly designed spaces with tech integration for easy remote working
· Amenities that support social life, wellbeing and sustainability
This presents a major opportunity for developers to rethink how they deliver rental properties – not as a stopgap for those saving or not at the right point in life to buy a property, but as a long-term solution for a generation priced out of home ownership.
Developers Must Deliver Smart, Functional Living Spaces
In response to this trend, we’re seeing a wave of innovation in property design. The new generation of tenants is digitally native, environmentally conscious, and values-efficient living. Smart design and modern technology are no longer a bit of luxury; they’re expected and essential. This includes:
· Integrated smart home features like keyless entry, voice-activated lighting and energy-efficient heating
· Flexible living spaces that accommodate home working, exercise and areas for socialising
· Sustainable building practices and features such as solar panels and EV charging points
Developers who lean into these expectations can not only meet demand but help shape a more sustainable and inclusive rental landscape.
Cities are Back in Focus
Despite the previous trend of moving out to the idyllic countryside and away from city centres during the pandemic, there is renewed interest in city living, particularly among young professionals. With ownership options out of reach for many, these individuals are looking for modern, purpose-built rental options that offer the lifestyle benefits of city living without the burden of a mortgage.
Urban regeneration projects, transport-oriented developments and 15-minute cities are playing a crucial role here. Proximity to coworking spaces, cultural venues, cafes, pubs, restaurants and nightlife is a major draw, especially when paired with affordability and accessibility.
Delayed Homeownership is Redefining the Property Ladder Data from Aldermore’s First-Time Buyer Index reveals that nearly half of would-be homeowners are experiencing delays of a year or more in buying their first property. Many anticipate it taking two years longer than planned. Although shared ownership schemes and government support are available, it is still a very tough market if you’re trying to get on the property ladder via purchase. Renting is now becoming a long-term option.
With this, developers must view renters as long-term tenants and not temporary occupants. This means offerings should include:
· Secure, long-term tenancies
· On-site services such as parcel lockers, on-site social areas and communal workspaces
· A sense of community that builds loyalty and retention such as shared gardens or gym spaces
Gen Z and the Tech-Driven Property Boom Gen Z — the most digitally connected and mobile generation yet, is majorly shaking up the property sector across the board. They demand immediacy, transparency and seamless service and the sector is responding with digital-first solutions: virtual tours, app-based tenant services and utilising AI for client solutions such as AI-powered maintenance platforms.
Gen Z is also a generation that prioritises sustainability and minimalism, with many deciding to rely on public transport and not own a car. The demand for compact, well-connected homes in walkable, tech-enabled cities is growing due to this.
The developers and landlords who are embracing technology will be best positioned to cater to this evolving market. Whether through smart building infrastructure, advanced tenant platforms or data-driven management, tech has to be an essential part of home building.
Adapting to a New Normal
As demographic and economic shifts redefine the housing market, the property sector must act decisively. Rentals have moved from being just an extra option to a key part of our housing plan. Developers, investors, and policymakers must prioritise:
· High-quality, purpose-built rental stock
· Smart, energy-efficient design tailored for modern living
· Solutions for affordability without compromising on location or quality
In short, the UK’s urban housing landscape is changing. Younger generations, constrained by affordability but driven by lifestyle, are creating a new kind of demand and one that needs flexibility, functionality and great locations. Those in the property sector who recognise and respond to this shift with innovative, high-spec rental solutions will be the ones who thrive in this new era.
The UK is witnessing a sharp and largely unchecked rise in the use of weight loss injections such as Ozempic and Wegovy. While these drugs have proven clinical value when prescribed appropriately, their growing availability online, often without medical oversight, is creating a new and urgent public health challenge.
Recent IQVIA data reveals that 1.5 million people in the UK are now using weight loss jabs, with 95% obtaining them through online platforms. In just six months – from October 2024 to March 2025 – private spending on these drugs surged from £503 million to £784 million, a 56% increase.
Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy were originally developed as targeted treatments for chronic conditions, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. Used responsibly and under supervision, they can be transformative. But these medications are not lifestyle aids. They are not suitable for casual use or for individuals who have not undergone a thorough health screening.
Unfortunately, the ease of access online, driven by convenience, consumer demand, and aggressive digital marketing, has outpaced current regulatory frameworks. A growing number of online pharmacies and providers now offer weight loss injections after users fill in basic self-assessment forms. Many of these providers are based outside the UK or operate in regulatory grey zones. Some offer no follow-up care, and most lack meaningful safeguards to identify patients for whom the drugs may be unsafe or unsuitable.
This digital loophole is being exploited, placing an undue burden on our already stretched health and mental health services. NHS clinicians are increasingly encountering patients who have experienced adverse effects after sourcing weight loss medication privately – some requiring urgent intervention, others facing a relapse of eating disorders previously in remission.
The regulatory lag in this space is now a public health issue, and one that demands coordinated action across the Department of Health and Social Care, the MHRA, NHS and digital policy leads.
We at Bramacare are calling for four specific interventions that should be implemented UK-wide. Firstly, everyone looking to use weight loss injections should have an in-person consultation with a healthcare professional. This ensures the injections are not only suitable for the individual but that there has been appropriate safeguarding against side effects or a history of eating disorders.
Any prescribing protocol for weight loss medication should include a basic psychological screening, ideally drawing on existing NICE guidelines and early warning signs for disordered eating. Many individuals presenting for weight loss support may be better served by mental health or psychological interventions.
Online pharmacies and digital health platforms need to be regulated. This includes mandatory registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council, the use of GMC-registered prescribers, and a requirement for continuity of care planning. Enforcement powers should be enhanced for UK regulators to act swiftly against rogue operators, including those based abroad but targeting UK consumers.
Unregulated or non-clinical providers should be prohibited from marketing weight loss injections online. The current digital environment enables the misleading and irresponsible promotion, often through influencer marketing, of products targeted at young people and vulnerable groups. A cross-platform advertising ban, akin to those applied to tobacco and gambling, is justified in this context.
At Bramacare, we are committed to evidence-based care and early intervention. Regulations must be changed to protect the most vulnerable. These are not easy challenges, but neither are they insurmountable. With cross-sector collaboration and leadership from central Government, we can ensure that weight loss medications are used responsibly, ethically, and safely. For more information about Bramacare visit: bramacare.co.uk
The government’s big plan for the 10 Year Health Plan for the NHS laid out a big role for delivery. However, the Highland Marketing advisory board felt the missing implementation plan will have some big issues to address, from addressing the state of NHS IT today, to finding the time and money to deliver on its vision.
The government has published its 10 Year Health Plan, Fit for the Future. Picking up from Lord Darzi’s investigation into the state of the NHS in England, it says the service is “at a historic crossroads” and must “reform or die.”
Its vision for reform is a new model of care that will be achieved through the now-familiar three shifts (from hospital to community, treatment to prevention, and analogue to digital) and delivered by a shake-up of NHS structures, finance, and regulation.
The plan also sets out some big plans for digital, including a single patient record, a massively expanded NHS App, some new, national platforms, and five big “bets” on data, genomics, AI, wearables, and robotics. Overall, the Highland Marketing advisory board was pleasantly surprised by the direction of travel.
“I looked at this from a number of perspectives. Is it a nice story? Does it read well?” said GP and CCIO Jason Broch. “And the answer is ‘yes’. It’s a good story because a lot of it is stuff that we have been saying for years and years. And it reads well because there is buy-in for All across the NHS.”
On the other hand, members agreed that the 10 Year Health Plan is not a plan. “You cannot call something a plan if it has no implementation section,” said entrepreneur Ravi Kumar. This is a vision. But I like the focus on prevention and early intervention.
“If it happens, and if we get the neighbourhood model, things will be very different. Digital innovation with the patient in control: that is a great idea. As a vision, it is a great document.”
Six key issues for health tech:
Sir James Mackey, the transition chief executive of NHS England, has said a delivery plan or plans will be developed this summer. The advisory board felt these will need to address some tensions the plan skips over.
