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The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted all surgical specialties significantly and exerted additional pressures on the overburdened United Kingdom (UK) National Health Service. Healthcare professionals in the UK have had to adapt their practice. In particular, surgeons have faced organisational and technical challenges treating patients who carried higher risks, were more urgent and could not wait for prehabilitation or optimisation before their intervention. Furthermore, there were implications for blood transfusion with uncertain patterns of demand, reductions in donations and loss of crucial staff because of sickness and public health restrictions. Previous guidelines have attempted to address the control of bleeding and its consequences after cardiothoracic surgery, but there have been no targeted recommendations in light of the recent COVID-19 challenges. In this context, and with a focus on the perioperative period, an expert multidisciplinary Task Force reviewed the impact of bleeding in cardiothoracic surgery, explored different aspects of patient blood management with a focus on the use of haemostats as adjuncts to conventional surgical techniques and proposed best practice recommendations in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this academic comic (or acadomic) I reflect on impacts to the creative process when reconceptualizing and recontextualizing a comics-based research (CBR) project as an acadomic for an edited book during the Covid-19 pandemic. The lockdowns intensified computer-mediated-communication (CMC) and I am compelled by two years of virtually exclusive engagement with digital technologies to explore the impact unrestrained online activities have on my creative comics practice, on my conceptions of research, and on my experiences as a teacher. Analysis of this process and its impacts is realized through a mixed research methodology that explores the impacts of conceptualizing and making an earlier acadomic, which in turn documents a comics-based research project between university students and a national charity as they successfully collaborate on the creation of a graphic novel. I probe the boundaries of academic writing by visualizing and performing Baudrillard's theoretical violence to critique digital intensification through metaphor, semiotics, and comics. The work for this article was undertaken during the rolling pandemic lockdowns in the UK and around the world from 2020 to 2022. Academic theory and the medium of comics problematize the digital simulacrum as I action a utopian pedagogy that supports balance between traditional and digital techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences and perceptions of Zora, an older Muslim woman living with a disability in the UK. Older disabled Muslim women in the UK often face multiple discriminations based on disability, age, gender, religious, and racial grounds and this has arguably been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on multiple narrative interviews with Zora, this paper focuses on the intersections of disability, ageing, gender, race and religion within a particular social context during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. The paper describes the complex ways in which Zora experienced various modes of everyday disablism which were not related to the COVID-19 virus itself, rather the consequences of the movement restrictions associated with it. Much of the oppression and barriers she described were socially determined, both through direct discrimination, stares and prejudicial attitudes, and indirectly through stigmatization and an embodied fear of the reaction of others in public spaces. Nevertheless, Zora did not present herself as a victim. Instead she portrayed herself in affirmative terms, as a 'brave' woman who resisted and overcame daily social challenges and movement restrictions as part of working toward creating a more accessible, inclusive and age-friendly society. One that is inhabitable for herself and other older disabled women facing an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Court ethnographies have commonly relied on the physical presence of the ethnographers. This paper explores the opportunities and the challenges of conducting court ethnographies without this physical presence. Specifically, it examines what it means to conduct remote ethnographies of legal processes where neither the ethnographer nor the other hearing participants are physically co‐present. The sudden shift towards remote hearings in fieldwork conducted during the COVID‐19 pandemic presented an opportunity to compare in‐person and remote ethnographic methods. Through a case study of bail hearings in the immigration tribunal in the UK, this paper explores the value and challenges associated with conducting remote ethnographies and asks how they can help to shed light on the impact of absences in legal events. Court ethnographies have commonly relied on the physical presence of the ethnographers. This paper explores the opportunities and the challenges of conducting court ethnographies without this physical presence. Specifically, it examines what it means to conduct remote ethnographies of legal processes where neither the ethnographer nor the other hearing participants are physically co‐present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on an investigation into female academics' experiences of living and working through the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). A diary, diary‐interview method (DDIM) was used to gather qualitative data from 25 participants about their lives during the period March 2020–September 2021 and diary and interview data have since been curated and published in an open access digital archive. The paper argues firstly that in recording and interpreting change over time in the context of the COVID‐19 pandemic, the methodology constitutes a qualitative longitudinal research (QLLR) approach. Secondly, that the method has the capacity to convey temporal disruption and complexity, aligned with notions of crisis as fast, slow and ongoing. Thirdly, that Nixon's theorising of 'slow violence' can be used to frame the impacts of the pandemic as gradual, unseen and banal despite potentially negative implications for female academics' career progression. Finally, the paper argues that gathering this data through DDIM and publishing it in a publicly accessible digital archive represents a necessary form of witness with the potential to be utilised for future interventions. This paper reports on an investigation using a diary, diary‐interview method (DDIM) into female academics' experiences of living and working through the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom (UK). The paper argues that DDIM has the capacity to convey temporal disruption and complexity, aligned with notions of crisis as fast, slow and ongoing. Nixon's theorising of 'slow violence' is used to frame a consideration of the pandemic's longer‐term, negative implications for female academics' career progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the tenets of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), this paper presents a discourse analysis of UK news coverage regarding the phenomenon commonly referred to as "pet regret". This is an informal expression coined by mainstream media to indicate feelings of remorse experienced by individuals who acquired a companion animal during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently found themselves questioning their decision, leading some to consider relinquish or leaving without care their pet. This paper will discuss examples from newspapers that used a moralistic framework to depict pet owners by resorting to forms of value judgments woven into rhetorical and syntactic structures. The tone of these judgments reinforces a type of representation grounded on binary thinking, potentially encouraging classifications of people based on reductive notions of right and wrong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational political communication today is being reconfigured by digital technologies and global power transition. Authoritarian state actors such as China are increasingly active on global social media platforms such as Twitter to directly advance their preferred frames with foreign publics in Western democracies, most notably in what could be called Chinese Twiplomacy contesting narrative globally over contentious issues. This paper problematises such Twiplomacy from authoritarians to Western democracies as 'networked transnational frame contestation', arguing that the political and cultural distance between the sending and target countries, the networked affordance of social media, and the national prism of the target countries, all contribute importantly to the complexity of such frame contestation. Through a case study on China's Twiplomacy in contesting coronavirus narrative in the UK, this paper further provides empirical evidence on how 