COVID-19 personal protective behaviors during mass events: Lessons from observational measures in Wales, UK.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Gould ◽  
Lesley Lewis ◽  
Lowri Evans ◽  
Leanne Greening ◽  
Holly Howe-Davies ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Protective Behaviors ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Observational Measures ◽  
Behavioral Observations ◽  
The Government ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Trained Observers ◽  
Personal Protective Behaviors

Within the context of reopening society in the summer of 2021, as the UK moved away from ’lockdown,’ the Government of Wales piloted the return on organised ‘mass gatherings’ of people at a number of test events. Behavioral observations were made at two of the test events to support this process. The research was particularly interested in four key factors: How (1) context within a venue, (2) environmental design, (3) staffing and social norms, and (4) time across an event, affected personal protective behaviors of social distancing, face covering use, and hand hygiene. Data collection was undertaken by trained observers across the above factors. Findings suggest that adherence of attendees was generally high, but with clear indications that levels were shaped in a systematic way by the environment, situational cues, and the passage of time during the events. Some instances of large-scale non-adherence to personal protective behaviors were documented. Overall, there were three main situations where behavioral adherence broke down, under conditions where: (1) staff were not present; (2) there was a lack of environmental signalling (including physical interventions or communications); and (3) later into the events when circumstances were less constrained and individuals appeared less cognitively vigilant. Behavioral observations at events can add precision and identify critical risk situations where/when extra effort is required. The findings suggest a liberal paternal approach whereby state authorities, health authorities and other key organisations can help nudge individuals towards COVID-safe behaviors. Finally, an individual’s intentions are not always matched by their actions, and so behavioral insights can help identify situations and contexts where people are most likely to require additional support to ensure COVID-19 personal protective behaviors are followed and hence protecting themselves and others.

UK Fiscal Prospects

2010 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. F66-F70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ray Barrell ◽  
Simon Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Budget Process ◽  
Spare Capacity ◽  
Intention To Move ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The UK is restructuring the fiscal policy framework once again, with an intention to move toward independent assessment and forecasting in the budget process. At the same time a large-scale, if delayed, fiscal consolidation is planned at a time when there is significant spare capacity in the economy. Economic growth is also projected to be below trend, at least this year and perhaps next. It is unusual to see a fiscal tightening when the output gap appears to be widening. These policy settings should be seen in the context of the most radical change in the nature of the relationship between the government and the economy for at least thirty years. This note assesses the impact of the new programme on the economy as well as setting out a projection for the medium-term public finances.

scholarly journals Year 10 and 12 school students' opinions on returning to partial schooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: an action research prospective survey

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freya Ffion Semple ◽  
Deborah Mayne-Semple
Keyword(s):  
School Environment ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
School Students ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Prospective Survey ◽  
The Government ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Structured Questionnaire

ObjectiveEducational provision changed during the lockdown period of the COVID-19 outbreak in the UK (20th March to 31st May 2020) with schooling moving online. The Prime Minister announced a timetable for partial reopening of school on 10th May. With the return to partial schooling imminent, the views of year 10 and year 12 students were surveyed.Design Cross-sectional web-based survey disseminated via closed social media fora.Setting A structured questionnaire hosted on Google Forms™ and disseminated via two Facebook™ fora in the week prior to the original stated date of return to partial schooling for year 10 and year 12 students (20th to 27th May 2020).Participants United Kingdom school students in year 10 (age 14 to 15 years old) and year 12 (age 16 to 17 years old).Main outcome measures Views of year 10 and year 12 students on returning to schools with a focus on their opinions on government guidance, impact on their future, and how remote learning has impacted on their education.Results 1534 students (yr10 n= 1007 66%, yr12 n=527 34%) completed the questionnaire.Students were equally divided in opinion with 781 (51%) preferring to return to partial schooling with limited educational contact and 753 (49%) preferring to remain isolated at home with remote schooling, when an unsure option was removed.A majority (73%, n=1111) of students feel unsafe or unsure that Government guidelines will be enough to protect them from COVID-19 in a school environment. 79% (n=1205) of students felt that COVID-19 has impacted on their future. 15% (n=231) of students said they have had no additional support or guidance from their school during remote learning.ConclusionsYear 10 and 12 school students were divided equally in their preferences about returning to partial school. Exploration of their uncertainty by thematic analysis revealed the source to be anxieties around safety. Students feel they are being put at risk and because guidelines will be impossible to enforce in a school environment. Some students recognised a need to return to education despite this perceived risk. An inequity in the standard of education was identified with 15% (n=231) of students reporting that they did not receive any support during the 87 days of lock down. School students expressed desire that their concerns be heard by the Government. Better consideration needs to be taken of the concerns of these year groups in the future.

