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Society | The Guardian
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- UK government may start offering financial rewards for becoming healthier
NHS and councils in England also being given £70m towards weight loss and fitness courses
The government is expanding access to weight loss services and may start offering people financial rewards for maintaining a healthy lifestyle as part of the fight against obesity.
The Department of Health and Social Care is giving the NHS and local councils in England £70m to pay for up to 700,000 overweight or obese people to go on weight management courses, such as those provided by Weight Watchers or Slimming World, or work with a personal coach to help them shed unwanted pounds.
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- All UK adults could get Covid vaccine dose by June if supply speeds up
Office for Budget Responsibility sets out scenario in which government beats its pledge by a month
All adults in the UK could receive a first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by June if the pace of inoculations steps up to 4m a week from this month, according to the UK’s official economic forecaster.
The Office for Budget Responsibility said in economic forecasts published alongside the budget that government public health advisers were assuming vaccine supply could reach 4m a week from 25 April.
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- Budget means tax rises ahead – and little new for first-time buyers
Analysis: Freezing allowances will lead to more people paying income tax, while the stamp duty holiday is driving up house prices
We can hardly call them “stealth tax rises” this time around, as the chancellor was at pains to spell out the impact of his decision to freeze both personal allowances and the amount you can put in your pension over your working life. But for many people the increases outlined in the budget may remain under the radar for a while.
Personal allowances will rise as planned in April. The first £12,750 of income will still be tax-free, while the 40% rate will kick in at £50,270. But after that there will be no change until 2026. Any inflation-linked increase in pay or benefits will therefore be eroded by the extra tax you will pay.
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- Give women’s sport a chance on International Women’s Day | Brief Letters
Margaret Thatcher statue | Women’s sport | Ian St John | Drying washing | Potholes | Carrie Symonds
I note that the erection of a statue of Margaret Thatcher in Grantham will no longer be publicly funded, but instead covered by private donations (Grantham council won’t pay for Thatcher statue unveiling, 2 March). In short, it has been privatised. It’s what she would have wanted.
Keith Flett
Tottenham, London• Monday is International Women’s Day. How about breaking the long sexist habit of your newspaper and devoting the whole of the sports section to women’s sport? I dare you. After that, challenge yourselves to keep a 50-50 balance of women and men.
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Mary Gildea
Charlton, London -
- NHS, social care and most vulnerable 'betrayed' by Sunak's budget
Experts say failure to give NHS extra cash would see it struggle with pandemic’s ‘challenging legacy’
- Analysis: Sunak digs in for battle against financial cost of Covid
- Budget 2021: key points at a glance
- Budget 2021 live: Sunak to freeze income tax thresholds
A lack of support for care homes, the NHS and people on benefits led to claims that Rishi Sunak’s budget had left the country’s most vulnerable people “betrayed”.
In his statement to the Commons, the chancellor ignored the social care system and set out only a temporary extension of the universal credit boost, potentially plunging 500,000 people into poverty next winter.
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Community Care
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- Managing chaos, doing our best for patients and supporting each other: hospital social work under Covid
Monday 25 January 2021 Our team manager is on leave today so I start early to be prepared. I chair a virtual team meeting at 8.30am to run through patients who are ‘medically stable for discharge (MSFD)’. We catch up… -
- Care review launches with focus on ensuring love, stability and safety for children in families and in care
The care review will focus on ensuring love, stability and safety for children, whether in their families or in care, chair Josh MacAlister has said as it started work yesterday. An early plan for the review said it would deliver… -
- Social Worker and Senior Social Worker
https://jobs.communitycare.co.uk/job/1401688574/social-worker-and-senior-social-worker/… -
- How social work managers can manage stress
By Kate Snowdon, assistant content editor, Community Care Inform Adults Stress is an occupational hazard for most social workers, and sadly now more so than ever. Working with some of the most vulnerable members of our society, social workers regularly… -
- Rebooted social work academy to focus on strengths and leadership
“Social workers are leaders of systems, so the social work academy needs to be a platform for developing leaders.” Lee-Anne Farach, Medway’s assistant director of children’s social care, is speaking alongside her principal social worker, Lori Goossen, about the relaunch…
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- This 4-Ingredient Mini Egg Rocky Road Recipe Is Egg-Squisite
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- Rishi Sunak Is ‘Going Long’ On Covid Support, But Is He Going Short On The Next Election?
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- Buckingham Palace To Investigate Bullying Claims Made Against Meghan Markle
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- Covid Gives Boris Johnson No Choice But To Finally Tackle Our Obesity Crisis
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- ‘Dramatic’ Link Between Covid Deaths And Obesity, New Study Shows
Blogs
Social Care Network | The Guardian
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- 'Don’t expect a survivor to tell you her experience of undergoing FGM'
Specialist social workers explain how they support women and girls affected by the practice
When social worker Sam Khalid [not her real name] first began working with women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM), she found there wasn’t much awareness of the brutal practice in the UK.
