Making sense of policy in London secondary education : what can be learned from the London Challenge

This thesis presents an examination of the policy process in education, focusing on\ud the London Challenge as an exemplifying case study. The policy problem of the\ud London Challenge was the poorer performance of London secondary schools\ud compared to other regions and considerable between-school variation. Social\ud polarisation was intensified by the relationship between education, 'place' and social\ud disadvantage and so the London Challenge was designed to intervene in this\ud situation.\ud A critique of the London Challenge policy over the course of its eight year life is\ud presented in the thesis, identifying that a significant shift in the leadership of the\ud policy — from policy-maker to practitioner — took place as it evolved, altering the\ud character of the policy. The thesis finds that practitioners, especially headteachers,\ud played a central role in the success of the London Challenge because they re-shaped\ud the policy as they implemented it.\ud An examination of the policy process of the London Challenge follows, together with\ud an empirical study in this thesis. They show that there was a gradual ceding of power\ud from policy-makers to headteachers and London Challenge advisers who led the\ud policy's implementation. It created a 'high trust / high accountability' model for\ud education policy-making which paired professional autonomy and expertise with\ud accountability to government for improvement in London's secondary schools. This\ud took place within a framework of conditions that required shared moral purpose,\ud strong leadership, high challenge with an openness to supportive and fair datainformed\ud scrutiny and a regional commitment to collegial partnership.\ud The thesis concludes that what can be learned from the London Challenge is that\ud `mature' self-improving education systems should provide the right conditions for\ud headteachers to act as system leaders with the transformative power to create and lead\ud education policy to the benefit of all a region's schools and its children

When fat meets disability in poverty porn: exploring the cultural mechanisms of suspicion in Too Fat to Work

There has been a distinct neglect of dis/ability in socio-cultural analysis of poverty porn (Runswick-Cole and Goodley 2015). This paper applies framing analysis to reality TV documentaries that feature larger bodied, disabled, welfare claimants to examine how cultural literacies of fatness and ‘obesity’ are drawn upon to cast suspicion upon disability welfare claimants in so-called poverty- porn. With a focus on Channel 5’s Benefit Britain series, Bene£its Too Fat to Work we demonstrate that enduring and harmful representations of 'obesity' are put to the work of securing public consent for a post-welfare society in the U

Policy impact and policy process in transforming urban schools: A single school case study of the London Challenge

School improvement research shows that sustained improvements in schools take time to achieve. Have education policies which pre-date the London Challenge had some effect on the rises in standards that we see now? What about other effects on policy as it is implemented, such as the role of the practitioner in the policy process? Where best to direct public resources is a key question for policy-makers; it is argued in this paper that more investigation of the London Challenge’s impact is required to identify more precisely which elements of the policy have had most positive outcomes. Such information will help to direct any expansion of the policy more effectively.
 
 This paper addresses these questions by describing a small scale study, situated in one inner London comprehensive secondary school which was undertaken as an Institution Focused Study – a component of the doctorate in education programme. Because the study is small-scale, the findings have limited validity. Nevertheless, the study is a start in the process of testing the impact of the London Challenge on individual London schools. The study concludes that policy in education should consider carefully the mediating role of practitioners, especially school leaders, in the policy process since this is where much of the potential for transformative power in schools resides

A methodology for estimating SARS-CoV-2 importation risk by air travel into Canada between July and November 2021

Abstract Background Estimating rates of disease importation by travellers is a key activity to assess both the risk to a country from an infectious disease emerging elsewhere in the world and the effectiveness of border measures. We describe a model used to estimate the number of travellers infected with SARS-CoV-2 into Canadian airports in 2021, and assess the impact of pre-departure testing requirements on importation risk. Methods A mathematical model estimated the number of essential and non-essential air travellers infected with SARS-CoV-2, with the latter requiring a negative pre-departure test result. The number of travellers arriving infected (i.e. imported cases) depended on air travel volumes, SARS-CoV-2 exposure risk in the departure country, prior infection or vaccine acquired immunity, and, for non-essential travellers, screening from pre-departure molecular testing. Importation risk was estimated weekly from July to November 2021 as the number of imported cases and percent positivity (PP; i.e. imported cases normalised by travel volume). The impact of pre-departure testing was assessed by comparing three scenarios: baseline (pre-departure testing of all non-essential travellers; most probable importation risk given the pre-departure testing requirements), counterfactual scenario 1 (no pre-departure testing of fully vaccinated non-essential travellers), and counterfactual scenario 2 (no pre-departure testing of non-essential travellers). Results In the baseline scenario, weekly imported cases and PP varied over time, ranging from 145 to 539 cases and 0.15 to 0.28%, respectively. Most cases arrived from the USA, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and France. While modelling suggested that essential travellers had a higher weekly PP (0.37 – 0.65%) than non-essential travellers (0.12 – 0.24%), they contributed fewer weekly cases (62 – 154) than non-essential travellers (84 – 398 per week) given their lower travel volume. Pre-departure testing was estimated to reduce imported cases by one third (counterfactual scenario 1) to one half (counterfactual scenario 2). Conclusions The model results highlighted the weekly variation in importation by traveller group (e.g., reason for travel and country of departure) and enabled a framework for measuring the impact of pre-departure testing requirements. Quantifying the contributors of importation risk through mathematical simulation can support the design of appropriate public health policy on border measures

Additional file 1 of A methodology for estimating SARS-CoV-2 importation risk by air travel into Canada between July and November 2021

Additional file 1. This file contains a detailed description of the methods, data sources and additional results

Global variations in preoperative practices concerning patients seeking primary bariatric and metabolic surgery (PACT Study): A survey of 634 bariatric healthcare professionals.

BACKGROUND Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery (BMS) is a popular weight loss intervention worldwide, yet few scientific studies have examined variations in preoperative practices globally. This study aimed to capture global variations in preoperative practices concerning patients planned for BMS. METHODS A 41-item questionnaire-based survey was designed and the survey link was freely distributed on social and scientific media platforms, email groups and circulated through personal connections of authors. The survey included eight parts: basic information; criteria for BMS; preoperative nutritional screening; preoperative weight loss; preoperative diets for liver size reduction; preoperative glycemic control; other laboratory investigations and preparations; decision making, education, and consents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse data and graphs were used for representation where applicable. RESULTS Six hundred thirty-four bariatric healthcare professionals from 76 countries/regions completed the survey. Of these, n = 310 (48.9%) were from public hospitals, n = 466 (73.5%) were surgeons, and the rest were multidisciplinary professionals. More than half of respondents reported using local society/association guidelines in their practice (n = 310, 61.6%). The great majority of respondents routinely recommend nutritional screening preoperatively (n = 385, 77.5%), mandatory preoperative diets for liver size reduction (n = 220, 53.1%), routine screening for T2DM (n = 371, 90.7%), and mandate a glycemic control target before BMS in patients with T2DM (n = 203, 55.6%). However, less than half (n = 183, 43.9%) recommend mandatory preoperative weight loss to all patients. Most respondents (n = 296, 77.1%) recommend psychological intervention before surgery for patients diagnosed with psychological conditions. Variations were also identified in laboratory investigations and optimisation; and in the aspects of decision making, education and consent. CONCLUSIONS This survey identified significant global variations in preoperative practices concerning patients seeking primary BMS. Our findings could facilitate future research for the determination of best practice in these areas of variations, and consensus-building to guide clinical practice while we wait for that evidence to emerge