scholarly journals COVID-19 in aged care homes: a comparison of effects initial government policies had in the UK (primarily focussing on England) and Australia during the first wave

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kam Yin Chan ◽  
Mary-Louise Mclaws ◽  
Duncan Ronald Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Aged Care ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lower Priority ◽  
High Death ◽  
Viral Testing ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact globally, with older people living in aged care homes suffering high death rates. Objectives We aimed to compare the impact of initial government policies on this vulnerable older population between the UK and Australia during the first wave of attack. Methods We searched websites of governments in the UK and Australia and media outlets. We examined the key policies including the national lockdown dates and the distribution of some important resources (personal protective equipment and testing) and the effects of these initial policies on the mortality rates in the aged care homes during the first wave of attack of COVID-19. Results We found that both countries had prioritized resources to hospitals over aged care homes during the first wave of attack. Both countries had lower priority for aged care residents in hospitals (e.g. discharging without testing for COVID-19 or discouraging admissions). However, deaths in aged care homes were 270 times higher in the UK than in Australia as on 7 May 2020 (despite UK having a population only 2.5 times larger than Australia). The lower fatality rate in Australia may have been due to the earlier lockdown strategy when the total daily cases were low in Australia (118) compared to the UK (over 1000), as well as the better community viral testing regime in Australia. Conclusion In conclusion, the public health policy in Australia aimed towards earlier intervention with earlier national lockdown and more viral testing to prevent new cases. This primary prevention could have resulted in more lives being saved. In contrast, the initial policy in the UK focussed mainly on protecting resources for hospitals, and there was a delay in national lockdown intervention and lower viral testing rate, resulting in more lives lost in the aged care sector.

The story of an emerging crisis: the impact of COVID-19 on care home residents with dementia in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 709-715
Author(s):  
Emily Cousins ◽  
Kay de Vries ◽  
Karen Harrison Dening
Keyword(s):  
Care Home ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Government Accountability ◽  
People With Dementia ◽  
High Death ◽  
The Media ◽  
Care Practices ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Bear Witness

The impact of COVID-19 in UK care homes has been significant ‐ for staff, residents and people with dementia. Given the rapidly changing circumstances, the media (limitations notwithstanding) have reported vital insights from the front line. A qualitative analysis of news articles across three time points reveals the story of an emerging crisis in UK care homes, beginning with a sole focus on hospital care and resulting in tragically high death rates. This public-facing narrative has potential to: advocate for increased resources in care homes; drive government accountability; highlight improvements for care practices; and bear witness to the experiences of a vulnerable population.

scholarly journals The Living Wage: An Economic Geography Based Explanation for a Policy for Equality

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 589-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo J. Morelli ◽  
Paul T. Seaman
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Living Wage ◽  
Labour Force Survey ◽  
The Public ◽  
Household Inequality ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Wage Demand ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Low Pay

This article examines the theoretical underpinning of living wage campaigns. The article uses evidence, derived from the UK Quarterly Labour Force Survey from 2005 to 2008, to examine the extent to which a living wage will address low pay within the labour force. We highlight the greater incidence of low pay within the private sector and then focus upon the public sector where the living wage demand has had most impact. The article builds upon the results from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey with analysis of the British Household Panel Survey in 2007 in order to examine the impact that the introduction of a living wage, within the public sector, would have in reducing household inequality.

scholarly journals Social Impact Archaeology: Pontefract Castle and the Gatehouse Project

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendon Wilkins
Keyword(s):  
Social Impact ◽  
Social Values ◽  
Theory Of Change ◽  
The Public ◽  
Evidence Framework ◽  
Standards Of Evidence ◽  
Professional Field ◽  
Collaborative Platform ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact

Archaeology is said to add value to development, creating a deeper sense of place, community identity as well as improving health and wellbeing. Accentuating these wider social values has been welcomed by a profession keen to broaden its public relevance and legitimacy and protect its seat at the table in modern cultural life, but how much, if at all, do the public actually benefit from developer-led archaeology? Benefits to individuals and communities from archaeology projects are often abstract, intangible and difficult to attribute, and the discipline arguably lacks a satisfactory frame of reference around which it can express and design for these additional social values. Drawing on the language of social impact investing, this article will explore how the UK-based collaborative platform, DigVentures, has addressed this challenge. It introduces a 'Theory of Change' and 'Standards of Evidence' framework to account for the impact of development-led archaeology programmes, illustrating the causal links between activity and change through the case of the Pontefract Castle Gatehouse Project. It is complemented by a short documentary film exploring the spectrum of digital and physical opportunities for participation by the public alongside a team of highly experienced professional field archaeologists, demonstrating how development-led archaeology can be designed to accomplish far more than answer a planning brief.

