scholarly journals The Coronavirus Pandemic, Exams Crisis and Classics in Scottish Schools

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (42) ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Alex Imrie
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Education System ◽  
System A ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Prior Achievement ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

On 19th March 2020, the Deputy First Minister of Scotland and Cabinet Secretary for Education John Swinney reported to the Scottish Parliament that, in light of the global coronavirus pandemic, schools across Scotland would close from 20th March, mirroring the policy of the UK government announced by the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson the previous day. As part of this closure, Swinney announced that there would be no examinations set for the 2019-20 session, and that the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) would instead enact a certification model employing coursework, teacher estimates of grades and evidence of prior achievement. In outlining the Scottish Government's plan to Holyrood, the Deputy First Minister declared: ‘It is a measure of the gravity of the challenge we now face that the exams will not go ahead this year. With the support of the wider education system, a credible certification model can be put in place that can command confidence in the absence of the exam diet – to ensure that young people in our schools and colleges who through no fault of their own are unable to sit exams, are not disadvantaged.’ (Scottish Government, 2020).

Peeble them wi’ stanes: Twenty years of the Scottish Parliament

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
David McCrone
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Social Attitudes ◽  
Demographic Characteristics ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
First Session

Twenty years of the Scottish Parliament requires assessment of its impact. What do people in Scotland think of it so far? Has it fulfilled their expectations and needs? This article focuses on evidence from Scottish Social Attitudes surveys over the period, and in particular how the performances of Scottish Government vis-à-vis UK Government are judged by public opinion. To what extent has the devolution conundrum, identified in the first session of the parliament, namely, that the Scottish tier of government gets the credit for any successes, and the UK government the blame for failures been reversed? How do people rate the respective tiers of government In terms of willingness to listen, and trust in governments to work in Scotland's long-term interests and judgements about fairness? How are these differences best explained in terms of people's social and demographic characteristics as well as their political and constitutional views? The article concludes that Scottish Government has maintained early expectations, and established itself as the premier tier of government despite its constitutional position as a devolved institution. It has become, in the eyes of people in Scotland, the main framework through which politics and policy-making in Scotland are carried out.

scholarly journals The Liminal Leisure of Disadvantaged Young People in the UK Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas Woodrow ◽  
Karenza Moore
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Young People ◽  
Urban Youth ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Virtual Spaces ◽  
Khat Chewing ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

AbstractThe global COVID-19 pandemic has created, exposed and exacerbated inequalities and differences around access to—and experiences and representations of—the physical and virtual spaces of young people’s leisure cultures and practices. Drawing on longstanding themes of continuity and change in youth leisure scholarship, this paper contributes to our understandings of ‘liminal leisure’ as experienced by some young people in the UK before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do this, we place primary pre-pandemic research on disadvantaged young people’s leisure spaces and practices in dialogue with secondary data on lockdown and post-lockdown leisure. Subsequently, we argue that existing and emergent forms of youth ‘leisure liminality’ are best understood through the lens of intersectional disadvantages. Specifically, pre-existing intersectional disadvantages are being compounded by disruptions to youth leisure, as the upheaval of the pandemic continues to be differentially experienced. To understand this process, we deploy the concept of liminal leisure spaces used by Swaine et al Leisure Studies 37:4,440-451, (2018) in their ethnography of Khat-chewing among young British Somali urban youth ‘on the margins’. Similarly, our focus is on young people’s management and negotiation of substance use ‘risks’, harms and pleasures when in ‘private-in-public’ leisure spaces. We note that the UK government responses to the pandemic, such as national and regional lockdowns, meant that the leisure liminality of disadvantaged young people pre-pandemic became the experience of young people more generally, with for example the closure of night-time economies (NTEs). Yet despite some temporary convergence, intersectionally disadvantaged young people ‘at leisure’ have been subject to a particularly problematic confluence of criminalisation, exclusion and stigmatisation in COVID-19 times, which will most likely continue into the post-pandemic future.

scholarly journals Children and Young People's Improving Access to Psychological Therapies: inspiring innovation or more of the same?

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 57-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sami Timimi
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Services ◽  
Young People ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Psychological Therapies ◽  
Common Mental Health Problems ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

SummaryIn 2007 the UK Government announced a substantial expansion of funding for psychological therapies for those presenting with common mental health problems. This ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) project was widely welcomed, however, evidence backed, economic, and conceptual critiques were voiced from the start and the project remains controversial. In 2011, the UK government announced it was extending the IAPT project to encompass services for children and young people with the aim of ‘transforming’ the way mental health services are delivered to them. Here I critically reflect on the problems associated first with IAPT and then with CYP-IAPT and ponder whether CYP-IAPT is significantly different to the problematic adult IAPT project or more of the same.

scholarly journals Religion, Identity and Radicalisation

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Imran Awan
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Counter Terrorism ◽  
Current Rise ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
British Muslims ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

The current rise in the numbers of young British Muslims travelling from the UK to Syria has raised a number of questions about the UK Government’s counter-terrorism strategy and policy. Within the current discourse on radicalisation and Syria, listening to the voices of young British Muslims is crucial, if the UK Government, the police and other key stakeholders are serious about preventing the escalation of young people going out to fight in Syria. This article makes an important contribution to helping us better understand young British Muslims’ perceptions of the crisis in Syria and offers policy makers some thoughts on how best to engage young people in the debate on Syria without demonising them or stereotyping them as ‘suspects’.

