The voluntary and community sector in Blyth Valley - developing a vision for the future

1. Sustainable Cities Research Institute has produced this report following research carried out on behalf of Blyth Valley Local Strategic Partnership. The research involved documentary analysis, case studies, and interviews and focus groups involving key players within the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS). 2. The VCS is regarded as a significant contributor to the area’s economy and a key service delivery agent. Broadly defined, it contributes about 3.8% of regional GDP and employs an estimated 4.4% of the region’s workforce. An estimated 40,000 organisations are thought to be active in the region. 3. A number of external pressures influencing the sector were identified: the need to engage with LSPs and play a full part in other local and regional networks; the need to respond to changes in governance structures; funding changes such as the end of SRB funding; and the need for strong infrastructure organisations to support the sector and enhance communication systems. 4. Contributors identified the following strengths of Blyth Valley VCS: good partnership working; dedicated volunteers; flexibility and speed of response; valuable training provision; high quality community centres; excellent community links, including involving hard to reach people; value for money; and diversity within the sector. 5. However, it was thought that the following areas could be improved upon: the relationship with the LSP; some community buildings being underused; heavy reliance on a few key staff and volunteers; structural issues, which can result in duplication of resources; heavy demands in terms of time, resources and skills; inflexible monitoring systems; the problems of short-term funding; level of social economy activity; and the need to promote the sector. 6. A number of aspirations were identified for the sector: better funding arrangements and more long-term funding; developing the infrastructure by building more centres outside Blyth town; more centralised organisational support for VCS agencies; more social economy activity, and closer working between agencies. 7. The preferred option for the future of the VCS was the development of a new infrastructure organisation that can, where appropriate, incorporate the existing infrastructure organisations and provide support to the sector as a whole. It was thought that the option of establishing this new organisation as a Development Trust should be further explored. 8. The new organisation could act as a ‘One Stop Shop’ providing advice and support on fundraising, management, human resources, health and safety, insurance, and training. It could also lend weight to funding applications; help to develop more sustainable relationships with the Council and LSP, thus freeing the Community Development Team to develop its strategic role; enhance levels of co-ordination within the sector; and develop a dedicated research facility for the sector. 9. To minimise the range of concerns expressed about how the process of change is to be managed, it is recommended that the next step should be to commission a feasibility study that will explore the various options regarding the process of change - and the establishment of the new organisation - in greater detail. 10. This report will be launched at an event held for Blyth Valley VCS in Spring 2004

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and suicidal behaviour: a living systematic review

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread morbidity and mortality as well as disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods around the world; this has occurred as a result of both infection with the virus itself and the health protection measures taken to curb its spread. There are concerns that rates of suicide, suicidal behaviours and self-harm may rise during and in the aftermath of the pandemic. Given the likely rapidly expanding research evidence base on the pandemic’s impact on rates of suicide, suicidal behaviours and self-harm and emerging evidence about how best to mitigate such effects, it is important that the best available knowledge is made readily available to policymakers, public health specialists and clinicians as soon as is possible. To facilitate this, we plan to undertake a living systematic review focusing on suicide prevention in relation to COVID-19.Method: Regular automated searches will feed into a web-based screening system which will also host the data extraction form for included articles. Our eligibility criteria are wide and include aspects of incidence and prevalence of suicidal behaviour, effects of exposures and effects of interventions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, with minimal restrictions on the types of study design to be included. The outcomes assessed will be death by suicide; self-harm or attempted suicide (including hospital attendance and/or admission for these reasons); and suicidal thoughts/ideation. There will be no restriction on study type, except for single case reports. There will be no restriction on language of publication. The review will be updated at three-monthly intervals if a sufficient volume of new evidence justifies doing so.Conclusions: Our living review will provide a regular synthesis of the most up-to-date research evidence to guide public health and clinical policy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on suicide.Protocol registration: PROSPERO CRD42020183326 01/05/202

Resource determinants of strategy and performance: the case of British exporters

This study adopts the RBV of the firm in order to identify critical advantage-generating resources and capabilities with strong positive export strategy and performance implications. The proposed export performance model is tested using a structural equation modeling approach on a sample of 356 British exporters. We examine the individual as well as the concurrent (simultaneous) direct and indirect effects of five resource bundles on export performance. We find that four resources/capabilities: managerial, knowledge, planning, and technology, have a significant positive direct effect on export performance, while relational and physical resources exhibited no unique positive effect. We also find that the firm’s export strategy mediates the resource-performance nexus in the case of managerial and knowledge-based resources. The theoretical and methodological grounding of this study contributes to the advancement of export related research by providing better specification of the nature of the effects – direct or indirect – of particular resource factors on export performance

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-harm and suicidal behaviour: update of living systematic review

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused considerable morbidity, mortality and disruption to people’s lives around the world. There are concerns that rates of suicide and suicidal behaviour may rise during and in its aftermath. Our living systematic review synthesises findings from emerging literature on incidence and prevalence of suicidal behaviour as well as suicide prevention efforts in relation to COVID-19, with this iteration synthesising relevant evidence up to 19th October 2020.Method: Automated daily searches feed into a web-based database with screening and data extraction functionalities. Eligibility criteria include incidence/prevalence of suicidal behaviour, exposure-outcome relationships and effects of interventions in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. Outcomes of interest are suicide, self-harm or attempted suicide and suicidal thoughts. No restrictions are placed on language or study type, except for single-person case reports. We exclude one-off cross-sectional studies without either pre-pandemic measures or comparisons of COVID-19 positive vs. unaffected individuals.Results: Searches identified 6,226 articles. Seventy-eight articles met our inclusion criteria. We identified a further 64 relevant cross-sectional studies that did not meet our revised inclusion criteria. Thirty-four articles were not peer-reviewed (e.g. research letters, pre-prints). All articles were based on observational studies.There was no consistent evidence of a rise in suicide but many studies noted adverse economic effects were evolving. There was evidence of a rise in community distress, fall in hospital presentation for suicidal behaviour and early evidence of an increased frequency of suicidal thoughts in those who had become infected with COVID-19.Conclusions: Research evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on suicidal behaviour is accumulating rapidly. This living review provides a regular synthesis of the most up-to-date research evidence to guide public health and clinical policy to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on suicide risk as the longer term impacts of the pandemic on suicide risk are researched

Systematic review of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicidal behaviour amongst health and social care workers across the world

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the mental health of healthcare and social care workers, and its potential effect on suicidal thoughts and behaviour is of particular concern.MethodsThis systematic review identified and appraised the published literature that has reported on the impact of COVID-19 on suicidal thoughts and behaviour and self-harm amongst healthcare and social care workers worldwide up to May 31, 2021.ResultsOut of 37 potentially relevant papers identified, ten met our eligibility criteria. Our review has highlighted that the impact of COVID-19 has varied as a function of setting, working relationships, occupational roles, and psychiatric comorbidities.LimitationsThere have been no completed cohort studies comparing pre- and post-pandemic suicidal thoughts and behaviours. It is possible some papers may have been missed in the search.ConclusionsThe current quality of evidence pertaining to suicidal behaviour in healthcare workers is poor, and evidence is entirely absent for those working in social care. The clinical relevance of this work is to bring attention to what evidence exists, and to encourage, in practice, proactive approaches to interventions for improving healthcare and social care worker mental health