Search

Background: People with intellectual disabilities commonly experience multiple barriers to 'going out'. Aims: This paper explores what barriers prevented people from going out, and if the extent and nature of going out changed over time for people with intellectual disabilities as the COVID-19 pandemic progressed. Methods: Data are drawn from a wider study that explored, at four time points, the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities through the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Findings: The number of people leaving the house for almost all reasons increased over time through the pandemic, except for some outdoor participation and exercise. However, there was a significant decrease in outdoor exercise at the final time point of the study. Reliance on other people and a lack of availability of support were identified as barriers. Conclusion: A combination of factors restricted the extent to which people were going out even after COVID-19 protections were lifted.

Autistic people experience more co-occurring health conditions and, on average, die younger than non-autistic people. Despite growing awareness of health inequities, autistic people still report barriers to accessing healthcare. We aimed to explore the experiences of autistic people accessing healthcare, shining a light on the complex interplay of relevant factors and to explain, at least in part, the possible reasons underling health disparities and adverse health outcomes. This is a qualitative study from an autistic research team. Data were collected from 1248 autistic adults as part of a large, mixed-methods, international survey exploring barriers to primary healthcare. This article reports the qualitative findings, following a thematic analysis. Using our exploratory findings, we then constructed a model to explain the reported experiences. Respondents reported a variety of barriers. Here, our article gives voice to their stories, in their own words. Themes included: early barriers; communication mismatch; doubt -- in oneself and from doctors; helplessness and fear; and healthcare avoidance and serious adverse health outcomes. Our constructed model outlines a chronological journey through which healthcare access barriers may lead to adverse health outcomes. Our findings also build on the double empathy problem, situating this in a medical context, proposing a triple empathy problem.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, many health services were withdrawn from people with learning disabilities, with negative impacts on people's health. What has happened to people's health and healthcare as we move beyond the pandemic? Methods: Access to health services and health status were tracked for 550 UK adults with learning disabilities, using structured online interviews with people with learning disabilities and online surveys with family members or paid careers. Information was provided four times, from Wave 1 (in the winter 2020/2021 'lockdown') to Wave 4 (autumn 2022, over a year after public health protections stopped). Findings: By Wave 4, most people with learning disabilities had had COVID-19, although high vaccination rates limited the number of people hospitalised. There was little evidence that use of GP services, community nurses, other therapists or annual health checks had increased over time, and at Wave 4 more people were having difficulty getting their medicines. People's health did not substantially improve over time. People with profound and multiple learning disabilities had poorer health and were less likely to be accessing health services. Conclusions: Improvements in access to health services for people with learning disabilities after the pandemic have not yet happened.

This study explores the lived experience of both in-service and pre-service apprentices studying Level 7 apprenticeship programmes. Using qualitative questionnaires, this article facilitates a thematic analysis exploring how aspects such as: rationale for enrolment; study habits; prioritisation of workload; resilience and wellbeing are experienced by educators studying either an Academic Professional Apprenticeship or a Senior Leaders Apprenticeship programme. Results demonstrate a mixed landscape is apparent for Level 7 apprentices, with tangible differences, both within and between groups, exhibited regarding reason for enrolment and study habits. The challenge around balancing work-life priorities and the encroachment of work commitments on study time (and vice versa) are a common theme for both cohorts, with those who have better established working patterns and relationships more resilient to the challenges of Level 7 apprenticeship study.

COVID-19 posed little danger to children. Nevertheless, the South African government imposed lockdown measures that impeded children's education, play and food. Schools were closed, feeding schemes were halted and organised sports were banned. In this study of South African children's experience during the 2020-22 pandemic, we use the capabilities approach, particularly Nussbaum's ten capabilities, to assess how the lockdown measures affected their development. The one-dimensional nature of the government response was evident in its focus on physical health and safeguarding adults and the health system, at the expense of children's well-being. Children were masked and their voices were not heard. Despite being far less at risk of illness or death than adults, children and young people were disproportionately affected by government regulations. Children from low-income environments were particularly severely affected.

