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Long COVID: the lingering crisis in maternity services
Get PDFMaternity services are in crisis, with 65 per cent of units unsafe (Royal College of Midwives (RCM) 2024) and midwives facing immense pressures. The RCM’s alarming statistics reflect staff shortages, burnout and an environment that feels unsustainable. Negative media portrayals worsen the situation, eroding public trust and further demoralising midwives. Fear among birthing families adds to midwives’ stress, and moral injury is common as they struggle to provide quality care. Despite extraordinary dedication, many midwives are leaving the profession. Urgent systemic change is needed: investment in support, education and staff is crucial to rebuild a safe, sustainable service and restore hope to maternity professional
Decolonising a midwifery curriculum
Get PDFThe implementation of the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Decolonising midwifery toolkit (2023) in a higher education setting has uncovered the importance of investigating and identifying gaps in learning and teaching. Creating a working group within the department has highlighted the need to acknowledge the inherent biases within a Eurocentric midwifery curriculum and investigate persistent attainment gaps and attrition rates by ethnicity
How can first-year assessment contribute to the continuing development of students’ academic writing skills?
Get PDFThere is an ongoing debate that first-year assessment does not prepare students to deal successfully with future writing tasks. This paper suggests that one of the reasons might be a narrow focus on assessment strategies and interventions that meet immediate learning goals to help reduce assessment shock. It is suggested that designing scaffolded pedagogical activities that prioritise development of students’ evaluative judgement might enable first-year assessment to achieve two ends: alleviating assessment shock and preparing students to more effectively traverse future writing tasks. The concept of evaluative judgement and embedded features of activities with the potential to develop this capability are elaborated. These, along with first-year students’ writing challenges, are considered as a basis for some practice design considerations suggested to establish a more effective learning environment that helps first-year assessment achieve its dual purposes
Logics of spatial isolation
Get PDFIn the vein of recent work that provides non-normal modal interpretations of various topological operators, this paper proposes a modal logic for a spatial isolation operator. Focusing initially on neighbourhood systems, we prove several characterization results, demonstrating the adequacy of the interpretation and highlighting certain semantic insensitivities that result from the relative expressive weakness of the isolation operator. We then transition to the topological setting, proving a topological characterization result
The future of retail and service design: sustainable, phygital and community
No full textThis book explores the future of retail and service design, offering cutting-edge insights from leading researchers. With a focus on sustainability, phygital innovation, and community retail, it provides a forward-thinking roadmap for the evolution of these fields.
Each chapter examines the current landscape and future possibilities, presenting a dynamic vision of what lies ahead. From transforming customer experiences through community engagement and immersive technologies to advancing sustainability, this book invites readers to engage with emerging trends and the transformative power of design.
Ideal for researchers, designers, educators, students, and innovation enthusiasts, it delivers fresh perspectives on the rapidly evolving world of retail and service design
International consensus on the definition of functional training: modified e-Delphi method
No full textThe inconsistency and disparities in existing functional training definitions have led to confusion when explaining the concept and its potential. The wide range of interpretations suggests that any training approach could be deemed functional, thereby diminishing the significance of the term and significantly limiting its understanding and application. Thus, this paper aimed to develop the first consensual definition of functional training using an international e-Delphi method. From a panel of 31 experts initially selected, 13 participated in the consensus. The panel presented the following definition: ‘Functional training is a physical interventional approach that contributes to the enhancement of human performance, according to individual goals, in sports, daily life, rehabilitation, or fitness, and takes into consideration the specificity of the task and the unique responsiveness of each individual’. However, redundancy of the functional training definition emerged as a relevant consideration for this conceptual and methodological advancement, and a proposal to avoid the distinction between functional training and the general concept of training was presented (i.e., no real use of functional training as a concept). It was proposed that a training program or regimen could be analyzed based on a continuum of functionality, which could support further developments in this topic
Reflecting on the social value of movement and dance
Get PDFAims:
This short report summarises the findings of a 51-page report on the social value of movement and dance in England, highlighting its contribution to public health, individual wellbeing, and community development.
Methods:
The report synthesises data from multiple sources and quantifies the social value of movement and dance.
Results:
Findings indicate that movement and dance contribute £3.5 billion in social value, including £430 million in healthcare savings and a £2.1 billion uplift in mental wellbeing. Movement and dance foster physical health benefits comparable to those of other exercise forms while providing unique psychological and social advantages.
Conclusion:
Movement and dance play vital roles in public health by preventing illness, improving mental wellbeing, and fostering community engagement. To maximise their impact, greater integration within health practices, funding, research investment, and policy engagement is needed
Raising the bar: how corporate codes of ethics can strengthen responses to modern slavery
No full textAs the UK marks ten years since the Modern Slavery Act was passed, the new Home Office guidance on Section 54 signals a long-overdue shift: from checking boxes to protecting people. The latest expectations urge companies to move beyond minimal compliance and focus on meaningful, worker-centered action. One of the most powerful tools they have in doing so is their Code of Ethics
The role of business
No full textA rapid reorientation away from perpetuating unsustainable lifestyles and toward facilitating sustainable consumption would require businesses to utilize their far-reaching influence as a positive force for sustainability. This will have to go beyond greenwashing practices and prioritization of short-term profit orientations that too often perpetuate unsustainable consumption. Here, we suggest that the role of businesses in promoting sustainable consumption lies not simply in changing product offerings, but also in leveraging their influence on consumers’ lifestyle practices more broadly, ensuring that these align with long-term sustainability ambitions and, importantly, planetary and social carrying capacities
Can a local low-budget intervention make a difference to suicide rates? Evaluating the effectiveness of the Barnet (London) suicide prevention campaign using real-time suspected suicide data
No full textBackground: Three quarters of suicides in the UK are by men, of whom only a quarter had contact with mental health services at the time of their death. Community-based interventions are therefore likely to be crucial to reduce (male) suicides, but there is limited evidence to support their effectiveness. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multi-strategy campaign to increase uptake of mental health services and peer support amongst working-aged men in Barnet, London, via: 1) targeted promotion of the ‘Stay Alive’ app, 2) a large scale digital and outdoor media campaign, 3) community outreach targeting male-dominated industries, 4) the first face-to-face “Andy’s Man Club” peer-to-peer support group in the borough.
Methods: We used data on suspected suicides in London between 1st March 2021 to 31st November 2023 (N=1,408) to calculate monthly age-standardised rates in a) Barnet, b) surrounding boroughs and c) the rest of London, for ‘naïve’ and ‘placebo’ comparisons during and outside the campaign period, and then before, during and after the campaign. We also estimated maximum exposure to the campaign beyond its duration, and repeated the analysis using a more conservative (February to December 2020) baseline period for Barnet.
Results: There was a sizeable drop in suicides in Barnet for the duration of the campaign and the following six months, with 6 to 9 deaths possibly averted thanks to the campaign, which represents a decline of around 20 % of the yearly incidence, at a cost of under £6,400 per averted suicide.
Conclusions: Our analysis suggests that a local, relatively inexpensive community-based campaign can be effective in reducing (suspected) suicides. However, further research is needed to confidently link this decrease in suicides to the campaign, or specific elements of it