These include where power will sit in the new structures, as integrated care boards are slimmed down, and “reinvented” foundation trusts come on stream. How the tension between the short-term imperative to reduce waiting lists and the long-term ambition to address health inequalities at “place” level will be handled.
How money will flow around the system, while reinventing payment by results and year of care funding are worked out. But when it comes to technology, the advisory board felt there were six, key issues ahead:
NHS IT is not a greenfield site: Analogue to digital is one of the plan’s big themes, but in practice the NHS has been trying to go digital for 30 years. Stop-start investment in big programmes has left the health service with patchy infrastructure, an incomplete roll-out of electronic patient records, and a lot of software that is not as well integrated with them as it could be.
The advisory board argued the plan doesn’t recognise this, but a significant chunk of the £10 billion that the spending review says will be available for NHS IT and transformation over the next three years could be spent on sorting it out.
Cindy Fedell, a former NHS chief information officer who now works in Canada, said: “There’s lots of poor infrastructure, lots of fractured stuff, to address if we’re going to get proper use out of it; and that’s before we start talking about everything that the plan says they want to do.”
Wicked problems can’t be wished away: Because it doesn’t engage with the current IT landscape, the 10 Year Health Plan is curiously silent on some key issues. ‘Cyber security’, for example, doesn’t rate a mention. Nor does ‘interoperability’ or ‘information governance’ or even ‘data quality’.
The plan’s authors may think these issues will be solved by the single patient record, a pet project of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Governance, which the plan says will “bring together all of a patient’s medical records in one place” and “operate as a patient passport” to “seamless” care.
To bring this about, the plan says there will be legislation to require providers to share information. However, the NHS has a poor record on getting clinical and patient buy-in for grand data plans and is still facing a backlash over its decision to award the Federated Data Platform contract to a consortium including Palantir.
Andy Kinnear, who worked for a commissioning support unit that introduced one of the first shared care records, said: “A lot of the rules that are in place are there to protect us and our civil liberties by blocking inappropriate access to sensitive data. It’s all going to get very fraught, once people start engaging with this.”
Too much centralisation could kill innovation: It’s not just the single patient record that suggests the government wants the centre to have a much bigger role in NHS IT. The plan also talks about an expanded NHS App and national platforms, starting with virtual wards and remote monitoring.
David Hancock, a consultant who has worked for both EPR and shared care record vendors, said: “From an industry perspective, this concerns me. If there are systems out there doing these things, what will happen to them? Will they be expected to link to the NHS App, or will this supersede them? And how will new people get into the market? This could kill innovation.”
Mind the app: The plan devotes a whole section to the NHS App, which it says, “will be how we create a truly empowering, digitally enabled NHS.” It promises a My GP tool for advice and access to appointments, a My Choices feature to help patients pick providers, My Specialist and My Consult platform to help them find specialists and consult with them remotely.
It says there will be a My Companion for general health advice and My Medicines, My Vaccines, My Health, My Children and My Carer areas to pool meds, vaccines, test and wearables data, and specialist advice in one place. Yet, Highland Marketing advisory board chair Jeremy Nettle pointed out, the NHS App today is extremely limited and all one-way.
“It pushes information at you, but you cannot push back,” he pointed out. “I can get a text from my GP, but I can’t message them back. That’s not helpful. And lots of other services don’t even use the app. My local hospital still sends letters.” The plan has little to say about how the app will get from A to B; or how this will be paid for.
Productivity is achievable but won’t fund IT: The digital commitments in the 10-year Health Plan will take far more money than the Treasury has put up. At various points, the plan appears to suggest that some of the missing money will come from cash savings or productivity improvements.
For example, it says outpatient appointments cost £14 billion a year, a lot of which could be saved if pre-op and follow-up assessments were carried out online. The problem is productivity projects require pump-priming for everything from devices to pathway redesign and training.