Students in higher education (HE) are required to complete a variety of writing tasks for coursework and examinations. However, for some students writing presents a major challenge. In the UK, the availability of tools for specialist assessors to help identify difficulties with the quality of written composition is limited. The aim of this study was to develop a practical new tool, the Writing Quality Scale (WQS) for assessing writing quality in HE, that was both easy to use and did not require specialist or subject knowledge. The reliability and validity of the tool and its ability to identify students in HE who may need support were evaluated by examining scripts from 120 students (60 male) aged 17 to 25 years. The WQS was found to have good inter-rater reliability and was sensitive enough to pick up age differences and differentiate between groups of students with and without dyslexia. The WQS will be a useful tool for specialist assessors in HE to help in the identification of those with poor writing quality and to understand more about the nature of their difficulties.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a worldwide increase in the use of digital technology. Many people with learning disabilities have learned new digital skills, taken part in online activities, and kept in touch with family and friends using video calls. However, the experiences of digital participation or nonparticipation for the people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD) is less understood. Method: Between December 2020 and August 2021, family carers or paid support workers of adults with PMLD completed an online survey around the experiences of the person they care for during the COVID-19 pandemic, including questions on Internet use. We draw on the findings of this UK-wide study to explore the digital participation of the people with PMLD during the pandemic. Findings: Around half of the people with PMLD had Internet access at home. Around half of the participants interacted with others on video calls like Facetime or Zoom and most commonly used the Internet for being with family and friends online and streaming TV and films. In the event of another lockdown, 27.5% of the people supporting someone with PMLD said they would like support with technology to make seeing friends and family easier. For some the people, digital participation during the pandemic was not beneficial enough to want to continue when restrictions eased. For others, the new online experiences had the potential to be developed in their postpandemic lives. Conclusion: Around half of the people surveyed participated in digital activities during COVID-19. Future attention is needed to afford more people opportunities, and respond to access barriers experienced for the people with PMLD and those that support them.

Muscular fitness (MF) is an important modifiable factor to improve overall health. Schools offer a unique opportunity to deliver MF activity during physical education (PE) and develop competence to engage in various activities across the life course. However, the implementation of school-based MF activity may be impaired by some teachers reporting a lack of expertise and low confidence in the delivery of MF activity. Understanding teachers' thoughts and perceptions regarding the delivery of MF in schools may help guide future research and policy to support MF delivery in UK schools. Following ethical approval, a survey of secondary school PE teachers across the UK was distributed via Twitter. Survey responses were analysed and reported descriptively and thematically. Completed surveys were returned by 194 teachers (61.9% male) from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Relative to less experienced teachers, those with at least five years' service were 2.2 times more likely to have completed continued professional development (CPD) in MF activity (OR = 2.16; [beta] = 0.77; 95% CI: 1.25-3.74; p < 0.01), and 1.8 times more likely to use assessments of MF to inform PE programme decision-making (OR = 1.83; [beta] = 0.60; 95% CI: 1.18-2.82; p < 0.01). Despite the promising contribution school-based PE may have to developing MF, we report a poor understanding of MF activity amongst UK-based PE teachers. CPD is warranted to deliver successful MF interventions in a school setting.

Graded readers are a great asset to learners acquiring the vocabulary of another language. Homonyms, on the other hand, are a recognized source of trouble for students with that same goal. Publishers of graded readers control the presentation of old and new words, but does this control extend to homonyms? Are only the word forms controlled for--in which case, the unrelated meanings of "match" ("a pairing" and "a stick for starting fire") would together constitute two uses of the word? Or would these tally as separate words which, semantically and etymologically, they are? A comparison of a 4.2 million-word corpus of graded readers with previous research on the distributions of homonymic meanings in general English reveals that the meanings presented to learners are frequently quite different to those in general-purpose texts.

Was the approach proposed for calculating exam grades in summer 2020 fair? Were the grades eventually awarded (after policy changes) fair? What is a fair arrangement for 2021? These questions have been at the heart of debate in the UK in the light of COVID-19. After schools were closed in the spring of 2020 and the decision was made not to proceed with summer exams, it was judged unfair to deny students the grades they needed to progress to the next stage in their lives. The task was to find a fair way to award grades in the absence of exams. The approaches developed in all four parts of the UK--and the Republic of Ireland--were thought by the regulators and Ministers to be the fairest possible, but in the event the grades initially awarded were widely decried as "unfair" and instead all the UK countries switched to awarding Centre Assessed Grades (CAGs). The result was not only significant grade inflation (compared to previous years) but unequal treatment of different subjects and groups of candidates. In this article, we shall briefly recall the conceptual map of "fairness" that we have offered elsewhere and outline received views of assessment fairness before 2020. We shall then discuss five challenges to those received views raised by the COVID-19 experience, particularly in the UK.

This study explores the lived experience of apprentices on a degree-level programme and their perceptions of how elements of apprenticeship study that aren't components of traditional degree study -- i.e. off-the-job training -- impact their learner journey. This article undertakes a thematic analysis following qualitative interviews with eleven apprentices, who are early-career academic professionals nearing the end of their apprenticeships. Key findings offer a mixed picture, and suggest that the study habits and preferences of apprentices are personal to individuals and are impacted on by employment workload and access to off-the-job study time. Apprentices indicate that many factors encroach on their ability to utilise the allocated off-the-job study time, primarily the ability to be released from employed work and conflicting priorities around meeting study, business, and personal needs. Apprentices suggest that in reality it is almost impossible for them to spend 20% of their working time on their studies. Recommendations are offered to both institutions and individuals, regarding the need for sound dialogue and the removal of barriers to ensure that apprentices can meet the contractual requirements of apprenticeship study.