'networked transnational frame contestation' works between politically and culturally distant countries. Using a mixed-method approach combining social network analysis and discourse analysis, this study finds that China's emotion-evoking discursive strategy draws traction but the authoritarian nature of the highly centralised networkedness and that of its discursive strategy, together with the strong cultural discordance with British publics, lead to networked recontextualisation of its intended frames in Britain. British publics, heavily relying on British political elites and press for foreign affairs, invoke shared cultural reference to recontextualise Chinese frames into culturally resonant counterframes. This study proposes a paradigm of 'networkedness within cascades' to understand frame contestation between politically and culturally distant countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In this paper, the authors investigate whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) impacts household finances, like household debt repayments in the UK. Design/methodology/approach: This paper employs a vector autoregressive (VAR) model that nests neural networks and uses Mixed Data Sampling (MIDAS) techniques. The authors use data information related to COVID-19, financial markets and household finances. Findings: The authors' results show that household debt repayments' response to the first principal component of COVID-19 shocks is negative, albeit of low magnitude. However, when the authors employ specific COVID-19-related data like vaccines and tests the responses are positive, insinuating the underlying dynamic complexities. Overall, confirmed deaths and hospitalisations negatively affect household debt repayments. The authors also report low persistence in household debt repayments. Generalised impulse response functions (IRFs) confirm the main results. As draconian measures, the lockdowns are eased and the COVID-19 shocks are diminishing, and household financial data converge to the levels prior to the pandemic albeit with some lags. Originality/value: To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study that examines the impact of the pandemic on household debt repayments. The authors' findings show that policy response in the future should prioritise innovation of new vaccines and testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Jonathan Shay argued that social, relational, and institutional contexts were central to understanding moral injury and conceptualised moral injury as a normative response to the betrayal of an individual's understanding of what is right by a more senior/authoritative "other". Using the conceptual lens of moral injury, this paper investigates academic staff experiences of HE during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores the rapid transition back to face-to-face teaching that took place in autumn 2020. To collect data, we used an online survey that opened in January 2021 and ran until the end of March 2021. A total of 663 complete questionnaires were received across the survey period. The questionnaire was comprised of ten topic-related questions, each of which included follow-up sub-questions and also invited participants to write in additional information. The majority of participants felt that during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, they had acted in ways that put their own health and wellbeing at risk. Of those who had acted in ways that put their health and wellbeing at risk, they believed that their senior management were the most responsible for them acting in such ways, followed by the UK government. Qualitative data showed a systemic absence of leadership in the sector during the time, a sense of betrayal of staff and students by senior management and the government, and feelings of compulsion to act in ways which put lives at risk. On the basis of these results, we argue that there could be synergies between the situation facing healthcare staff and academics during the pandemic. Many of the experiences of HE academic staff during the pandemic reported to us in this research are resonant with the concepts of betrayal and moral injury and resulted in affective responses which we understand here in relation to feelings of guilt, shame, and anger, leading ultimately to poor mental health and wellbeing. This paper discusses implications for the HE sector going forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critiques recent developments in educational discourse through an analysis of two UK Government White Papers and three specific problems. We argue that the latter herald forms of 'biocreep'. Echoing the analysis of such phenomena in the work of Michel Foucault, this gradual extension of 'biopolitics' into the field of education is a tendency which has accelerated with the Coronavirus pandemic and raises many questions for policy analysis. First, we show how the White Papers' approach to life and its related assumptions embody an attempt to further entrench the techniques of biopolitical population management in secondary and further education settings. Second, our analysis of the two Papers shows not just a deepening discursive shift towards ways of instrumentalising educational processes, but also identifies a triple problem of political assemblage: primo, this shift relies on the assemblage of a 'problematic subject'; secondo, it simultaneously assembles the problem of value extraction; and tertio, it obscures the problem of desire or unruliness of the assemblages created. Just as discursive practices of instrumentation, administration and evacuation try to manage these assemblages, they remain unable to contain the three problems they enshrine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic landscape of the UK has been significantly shaped by the intertwined issues of Brexit, COVID, and their interconnected impacts. The disruptions caused by Brexit and the COVID pandemic have created uncertainty and upheaval for both businesses and individuals. Whilst the effects of COVID are now receding, Brexit is still dominating headlines seven years after the referendum and is likely to do so for the foreseeable future. In this introduction, we provide an overview of the literature on Brexit. We review the reasons for leaving the European Union, as well examine the consequences of Brexit, with a focus on investment, economic growth, trade, unemployment, and financial markets. We then introduce the seven papers selected from the 'Post Brexit: Uncertainty, Risk Measurement and Coronavirus Challenges Conference' held at Birmingham Business School in June 2021, that advance the current literature on the effects of Brexit and COVID on the UK economy. Evidence in these papers suggests that Brexit and COVID are still clearly posing a severe strain on the UK's economy. However, some papers suggest that not everything about Brexit has been detrimental, or at least certain sectors of the UK economy are displaying a marked resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: The aim of the paper is to enhance understanding of how members of the public make sense of the Covid-19 vaccines and to understand the factors influencing their attitudes towards such artefacts of pandemic governance. Methods: The paper draws on 23 online in-depth interviews with members of the UK public and builds on relevant literature to examine participants' perceptions of the benefits and risks of Covid-19 vaccines, the sources that have shaped their attitudes, and the level of trust they have towards the government's handling of the pandemic through vaccines. Results: The findings indicate that participants generally felt that the benefits of having the vaccine outweigh the risks and that Covid-19 vaccines are a crucial mechanism for enabling society to return to normal. Vaccine acceptance was, for some, strongly linked to a sense of social responsibility and the duty to protect others. However, some participants expressed concerns with regard to the side-effects of Covid-19 vaccines and their perceived potential impact on fertility and DNA makeup. Participants used various sources of information to learn about Covid-19 vaccines and understand their function, benefits, and risks. The majority of participants criticised the government's response during the early stages of the pandemic yet felt positive about the vaccine rollout. Conclusion: Just as with any other vaccination programme, the success of the Covid-19 immunisation campaigns does not only depend on the efficacy of the vaccines themselves or the ability to secure access to them, but also on a myriad of other factors which include public compliance and trust in governments and health authorities. To support an effective immunisation campaign that is capable of bringing the pandemic to an end, governments need to understand public concerns, garner trust, and devise adequate strategies for engaging the public and building more resilient societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to illustrate how