Comparative Study Illustrating Difficulties Educating the Public to Respond to Chemical Terrorism

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hildebrand ◽  
Anthony Bleetman
Keyword(s):  
Personal Protective Equipment ◽  
Emergency Services ◽  
Protective Equipment ◽  
Similar Response ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Chemical Attack ◽  
Chemical Release ◽  
Chemical Terrorism ◽  
The Uk

AbstractBackground:In recent years, the perceived threat of chemical terrorism has increased. It is hoped that teaching civilians how to behave during a chemical incident will decrease the number of “worried well” patients at hospitals, reduce secondary contamination, and increase compliance with the instructions of emergency services. The governments of the United Kingdom and Israel sent booklets to every household in their respective countries. In Israel, the civilian population was issued chemical personal protective equipment (chemical personal protective equipment).Methods:The effectiveness of these public education programs was assessed using a scenario-based questionnaire that was distributed to 100 respondents in Birmingham, UK and Jerusalem, Israel. Respondents were asked how they would behave in three deliberate chemical release scenarios and how they would seek information and help.Results:Only 33% of the UK respondents and 22% of the Israeli respondents recalled reading the government booklets. When asked what they would do after being contaminated in a deliberate release, approximately half of the respondents ranked seeking medical care at a hospital as the most appropriate action.The preferred sources of information in the wake of a chemical strike were (in descending order): radio, television, and the Internet. Approximately half of the respondents would call emergency services for information. Forty-one percent of the UK respondents and 33% of Israeli respondents stated that they either would call or go to the nearest hospital to seek information.Conclusions:The public information campaigns in both countries have had a limited impact. Many citizens claimed they would self-present to the nearest hospital following a chemical attack rather than waiting for the emergency services. A similar response was witnessed in the Sarin attacks in Tokyo and the 1991 Scud missile attacks in Israel.Current UK doctrine mandates that specialist decontamination teams be deployed to the scene of a chemical release. However, this takes >1 hour, and it requires at least 30 minutes to don hospital chemical personal protective equipment. Therefore, it is imperative that hospitals are equipped to cope with unannounced self-presenters after a chemical attack. This requires chemical personal protective equipment and protocols that are easier to use.

Economic policy uncertainty and fine wine prices

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-476
Author(s):  
Nithya Shankar ◽  
Bill Francis
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Information Criterion ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Time Lags ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Wine Markets

Purpose The paper aims to investigate the impact of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) (i.e. uncertainty due to government policies) on fine wine prices. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses the Baker et al. (2016) monthly news-based measure of EPU for the leading wine markets: the USA, the UK, France, Germany and China in conjunction with monthly fine wine pricing data from the London International Vintners Exchange (Liv-ex). The wine sub-indices used are the Liv-ex 500 (Bordeaux), Burgundy 150, Champagne 50, Rhone 100, Italy 100, California 50, Port 50 and Rest of the World 50. The Prais–Winsten and Cochrane–Orcutt regressions are used for our analyses to correct for effects of serial correlation. Time lags are chosen based on the appropriate information criterion. Findings Changes in EPU levels negatively impact changes in the Liv-ex 500 index for all our leading wine markets except France, the Champagne 50 index for the UK and the Burgundy 150 and the Rhone 100 indices for Germany, with the effects being significant for at least up to a quarter before EPU is detected. The authors did not find significant results for the EPU of France. Practical implications The paper aims to provide insights into whether EPU creates opportunities or threats for investors and wineries. Originality/value A forward-looking news-based EPU measure is used to gain insights into how the different Liv-ex sub-indices react to increases in uncertainty centered around government policies across a sample of different countries.

The control and ‘fitness for purpose’ of UK official statistics

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
David Rhind
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Official Statistics ◽  
Politics And Government ◽  
The Public ◽  
Economic Statistics ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Government Statistics ◽  
The Impact

This chapter describes the evolution of UK Official Statistics over an 80 year period under the influence of personalities, politics and government policies, new user needs and changing technology. These have led to changing institutional structures – such as the Statistics Commission - and periodic oscillations in what statistics are created and the ease of their accessibility by the public. The chapter concludes with the impact of the first major statistical legislation for 60 years, particularly as a consequence of its creation of the UK Statistics Authority. This has included major investment in quality assurance of National and Official Statistics and in professional resourcing. These changes are very welcome, as is the statutory specification of government statistics as a public good by the 2007 Statistics and Registration Service Act. But problems of access to some data sets and the pre-release of key economic statistics to selected groups of users remain. Given the widespread societal consequences of the advent of new technologies, what we collect and how we do it will inevitably continue to change rapidly.

scholarly journals Personalisation schemes in social care and inequality: review of the evidence and early theorising