In this paper, we present our development of a previously articulated approach to counselling education of transformational learning through a relational dynamic approach (Macaskie et al., 2013). We replace the idea of integration with a values-based approach and supplement the notion of transformational relational learning with a not-knowing attitude. This perspective on education and learning in counselling parallels the attitude within psychotherapy that we teach our students. We argue that this unites relational approaches to learning and psychotherapy across modalities and offers a trans-theoretical approach that could explain the common factors research in psychotherapy.

Little is known about what features of AAC systems are regarded by AAC professionals as more suitable for children with different characteristics. A survey was conducted in which participants rated the suitability of hypothetical AAC systems on a Likert scale from 1 ("very unsuitable") to 7 ("very suitable") alongside a discrete choice experiment. The survey was administered online to 155 AAC professionals in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Statistical modeling was used to estimate how suitable 274 hypothetical AAC systems were for each of 36 child vignettes. The proportion of AAC systems rated at least 5 out of 7 for suitability varied from 51.1% to 98.5% for different child vignettes. Only 12 out of 36 child vignettes had any AAC systems rated at least 6 out of 7 for suitability. The features of the most suitable AAC system depended on the characteristics of the child vignette. The results show that, while every child vignette had several systems that had a good suitability rating, there were variations, that could potentially lead to inequalities in provision.

Few studies have investigated how individuals with partially intelligible speech choose to communicate, including how, when, and why they might use a speech-generating device (SGD). This study aimed to add to the literature by exploring how this group of individuals use different communication strategies. Qualitative interviews were carried out with 10 participants with partially intelligible speech with the aim of investigating participants' perceptions of modes of communication and communication strategies. Transcripts were analyzed using Framework Analysis to investigate the role of SGDs alongside other communication strategies. Factors that influence why, when, and how a person chooses to communicate were identified and these were interpreted as an explanatory model of communication with partially intelligible speech. Participants described how they made the decision whether to attempt to communicate at all and then which communication method to use. Decision-making was influenced by the importance of the message, how much time is available, past experience, and the communication partner. Each communication attempt adds to an individuals' experience of communicating and influences subsequent decisions. This study suggests that individuals with partially intelligible speech are at risk of reduced communication environments and networks and that current SGDs may not be designed in a way that recognizes their particular needs.

Many institutions are making the move from pen and paper to online examinations, but the literature offers relatively few critical reflections on the ramifications of such a shift. This research presents evidence of the ways in which the social and human practices of online exams are deeply entangled with the material and technological, and cautions against the reinscribing of essentialist or instrumentalist assumptions about technology in assessment practices. Through semi-structured interviews with eight practitioners in Norway, the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland, it analyses the impact, dimensions and limitations of two main discourses: "migration," whereby exam technologies are assumed to be neutral instruments used independently by humans to realise their preordained intentions; and "transformation," whereby the essential and inalienable qualities of technologies can be released to 'transform' or 'enhance' assessment. Its findings indicate that: (1) exam technologies are neither inherently neutral nor essentially transformational; (2) implementation projects underpinned by the migration discourse can be much more complex and resource-intensive than anticipated; and (3) 'transformative' change may be value-laden and driven by assumptions. Given the complex and entangled nature of online exams, practitioners are encouraged to think creatively about how assessment strategies align with educational goals, to consider the limitations of current discourses and to analyse critically the relational and performative roles of digital technologies.

Visual-verbal serial recall is disrupted when task-irrelevant background speech has to be ignored. Contrary to previous suggestion, it has recently been shown that the magnitude of disruption may be accentuated by the semantic properties of the irrelevant speech. Sentences ending with unexpected words that did not match the preceding semantic context were more disruptive than sentences ending with expected words. This particular instantiation of a deviation effect has been termed the semantic mismatch effect. To establish a new phenomenon, it is necessary to show that the effect can be independently replicated and does not depend on specific boundary conditions such as the language of the stimulus material. Here we report a preregistered replication of the semantic mismatch effect in which we examined the effect of unexpected words in 4 different languages (English, French, German, and Swedish) across 4 different laboratories. Participants performed a serial recall task while ignoring sentences with expected or unexpected words that were recorded using text-to-speech software. Independent of language, sentences ending with unexpected words were more disruptive than sentences ending with expected words. In line with previous results, there was no evidence of habituation of the semantic mismatch effect in the form of a decrease in disruption with repeated exposure to the occurrence of unexpected words. The successful replication and extension of the effect to different languages indicates the expression of a general and robust mechanism that reacts to violations of expectancies based on the semantic content of the irrelevant speech.

In the traditional approach to constructing a GCSE or A Level examination paper, a single person writes the whole paper. In some other contexts, tests are constructed by selecting questions from a bank of questions. In this research, we asked experts to evaluate the quality of Physics exam papers constructed in the traditional way, constructed by expert selection of items from a bank, and constructed by computer selection of items from a bank. Anecdotal evidence suggested a "compilation" process would be detrimental to the quality of this kind of exam. We wanted to test whether in fact assessment experts could distinguish between tests that had been created in the traditional way, and those that had been compiled by selection from a bank, when they were unaware of the method of construction.

