Positive thinking

Aoife Daly, Senior Lecturer in Law, University of Liverpool   The US policy of separating children from parents entering the country without permission was rightly met with global outrage. After weeks of heart-wrenching stories, images and audio recordings of children crying for their detained parents, Donald Trump finally bowed to pressure and signed an executive order to end family separations. In the UK, while children of immigrant families are not routinely wrenched from parents nor held in cages , many aspects of their treatment are nevertheless inhumane and in breach of international children’s rights law. The UK ended indefinite detention of immigrant families with children in 2010. But there remain what Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister who was a proponent of the change, described as “exceptional cases and border cases” where families are still detained. This might happen, for example, where their removal from the UK is pending and they have ...

Sarah Steele, University of Cambridge   It was revealed recently that members of the Windrush generation of migrants to the UK and their children were having difficulty getting care on the National Health Service because of confusion over their healthcare entitlement. The fiasco highlighted critical issues with the newly expanded charging regime. Under this, those who can’t prove they are entitled to free care have to pay upfront for a range of treatments. These include many hospital treatments and outpatient services, but also some mental health services and community care. When instituting and expanding charging, the UK government guaranteed it would be fair and the vulnerable would be protected – and that immediately necessary and urgent care would never be withheld. However, cases of patients denied cancer treatment unless they can pay significant sums in advance, as well as reports from Doctors of the World of patients scared they might receive large bills i...

Michael J.Porter, University of Central Lancashire   Stress is great. It makes us faster, stronger, more agile and our brains have better recall and flexibility. That’s why people are willing to put themselves in stressful work situations or engage in extreme sports . The problem is that uncontrolled, stress can leave us frozen to the spot and unable to think – something all too familiar for people having to speak in public or students sitting in the exam hall. Stress developed because it gives an evolutionary advantage . For early man, and with predators everywhere, food could be scarce and diseases prevalent. By understanding what is happening inside our bodies and why, we can learn to control stress and use it our advantage. Your body, when stressed When you’re feeling stressed, it’s a sign that your body is going into emergency mode. The turbo button is pressed, the engine of your body has roared into overdrive and you become superhuman. This means becoming u...

Adrienne Yong, City, University of London   The process for approximately 3.5m EU citizens currently living in the UK to apply for a new “settled status” after Brexit has now become clearer, after the Home Office published details of the scheme. But there are still some issues that EU citizens will need to watch out for. There are four steps to a successful settlement scheme application: A digital application form Fee of £65, or £32.50 for children Proof of identity/nationality A photo There are a further three “simple” requirements to satisfy the settlement scheme: Proof of identity Proof of eligibility Proof of suitability Eligibility looks at whether the EU citizen is a resident in the UK, or if they are actually a family member of an EU citizen. Suitability is a criminal background check to ensure the individual is not a threat to public security. Settled and pre-settled status The official date of withdrawal...

William Mandy, UCL   Tony had lived on the streets for 45 years, and in recent years had become increasingly physically unwell. Despite this he refused all offers of help, and it became clear to his support workers that he found social engagement of any kind very distressing. It was only when it was recognised that he had autism that staff were able to adapt their approach to support him to move off the streets into a hostel. There has been little focus on whether autistic people might be over-represented among the homeless population. Autism is a condition characterised by differences in the way the brain develops, with autistic people showing difficulties with social skills, unusual sensory processing, and a tendency towards inflexibility and restricted interests. Many autistic people, given the right support, live full and satisfying lives. Unfortunately, such support is often lacking, and many autistic adults struggle to find sustainable employment and housing . ...

Maria Goddard, University of York   The good news is that the NHS has received a 70th “birthday gift” in the form of a 3.4% per year increase in real spending over the next five years. The bad news is that, although this may be enough to fight the current battle, it may not be enough to win the war against rising pressures on the NHS. The planned expenditure, announced by Theresa May, the prime minister, on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, amounts to an extra £20.5 billion over the period up to 2023-24, which is actually not remarkable in terms of historical trends. Average annual increases in spending on the NHS since it was founded in 1948 have been around 3.7% – so 0.3% higher than the current proposed annual increment. There are some concerns that the increase is based only on the money received by one part of the system – NHS England – which is responsible for spending on the day-to-day running of the NHS, but not for public health, training and infrastructure, such...