The important point here is that no act of fertilisation is involved and it is on this point that the arguments were made. The original Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 was amended in 2000 so that cloned embryos were covered, but the definition of an embryo, that is a fertilised egg, was not altered. Since a cloned embryo has not undergone fertilisation it is not in fact covered by the Act. So although a contradiction in terms, for the purpose of the law a cloned embryo is not an embryo. The outcome of this was that the High Court decided that the licensing arrangements for embryo cloning did not hold for implantation of cloned embryos. All of a sudden it became apparent that producing an infant from a cloned adult cell was not ruled out. This legislative anomaly was that it should never have been exposed by a court ruling; it should have been dealt with by Parliament long ago. When Dolly the sheep was born in 1997 it was immediately obvious that sex may not be the only way to produce new offspring. In the US, the government quickly took this on board and revised its own definition of an embryo. In the UK, the committee of MPs dealing with science and technology warned the government of the potential problems this definition of an embryo might cause. On Friday, 18 January 2002, the Master of Rolls, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, sitting with two other judges, said that an embryo created by cloning did fall within the legal definition of an embryo, even though no fertilisation had taken place. This finally brought human cloning in the UK for medical research into the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990. Whether you agree or disagree with the principles involved there are many questions which are raised. Broadly speaking, there are two types of cloning in use here. One is cloning fertilised embryo cells and the other is cloning of other cells. But what is the difference? If nature can, and does, produce complete individuals from a single cell, then at what point do we say that cloning a cell is tantamount to usurping the position of nature. But it is the very nature of human curiosity to try to understand the world about us, including how it is that we cannot artificially create a viable organism. Put bluntly, if it happens in nature, why can’t we do it? This debate is complicated because identical twins can be seen as clones of each other. Although semantic debates in themselves can be interesting it would at this stage be worth considering what we mean by ‘clone’ and why it results in some very specific grammar. A clone is any group of cells, which includes a complete organism, which derives from a single progenitor cell. So Dolly the sheep is a clone of her mother, cloned from a cell of her mother. Identical twins are clones of each other from an original ovum. So not only do we clone by accident, in the case of identical twins, but for at least the last half century we have been cloning human cells deliberately and this deliberate cloning has been done in the quest for methods of prenatal diagnostics. When foetal cells are removed so that they can be tested for large scale genetic defects, such as Down’s syndrome and other conditions not compatible with life, the cells are routinely grown before the testing is carried out. Each group of cells is a clone of the first one which started dividing, each clone has the entire genetic content of the foetus from which it originated, but no one would suggest that there is sentience or soul present. Many of the samples of cloned cells are then frozen

2013 ◽  
pp. 111-111
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Identical Twins ◽  
Human Fertilisation ◽  
Embryo Cells ◽  
Adult Cell ◽  
A Cell ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
The Uk

Post-Brexit views of European Union doctors on their future in the NHS: a qualitative study

BMJ Leader ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Chick ◽  
Mark Exworthy
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Working Conditions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
European Economic Area ◽  
Economic Area ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Medical Qualification

Background/aimFollowing large-scale surveys suggesting that large proportions of European doctors are considering leaving the National Health Service (NHS) following the Brexit referendum, this was the first qualitative study assessing if, and how, Brexit has affected European Union (EU) doctors’ views of working in the NHS and their future intentions.MethodsData were collected from 17 semistructured, qualitative interviews with doctors working at two NHS England trusts, who either had citizenship or had received their primary medical qualification from a member state of the European Economic Area. Transcripts from the interviews were then subjected to thematic content analysis.ResultsDespite the majority of EU doctors believing that Brexit would not affect their jobs or rights in the UK, for many the referendum itself and its political handling had made them feel unwanted, undervalued and uncertain about their futures in the NHS. Most doctors intended to remain working in the UK; however, for several interviewees, this, along with fears regarding their future working conditions, had led to them considering leaving the NHS.ConclusionsSome European doctors are now considering leaving the NHS following the Brexit referendum, and their retention will be partly dependent on whether the government and the NHS can persuade them that they are both wanted and valued in the UK, and that their future working conditions will not be significantly affected.

scholarly journals Child Support and the Government’s Children’s Socio-economic Rights Obligations

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 860-893
Author(s):  
Lara Walker
Keyword(s):  
Child Support ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Legal Responsibility ◽  
Economic Rights ◽  
Law And Policy ◽  
The Government ◽  
Additional Support ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Bare Minimum

Abstract This article argues that the recovery of child support is a vital aspect of ensuring children’s socio-economic rights. The UK Government has a legal responsibility to assist parents to meet the needs of their children, whether by providing specialist support or through welfare payments. The Government cannot fulfil this responsibility by requiring parents to reach private agreements and failing to provide suitable additional support. The current law and policy focus purely on the duty to maintain. It is assumed that each parent has the responsibility to provide for their children, and there is no back up support under the Child Support Act where the parents are unable to do this. This fails to acknowledge and resolve wider social issues which are crucial to ensuring that child support is received, and children are not living in unnecessary poverty. The article argues that by taking this approach the Government is failing to fulfil its responsibility to protect children’s socio-economic rights. This article sets out a socio-economic rights framework for amending child support legislation and policy, highlighting the bare minimum Government obligations.