Practical work may be assessed using many different forms of assessment, including coursework projects, practical exams and written questions in exams. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of one method for the assessment of practical science: written exam questions. Although individual syllabuses and curricula state the skills and knowledge which should be assessed in a specific qualification (e.g., the assessment of how observations are recorded, measured and estimated), currently there is no framework for categorising the skills and knowledge assessed using written questions about practical work which has been designed to be used to compare different qualifications, and used in different contexts. This article describes a study in which the development of a taxonomy is first described, then its application in evaluating current science qualifications explored. Overall feedback from stakeholders, as well as comments on the taxonomy collected during a "Science Forum" organised by a UK AO, contributed to the refinement of the statements and explanations to produce the final taxonomy. Assessment specialists/forum participant contributed to a number of adjustments to the taxonomy.

The higher education sector is under increasing pressure to deliver more and to evidence the fruits of its contribution to society. There is a particular focus on the enhanced engagement of students in order to maximise success, and for this engagement to be achieved equitably across the student body, regardless of demographic backgrounds. This calls for the sector to increase its capability to enhance student engagement in a targeted manner, and to be able to evidence success. The purpose of this article is to critically review, as a result of trialling, frameworks which offer guidance on the structuring of student engagement activity and/or encouraging behaviours associated with student engagement whether at student, teacher or institutional level. We assess the value of these frameworks in practice by identifying opportunities provided by them, reveal gaps in how they support effective student engagement activity, and identify further work for the sector in plugging the guidance gaps that lead to sub-optimal evaluation.

Purpose: Many children have difficulties understanding speech. At present, there are few assessments that test for subtle impairments in speech perception with normative data from U.K. children. We present a new test that evaluates children's ability to identify target words in background noise by choosing between minimal pair alternatives that differ by a single articulatory phonetic feature. This task: (1) is tailored to testing young children, but also readily applicable to adults; (2) has minimal memory demands; (3) adapts to the child's ability; and (4) does not require reading or verbal output. Method: We tested 155 children and young adults aged from 5 to 25 years on this new test of single word perception. Results: Speech-in-noise abilities in this particular task develop rapidly through childhood until they reach maturity at around 9 years of age. Conclusions: We make this test freely available and provide associated normative data. We hope that it will be useful to researchers and clinicians in the assessment of speech perception abilities in children who are hard of hearing or have developmental language disorder, dyslexia, or auditory processing disorder.

Aim: This article explores ways of maximising engagement of intellectual disability staff as research participants, research advisers and research implementers. Method: The authors describe and reflect on a three-phased strategy in recruiting front-line staff (n = 690) working for intellectual disability service providers (n = 25) to participate in a UK-wide anonymous online survey about death, dying and bereavement. Results: Important elements in engaging participants were: involving stakeholders at all stages of the research process, which includes: building relationships with participating organisations; enlisting organisational management support at all levels; an attractive and well laid-out collection tool; a well-structured recruitment strategy; time and flexibility; and a varied and targeted dissemination strategy. However, the recruitment method had limitations, in particular around representativeness, bias and generalisability. Conclusions: Staff in intellectual disability services can be enthusiastic and invaluable research participants. Active engagement between researchers, participating organisations and stakeholder groups is key to ensuring involvement of intellectual disability staff with research.

Background: This paper concerns mortality and needs for end-of-life care in a population of adults with ID living in generic care homes. Methods: Various sampling strategies were used to identify a difficult to find a population of people with ID in generic care homes. Demographic and health data were obtained for 132 people with ID. This included the Surprise Question. At T2, 12 months later, data were obtained on the survival of this sample. Findings: The average age was 68.6 years, and the majority were women (55.3%). Their health was typically rated as good or better. Responses to the Surprise Question indicated that 23.3% respondents might need EoLC. At T2, 18.0% of this population had died. The average of death was 72.2 years. The majority died within the care setting (62.9%). Implications: The implications for end-of-life care and mortality research are discussed.

Nationally and internationally, universities are ranked in university league tables (ULTs). Sustained academic criticism of the rationale and methodology of compiling ULTs has not stopped these rankings exerting considerable pressure on the decisions of university managers. The compilation of ULTs is an inherently political act, with the choice and weighting of metrics resulting in particular characteristics of individual institutions being rewarded or penalised. One aspect that is currently not considered by league tables is the diversity of the student intake, and the extent to which an institution has been successful in "widening participation" (WP) in higher education (HE). The need to take action is reflected in target 4.3 of the fourth United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4), which aims to "ensure equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality technical, vocational and tertiary education, including university" by 2030. This article explores how current ULT metrics for universities in the United Kingdom (UK) relate to WP. Using publicly available data, the authors found that over 75% of UK league table metrics are negatively related to WP. This has the effect of making institutions with a diverse student body significantly more likely to be lower down in the league tables. The worst relationship with WP is for entry standards. Universities which recruit high-performing students are actively rewarded in the league tables; this fails to recognise that students with high entry grades are more likely to come from privileged backgrounds. The authors developed a ULT which includes a WP score as an explicit league table metric and found that their WP-adjusted table removed the negative relationship between WP and league table rank, resulting in a somewhat fairer comparison between universities. They conclude that ULT compilers have an ethical duty to improve their definition of a "good" university, which in the current HE environment of the UK must include WP. The authors believe this should be an urgent priority for the sector, so that universities with a commitment to widening participation can be recognised and rewarded.