the housing system in the United Kingdom (UK) has contributed to creating vulnerabilities during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Drawing on the concept of ontological security we look at how living with housing insecurity whilst enduring poor housing conditions has impacted the lives of those living in households. The paper draws on semi‐structured interviews with 50 residents and 8 housing professionals. The findings outline the grinding impact of the pandemic on the ontological security of residents and the coping strategies adopted by a wider range of households who are now increasingly vulnerable. A number of people went into lockdown in vulnerable situations, experiencing deep inequalities and living in poorly maintained homes. This has weakened the ontological security experienced by many households. These represent significant failings of the housing system and housing policy impacting on the health and wellbeing of a wider cohort of people creating additional vulnerabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly impacted every aspect of our lives, from economic to the social facets of contemporary society. While the new COVID-19 waves may not be anticipated to be as severe as previous ones, it would be unreasonable to assume that they will cease any time soon. Consequently, forecasting the number of future infections, recovered patients, and death cases remains a very much logical step in trying to fight against further waves, in conjunction with ongoing vaccination efforts. In this paper, we investigate the efficiency of three intelligent machine learning algorithms, namely GMDH, Bi-LSTM, and GA + NN, for COVID-19 forecasting, with an application to Iran and the United Kingdom. The experimental results show that the algorithms can be used to forecast the next six months of COVID-19 in terms of confirmed, recovered, and death cases, which gives a more ample timeframe for using the results to make better practical yet strategic decisions and take appropriate actions or measures to deploy resources effectively to contain or curb the spread of the coronavirus. Despite the distinct dynamics observed in the data, our analysis proves the robustness of the employed models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing challenges faced by academic staff in UK higher education and drawn attention to issues of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). Amidst global competitiveness and workplace pressures, challenges such as managerialism, increased workload, and inequalities have worsened, significantly impactingmental health. This paper presents a conceptual analysis connecting EDI with organizational compassion within the context of Higher Education. The prioritization of organizational compassion is presented as a means to enhance sensitivity to EDI in the reconstruction of post-pandemic learning environments. Anchored in the organizational compassion theory and the NEAR Mechanisms Model, our study contributes to the intersection of the organizational compassion, EDI and higher education literatures by exploring how fostering compassion relations can contribute to enhancing EDI. This offers a new perspective to creating a more humane and supportive higher education environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this research was to understand counsellors' and therapists' perceptions and experiences of working online during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Method: Five hundred and ninety clinicians, mostly UK‐based, responded to an online qualitative survey, which allowed data to be gathered from a broader range of participants than is typical for qualitative interviews or focus group studies, and provided a wide‐angle lens. The survey generated over 130,000 words, on which a five‐staged framework analysis was conducted. Seven superordinate themes were identified. Results: In this paper, three of these superordinate themes specifically addressing online therapeutic practice with individual adult clients are presented. Therapists' accounts addressed the diverse ways in which the online space changed how they thought about the therapy relationship and their interactions with clients. Respondents described instances where online therapy had been beneficial for facilitating and cultivating the therapeutic process and relationship as well as how online therapy could have a potentially disruptive impact on therapeutic practice. Implications: For practitioners who continue to deliver therapy solely online and/or offer hybrid services, this study identifies the specific knowledge and skills required for effective and safe online therapeutic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents and discusses the findings of a small-scale longitudinal survey of trainees who embarked on one 14-month Step Up to Social Work (SUSW) qualifying programme in January 2020, just prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic's restrictions in the United Kingdom (UK). It explores their responses to changes made to their placements during their training and the impact on their subsequent employment. Three surveys were administered to this cohort (n = 30; 25 of whom agreed to participate): just before trainees completed their training in May 2021 (n = 23), halfway through their Assessed and Supported Year in Employment (ASYE) in January 2022 (n = 19) and at the end of this in September 2022 (n = 15). Respondents felt at least adequately prepared for social work, despite having missed much direct work with children and families during placements. Online learning and consultations through lectures and supervision were acceptable modifications but face-to-face interactions and colleagues' guidance were missed in placements and initial employment. The implications of this are discussed for this specific route to qualification and initial employment as social workers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition to school is a critical period for children and families. Successful transition predicts later school achievement and socio-emotional outcomes with sustained long-term benefits. Educational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic meant that support for the transition of children from nursery to school was limited. The study aimed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on early years transitions in the U.K., with a focus on children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. Using a sequential mixed-methods research design, data was gathered from a survey before children started school, and semi-structured interviews after starting school. Results revealed that support for the transition of young children from nursery to school was inevitably affected. Key challenges and facilitating factors in planning for transition are reported as well as the impact of the pandemic on children, families and early years practitioners. The paper concludes with recommendations for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical agency (CA) refers to an individual's feeling of power in relation to social inequalities. Research has demonstrated that high CA is associated with positive adolescent outcomes, however, less is known about what supports are important for its development. Moreover, a large majority of the literature is based on studies from the US and various countries in Africa; although the UK is saturated with inequalities there is little research within a UK context. In this paper we examine (a) the validity of using an existing measure of CA with a sample of UK adolescents and (b) the extent to which resilience supports account for variance in CA. Our analysis identified two distinct factors of CA: justice-oriented and community-oriented. High CA in both factors was explained by resilience supports associated with peer relationships (p < 0.01). Our findings push us towards new relational, ecological ways of understanding adolescent CA. We close by instantiating a translational framework for those devising policies in support of youth resilience and CA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of increasing attention on museum sustainability, this research adopts a dictionary‐based, content‐analysis approach to measure the degree of sustainability disclosed in European museum annual reports and similar documents. The analysis is carried out through the lens of institutional theory, assuming that the presence of formal and informal regulations positively affects the level of sustainability in annual reporting practices. Furthermore, the paper discusses the level of sustainability disclosed by different types of museums and the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the extent of sustainability‐oriented reporting. The article compares top public museums in the UK and France, the European countries where accountability practices are most deeply rooted for legal and cultural reasons, and where the most visited museums in the world are located. The findings show that the type of museum and the country