“The NHS has tried repeatedly to do transformation from within its operating budget, and it doesn’t work,” said Andy Kinnear. “The money you want to release is not there at the start; you get it out down the line.
“It’s not news that there are lots of follow-up outpatient appointments that probably don’t need to happen, but the money’s not been there to stop them happening. It feels like the ambition and the budget are out of alignment.”
Same for consumer tech: The plan also talks about making the NHS as easy to access as online shopping or banking, which have been funded, in part, by transferring work from staff to users.
“The consumerist aspect of the plan is interesting, because it has driven big changes in other areas,” said Andy Kinnear. “We work our own tills. We print our own boarding passes. And we’re happy to do it.”
Equally, it took 50 years for banks to go from the first cashpoints to today’s interoperable apps; and banks are starting to bump up against public opposition to branch closures. The NHS may be able to move faster, but it’s likely to find itself in a bind.
Either, it will find it even harder to shut clinics and surgeries used by elderly and disadvantaged patients, pushing up costs because of joint-running. Or, it will find itself increasing health inequalities by disadvantaging patients who no longer have physical services but cannot use digital ones (another topic on which the 10 Year Health Plan is basically silent).
Where’s the money? Where’s the time?
Overall, the advisory board felt that time and money are the big issues a 10 Year Health Plan delivery plan or, better, a digital roadmap, will have to address.
“There is an over-emphasis on what technology can do in the short term,” said Ravi Kumar. “And I would have liked to see a finger in the air calculation of what a digital first service will cost in the long-term. I think it could be ten or 20 times more than has been mentioned: we might be looking at something like £200 billion.
“At the moment, if I go into hospital, I’ll struggle to get wi-fi on my phone. If we want patient engagement, we need to sort out that kind of issue before we begin – and we won’t be able to do it on the cheap.”
The most critical means of maintaining service continuity is to protect an organisation’s backups first before anything else. Any failure to recognise that cyber-criminals comprehend see backups as any large, medium or small companies’ Achilles Heel, could lead to a significant amount of downtime and lost, irreplaceable data, rendering any organisation null and void.
David Trossell
An article in Hacker News, published on 17th June 2025, ‘Backups Are Under Attack: How to Protect Your Backups’, writes: “Ransomware has become a highly coordinated and pervasive threat, and traditional defences are increasingly struggling to neutralise it.”
“Today’s ransomware attacks initially target your last line of defence — your backup infrastructure. Before locking up your production environment, cyber-criminals go after your backups to cripple your ability to recover, increasing the odds of a ransom payout.”
The UK’s National Security Cyber Centre adds: “Backups are an essential part of an organisation’s response and recovery process. Making regular backups is the most effective way to recover from a destructive ransomware attack, where an attacker’s aim is to destroy or erase a victim’s data.”
Early-stage attacks
The Centre says that attacks on backups and network infrastructure quite often occur during the early stages of a destructive ransomware attack. To make it impossible to recover from an attack, cyber-criminals delete or destroy data to increase the threat and the likelihood of a ransom being paid out to them. Stored data that’s connected to a network – including the public internet or to the cloud – is therefore potentially under significant threat from ransomware actors.
To prevent this from happening, measures have to be put in place to make it impossible for them to attack the data in the first place. The primary method of protecting data – whether it is stored on tape or disk – is to create one or more airgaps. They disconnect the data from any public network, reducing the likelihood of any threat actor being able to access, steal, hold captive or delete the data. However, data can be stored on an internal, secured local area network as part of an air-gapping strategy.
Nevertheless, there will be occasions when the data must be recovered or migrated to different sites that might be located thousands of miles away. This might be to support disaster recovery, or to simply have duplicate copies of the data on other servers in other datacentres or disaster recovery sites around the world.
Man with a van
If the data is stored on tape or disk, transportation could be done using a man with a van approach, but that would take time and the vehicle could end up being stolen. The most obvious way to transport data would be to use a Wide Area Network (WAN) – including the internet – or to host it in the cloud.