In recent years, questions about the purpose of higher education (HE) have come to the fore as HE tuition fees have escalated both in the UK and internationally. The extent to which universities provide students with opportunities for developing skills needed not only for future employment but participation in civic life has become an important contemporary issue. Drawing on interviews with 29 graduates from three distinct types of UK higher education institutions (HEIs) ('elite,' 'old' and 'new'), the paper explores the extent to which the pedagogical experiences provided by these different institutions offer students the sorts of experiences and skills needed for later civic participation. Our analyses suggest that the pedagogical arrangements in these institutions are highly differentiated and provide varying opportunities for developing civic skills. Whilst this potentially has significant implications for the cultivation of students' civic skills and participation in civil society, we argue that civic participation is not so much determined by pedagogic or disciplinary cultures but is located on the intersection of ranging personal and social circumstances and pedagogic experiences.

Background: Considerable attention is rightly paid to preventable deaths in adults with intellectual disabilities. The pattern of these deaths and the implications for services have been less considered. Method: This paper forms part of a larger cross-sectional study of deaths in a defined population of adults with intellectual disabilities. Data from VOICES-SF were obtained from intellectual disability service providers for each death within their supported population over 18 months, 149 decedents in all. Results: Only 34.2% of deaths were anticipated, death was often sudden or followed a short illness. Four dying trajectories were identified, and categorized by length of illness, service use, care outcomes, symptom control and cause of death. Conclusions: Recognition that most deaths in this group were unanticipated implies a need for better preparation for less expected dying and better anticipation. A descriptive epidemiology of dying among people with intellectual disabilities is needed.

Two ongoing and recurrent debates in the employment of academic staff are (1) how much industry experience should faculty staff have? and (2) what priority is given to research, teaching or both? Such debates take place worldwide and are particularly relevant to vocational subject areas. Through a statistical analysis of circa 200 job adverts for lecturer/assistant professor, senior lecturer/associate professor, and professor/full professor positions in Construction and Engineering posts in the UK, this paper investigates the essential and desirable attributes required for 'research', 'teaching' and 'overall requirements'. The analysis shows institutions unmistakably focus on, and coherently recruit for research, but demonstrate very little reasoned approach to recruiting for teaching. Indeed, findings identify 'administration' as the key teaching priority. Further empirical analysis demonstrates no significant difference in recruitment strategy before and after the introduction of the Teaching Excellence Framework, despite its aim to put teaching excellence to the fore.

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused considerable challenges for the higher education sector, leaving many students and staff to experience a sense of liminality as they cope with these challenges. This article, written by three disabled academics based in the UK, reports how during the Coronavirus pandemic, compassion and compassionate spaces could be nurtured when students and staff took the opportunity to recognise their common existence. We share insights from focus groups held with seven disabled academics and learners on their encounters with the pandemic, such as managing the complexities of studying and working from home. We demonstrate that acknowledging and responding compassionately to feelings of vulnerability can offer a lifeline for individuals. Specifically, we propose the application of the social model of disability when seeking to embed compassion in the neoliberal academy. By so doing, the higher education sector can benefit in terms of navigating our extraordinary Coronavirus circumstances, and in building a future inclusive post-pandemic academy.