Chris Brady, University of Salford   The American journalist and poet Ambrose Bierce wrote in his 1906 satire The Devil’s Dictionary that “the gambling known as business looks with severe disfavour on the business known as gambling”. That phrase has a particular ring of truth about it when one starts to think about the “casino banking” that caused the financial crisis almost ten years ago. But that term was – and still is – a slur on casinos. If the financial services industry was as well-regulated and as well understood as the gambling industry, the financial collapse may have been avoided. At the root of all financial bubbles, scams and scandals is the self-proclaimed “professionalism” of the financial sector – what Nobel Prize-winning economist Freidrick von Hayek referred to as “ the pretence of knowledge ”. Portrait of Friedrich von Hayek. Wikipedia Professionalism and di...

Louise Archer, UCL   The UK is facing massive skills shortages in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers – according to one study 43% of STEM vacancies are difficult to fill. This is why the government has been trying to increase and widen participation in STEM careers and education, to ensure a better prepared workforce for the future. To try and address the STEM gap, the “ triple science ” GCSE qualification was introduced. Triple science is the route allowing students to study biology, chemistry and physics as separate subjects. This leads to three distinct GCSE awards. Triple science has been championed by the government and industry for the way it prepares students for the world of STEM employment. This is compared to alternative routes like double science, which awards students two GCSEs for studying the three sciences. But our research suggests that the triple science route could actually be perpetuating social inequalities among pupils...

Yvonne Skipper, Keele University   Grammar schools are never far from the headlines and the BBC’s new mini-series, Grammar Schools: Who will Get In sheds further light on the selective schooling system, at a time when the prime minister, Theresa May, plans to expand it . The series follows pupils at three schools in Bexley, south London – which has a fully selective education system. The children featured in the programme showed high levels of anxiety and articulated fears that failing the 11+ exam will make them “a failure in life”. Children who go to grammar schools may achieve better GCSE results . But of course, not all children can attend grammar school – and the selection of the children who do attend is fraught with difficulty. Not all children are given the opportunity to take the 11+ – in some counties, only those who are selected by the teachers as likely to pass will take the exam – and of these children between 25-50% of children will pass . Our re...

Brian Moss, Coventry University   Violent behaviour in schools happens everyday and figures suggest bullying is on the increase, too . In a report last year , UNESCO (the United Nations office for educational, scientific and cultural affairs) revealed that school violence affects 246m pupils worldwide, every year. Such violence is experienced through physical and emotional forms of harassment. And it can negatively impact pupils’ educational success and later employment and health prospects. Significantly, a link between school violence and later criminal justice involvement was noted in the report. Not addressed, however, was the earliest trigger for a child using violence. Existing research points to different catalysts – such as parental violence, substance use and neglect – in the first 24 months of children’s lives as contributing to their own later violent conduct. The research shows that the peak age for violent behaviour is age six – which has implications...

Liza Morton, Strathclyde University   One in every 125 babies is born with a heart condition – but thanks to modern medicine more infants are surviving than ever before. In the developed world, 90% will now live into adulthood, compared with just 20% in the 1940s . However, there is no cure for these conditions and the person needs lifelong medical monitoring . Congenital heart disease (CHD) doesn’t just affect the body – it affects the mind, too. A growing body of evidence shows that people with CHD are more likely to suffer from mental health problems, such as anxiety , depression and post-traumatic stress disorder . To date, this psychological impact has been understood as a consequence of the additional stressors that living with a serious lifelong medical condition can bring, such as missed schooling, spending lots of time in hospital (from childhood), and having to undergo frequent surgery. I know from personal experience how challenging this journey can...