significantly affect the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) score, whereas mentioning COVID‐19 or the year of publication does not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper charts responses to urgent appeals by welfare charities through crowd funding websites in order to examine the impact of the Covid19 pandemic on public generosity and social cohesion in the UK. It uses a relatively new method in social policy research, data-harvesting. Online public giving to local charities for vulnerable people sky-rocketed during the crisis, despite the long-established stigmatic treatment of the able-bodied poor of working age, a decade of benefit cuts, the increased stringency of Universal Credit and the long-term downward trend in charity incomes. Welfare policy and the rhetoric that surrounds it is increasingly divisive, although most welfare spending addresses needs or risks that confront all of us. The Covid19 lockdown can be seen as a natural experiment in social inclusion. This paper shows how policy discourse that stresses common humanity in the face of a collective challenge, rather than social divisions, can help build social cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study utilises the ‘natural experiment’ of COVID-19 to explore how disruption affected individuals’ perceptions and experiences of cycling, through semistructured interviews with eight cycle-shop owners and 30 residents in the Liverpool City Region, UK. It provides an account of the rapidly changing conditions that helped to support greater participation in cycling. Primarily this was due to reduced conflict between cyclists and others for road space. This was supported, though less significantly, by the provision of temporary cycling infrastructure as well as diminished competition for an individual’s time and energy from alternative leisure activities which were outlawed through COVID-19-related regulations. By disrupting car-dominated environments, the change in infrastructure and reduction in traffic flows contributed towards reducing the skills and confidence required to begin cycling. Nevertheless, as traffic rebounded to pre-pandemic volumes it was evident that the opportunity offered by disruption failed to be fully realised within the region. Despite this, the period has illustrated the potential for broader participation in cycling, though the paper finds that significant disruption to the infrastructures and traffic flows within the urban environment is required if a long-term modal shift is to occur following the surge in participation in cycling observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. To do so, the paper identifies several interventions that can be implemented to imitate the disruption observed in our study, and in doing so support a transition towards a low-carbon mobility system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a UK-based group of female postgraduate researchers, the authors explored their experiences during COVID-19 pandemic through multivocal inquiry via a feminist collaborative autoethnographic project. In this paper, we use the Listening Guide as a tool to revisit and (re)analyse data from the aforementioned project, displaying findings in the form of voice poems. In utilising the Listening Guide, we discovered that listening is less of an exercise and more an art form. While the structured approach of the LG helped to enhance our understandings of wider individual experiences of disability and womanhood, identities that all authors inhabit, we were surprised to find that despite our established mutual trust and superficially similar experiences, we were unable to find emotional resonance through data that wasn't our own voice. We also found that the traditional stepped process of the LG that incorporates four listens to the data left our interpretations feeling flat. Through reflexivity and the novel collaborative approach we undertook in this analysis, we identified and implemented an augmentation of the Listening Guide process. In this paper, we propose an additional fifth listen, focusing on emotion, to facilitate a more holistic analysis of voice data. We explore how the fifth listen assisted the (re)construction of individual and collective identities, helping us to reshape our understandings. Finally, we elucidate the positives and pitfalls we experienced in the Listening Guide as a data analysis tool, recommending to other researchers the adoption of an iterative, flexible and reflexive approach in using it during collaborative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2020, the UK was placed in lockdown following the spread of the Covid-19 virus. Just as legitimate workplaces made changes to enable their employees to work from home, the illicit drugs trade also made alternative arrangements, adapting its supply models to ensure continuity of operations. Based upon qualitative interviews with 46 practitioners, this paper assesses how front-line professionals have experienced and perceived the impact of Covid-19 on child criminal exploitation and County Lines drug supply in the UK. Throughout the paper, we highlight perceived adaptations to the County Lines supply model, the impact of lockdown restrictions on detection and law enforcement activities aimed at County Lines, and on efforts to safeguard children and young people from criminal exploitation. Our participants generally believed that the pandemic had induced shifts to County Lines that reflected an ongoing evolution of the drug supply model and changes in understanding or attention because of Covid-19 restrictions, rather than a complete reconstitution of the model itself. Practitioners perceived that Covid-19 has had, and continues to have, a significant impact on some young people's vulnerability to exploitation, on the way in which police and frontline practitioners respond to County Lines and child criminal exploitation, and on the way illegal drugs are being moved and sold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This perspective paper begins with discussing how COVID-19 magnified the prepandemic 'bare life' conditions which exposed older people's lives to risks and indignities in the health and social care system. Then, by using the concept of Necropolitics, the life and death decisions, based on age as a proxy measure for population health during the pandemic, are discussed. This discussion includes examples of 'exceptional' practices that were implemented in the UK during the first wave, including 'Do Not Resuscitate' orders, unsafe hospital discharges, not transferring to hospitals, and denying access to treatment for older people. It then goes on to renew the call for a feminist care ethic to be central to the ways in which our future health and social care systems are configured. Arguing for the need to politically reframe ageing, health and social care provision towards a radical alternative system that rethinks care relations and addresses inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inter- and intragenerational relationships are known to be important in maintaining the wellbeing of older people. A key aspect of these relationships is the exchange of both emotional and instrumental social support. However, relatively little is known about how this exchange of support changes in the context of widespread disruption. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to examine how older people's family relationships are impacted by such social change. The present qualitative study explores how older people in the United Kingdom experienced changes in inter- and intragenerational support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants (N = 33) were recruited through a large-scale nationally representative survey (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/psychology-consortium-covid19). We asked how life had been pre-pandemic, how they experienced the first national lockdown and what the future might hold in store. The data were analysed using constructivist grounded theory. This paper focuses on the importance of family relationships and how they changed as a consequence of the pandemic. We found that the family support system had been interrupted, that there were changes in the methods of support and that feelings of belonging were challenged. We argue that families were brought into disequilibrium through changes in the exchange of inter- and intragenerational support. The important role of grandchildren for older adults was striking and challenged by the pandemic. The significance of social connectedness and support within the family had not changed during the pandemic, but it could no longer be lived in the same way. The desire to be close to family members and to support them conflicted with the risk of pandemic infection. Our study found support for the COVID-19 Social Connectivity Paradox: the need for social connectedness whilst maintaining social distance. This challenged family equilibrium, wellbeing and quality of life in older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused untold damage to the socio-economic lives of people all over the world. Research has also demonstrated great inequality in the pandemic experience. In the UK as in many other countries, people from ethnic minority backgrounds and in workingclass positions have suffered disproportionately more than the majority group and those in salariat positions in terms of income loss, financial difficulty, and vulnerability to infection. Yet little is known about how people coped in the daily lives and tried to maintain their well-being during the most difficult days of the pandemic through social capital. Methods: In this paper, we draw data from the COVID-19 Survey in Five National Longitudinal Studies to address these questions. The survey covered the period from May 2020 to February 2021, the height of the pandemic in the UK. It contains numerous questions on contact, help and support among family, friends, community members, socio-political trust, and physical and mental health. We conceptualise three types of social capital and one type of overall well-being and we construct latent variables from categorical indicator variables. We analyse the ethnic and socio-economic determinants of the three types of social capital and their impacts on well-being. Results: Our analysis shows that social capital plays very important roles on wellbeing, and that ethnic minority groups, particularly those of Pakistani/Bangladeshi and Black heritages, faced multiple disadvantages: their poorer socio-economic positions prevented them from gaining similar levels of social capital to those of the white group. However, for people with the same levels of social capital, the effects on well-being are generally similar. Discussion: Socio-economic (class) inequality is the root cause for ethnic differences in social capital which in turn affects people's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The easements of the Care Act 2014, permitted by the Coronavirus Act 2020, were in place in very few English local authorities and then only for a short time, but they still rippled across the wider social care workforce. This paper reports findings from interviews with social workers in ten non-easement authorities and with other professionals in easement and non-easement authorities to explore their understandings of easements and their reflections on their use and impact on practice. The interview data are set in the context of a wider study that explored decision-making about the adoption of easements in local authorities. Frontline practitioners (N = 30) confirmed confusion about easements and suspicion that they were a retrograde step in people's entitlements to care and support. These views were also set in a context of lack of pandemic preparedness in social care and reflections that the care system was already fragile after a sustained period of reductions to local authority budgets and rising need. Both a robust care infrastructure was needed, as well as better crisis or disaster preparedness and planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How liberal governments manage knowledge, ignorance, prediction and uncertainty has attracted increased attention across the social sciences. In this paper, we analyse the strategy and rhetoric of the UK government during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular attention to the first half of 2020. We see the initial UK policy response – as well as its later legitimation – as a form of 'politics of impossibility', effecting political change through claims of incapacity or impotence. We argue this approach departs from the uses of knowledge and ignorance in both classical liberalism and neoliberalism, and suggests the emergence of a new, hybrid form of governance which can be dubbed liberal fatalism. We discuss the relevance of this new form of governance for political futures of an increasingly volatile world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With growing concern in the lives of individuals and communities during COVID-19, there is growing consensus across the globe that the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on different segments of society. It is of pertinent significance to understand the differential impact of pandemic on diverse groups. The concept of 'intersectional vulnerability' has been used in this paper to understand the unequal impact of the pandemic. Using an intersectional lens of ethnicity, this paper aims to understand the lived experiences of South Asian key workers' family members (women) during the COVID-19 lockdowns through narratives of precarity and vulnerability, this study brings out the challenges faced by families of key workers. Vulnerable family members' fear, stress, economic pressures, persistent inequalities in society, and gendered experiences shape the narratives of these families. The pandemic exacerbated existing precarious positions of families by creating a situation where ethnic inequality and inequitable gendered impacts were further reinforced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates ways in which labour issues in global value chains for medical gloves have been affected by, and addressed through, the COVID‐19 pandemic. It focuses on production in Malaysia and supply to the United Kingdom's National Health Service and draws on a large‐scale survey with workers and interviews with UK government officials, suppliers and buyers. Adopting a Global Value Chain (GVC) framework, the paper shows how forced labour endemic in the sector was exacerbated during the pandemic in the context of increased demand for gloves. Attempts at remediation are shown to operate through both a reconfigured value chain in which power shifted dramatically to the manufacturers and a context where public procurement became higher in profile than ever before. It is argued that the purchasing power of governments must be leveraged in ways that more meaningfully address labour issues, and that this must be part of value chain resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a UK-based group of female postgraduate researchers, the authors explored their experiences during COVID-19 pandemic through multivocal inquiry via a feminist collaborative autoethnographic project. In this paper, we use the Listening Guide as a tool to revisit and (re)analyse data from the aforementioned project, displaying findings in the form of voice poems. In utilising the Listening Guide, we discovered that listening is less of an exercise and more an art form. While the structured approach of the LG helped to enhance our understandings of wider individual experiences of disability and womanhood, identities that all authors inhabit, we were surprised to find that despite our established mutual trust and superficially similar experiences, we were unable to find emotional resonance through data that wasn't our own voice. We also found that the traditional stepped process of the LG that incorporates four listens to the data left our interpretations feeling flat. Through reflexivity and the novel collaborative approach we undertook in this analysis, we identified and implemented an augmentation of the Listening Guide process. In this paper, we propose an additional fifth listen, focusing on emotion, to facilitate a more holistic analysis of voice data. We explore how the fifth listen assisted the (re)construction of individual and collective identities, helping us to reshape our understandings. Finally, we elucidate the positives and pitfalls we experienced in the Listening Guide as a data analysis tool, recommending to other researchers the adoption of an iterative, flexible and reflexive approach in using it during collaborative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how organizations' response to a crisis such as the COVID‐19 pandemic affects their employer attractiveness. Based on signaling theory, we argue that a COVID‐19 response can signal an organization's employer brand personality, positively affecting applicant attraction. We conducted two experimental studies with employed and unemployed UK participants through Prolific Academic. Both studies indicate that a warm COVID‐19 response leads to the highest employer attractiveness and job pursuit intentions, although a competent response was still more attractive than no response. Moreover, applicants use the warm and competent responses as signals of organizational warmth and competence respectively, building higher organizational trust. Limited support for the moderating role of applicants' personality was found. Implications during and beyond COVID‐19 are discussed. Practitioner points: a.What is currently known about the topic of your study; The COVID‐19 pandemic compelled organizations to respond.An organization's communication can signal its employer brand personality.Employer brand personality can be evaluated based on warmth and competence.b.What your paper adds to this; Communicating a response to COVID‐19 can help in attracting applicants.A COVID‐19 response can signal