When data is hosted in the cloud, it can be accessed from multiple points if the right permissions are given to access it. However, for the most sensitive data, this approach can be highly risky. As soon as the data is connected to a public network, it becomes a potential target and vulnerable to attack.
Network latency and packet loss could also make the task of transmitting 100 Gb/s of data difficult to achieve, too. They can make a network sluggish and reduce bandwidth utilisation. SD-WANs and WAN Optimisation are great technologies, but they won’t necessarily improve network and data performance, because latency can only be mitigated and not resolved.
Mitigating latency
So how can you mitigate latency? Well, increasing the bandwidth of your pipes won’t make much difference. WAN Optimisation can’t handle encrypted data, and in terms of its performance, it doesn’t live up to what its vendors claim. SD-WANs also benefit from a WAN Acceleration overlay in the pursuit of high network performance, and faster data transfer speeds. They, too, are a great technology, but they often need a boost.
What organisations need today is the ability to use artificial intelligence, machine learning and data parallelisation to mitigate them – in other words – WAN Acceleration. It permits encrypted data to be sent and received at a rate that’s up to 200 times faster than standard WAN connections – including WAN Optimisation. That not only saves time and money but also makes it easier to prevent data from backups that is being transferred from one location to another harder for cyber-criminals to divert and to unlock.
This includes encrypted data that is stored offline on tape and disk, which may be required elsewhere – temporarily meaning that when an airgap has to be bridged to expedite the data elsewhere, it has to be done securely and then, when the data is at rest, an airgap can be reinstated by ensuring that data is disconnected from any public network.
Airgaps can be attacked
Sead Fadilpašić, writing for TechRadar, nevertheless warns that even airgaps can be attacked. In his October 2024 article, ‘European government systems hit by air-gap malware attack, he points out: “Hackers have managed to steal sensitive information from air-gapped systems belonging to different European governments on at least three separate occasions, experts have warned.”
So, if the data is air-gapped, how can cyber-criminals still get access to it to deliver malware? Well, a threat actor such as GoldenJackal, which targets governments in Europe and Asia, uses infected USB drives to deliver and launch malware, such as GoldenDealer and GoldenAce. The malware is launched as soon as the USB drive is plugged into the server that stores the air-gapped data. It then self-replicated and mixes with other malware to cause havoc.
Some malware that is used in this kind of attack copies documents, images, encryption keys and OpenVPN configuration files, as well as other sensitive data. When the USB drive is reconnected to an internet-enabled device, it sends the data to a C2 server. Therefore, WAN Acceleration is only one part of the strategy in ensuring that air-gapped data is safe. Other measures – including employee screening – and policies about USB drive use also need to be put in place to keep data secure.
Comprehensive strategies
To summarise, cyber-security strategies should be comprehensive to prevent any kind of cyber-security attack from exploiting any kind of vulnerability. It’s therefore vital to consider all
possibilities. While airgaps come some way to protect data, that data also needs to be securely replicated and stored elsewhere so that it can be available – even if disruption is caused by malware being launched from a USB drive.
Nevertheless, air-gapped data needs WAN Acceleration whenever data needs to be sent to and recovered from disaster recovery sites at speed without being impinged by latency, packet loss or poor bandwidth utilisation. This is particularly crucial in banking and finance, defence, healthcare and in other key sectors where data is of the utmost importance and sensitivity.
Integrated care, digital access, and frontline innovation reshape health services for thousands of families and adults across BSW and Surrey.
After the Government recently launched its 10-Year Health Plan to modernise the NHS and bring care closer to communities, HCRG Care Group – the UK’s largest specialist community services provider – is today celebrating the first 100 days of two transformation programmes delivering integrated neighbourhood health services to adults, children, and families across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW), and Surrey.
The fresh approach by HCRG Care Group is making it easier to access community health services and delivering more joined-up, person-centred care closer to home.
In BSW, HCRG Care Group is leading a two-year transformation that breaks down traditional service silos and shifts more care to neighbourhood level. Over 3,000 community health professionals deliver adult and children’s therapies, urgent care, community nursing, and more – working in partnership with voluntary organisations to deliver support that’s tailored to local need.