Future of European fracking hinges on English projects

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Scottish Parliament ◽  
Energy Needs ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu ◽  
Exploration And Development

Subject Shale gas in Europe. Significance Companies in England are preparing to recommence fracking at several sites with the enthusiastic support of the UK government. However, the Scottish Parliament on October 24 voted to ban fracking, underpinning the opposition to the exploration and development of shale gas in Europe. Impacts The Scottish government’s decision may damage its relationship with some of the country’s few remaining industrial players, notably INEOS. Even if English projects are successful, it will take years for the industry to make a significant contribution to UK energy needs. The EU could take greater responsibility for regulating shale gas development after Brexit.

scholarly journals Contesting the austerity and “welfare reform” narrative of the UK Government

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 639-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Wiggan
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Welfare Reform ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk

Purpose The “welfare reform” narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Government emphasises public spending reductions, individual responsibility and strengthening of benefit conditionality. The purpose of this paper is to cast light on how this narrative is challenged and disrupted by the Scottish Government through their articulation of a social democratic welfare state imaginary. Design/methodology/approach The study draws together a decentred governance perspective that emphasises ideational tradition for understanding (re)construction of governance (Bevir, 2013, p. 27) with critical discourse analysis to examine how welfare interpretations/representations are carried into the policy and public arena. The Scottish Government documents are deconstructed to interrogate the ideas and form of their emergent discourse and its relation to the independence referendum and welfare governance reform. Findings Responding to changing socio-economic contexts and welfare governance, the Scottish Government has developed a discourse of modernisation rooted in British and Scandinavian social democratic traditions. Fusing (civic) nationalism with social wage and social investment concepts, they conjure up imaginaries of a prosperous, solidaristic, egalitarian welfare state as a feasible future reality, recuperating “welfare” as a collective endeavour and positioning a maldistribution of power/resources between groups and constituent countries of the UK as the “problem”. Originality/value The paper is of value to those interested in how changes to centralised-hierarchical welfare governance can open new spaces for actors at different levels of government to articulate counter-hegemonic discourses and practices. Its originality lies in the analysis of how the Scottish Government has reworked social democratic traditions to weave together a welfare imaginary that directly contests the problem-solution narrative of successive Conservative-led UK Governments.

scholarly journals Adolescent Consent and Confi dentiality in the UK

2009 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Cave
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Privacy Rights ◽  
Secretary Of State ◽  
Disclosure Of Information ◽  
Consent To Treatment ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Competence Test

AbstractIn R (Axon) v Secretary of State for Health the Gillick competence test was confirmed. Commitment to childhood autonomy and privacy rights caused renewed academic criticism of the 'refusal' cases. This paper considers the form any changes to the law may take, and the potential consequences for the rights of parents and young people. Silber J.'s contention that parental Article 8 rights cease when the child makes a competent decision is potentially problematic if applied to refusal cases, especially in the context of the distinction between competence to consent to treatment and to the disclosure of information.

scholarly journals Reenvisioning Welsh Postcompulsory Education

2018 ◽  
pp. 22
Author(s):  
Ellen Hazelkorn
Keyword(s):  
Adult Learning ◽  
Education System ◽  
Market Demand ◽  
Regulatory Oversight ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

In 2015, the Welsh government commissioned a review of its postcompulsory education system. Recommendations included the creation of a single regulatory, oversight, and coordinating authority bringing together further, higher, and adult learning. By its swift endorsement of the report’s principles and recommendations, the Welsh government conspicuously diverged from the market–demand drivenapproach adopted by the UK government for England.

Brexit and the Scottish Question

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sionaidh Douglas-Scott
Keyword(s):  
Single Market ◽  
Scant Attention ◽  
Constitutional Conventions ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
Scottish Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Eu

The chapter examines Brexit and the Scottish question, arguing that the UK secession from the EU may be the trigger for Scotland’s secession from the UK. While Scottish voters had by majority rejected independence in a referendum in 2014, they voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU during the Brexit referendum. At the same time, as Douglas-Scott explains, efforts by the Scottish government after the Brexit referendum to obtain a special deal to remain within the EU single market have received only scant attention from the UK government. Moreover, new tensions are likely to emerge between Holyrood and Westminster in the implementation of the UK government. EU Withdrawal Bill. Although pursuant to the Sewel Convention Scotland should be consulted on any UK primary Legislation relating to its devolved powers, the UK government does not seem sensitive to the issue—not least because the UKSC in Miller classified constitutional conventions as non-enforceable norms. Given the unsuccessful exhaustion of all these alternative roads to protect Scotland’s interest, the prospect of a new independence referendum gains credibility.

scholarly journals Alcohol misuse among young people

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Skuse
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Medical Association ◽  
Alcohol Misuse ◽  
Antisocial Behaviour ◽  
British Medical Association ◽  
The Other ◽  
Health Consequences ◽  
Considerable Controversy ◽  
Uk Government ◽  
The Uk

Recently, the UK government expressed concern about the rising tide of antisocial behaviour among young people who, in certain areas of the country, were habitually engaging in acts of minor delinquency – often fuelled by drink. On the other hand, legislation was introduced to make it legal for premises that sell alcohol to remain open longer, up to 24 hours a day. This latter arrangement has courted considerable controversy. For example, the British Medical Association commented that any extension to licensing hours requires a programme of research, after its introduction, to look at its health consequences - both acute and chronic.

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