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gemma Carey ◽  
Brad Crammond ◽  
Eleanor Malbon
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Social Inequalities ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Aged Care ◽  
Service Market ◽  
Policy Paradigm ◽  
Improved Outcomes ◽  
The Uk ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Personalisation is a growing international policy paradigm that aims to create both improved outcomes for individuals, and reduce fiscal pressures on government, by giving greater choice and control to citizens accessing social services. In personalisation schemes, individuals purchase services from a ‘service market’ using individual budgets or vouchers given to them by governments. Personalisation schemes have grown in areas such as disability and aged care across Europe, the UK and Australia. There is a wealth of evidence in public health and health care that demonstrates that practically all forms of social services, programs and interventions produce unequal benefit depending on socio-economic position. Research has found that skills required to successfully negotiate service systems leads to disproportionate benefit to the ‘middle class. With an unprecedented emphasis on individual skills, personalisation has even greater potential to widen and entrench social inequalities. Despite the increase in numbers of people now accessing services through such schemes, there has been no examination of how different social groups benefit from these schemes, how this widens and entrenches social inequities, and – in turn – what can be done to mitigate this. Methods This article presents a meta-review of the evidence on personalisation and inequality. A qualitative meta-analysis was undertaking of existing research into personalisation schemes in social services to identify whether and how such schemes are impacting different socio-economic groups. Results No research was identified which seeks to understand the impact of personalisation schemes on inequality. However, a number of ‘proxies’ for social class were identified, such as education, income, and employment, which had a bearing on outcome. We provide a theoretical framework for understanding why this is occurring, using concepts drawn from Bourdieu. Conclusion Personalisation schemes are likely to be entrenching, and potentially expanding, social inequalities. More attention needs to be given to this aspect of personal budgets by policymakers and researchers.

Measuring the Macroeconomic Effects of Reducing Benefit Dependency

2003 ◽  
Vol 186 ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Simon Kirby ◽  
Rebecca Riley ◽  
Desirée van Welsum
Keyword(s):  
Model Simulation ◽  
Income Support ◽  
Disability Benefits ◽  
The Public ◽  
Lone Parents ◽  
Macroeconomic Impact ◽  
Macroeconomic Effects ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Social Security Benefits ◽  
The Impact

We construct a framework for evaluating the macroeconomic impact on the UK economy of policies that are aimed at reducing the number of people receiving social security benefits by helping them into employment. By means of model simulation we evaluate the gains to the economy in terms of output, employment and improvements to the public finances of a policy that reduces the number of people claiming disability benefits or lone parents on Income Support by 5 per cent. These gains can be regarded as significant and have to be offset against the costs of the policy. We conclude that it is possible to evaluate the impact of policies to enable benefit claimants to find work using a macroeconomic model, and that such an evaluation should be included in each assessment of policy change.

Back to basics: fighting fraud and austerity

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-227
Author(s):  
Kwabena Frimpong
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Financial Crime ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Reference Guide ◽  
Secondary Sources ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Resource Capacity

Purpose – This article aims to focus on the impact of the current austerity measures on UK public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity building initiative developed over the years to tackle fraud against the public purse. Design/methodology/approach – The article draws on secondary sources of data and available literature on fraud and financial crime. Findings – Fraud is a challenge in the UK public sector but the cut-back on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resources, given the scale of public sector fraud, the growing emphasis on accountability and the time of austerity with public money more exposed to fraud is arguably a back-door/u-turn policy on zero-tolerance approach in tackling public sector fraud and financial crime. There is the potential of this encouraging more fraud and financial crime against the public sector in the long term if measures are not taken to devise strategies for enhancing anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity. Research limitations/implications – The research implication for this article is that it opens an avenue for future studies to examine post austerity strategies for strengthening public sector anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource strategies to deal with emerging fraud threats to UK public sector. Practical implications – This article acts as a reference guide for policymakers to reflect on the long-term adverse impact of the austerity on anti-fraud and financial crime investigative resource capacity and capability in tackling fraud public sector fraud. Originality/value – The paper attempts to present an alternative lens to examining the scale of UK public sector fraud problem rather than relying on headline story of declining fraud in UK.

scholarly journals The Study of Religion in the UK in its Institutional Context

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-57
Author(s):  
Kim Knott
Keyword(s):  
Public Funding ◽  
Subject Area ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
The Public ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract How has the study of religion in the UK been shaped by its institutional contexts? Consideration is given to the Christian and secular foundations of universities and higher education colleges, the relationship of theology and religious studies, and the impact of institutional structures and drivers associated with teaching and research. The formation of ‘TRS’ as an instrumental and contested subject area is discussed, as is the changing curriculum. Research on religion is examined in relation to new institutional pressures and opportunities: the assessment of university research and the public funding of research. The importance of the impact agenda and capacity building are illustrated.

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