Dr Sarah Hughes

Baroness Louise Casey giving one of the best speeches I’ve heard about #SocialCare in a decade! #ntsummitt 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Society Diary interviews... Claire Rowney This month, Civil Society’s fearless interviewer asked Breast Cancer Now’s CEO the important questions...

This month, Society Diary asked @breastcancernow.bsky.social CEO Claire Rowney about fast food jobs, warm weather and biscuits

Mind launches inquiry into AI and mental health after Guardian investigation Exclusive: England and Wales charity to examine safeguards after Guardian exposed ‘very dangerous’ advice on Google AI Overviews

AI offers such amazing opportunities in health and care. But, let’s not pretend it’s the hero of the piece, we need proper guardrails and so @mind.org.uk has entered the chat - we are going hard on the evidence - www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

UK Covid-19 Inquiry This is the independent public inquiry to examine the UK’s preparedness and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and to learn lessons for the future.

Important moment this morning as @mind.org.uk CEO @drsarahhughesceo.bsky.social gives evidence to the Covid-19 Inquiry on the impact of the pandemic on people with mental health problems, mental health services & the mental health of the nation. Watch from 10am here: youtube.com/@ukcovid-19i...

More than a safety net: The welfare state as springboard to economic success and a better country | IPPR It is widely proposed that higher social spending – especially in the form of social security benefits – is damaging to the economy. Yet the evidence prese

Interesting new report from @ipprscotland.bsky.social
Focused on Scotland but relevant across the UK in making the case for social security investment.

1. High social spending is compatible with economic success. Evidence shows European countries with high levels...1/4 www.ippr.org/articles/mor...

🧠 Less Ego, More Beans 🫘 - Leadership 2026 Friends, I’ve had another writing breather.

🔮 If you’re leading right now and feeling tired, conflicted, or quietly furious — you’re not broken.

You’re paying attention. open.substack.com/pub/drsarahh...

🎊 And joy
Not toxic positivity.
Not compulsory fun.

The kind of joy that makes responsibility survivable when the work is heavy and the stakes are real.

🤖 There’s AI in here too — but the boring, useful kind. Less hype. More judgement.
Technology as infrastructure, not salvation.

😬 I also name things we might want to see less of:
– Moral injury becoming normalised
– Fear-led decisions
– Misinformation smog
– The bean soup distraction economy (you’ll recognise it)

🤝 I write about why coalition leadership is outperforming lone heroes.

Why discernment beats certainty in a BANI world.

Why storytelling matters — and when it tips into narrative laundering.

🫘 The blog is called Less Ego, More Beans — which is both a joke and a warning.

This isn’t about predictions. It’s about what’s emerging and what’s fading.

🌍 Leadership in 2026 is happening in conditions of strain, noise and polycrisis. It’s not dramatic to say this is the operating environment for most.

Some practices are helping people lead well. Others are quietly rotting judgement, courage and collective capacity.

🖋️ I’ve finally published a piece I’ve been circling for a while. Partly because time. Partly because grief + menopause is… a leadership context.
And partly because writing about leadership right now requires sitting with discomfort, not rushing to certainty.

What’s missing isn’t capability.

It’s will.

#OnlineSafety #MentalHealth #ChildrensSafety #TechAccountability

We can’t keep pretending this is too complex.

The hard truth is the tech to reduce harm already exists.

And how are we supporting young people to become good digital citizens — building online communities that are safer, kinder and more resilient?

Where are the real consequences for people who cause harm online?

Abuse, grooming and harassment aren’t inevitable — they’re enabled.

We should be asking tougher questions:

How are we holding social media companies to account to improve their technology?

But it can also provide connection, identity and peer support.

A blunt ban ignores that complexity — and risks cutting off support as well as harm.

From a mental health perspective, this matters.

Social media can worsen anxiety, depression, self-harm and body image distress — especially for vulnerable young people.

Yet safeguards remain inconsistent.
Reporting tools are unreliable.
Algorithms continue to amplify risky content because it drives engagement.

That’s a choice, not a mystery.

The NSPCC has been clear on this. Platforms already know how abuse, grooming and exploitation spread online.

Much of the most serious harm to children is caused by adults, not other young people.

Harm online isn’t primarily about age.
It’s about platform design, weak accountability, and a lack of consequences.

I don’t think a blanket ban on social media for under-16s will crack the harm.

It may sound decisive, and it might make adults feel better, but it dodges the real issue.

Remember, healing is not linear 🩵

What’s one small win you’ve had recently, despite the ups and downs?

I realise now that my view on mental health overdiagnosis was divisive. We all need better evidence | Wes Streeting The surge in mental ill health is hugely distressing. That’s why I’ve commissioned a review to find out what’s driving it, says health secretary Wes Streeting

This is a welcome & reflective intervention. 'Overdiagnosis' is a simplistic & stigmatising explanation for what, in reality, is a complex interplay of health, social & economic factors. The focus should be on getting people the right support at the right time www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Streeting orders review into mental health and ADHD diagnosis - BBC News The health secretary said the aim was to tackle a rising demand for services and the increased pressure on the NHS.

Confusion thrives in the gaps. Resistance thrives in the silence.
A government-backed review can close both.

For communities across the UK, that clarity is long overdue. www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc....

We already know the answers. What we haven’t had is political will. That’s why I’m supporting this review — not to diagnose again, but to force action at scale.

And it can silence those who still deny the scale of demand or blame individuals instead of environments.

This review can finally end the myth that services simply need to “work smarter.”
It can set out what’s actually required: workforce, prevention, community infrastructure, trauma-informed care.