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a responsive, truly integrated community healthcare system,” said Val Scrase, Regional Director for BSW Community Services. “We’re already seeing the benefits of stronger local partnerships and are proud to be empowering people to manage their health through improved access and digital tools.”
Meanwhile, in Surrey, HCRG Care Group is at the start of an ambitious transformation that will see a a radical shift in how children and families receive care, focusing resources on those most in need. The wide range of children’s community health services offered includes antenatal and early years support, school nursing, immunisation programmes, therapies, specialist support for children with additional health and care needs, and developmental paediatrics.
A new single point of access (SPA), extended hours for the community nursing advice line, co-located multidisciplinary teams, and free online sessions covering topics such as antenatal care and school readiness, have already been implemented. Ongoing work focuses on reducing waiting times for therapies and developmental paediatrics and a dedicated app, launching soon,will give families instant access to health and wellbeing information and advice.
“We put families at the heart of everything we do,” said David Mitchell, Regional Director for Surrey. “On day one we introduced Healthy Family Teams to deliver comprehensive and coordinated care from local clinics. In the coming months, in line with the NHS 10-year plan, we’ll be embracing technology to support the prevention of ill-health by enabling families to easily access education and advice on health and wellbeing.”
These changes are part of a broader national effort to modernise the NHS. The programmes are just the latest in a long line of community services transformation projects HCRG has run since it was created in 2012. These have helped move more care into the community, reduce pressure on A&E, improve self-management by those who have long term conditions, and helped people to stay living independently for longer. HCRG Care Group aims to “change lives by transforming health and care”, invest money up-front in making change happen, and has recently been selected to run a similar transformation programme in North Kent.
By Julian Panter, Business and Project Director, Matrix Workforce Management Solutions
Julian Panter
At Matrix, we work with councils up and down the country and the warning from Solace about Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) putting good officers at risk of exit rings very true. While I haven’t seen every council restructuring their senior teams, I have seen what happens when things start to wobble, especially during financial crises or where bankruptcy looms.
When a council hits trouble, it’s usually the senior officers who feel the tremors first. We’ve worked with councils where top-level restructures led to long-serving, high-performing individuals being forced to reapply for their roles or leave altogether. That sends a ripple of anxiety throughout the organisation and if it’s not managed carefully it can lead to exactly the kind of talent drain Solace is warning about.
Councils need to focus on retaining experienced staff during uncertain times. When key people feel unsettled, there’s a risk they’ll leave, taking valuable knowledge with them and potentially increasing reliance on more costly interim or agency support, especially when recruitment freezes are introduced, or hiring is delayed as part of cost-cutting.
In those moments, agency staffing becomes a lifeline. But we also know that over-reliance on temporary solutions can drive up costs, particularly when those roles require senior-level expertise. I’ve seen it happen: freezes go in, people leave and suddenly there’s a scramble to fill gaps with urgent agency hires, often at premium pay.
So how do we protect core talent while navigating change?
From what we’ve seen at Matrix, councils that take a strategic approach to talent retention, especially around statutory roles like Section 151 officers, tend to fare better. One of the most practical steps they can take is working with trusted workforce partners who can help them source, assess and secure top talent cost-effectively. We’ve helped many councils make savings simply by accessing our supply channels, rather than going to market cold or relying on expensive interim routes.
But it’s not just about recruitment. Transition planning is often overlooked in these discussions. We’re seeing this play out across London, where we’ve been supporting workforce planning through a collaboration project focused on long-term agency workers. These are people who have been embedded in councils for years – valuable assets who, for one reason or another, never made the leap to permanent roles. Now, with some coordination, we’re helping those councils convert that agency talent into permanent staff or use them more strategically to mentor and upskill internal teams.
That sort of skill-sharing and shadowing is what makes workforce transitions smoother. Councils can’t just swap people in and out like parts on a machine. They need continuity, and that comes from treating workforce planning as a strategic priority, not just a logistical one.