Performing City Resilience is a collaborative research project that investigates interrelations between theories, practices and strategies of city resilience, and those of performance. In this essay, the authors explore ways performance might conceive of and contribute to practices of hazard mitigation strategy to better understand how these might lead to a resilient city. They focus on their research in New Orleans, working with the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness during its development of the 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plan. They discuss their interventions, initial impact, and consider performance of strategy as a critical form of 'strategy as practice'.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities commonly experience multiple barriers to 'going out'. Aims: This paper explores what barriers prevented people from going out, and if the extent and nature of going out changed over time for people with intellectual disabilities as the COVID‐19 pandemic progressed. Methods: Data are drawn from a wider study that explored, at four time points, the experiences of people with intellectual disabilities through the COVID‐19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. Findings: The number of people leaving the house for almost all reasons increased over time through the pandemic, except for some outdoor participation and exercise. However, there was a significant decrease in outdoor exercise at the final time point of the study. Reliance on other people and a lack of availability of support were identified as barriers. Conclusion: A combination of factors restricted the extent to which people were going out even after COVID‐19 protections were lifted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Weight stigma is pervasive within healthcare and negatively impacts both access to care and the patient‐practitioner relationship. There is limited evidence on weight stigma among registered dietitians, particularly in the United Kingdom, though data show weight‐related prejudice towards people living with obesity. The aim of this study was to examine both explicit and implicit weight stigma in practicing dietitians in the United Kingdom, as well as the lived experience of weight stigma among dietitians, both towards themselves and towards others. Methods: An online cross‐sectional survey was disseminated between February and May 2022 using snowball sampling. Inclusion criteria were that participants were UK registered dietitians aged 20–70 years. Results: Four hundred and two dietitians responded to the survey (female [94.1%], mean age 40.2 years [standard deviation (SD) 10.7]; White ethnicity [90%]; median 12 years [interquartile range (IQR) 6, 22] within dietetic practice). Mean self‐reported body mass index was 25.1 kg/m² (SD 8.7). Most dietitians reported experiencing weight stigma prior to (51%) and postregistration (59.7%), whereas nearly a quarter (21.1%) felt that weight influenced their ability as a dietitian. Weight stigma was experienced across the weight spectrum. Overall participants reported explicit weight bias attitudes, moderate beliefs that obesity is controllable and implicit antifat bias. Within open‐ended responses, dietitians reported three key themes related to their personal experiences of weight stigma: (1) experiences of stigma in dietetic practice, (2) impact of weight stigma and (3) perception of weight, appearance and job. Conclusion: This study shows that UK dietitians exhibit both explicit and implicit weight bias towards people living with obesity. Dietitians reported experiencing weight stigma, which impacted their career‐related decisions and their perception of their own ability to perform as dietitians. The study highlights the need to address weight stigma and its implications within the dietetic profession. Key points: Dietitians personally experience weight stigma prior to and post registration. Experiencing stigma impacts on career‐related decisions, the area of expertise dietitians choose and their confidence in their own abilities to practise as dietitians.Weight stigma is experienced across the weight spectrum.These data show that dietitians have both explicit and implicit bias towards people living with obesity.Our data highlight the need for weight stigma to be addressed within dietetic practice, both from a patient‐practitioner and professional point of view.There is a need for dietetic associations to address how weight stigma impacts the profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite assessment and feedback being important elements of the student experience, it is not clear how students connect these two elements together to improve their learning. What are students doing with the assignment feedback that they receive from tutors, and how do they make use of this feedback in their future assessments? A research study was undertaken to deconstruct feedback from the perspective of the tutor giving the feedback and the student receiving the feedback in order to explore the connections that students are able to make between the feedback received and future assessments. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with tutor and student participants, during which they were invited to articulate their practices and interactions with feedback at each stage of the assessment process. This paper reports on both student and tutor actions at each stage of the assessment process and discusses the implications of these behaviours for enhancing student engagement with feedback.

Background: Population-based data are presented on the nature of dying in intellectual disability services. Methods: A retrospective survey was conducted over 18 months with a sample of UK-based intellectual disability service providers that supported over 12,000. Core data were obtained for 222 deaths within this population. For 158 (71%) deaths, respondents returned a supplemented and modified version of VOICES-SF. Results: The observed death was 12.2 deaths per 1,000 people supported per year, but just over a third deaths had been deaths anticipated by care staff. Mortality patterns, place of usual care and availability of external support exerted considerable influence over outcomes at the end of life. Conclusion: Death is not a common event in intellectual disability services. A major disadvantage experienced by people with intellectual disabilities was that their deaths were relatively unanticipated. People with intellectual disabilities living in supported living settings, even when their dying was anticipated, experienced poorer outcomes.

Background: Illness and death are part of life for everyone, including people with intellectual disabilities. This study investigated the extent to which staff communicate about death with people with intellectual disability facing terminal illness or bereavement. Method: Staff who support people with intellectual disability in the UK (n = 690) completed an electronic survey. Detailed data were obtained from staff where a client had died in the past 12 months (n = 111), was terminally ill (n = 41) or had been bereaved (n = 200). Analysis included descriptive and chi-squared statistics. Results: 52.6% of people with intellectual disability who were terminally ill were told about their illness, and 18.1% were told they would die. Of those experiencing an anticipated bereavement, 32.4% of staff said no one talked about this with them beforehand. A quarter of staff had received training on end of life or bereavement. Conclusion: Death affects many people with intellectual disability. Staff require training and support in communicating death.

This paper reports on research about the experiences of disabled staff members in UK universities, drawing on eleven semi-structured interviews with disabled staff in one university, alongside a group auto ethnography conducted by the first four authors, all of whom identified as disabled academics. Disability is generally considered to be predominantly an issue for students, both in practice and in the literature. By contrast, taking a social practice approach, we focused on the barriers faced by disabled employees, both overt and hidden. We found that disability was still viewed as a medical problem, and that disabled members of staff faced considerable extra labour in organising their own supports. We were often made to feel that we were unwanted and that we were 'misfits' in the institution. This paper contributes to theory by showing how social practices can become exclusionary, and how interconnections between practices matter. We discuss ways in which ableism, based on the ideal of 'individual' excellence, creates barriers for disabled staff. In the global context of Higher Education, the increasing marketization of universities in higher income countries creates a difficult climate for the values of inclusion.