organizational warmth and competence.A warm or competent response to a crisis can increase applicants' trust.Limited support for the moderating role of applicants' personality was found.c.The implications of your study findings for practitioners; Respond to crises such as COVID‐19 to enhance applicant attraction and trust.Share attractive COVID‐19 responses on the company website or through press.Build applicants' trust, in times of crisis, through warm or competent messages.Emphasize warmth in the COVID‐19 response to attract applicants and motivate them to apply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The COVID‐19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC) Study was established in March 2020 to monitor the psychological and socio‐economic impact of the pandemic in the UK and other countries. This paper describes the protocol for Wave 5 (March–April 2021). Methods: The survey assessed: COVID‐19 related experiences; experiences of common mental health disorders; psychological characteristics; and social and political attitudes. Adults who participated in any previous wave (N = 4949) were re‐invited to participate. Weights were calculated using a survey raking algorithm to ensure the longitudinal panel was nationally representative in terms of gender, age, and household income, amongst other factors. Results: Overall, 2520 adults participated. A total of 2377 adults who participated in the previous survey wave (November–December 2020) were re‐interviewed at Wave 5 (61.5% retention rate). Attrition between these two waves was predicted by younger age, lower household income, children living in the household, and treatment for mental health difficulties. Of the adults recruited into the C19PRC study at baseline, 57.4% (N = 1162) participated in Wave 5. The raking procedure re‐balanced the longitudinal panel to within 1.5% of population estimates for selected socio‐demographic characteristics. Conclusion: This paper outlines the growing strength of the publicly available C19PRC Study data for COVID‐19‐related interdisciplinary research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Systematic mass testing in closed settings provides information on infection rates. • Test positivity was 11.6%, with only one-quarter reporting symptoms. • The prison wing handling new admissions reported the second-lowest positivity rate. • Testing uptake was higher in residents than in staff members. • Mass testing is a valuable tool to bring outbreaks under control quickly. The aim of this paper was to describe the results of mass asymptomatic testing for COVID-19 in a male prison in England following the declaration of an outbreak. It provides novel data on the implementation of a mass testing regime within a prison during the pandemic. The paper is an observational evaluation of the mass testing conducted for 6 months following the declaration of a COVID-19 outbreak within a prison. It investigated the incidence of positive cases in both staff and residents using polymerase chain reaction testing. Data from October 2020 until March 2021 was included. A total of 2170 tests were performed by 851 residents and 182 staff members; uptake was 48.3% for people living in prison and 30.4% for staff. Overall test positivity was 11.6% (14.3% for residents, 3.0% for staff), with around one-quarter of these reporting symptoms. The prison wing handling new admissions reported the second-lowest positivity rate (9.4%) of the eight wings. Mass testing for COVID-19 over a short space of time can lead to rapid identification of additional cases, particularly asymptomatic cases. Testing that relies on residents and staff reporting symptoms will underestimate the true extent of transmission and will likely lead to a prolonged outbreak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the 'discouraged' borrower is well documented. In this paper, we consider whether smaller firms in the UK who have been previously rejected for bank loans have been scarred by the experience so badly that even in the presence of two exceptionally generous Covid-19 loan guarantee schemes, they still refuse to make an application. Furthermore, we also consider what happens when they do. As banks have either zero or minimal loss exposure, do they still maintain their normal strict lending protocols or do they relax their standards to fulfil the governments' objective of supporting struggling businesses through the crisis? Our findings show that 72% of previously rejected borrowers are reluctant to request loans. We find some evidence that previously scarred firms faced such severe liquidity problems that they relaxed their distrust of banks during the Covid-19 crisis. However, their share of the government-guaranteed loan portfolio was slightly lower suggesting that banks were treating each new loan application on its merits. Plain English Summary: The Covid-19 crisis hit smaller businesses so hard that even previously rejected borrowers were forced to apply for loans to keep them afloat. Previous loan rejections have not discouraged small businesses in the UK in applying for Covid-19 government-guaranteed loans. Banks have used the loan guarantee schemes to continue to supply loans to small business during the pandemic. Our paper analyses the important phenomenon of borrower scarring and discouragement, when potential debtors are self-excluded from the lending market because they have previous rejections or expect a negative bank response. We consider around 45,000 UK small businesses from 2018 to 2020. On the demand side, we find that the economic shock for small businesses during the pandemic dissipates the scarring effect. Specifically, we find that micro and small businesses had the highest loan demand in the first two quarters of the pandemic (from March 2020). On the supply side, we show that scarred borrowers were not routed onto Covid-19 government-guaranteed loan schemes. These findings show the importance of government-backed lending schemes for small businesses during crisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how the formal and real subsumption of academic labour in UK higher education are exposed and exacerbated by the move towards online teaching, assessment and communication. These processes have been expedited by the COVID‐19 pandemic outbreak and attention is drawn to the technology‐driven organisational and operational innovations that are transforming academic divisions of labour and labour processes. These changes, particularly in relation to the separation of research and teaching, and to the deprofessionalisation, modularisation, and outsourcing of the latter, are the focus of the paper. We argue that the formal subsumption of knowledge production (research) through commercialisation dovetails with a real subsumption of socially reproductive work (teaching) that is undergoing qualitative transformation in an increasingly marketised higher education sector. We show how digitalisation actively contributes to the growing standardisation and flexibilisation of work, deepens long‐standing gendered divisions of labour, and dissolves even further the blurred work/life boundaries for precariously employed workers. These new hallmarks of the contemporary subsumption present new challenges to workers and their collective organisations in Higher Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Community-based volunteering supports outbreak management by extending reach into at-risk communities. This paper examines the application of a 'community champions' model in England, UK, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence pre-pandemic shows that community champion interventions tap into social networks to strengthen connections with disadvantaged communities. During the pandemic, the UK government set up a COVID community champions funding award scheme for local authorities to develop local programmes that addressed emerging inequalities. The study aim was to identify transferable learning on community engagement in the pandemic by undertaking a secondary qualitative synthesis of practice-based case studies of local COVID community champion programmes. Methods: A systematic staged approach for synthesis of practice-based case studies was used. In total, 16 COVID community champion case studies, which were written by practitioners involved in local programme implementation and published by the Local Government Association, were included. Case studies covered aims, programme development and delivery, examples of activities and a discussion of learning. Framework qualitative analysis methods were used to code and organise data prior to cross case analysis. The final stage produced an overarching thematic framework that best represented descriptive and interpretive themes. Results: The results provide an overview of common features of COVID community champion programmes and emergent learning. All local programmes aimed to reduce health inequalities by involving at-risk communities in local prevention efforts, adapting the approach to local priorities. Two levels