Technology also has a role to play. Right now, most councils still track redeployment manually, often relying on spreadsheets to map who’s available for what. But when they use digital tools like the ones we offer, they gain real visibility across wider talent pools. A vacancy in one borough could be filled by someone being displaced just 10 miles away, if you have the right data at your fingertips.
We’re at a point where councils need to balance financial reality with workforce resilience. That means more than just making cuts or shifting chairs. It means asking how we keep the right people motivated, informed and supported to lead through uncertainty.
Because if we don’t, we risk losing the very people we’ll need to rebuild.
Liverpool’s flagship £1bn Knowledge Quarter development is set to enter a new phase – following the completion of the demolition of a key landmark.
Removal of the former Smithdown Lane Police Station at the Paddington Village South scheme has now completed, paving the way for new development opportunities under a masterplan being co-ordinated by Liverpool City Council and the University of Liverpool.
Paddington South, which is backed by MHCLG funding, is the next instalment of the * multi award-winning Paddington Village development.
This site currently includes the WELL Platinum standard rated Spine Building, which provides Grade A office space, a multi-storey car park, and the Novotel Liverpool Paddington Village Hotel.
Professor Tim Jones, Vice Chancellor at the University of Liverpool, and Leader of Liverpool City Council, Cllr Liam Robinson visited the Paddington Village South site as demolition phase ends with removal of Smithdown Lane police station
The ambition for the Paddington South masterplan will be to super charge the city’s research, development and innovation sector, whilst creating a vibrant new neighbourhood for the area, embedded in sustainable development principles.
Central to the 9-acre scheme will be a revamped public green space around Grove Street, with the aim of improving biodiversity by 10% as part of the city’s wider urban green up programme and, new active travel routes linked to the wider City cycle network.
The new green space will be aligned with the Liverpool Public Realm, and Design for Access for All Strategic Planning Documents with the aim of achieving zero carbon in operation, aligning with the Council’s 2030 net zero ambitions and assisting the University in its 2035 net zero campus aim.
Through the demolition of Smithdown Lane Police Station, lead contractor Morgan Sindall Construction has aimed to recycle and reuse as much of the existing materials as possible. Working in partnership with local charity ReciproCity, existing furniture from the building was recycled and donated to local charities and businesses, which avoided in excess of 250 office desks and chairs along with other furniture from going to landfill.
Morgan Sindall has previously delivered an infrastructure package of works, The Spine, The Novotel and the MSCP on the Paddington Village Central site. This, combined with the ongoing works at Paddington South has so far delivered £122.5m of social value for Liverpool, including engaging with 3,534 students, employing 123 Apprentices over 1,623 apprentice weeks and engaging over 150 people through our Knowledge Quad employment courses.
The City Council owned Paddington Village site has earned numerous industry awards including eight Considerate Construction Awards including “Most Considerate Site”, an Innovation Award from the BCO for The Spine and three Constructing Excellence North West Awards for The Spine.
Minister for Local Growth, Alex Norris, MP, said: “The Paddington South site is set to become a hub for research and innovation, driving growth and opportunities in Liverpool’s Knowledge Quarter and beyond, helping us deliver on our Plan for Change.
“Liverpool has always been at the forefront with new ideas and innovation so it’s exciting that the project has entered this new phase, and I look forward to seeing it progress in the months ahead.”
Councillor Liam Robinson, Leader of Liverpool City Council, said: “The clearance of the old police station at Paddington South is a landmark moment in our journey to ensuring Liverpool becomes one of Europe’s leading R&D centres in science innovation.
“An expanded Paddington Village is vital to the city’s future economic growth and to creating a conveyor belt of high skilled jobs. Once delivered, this former brownfield site will become the engine room for the delivery of our wider Investment Zone plans for the coming decade and beyond.
“I’m delighted the focus on providing a world-class development is as much on sustainability and creating a new green lung in the city and look forward to seeing the masterplan for the site take shape and develop.”