She was in her first year at university, in 2011, on a placement with a Women’s Aid team. “The service I was placed in was just starting its FGM unit, and I learned about the practice and met and spoke to many survivors,” she says.
This article was amended on 12 December 2018. An earlier version referenced statistics from a recent Guardian article which was taken down after the Guardian was notified of a fundamental error in the official data on which it was based.
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- We want to attract the right people with the right values to social care | Caroline Dinenage
New government recruitment campaign will raise the image and profile of the sector
This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of our amazing NHS, but we must not forget that adult social care is also marking 70 years. The National Assistance Act 1948 that created many of the core elements of the modern social care system came into effect on the same day as the NHS act.
In the NHS’s birthday month we have heard many stories of the dedicated nurses, doctors and support staff who have been saving and transforming lives across its seven decades. While these staff are rightly seen as the backbone of the NHS, hardworking care workers, nurses, social workers, managers and occupational therapists are, likewise, the foundation of the adult social care sector – and they have been on the same 70-year journey as colleagues in health. They are two sides of the same coin – inseparable and essential to each other.
Related: Even on its 70th birthday, social care remains a Cinderella service | Anita Charlesworth
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- The UK project giving refugees another chance at childhood
Young refugees face unspeakable trauma to get here. But a cross-charity initiative is helping them to rebuild their lives
It is hard to be an adult when you feel like you haven’t had the chance to be a child.
This simple statement has stayed with me over the last 12 months of working with young refugees and asylum seekers. Among them, a 17-year-old boy forced to sleep in a railway station for months; and another who witnessed the killing of his brother and father and escaped from his home country in fear of his life.
Related: How English councils are supporting unaccompanied child asylum seekers
Related: 'Young migrants in Ireland are treated as children, not asylum seekers'
We can’t take away what they’ve been through, but we can ensure they have something to look forward to
Related: Sign up for the Society Weekly email newsletter
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- UN: spend an extra £5tn by 2030 to tackle global 'care crisis'
Report highlights risk of rising inequality against women worldwide
The world economy faces a looming “care crisis” risking further division between men and women across the planet, according to a UN report calling for governments and companies worldwide to spend at least an extra $7tn (£5.3tn) on care by 2030.
Making the case for spending on support for children, old people and the neediest in society to double by the end of the next decade, the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned demographic changes alone mean the current path for care funding falls far short of requirements.
Related: Theresa May tells taxpayers to expect to pay more to fund NHS
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- Theresa May got it wrong with her cash boost for the NHS. Here's why
Assessing what the health service needs is essential before giving it more money to meet demand
Four key things were missing from Theresa May’s announcement of extra money for the NHS.
There was no admission that there is an NHS crisis that needs tackling. Or that money is needed now for both the the health service and social care. Without this emergency cash injection, there will be insufficient time and resource to make the necessary preparations to avoid a repeat – or indeed worsening – of last year’s winter crisis in the NHS and social care with the trail of waits, delays, suffering and extra deaths that accompanied it.
Related: The Guardian view on the NHS cash plan: the Brexit dividend claim is a lie | Editorial
Related: Sign up for the Society Weekly email newsletter
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- Development Nutshell: audio round-up (15m) of FP2P posts, w/b 22nd February
Links I Liked; How can a Book Change the World? The theory of action behind Kate Raworth and the Doughnut Economics Action Lab; Watching the ICC Judgement of LRA commander Dominic Ongwen with Ugandan victims of enforced marriage; When throwing evidence and facts is not enough. How Change Happens in the Humanitarian System
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- Development Nutshell: round-up (20m) of FP2P posts, w/b 15th February
Links I Liked; After Covid, what next for the world’s kids?; How to change policy and practice at city level? A discussion with some influencers?; What kinds of 'Agency' are emerging as grassroots organizations respond to Covid?
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- Development Nutshell: round-up (12m) of FP2P posts, w/b 8th February
Links I Liked; Seizing a window of opportunity: lessons from research on anti-corruption reform; Is Campaigning on Inequality harder? Here's what some of the world's inequality activists said; Words to sprinkle, camouflage and befuddle: Idle musings on the slipperiness of language
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- Development Nutshell: audio round-up (14m) of FP2P posts, w/b 1st February
Imagining the world anew: gender equality and women’s rights - Part 2; Three dreams we must dream when writing Chile’s new constitution; How to think about Power - aka Learning from my Students; Win-win: Designing climate change projects for effective anti-corruption in Bangladesh
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- Development Nutshell: audio round-up (10m) of FP2P posts, w/b 25th January
Links I Liked; Why the Inequality Virus should be the talk of Davos this week; Right now, it feels like anything can derail everything, so are theories of change still useful?; Imagining the world anew: the pandemic and gender equality
Opinion | The Guardian
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- Steve Bell on Rishi Sunak's budget and Boris Johnson's renovations - cartoon
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- The Guardian view on Rishi Sunak's budget: Britain will go backwards with tax rises and spending cuts | Editorial
The chancellor would like Britain’s relief response to be seen like Joe Biden’s in the US. But President Biden believes in the power of government, Mr Sunak does not
Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, has emerged in recent months with the plausible aura of a future Tory leader. This budget was a crucial one for two reasons. First, it was the biggest fiscal event since the UK left the orbit of the European Union. Second, it is dawning on Britons that they can see beyond the shadow of coronavirus. Both beg the question: what sort of country could we expect to live in post-pandemic? Mr Sunak did not have an answer, which exposes him as a man of style, not substance.