of community engagement were volunteer mobilisation and subsequent community-based outreach activities. Elements of capacity building, such as training and creation of networks, were common. The synthesis of practice-based learning found that stronger relationships with communities were regarded as a key mechanism to support more equitable prevention strategies. Other learning themes related to champion roles, community engagement strategies and programme implementation. Conclusions: By focusing on how community champion approaches were applied by local authorities in England during the COVID-19 pandemic, this study contributes to knowledge on volunteer mobilisation as a mechanism to improve public health communication and outreach. Notwithstanding the limitations of experiential evidence, the synthesis of practice-based learning highlights potentially transferable community engagement strategies for health protection and health improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic caused major disruption in community support for vulnerable older people and is thought to have exacerbated existing issues within UK adult social care. This study aims to examine the legacy of that disruption on how meeting centres for people affected by dementia have been impacted in continually evolving circumstances. Design/methodology/approach: Semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions were conducted at three meeting centre case study sites. Ninety-eight participants, including people living with dementia, family carers, staff, volunteers, trustees and external partners, were asked about the impact and legacy of the pandemic upon meeting centres. A thematic analysis was carried out on the data. Findings: Ten themes were identified: ability to re-open venues; increased health decline and loss of members due to isolation; closure or halting of linking services and dementia community support; disruption to diagnosis and referrals; increase in outreach, building communities and overall reach; digital access and use of technology (boom and decline); changes to carer involvement and engagement; continued uncertainty and changes to funding, resources and governance; staff and volunteer recruitment issues; and relief at/wish for return to pre-pandemic norms. Originality/value: This paper offers new insight into a still-developing situation, namely, the legacy effects of the pandemic upon third-sector community support for people affected by dementia and the health and social care services that support it. The reduction in maintenance of pandemic-era technological innovations is a key finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper constructs a coincident indicator for the United Kingdom employing—for the first time—a novel set of "faster" indicators recently published by the Office for National Statistics. Most of these variables were first released during the COVID‐19 pandemic with the aim of facilitating economics and social research by more timely indicators. The empirical evidence suggests that a coincident indicator based on a novel weekly dataset successfully captures the economic conditions in real time. We further use this indicator in an out‐of‐sample macroeconomic nowcasting exercise targeting monthly economic growth, prices and retail sales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching effects, not only on public health but also on the global economy, social interactions, and daily life. It has highlighted the importance of global cooperation and the need for more investment in public health and emergency preparedness. The pandemic also exposed weaknesses in many countries' educational management systems; it has forced many higher education institutions to adopt new teaching and learning methods to minimize the risk of transmission. This resulted in the need for comparative studies to evaluate the effectiveness of different pedagogical responses and to find common ground on the most effective practices and responses that would help higher education institutions better prepare for similar challenges in the future. The present study provides a comparative study and outcomes through a record of the pedagogical responses by higher education authorities in two completely different contexts (Algeria and the UK). The authors of the paper adopted a desktop analysis approach through valid and first-hand reliable sources like government and university official releases. This research methodology would involve a systematic and rigorous approach to data collection and analysis to ensure the reliability and validity of the research findings. Through coding and thematic analysis of the collected data, the researchers concluded that the efficiency of the responses and decisions adopted by higher education institutions varied depending on a range of factors such as the institution's resources, infrastructure, and student population. However, the pandemic highlighted the need for agile and serious responses to ensure the safety and well-being of students and the campus community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To investigate the mental well‐being of early career nurses working in the United Kingdom during the COVID‐19 pandemic, with a particular emphasis on symptoms related to post‐traumatic stress disorder. Design: A longitudinal survey study. Methods: Data were acquired at three timepoints during the COVID‐19 pandemic (between May 2020 and March 2021) to determine whether symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder persisted over time. Quantitative measures of well‐being were supplemented with survey data on the nurses' experiences of working during the pandemic. Results: Twenty‐seven per cent of participants suffered from persistent symptoms of post‐traumatic stress while working as nurses during the pandemic. The nurses' baseline resilience, as well as their perception of the quality of their work environment, were significant negative predictors of symptoms of post‐traumatic stress. Participants identified a range of strategies that would have helped them during the crisis, including visible, consistent and empathetic leadership, adequate training and a supportive work environment. Conclusion: The context of the pandemic has highlighted the vulnerability of the psychological well‐being of early career nurses in the workforce. Immediate implementation of some of the more simple interventions suggested in this paper would provide early career nurses with rapid support. More complex support mechanisms should be given immediate consideration, with a view to implementation in the longer term. Implications for the Profession: This study contributes new knowledge about the psychological well‐being of early career nurses working during the pandemic and suggests support mechanisms that will be crucial for the retention of these nurses in the profession. A measurement of resilience may be useful for determining the appropriate level of support to provide to early career nurses. Impact: Early career nurses are vulnerable to attrition from the profession. This could be exacerbated if the psychological well‐being of these nurses is not being supported.Around 25% of early career nurses suffered from persistent symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder while working as nurses during the height of the pandemic, which is a novel finding compared to other longitudinal studies.Understanding the psychological well‐being of early career nurses working during a crisis period (such as a pandemic) equips nurse managers with appropriate strategies to improve nurses' emotional health and to enhance their retention within the workforce.The current findings may be of interest to clinical practitioners who have responsibility for the retention of nursing staff. No patient or public contribution. One of the authors is a statistician. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discourse in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic explored its likely effects on the tourism sector including the nature of recovery. Viewed through the lens of Evolutionary Economic Geography, this paper examines the preferences of four stakeholder groups for future tourism development in Northern Devon. Specifically, it reports on their views from 2021 and 2022 of three potential scenarios which were elaborated before the pandemic, and it explores whether COVID-19 was a trigger event for a change in trajectory. There was consistent support for the most sustainable trajectory, which represented the continuation of the existing arc of development, not a fundamental change in direction triggered by COVID-19. Not only does this finding contribute a retrospective critique of early opinions on possible COVID-induced change, it suggests an alternative view of the role of trigger events in destination evolution. The pandemic offered space for reflection on tourism development, as a form of 'mindful continuation' of transformation, not a 'mindful deviation' identified in some previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the United Kingdom experiencing a series of 'lockdowns' in 2020 and 2021 that disrupted leisure and socializing, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a 'critical juncture' which has facilitated alterations to – and reflections on – drinking practices. Drawing on online semi-structured interviews and focus groups conducted between the first and second UK lockdowns, we highlight three stages in the development and maintenance of UK drinking practices using critical junctures as a theoretical framework. Firstly, we consider the antecedent conditions – such as dominant drinking cultures - that shape pre-pandemic drinking practices and form the backdrop against which changes to behaviors are made. Secondly, we explore the 'cleavage' or initial moment of disruption which gives rise to shifts in drinking practices and consider how this critical juncture stabilizes and is reproduced. Finally, we examine the possible 'legacy' of the critical juncture. The paper highlights implications for healthcare/policy including the importance of considering wider social context when seeking behavioral change. We also stress that alternative explanations – such as declining drinking rates and the growth of Temporary Abstinence Initiatives – must not be ignored when exploring people's shifting drinking behaviors, even during periods of unprecedented social change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we exploit a unique weekly longitudinal survey of adults in the UK purposefully collected to study consumption choices with respect to cultural content types during the first Covid-19 national lockdown (the "Great Lockdown"). We look for changes in the probability of consuming different cultural and creative types of content (Music, Movies, TV, Games, Books, Magazines and Audiobooks), as well as changes in the overall variety of consumption. We find that changes in consumption depend on the type of content. In particular, other things being equal, the likelihood of listening to Music and playing Games went up and the likelihood of reading Books went down. We find little statistically significant evidence of changes in the probability of consumption of the other types of content. We find that, while on average individuals increased the variety of their consumption, the statistical significance of this increase varied depending on the socio-demographic and economic characteristic of interest. In particular, we find evidence of an increase in the variety of consumption for those at the bottom of the distribution of socio-economic status, which speaks to the importance of access to culture and creativity during lockdown for this specific social class. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Infectious illness prevention and control is an important part of public health management. The early monitoring and numerical modelling of incidence data can help with the efficient prevention and control of infectious disease prevalence. The reproduction number R, as an essential index to understand the dynamics of COVID-19, can be predicted by using confirmed new incidence cases and serial interval data in the datasets provided by UK government. In this paper, an extended model is proposed to account for variable reporting rates instead of 1 for the estimation of the R number. The impact of using various modelling parameters is also evaluated, which provides insight into how to select a set of suitable parameters in modelling. The variation of the estimation of the R number by incorporating variable reporting rates can be observed and assessed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID‐19 pandemic placed unprecedented stress on the National Health Service and critical care units including those with Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) facility as this intervention had proved successful with H1N1 patients in 2009. To successfully care for the influx of ECMO patients, an ECMO clinical support team (ECST) formed by redeployed staff was created to assist critical care nurses. Aim: This service evaluation aims to review the experience of critical care nursing staff working with an ECST during the period of increased provision of ECMO care. Study Design: A UK‐based single‐site qualitative service evaluation was followed. Method: Critical care nursing staff's feedback was anonymously collected using a paper questionnaire designed for this project. Data were analysed using inductive content analysis. Findings: Approximately 40 critical care nurses were invited to complete a questionnaire, 19 (48%) of whom completed it within the available timeframe. A variety of themes were identified including 'Prior knowledge of ECST', 'Management matters', 'ECST in action', 'ECST response', 'Emotions' and 'Overall experience of the ECST'. Staff initially reported apprehension regarding a new team and training responsibilities. Following the rollout of the ECST, nurses' accounts described the utilization of the ECST and subsequent stress relief. Feedback commented on the ECST's positive attitude, effective team working with the critical care team and provision of moral support. Nurses' gratitude was strongly conveyed throughout, with many expressing the positive effect of the ECST on staff emotional well‐being. Conclusion: The implementation of the ECST provided clinical and emotional support to nurses. The ECST demonstrated the effective use of redeployed health care staff to support the critical care unit at a time of a significant increase in patients requiring ECMO. This could be used as a model to enhance staffing levels in the event of future viral outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we make a case for 'Little Data', which is real-time, self-collected, idiosyncratic datasets maintained by individuals about themselves on myriad topics. We develop and offer a methodology for combining these messy, highly personal insights, to make deductive observations about collective practices. In testing this approach, we use the case study of the 2020–21 stay-at-home orders imposed in the U.S.A., U.K., and Western Europe during the Coronavirus pandemic to operationalise and demonstrate the applicability of this method. Our main finding is to show that whilst stay-at-home orders did have a significant impact on habits during the COVID-19 pandemic, these changes were often counterintuitive, of an insightful nature on topics that would otherwise not be investigated, and always short-lived. Our main contribution is to present Little Data, despite and because of its fragmented and disparate nature, as a viable and useful tool to understand personal habits at finite junctures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The severe restrictions placed upon face‐to‐face meetings during the Covid pandemic in 2020/2021 created new challenges for the on‐going research into food systems in the Portsmouth community. The researchers had planned to use soft action research which involves participants meeting face‐to‐face. The restrictions that were imposed during the pandemic forbade such meetings and created a new set of issues for the researchers to overcome. In this paper, we describe how these shortcomings were addressed and introduce a novel way of adapting soft action research through the use of Information and Communication Technologies. The lessons learnt from our experiences will help inform researchers and professionals using Soft methods of inquiry and open opportunities for others to explore further the benefits and disadvantages of online investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did Scottish universities fare in the pandemic? This paper looks at changes in income and student enrolments, comparing the pandemic years (2020–2022) to those preceding them. Despite concerns that Covid would have negative impacts across the university sector, the analysis shows that both income and student numbers increased substantially in Scotland. This article builds on a related analysis (Armstrong 2023) and focuses on a selection of ten universities that encompass the diverse range of sizes, locations and student cohorts making up the Scottish university sector. It finds that growth in income, against expectation, accelerated during Covid, and this is largely attributable to expanded recruitment of international students, who pay significantly higher fees than those located within the UK. Scottish universities made a record amount of income from international fees in 2021–22 of £1.14 billion. The analysis of income growth is followed by exploration of changes in student numbers and cohort compositions, where international student numbers also accelerated in the pandemic. A discussion of the implications of these changes considers the growing divide among Scottish universities, and the wider implications that rapid growth and increasing dependence on one source of income has for universities, their staff and students and the cities and towns in which they are located. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]