Professor Tim Jones, Vice Chancellor at the University of Liverpool, said, “We are excited about this latest milestone in the development of Paddington South. This site provides us with an exciting opportunity to realise a step-change in our research and development activities in areas where we are already rated as world-leading.
“We are particularly passionate about the important benefits the development will have for our city in terms of jobs, reputation, wealth generation and more.”
Colin Sinclair, CEO at Knowledge Quarter Liverpool, said: “Paddington Village is intrinsic to the future success of the KQ Liverpool innovation district, with the capability to help create upwards of 10,000 new, highly-skilled jobs in the city region, building on our existing strengths in life sciences, robotics engineering and materials chemistry.
“The provision of green space and other amenities is crucial in creating a genuine sense of place and attracting people to live and work here. We look forward to supporting Morgan Sindall and the city council in their efforts to complete this next phase of work – taking us a step closer to realising the enormous potential of Paddington Village.”
Steven Gregory, North West Area Director at Morgan Sindall, said: “The completion of this demolition marks a key milestone not just in the transformation of Paddington Village South, but in Liverpool’s wider ambition to become a powerhouse for innovation.
“As in our previous work at the Knowledge Quarter, we’ve taken a sustainability-first approach – maximising reuse and recycling throughout the process, and working with fantastic partners like ReciproCity to ensure surplus furniture went to local charities instead of landfill. This project is about building for the future – creating opportunities, driving social value, and leaving a legacy that benefits the community for generations to come.”
New Anglia University (NAU) has announced a significant expansion to its UK Clinical Rotation Network by partnering with 10 additional NHS hospitals. This initiative provides NAU medical students with enhanced opportunities for real-world clinical training across a broad range of NHS facilities in London, Shropshire, and the West Midlands.
The Newly Partnered NHS Hospitals are institutions that are recognised among the UK’s leading hospitals for clinical excellence, patient care, and specialist training, making them ideal environments for future physicians to develop the skills and confidence required in modern healthcare.
The new partners are: Newham Centre for Mental Health, London, Tower Hamlets Centre for Mental Health, London, City & Hackney Centre for Mental Health, London, The Redwoods Centre, Shrewsbury, Bushey Fields Hospital, Dudley, Dorothy Pattison Hospital, Walsall, Edward Street Hospital, West Bromwich, Hallam Street Hospital, West Bromwich, Penn Hospital, Wolverhampton.
These partnerships offer greater access to UK-based clinical placements, reduce waiting times, and broaden the clinical exposure available to NAU students. Rotations are tailored to reflect NHS systems and standards, enabling students to build relevant experience and develop professional readiness for UK-based careers.
Provost of New Anglia University, Prof. Oleg Kvlividze, MD, PhD, said, “This expansion reinforces New Anglia University’s commitment to forward-thinking medical education. We’re providing our students with real-world NHS exposure, while building partnerships that address both local health needs and global talent shortages.”
A New Pathway for Medicine
For decades, aspiring doctors in the UK have faced a lengthy, expensive, and high-pressure path to becoming a doctor. At top UK medical schools, becoming a doctor typically takes 8 to 14 years, with tuition and accommodation costs approaching £200,000. With rising tuition fees, GP shortages, and student burnout, many are now looking beyond traditional routes.
New Anglia University, located in Anguilla in the Caribbean, offers an innovative, fast-track MD program that’s rapidly becoming a compelling alternative. Students spend just 20 months on campus, followed by UK-based clinical rotations after two years, offering a streamlined and affordable option for a new generation of medical professionals.
“In Anguilla, we’re not just accelerating medical education, we’re redesigning it to focus on wellness, relevance, and real-world experience. Our model empowers students through its alignment with the UK Foundation Programme and postgraduate pathways, as well as mentorship and references from practising NHS physicians. It offers students a new pathway to NHS rotations with a clearer, faster way to achieve their license.”
This expansion is the latest step in NAU’s mission to provide high-quality, internationally aligned medical training while addressing workforce shortages and reshaping the preparation of future doctors.
To learn more about New Anglia University, our MD program, and UK clinical opportunities, please visit www.newanglia.com
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