Professor Jim McManus: Zooming out on prevention

In this episode, we explore prevention in its widest sense — across systems, communities and everyday life.

Professor Jim McManus, National Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health Wales, explains why prevention remains one of the toughest challenges in health and care. He shares how poverty, place and inequality still shape life expectancy in Wales, and why we must shift prevention from a “side programme” to the organising principle of the whole system.

Jim argues that prevention isn’t just about saving lives — it’s about economic productivity, community resilience and human connection. As he puts it: “You can’t compete with China if you can’t get off the sofa.” He highlights what needs to change — from the way we educate children and design services, to how we empower voluntary organisations and digital tools to make healthy choices easier.

This conversation builds on our recent episode with Rachel Hope from NHS England, zooming out from digital prevention to the broader human and economic cycle that keeps people well. Prevention, Jim reminds us, is possible — but only if we design systems around people, not programmes.

Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.