Fossil fuel corporations play a significant role in promoting their interests in schools and other educational institutions, a practice that has recently been labelled as 'petro-pedagogy.' But this role goes beyond the production of the pro-petroleum and anti-science corporate propaganda that tends to attract the most critical attention. In this article, I present a case study of the involvement of BP, one of the world's largest fossil fuel corporations, in primary and secondary education in the United Kingdom. As practiced by BP, petro-pedagogy constitutes a core part of a corporate education reform network that, for the past decade, has focused on promoting a neoliberal model of STEM education in schools around the world. This model, based on corporate and capitalist interests, poses a significant threat to our collective efforts to tackle the global climate crisis.

The Marginalisation and Co-created Education (MaCE) project was developed between the University of Southern Norway, VIA University in Denmark and the University of Cumbria in the UK and funded by Erasmus+. The project aims to co-create proposals to achieve an equitable and socially just education system through participative action research with 'Early School Leavers'. This paper establishes a conceptual framework called 'Equalities Literacy' that evolved from the first action research cycle of the project. The framework is informed by the practice experience and theoretical knowledge of the international and interdisciplinary research team. It is applied to one youth narrative in this paper to illustrate its efficacy in revealing socio-cultural in/equalities. The Equalities Literacy framework is proposed to challenge and inform practice and further research. Further, the 'Indirect Approach' is introduced and located within action research as a participatory methodology that other researchers may wish to adopt.

Considerable attention has been paid to the economic benefits of participating in higher education, particularly the 'economic premium' of graduates compared to non-graduates. Although the civic contribution of graduates has been widely acknowledged and discussed, there has been a dearth of empirical analysis that investigates this contribution. Furthermore, the massification of higher education in the UK, US, and many other countries, has had profound impacts on the higher education experience. But little is known about how changes to the form and function of mass higher education have impacted on the civic contribution of university graduates. This research attempts to address this by focussing specifically on associational membership of university graduates during their early adulthood. By calculating the 'civic premium' of UK graduates compared to their non-graduate peers over time we are able explore the relationship between associational membership and higher education participation following the massification of UK higher education.

This paper presents the results of a small-scale qualitative study conducted at a UK university in which a sample of undergraduate students were asked to reflect on the (often subconscious) processes they use to engage with, act upon, store and recall feedback. Through the use of micro-blogging, weekly diaries and semi-structured interviews, the study found that students understand what feedback is and how it should be used. Students recognise the impact of technology in enhancing the feedback process, especially in supporting dialogue around feedback. However, the study highlighted that students often struggle to make connections between the feedback that they receive and future assignments, and it is recommended that further investigation is required into how tutors construct the feedback given and how students deconstruct that feedback, along with the role that technology might play in enabling students to make sense of all feedback that they receive.

This article discusses and challenges the increasing use of plagiarism detection services such as Turnitin and Grammarly by students, arguing that the increasingly online nature of composition is having a profound effect on student composition processes. This dependence on the Internet is leading to a strategy I term 'de-plagiarism', in which students copy/paste text into their essays and then 'cleanse' the text to avoid plagiarism detection. I then argue that this is being done in the context of an increasingly 'de-authored' writing environment, manifested by lack of formative writing development and anonymous marking, rendering the student invisible in the writing process. I then report on a phenomenon observed in class -- namely that students who handwrote an exercise produced better, more original writing than those who typed, leading me to explore the affordances -- via Bakhtinian notions of dialogicality and addressivity -- of handwriting as a means of 're-authoring' the essay-writing process.

The 'learning city' contains a range of non-formal learning economies. In recent years researchers have focused on, what has been termed, the non-formal arts learning sector, to document best practices, the emergence of new literacies and/or cultural practices, and to highlight interventions that support otherwise marginalised and underserved communities. Yet, for all of this attention, the non-formal learning sector has remained an opaque object, defined by hazy boundaries, diverse programme structures, and a presence in cities that is difficult to grasp. In this paper we develop an account of the non-formal arts learning sector for socially disadvantaged youth by treating it as a 'socio-technical assemblage' of the learning city. We draw on data from the "Youthsites" research project and examine the history, priorities, and tensions in the sector between 1995 and 2015, a period when the youth arts sector has become a significant feature of urban space. We trace the emergence of the sector in three global cities, analyse a series of paradoxes linked to income and property, the labelling of youth, and organisation aims, and show how these paradoxes shape the sector's broader relationship with the state, labour and consumer markets, and related institutions that allocate support for young people.