Land Use Change and Commodity Frontiers

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel M. Cáceres ◽  
Esteban Tapella ◽  
Diego A. Cabrol ◽  
Lucrecia Estigarribia
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Goods And Services ◽  
Fast Pace ◽  
Forest Use ◽  
The Government ◽  
Social Environmental ◽  
Management Recommendations

Argentina is experiencing an expansion of soya and maize cultivation that is pushing the agricultural frontier over areas formerly occupied by native Chaco forest. Subsistance farmers use this dry forest to raise goats and cattle and to obtain a broad range of goods and services. Thus, two very different and non-compatible land uses are in dispute. On the one hand subsistance farmers fostering an extensive and diversified forest use, on the other hand, large-scale producers who need to clear out the forest to sow annual crops in order to appropriate soil fertility. First, the paper looks at how these social actors perceive Chaco forest, what their interests are, and what kind of values they attach to it. Second, we analyze the social-environmental conflicts that arise among actors in order to appropriate forest’s benefits. Special attention is paid to the role played by the government in relation to: (a) how does it respond to the demands of the different sectors; and (b) how it deals with the management recommendations produced by scientists carrying out social and ecological research. To put these ideas at test we focus on a case study located in Western Córdoba (Argentina), where industrial agriculture is expanding at a fast pace, and where social actors’ interests are generating a series of disputes and conflicts. Drawing upon field work, the paper shows how power alliances between economic and political powers, use the institutional framework of the State in their own benefit, disregarding wider environmental and social costs. 

Financial and Economic Support of Innovation Processes in the Russian Fuel and Energy Complex

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 77-85
Author(s):  
L. D. Kapranova ◽  
T. V. Pogodina
Keyword(s):  
Oil Recovery ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Oil Reserves ◽  
Energy Complex ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Substantial Investment ◽  
The Government

The subject of the research is the current state of the fuel and energy complex (FEC) that ensures generation of a significant part of the budget and the innovative development of the economy.The purpose of the research was to establish priority directions for the development of the FEC sectors based on a comprehensive analysis of their innovative and investment activities. The dynamics of investment in the fuel and energy sector are considered. It is noted that large-scale modernization of the fuel and energy complex requires substantial investment and support from the government. The results of the government programs of corporate innovative development are analyzed. The results of the research identified innovative development priorities in the power, oil, gas and coal sectors of the fuel and energy complex. The most promising areas of innovative development in the oil and gas sector are the technologies of enhanced oil recovery; the development of hard-to-recover oil reserves; the production of liquefied natural gas and its transportation. In the power sector, the prospective areas are activities aimed at improving the performance reliability of the national energy systems and the introduction of digital technologies. Based on the research findings, it is concluded that the innovation activities in the fuel and energy complex primarily include the development of new technologies, modernization of the FEC technical base; adoption of state-of-the-art methods of coal mining and oil recovery; creating favorable economic conditions for industrial extraction of hard-to-recover reserves; transition to carbon-free fuel sources and energy carriers that can reduce energy consumption and cost as well as reducing the negative FEC impact on the environment.

TO THE PROBLEMS OF COMBATING CORRUPTION IN MODERN RUSSIA AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF ANTI-CORRUPTION

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Dranishnikova
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
The State ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
Existing Problems ◽  
Moral Point ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Government

In the article, the author reflects the existing problems of the fight against corruption in the Russian Federation. He focuses on the opacity of the work of state bodies, leading to an increase in bribery and corruption. The topic we have chosen is socially exciting in our days, since its significance is growing on a large scale at all levels of the investigated aspect of our modern life. Democratic institutions are being jeopardized, the difference in the position of social strata of society in society’s access to material goods is growing, and the state of society is suffering from the moral point of view, citizens are losing confidence in the government, and in the top officials of the state.

Meta-Governance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Egeberg ◽  
Jarle Trondal
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Reform Processes ◽  
The Government ◽  
Central Government Agencies ◽  
Instrumental Control

Chapter 8 draws attention to meta-governance and how the governing of reforms is affected by how reform processes are organized. The chapter asks how reformers can ensure support for large-scale reforms that are likely to attract profound resistance. The focal point of the chapter is a study of geographical decentralization of central government agencies. The chapter argues that successful meta-governance can be provided for by careful organization of the reform process. The empirical case studied is a large-scale relocation of government agencies in Norway during the early 2000s. In carrying out this reform, the government succeeded against the odds. Most importantly, research has revealed huge constraints on the instrumental control of large-scale reforms in general and of geographical relocation of organizations in particular. Yet, this chapter shows that large-scale reforms can be successfully achieved through careful crafting of the reform organization.

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