Artificial intelligence is developing at breakneck speed, leaving governments around the world scrambling to respond. For a high-risk area like health care, safe, responsible use will be critical. But pressures on health systems mean governments can ill afford to delay adoption. So what's the right balance? And how can we ensure AI tools work in real-life health care settings and minimise unintended consequences?

Following the 10-Year Health Plan, the government has established a National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare to explore these questions and make recommendations for how regulations need to adapt.

To discuss, our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon is joined by:

• Ricardo Baptista Leite, CEO of Health AI, a Geneva-based nonprofit that promotes equitable access to AI-powered health innovations.
• Alastair Denniston, Professor of Regulatory Science and Innovation at the University of Birmingham.

The National Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare is established to advise the MHRA. It is co-chaired by Alastair Denniston. Ricardo Baptista Leite and Jennifer Dixon are members. Its final report is expected later in 2026.

Show notes

UK government. National AI Commission into the Regulation of AI in Healthcare.

Health Foundation (2025). AI in healthcare – staying ahead of the issues.

Health AI (2026). AI governance in health – Global landscape 2025 report.

Health Foundation (2026). AI in healthcare must earn the public’s confidence.

JAMA (2025). AI, Health, and Health Care Today and Tomorrow: the JAMA Summit Report on Artificial Intelligence.

In 1997, the New Labour government set up the social exclusion unit in the Cabinet Office. It was tasked with tackling what Tony Blair called ‘joined-up problems’ – social challenges like homelessness, school absence and exclusion, drug use and teenage pregnancy, which often have complex and interlocking causes. Analysis suggests many of the initiatives that followed had real positive impacts. So what lessons can be drawn for the considerable challenges we face today?

In conversation with our Chief Executive Jennifer Dixon, Moira Wallace – a former senior civil servant who led the unit – reflects on its work, the approaches it pioneered and how change was delivered on the ground. With near-record numbers of young people not in education, work or training – and public investment constrained – what options are available to the current Labour government? And how could changes to the wiring of government help to tackle this and other social challenges?

Show notes

Wallace M (2023). Trends in adolescent disadvantage: policy and outcomes for young people under Labour, the Coalition, and the Conservatives (1997 to 2019).

Wallace M (2025). Reducing school absence: innovation lessons from the last Labour government.

Health Foundation (2024). Sure Start: a model for long-term policymaking? – with Naomi Eisenstadt and Donna Molloy.

Health Foundation (2025). No child left behind: what the government’s child poverty strategy should aim to deliver.

Health Foundation (2026). Why are a growing number of young people who are NEET reporting work-limiting health conditions?

Resolution Foundation (2025). False starts: what the UK’s growing NEETs problem really looks like, and how to fix it.

Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange and University of Bedfordshire (2025). Teenage pregnancy and young parenthood: successes, challenges and opportunities.

Surveys show rock solid public support for the basic principles of the NHS – universal, free at the point of use and mainly tax funded. Yet given widespread public dissatisfaction with the status quo, and non-traditional challenger parties gaining ground in the polls, can we take consensus on the NHS model for granted?

In our second conversation exploring big trends in UK public opinion, we ask what public mistrust and a desire for change could mean for institutions like the NHS. How are policymakers to respond to the public’s concerns? And what could the rise of Reform UK mean for the NHS and wider health policy?

Our Chief Executive, Jennifer Dixon, is joined by Rachel Wolf, CEO of Public First, a policy and strategy consultancy that researches public attitudes.