The QUANT study represents the most extensive open-access evaluation of commercial air quality sensor systems to date. This comprehensive study assessed 49 systems from 14 manufacturers across three urban sites in the UK over a three-year period. The resulting open-access dataset captures high time-resolution measurements of a variety of gasses (NO, NO2, O3, CO, CO2), particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10), and key meteorological parameters (humidity, temperature, atmospheric pressure). The quality and scope of the dataset is enhanced by reference monitors' data and calibrated products from sensor manufacturers across the three sites. This publicly accessible dataset serves as a robust and transparent resource that details the methods used for data collection and procedures to ensure dataset integrity. It provides a valuable tool for a wide range of stakeholders to analyze the performance of air quality sensors in real-world settings. Policymakers can leverage this data to refine sensor deployment guidelines and develop standardized protocols, while manufacturers can utilize it as a benchmark for technological innovation and product certification. Moreover, the dataset has supported the development of a UK code of practice, and the certification of one of the participating companies, underscoring the dataset's utility and reliability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Heart failure (HF) with preserved or mildly reduced ejection fraction includes a heterogenous group of patients. Reclassification into distinct phenogroups to enable targeted interventions is a priority. This study aimed to identify distinct phenogroups, and compare phenogroup characteristics and outcomes, from electronic health record data. Methods: 2,187 patients admitted to five UK hospitals with a diagnosis of HF and a left ventricular ejection fraction ≥ 40% were identified from the NIHR Health Informatics Collaborative database. Partition-based, model-based, and density-based machine learning clustering techniques were applied. Cox Proportional Hazards and Fine-Gray competing risks models were used to compare outcomes (all-cause mortality and hospitalisation for HF) across phenogroups. Results: Three phenogroups were identified: (1) Younger, predominantly female patients with high prevalence of cardiometabolic and coronary disease; (2) More frail patients, with higher rates of lung disease and atrial fibrillation; (3) Patients characterised by systemic inflammation and high rates of diabetes and renal dysfunction. Survival profiles were distinct, with an increasing risk of all-cause mortality from phenogroups 1 to 3 (p < 0.001). Phenogroup membership significantly improved survival prediction compared to conventional factors. Phenogroups were not predictive of hospitalisation for HF. Conclusions: Applying unsupervised machine learning to routinely collected electronic health record data identified phenogroups with distinct clinical characteristics and unique survival profiles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the development and purpose of the Great Britain Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Guidelines, highlighting their role in standardizing care and improving outcomes through a multidisciplinary approach. It also discusses the nature of head and neck cancers, the impact of HPV on cancer incidence, and the organization of head and neck cancer services and patient management.

A correction to the article "Head and Neck Cancer: United Kingdom National Multidisciplinary Guidelines, Sixth Edition," published online on March 14, 2023 is presented.

Background and purpose: The eye is a well‐established model of brain structure and function, yet region‐specific structural correlations between the retina and the brain remain underexplored. Therefore, we aim to explore and describe the relationships between the retinal layer thicknesses and brain magnetic resonance image (MRI)‐derived phenotypes in UK Biobank. Methods: Participants with both quality‐controlled optical coherence tomography (OCT) and brain MRI were included in this study. Retinal sublayer thicknesses and total macular thickness were derived from OCT scans. Brain image‐derived phenotypes (IDPs) of 153 cortical and subcortical regions were processed from MRI scans. We utilized multivariable linear regression models to examine the association between retinal thickness and brain regional volumes. All analyses were corrected for multiple testing and adjusted for confounders. Results: Data from 6446 participants were included in this study. We identified significant associations between volumetric brain MRI measures of subregions in the occipital lobe (intracalcarine cortex), parietal lobe (postcentral gyrus), cerebellum (lobules VI, VIIb, VIIIa, VIIIb, and IX), and deep brain structures (thalamus, hippocampus, caudate, putamen, pallidum, and accumbens) and the thickness of the innermost retinal sublayers and total macular thickness (all p < 3.3 × 10−5). We did not observe statistically significant associations between brain IDPs and the thickness of the outer retinal sublayers. Conclusions: Thinner inner and total retinal thicknesses are associated with smaller volumes of specific brain regions. Notably, these relationships extend beyond anatomically established retina–brain connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This systematic literature review examines the evidence base on the effectiveness of online programmes on the mental health and well-being of family carers of people with intellectual disabilities. Databases (ERIC, Medline, PsycINFO and CINAHL) were searched for intervention studies that considered online interventions for family carers of people with intellectual disabilities. Data were extracted using standardised data extraction tools. Bias was assessed using the Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomised trials (RoB 2). Screening, extraction and assessment of bias were completed independently by two members of the research team. Given the low number of included studies and different outcomes assessed within them, it was not possible to conduct a meta-analysis; therefore, data are presented narratively. Two studies met the criteria to be included in the review. Both studies utilised a feasibility randomised controlled trial methodology. One study found a significant decrease in parental stress, while the other found a significant increase in psychological well-being. Caution must be taken in drawing firm conclusions, given the small sample sizes and low retention rates in both studies. Online programmes seem to offer potential benefits to family carers of people with intellectual disabilities. However, further investigation is needed to examine these programmes, adopting a collaborative approach with family carers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]