In doing less than he had promised, the chancellor revealed more about the government than he perhaps wanted. Brexit’s dividend is barely visible in an age of coronavirus. The climate emergency was noticeable by its absence. It is good news that part of the Treasury and a national infrastructure bank will be in the north. Britain is far too centralised a state. But there was a wider, troubling pattern of pork-barrel spending that saw Mr Sunak shower “red wall” seats that voted Tory with free ports and town deals, as well as thinly disguised bids to buy off independence demands in Scotland. The most tangible result of Brexit seems to be an elevated trade deficit.
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- The Guardian view on the pope in Iraq: in the footsteps of Abraham | Editorial
The first papal visit to Iraq can promote inter-faith dialogue in an age of religious polarisation
The lead-up to the first-ever papal visit to Iraq has been somewhat overshadowed by concerns over its timing. Last month, a surge of coronavirus cases led the Iraqi government to impose a partial lockdown and curfew. The Vatican’s ambassador to Iraq, Archbishop Mitja Leskovar, is currently self-isolating after testing positive for Covid, and there are fears that crowds enthusiastic to see Pope Francis could ignore social distancing rules at public events. Security concerns have also been heightened by the double suicide bombing at a Baghdad market in January, which killed at least 32 people.
The Iraqi authorities are confident that the risks can be managed. But given the circumstances, there was certainly a case for delaying the trip, which begins on Friday and will last four days. The pope’s determination to go ahead testifies to the significance he attaches to a visit that sums up two key themes of his papacy: the need to develop genuine inter-faith dialogue with Islam, and a non-sectarian vision of the church as a “field hospital”, where the spiritual wounds of the suffering are healed.
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- Shameful cut in UK aid to Yemen is indefensible | Letters
Readers respond to the government’s decision to slash aid to Yemen
When Andrew Mitchell says that “cutting aid to Yemen by 50% is unconscionable” (Somalia health clinics will close due to UK aid cuts, charity warns, 2 March), and adds that “this is not who we are”, John Crace disagrees, and is right up to a point (The Politics Sketch, 2 March).
It is what this nation has become, largely because of what can only be described as brainwashing. Being told constantly by the media that the national debt needs repaying urgently and foreign aid has to be cut leads to a gradual acceptance of such falsehoods – as Boris Johnson well knows when claiming to have popular support, and mocking Keir Starmer for devoting all six of his questions at this week’s prime minister’s questions to the subject of a poor country’s imminent famine.
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- I want to hear the case for and against Prevent | Letter
I approach this review in a spirit of collaboration, writes William Shawcross
As Sadakat Kadri’s article showed (Why is the government trying to undermine its anti-terror programme?, 1 March), Prevent arouses strong views. This is not surprising. The stakes are very high.
As a writer and journalist, I have seen that terrorism comes from many sources, and inflicts terrible wounds on souls as well as bodies. I have attempted to deal head-on with the thorny moral and legal issues that emerged as the west responded to the threat of Islamist terrorism after 9/11. This has led to some of my views being misrepresented or misinterpreted.
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Learning in the Modern Workplace
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- Modern Training Part 1 (Online Workshop)
- 1 – 26 March 2021 Modern training is not just about digitising current training events but thinking differently about what is appropriate for today’s workforce. There are two (4 week) workshops so you can take one or the other or both. In the first we focus on creating fundamental training initiatives, whilst in the second […]
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- MWL Benchmarking Survey
- How modern is your organisation’s approach to workplace learning? In this final survey of this section we ask you which of the activities described on the Roles & Responsibilities page you have already implemented, are planning on implementing, or are not yet planning to implement. You can use this survey to benchmark your organisation’s L&D activities […]
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- MWL 2021: New roles and responsibilities
- In MWL 2021 Back to Basics we looked at the 3 key strands of work: (1) Promoting continuous self-learning, (2) Supporting continuous learning from the work, and (3) Modern Training. But this will not be the sole responsibility of the L&D function. Learning in the modern workplace is everyone’s responsibility – with overlapping roles – as […]
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- Frequency of Learning
- How FREQUENTLY do you learn from each of the 4 D’s of Learning? Please take the survey below which asks how frequently YOU learn from these 14 specified ways?
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- Online Workshop: Promoting self-learning and self-development
- Next public workshop: 11 January – 19 February 2021 Continuous learning and development in the workplace is much more than continuous training. Whilst it is up to everyone to become a lifelong learner and keep up to date with what’s happening in their industry or profession to remain employable, it’s also up to L&D departments […]