Students Turning to Food Banks & Sugar Daddies to Survive at University

The Student Room has released the results of a recent poll into making ends meet whilst studying at university.  The results reveal that studying is far from fun and games for some.

Key Findings

·       Over a third of respondents talked about using food banks themselves, or knowing students who have.

·       One in three reported that they had gone without food in order to cope with the rising costs associated with higher education in England and Wales.

·        41% of respondents told The Student Room they have - or have known someone who has - sold drugs on campus to cope with living costs.

·        They also reported scavenging in bins for food or going without heating to make ends meet.

·        35% said they have worked as either an escort or exotic dancer.

·        30% revealed how they are either in a relationship with a sugar mummy or daddy to meet costs, or know someone who is.

·        30% have stolen in order to survive at university.

Hannah Morrish, university community manager at The Student Room, described how everyone across the country is feeling the stress of rising living costs and emphasised how students are no exception. She added: “However, what this research goes to show is how vulnerable many students are, not just financially, but socially as well.

“For any students who are struggling to make ends meet, we want to stress there is an active and easy-to-access support network available; from applying for student hardship funds from universities through to independent and anonymous financial advice forums, such as The Student Room.”

Highlighting the other avenues of help available for students, she said: “Students’ unions, the student advice centre at your university, The Money Charity, National Debtline and the Citizens Advice Bureau are all great starting places for debt counselling and money management advice.”

Prime Minister Pledges to Transform Mental Health Services

The prime minister has pledged to invest almost one billion pounds into mental health services, targeting new mums, teenagers with eating disorders and those suffering from psychosis.

The measures, recommended by NHS England’s independent mental health task force, include:

·        A £290 million investment into specialist care for mums over the next 5 years.  Giving at least 30,000 more women per annum access to specialist mental health care, before and after having their baby. Through perinatal classes, new community perinatal teams and more beds in mother and baby units helping mums with serious mental health problems get the best support and keeping their babies with them.

·         The introduction of waiting time targets for the treatment of teenagers with eating disorders in 2017/18. With increasing numbers of patients being seen within one month of being referred, or within a week for urgent cases.

·         New waiting time targets for people experiencing psychosis will be in place from April 2016.  By 2017 the aim is to ensure that at least half of those experiencing psychosis for the first time are treated within 2 weeks, rising to at least 60% by 2020.

·         £247 million for mental health liaison services in hospital emergency departments. Ensuring that specialist staff, with training in mental health, are on hand in A&E to make sure that patients get the right care for them, and are referred for further support if needed.

·         An investment of over £400 million to enable 24/7 treatment in communities as a safe and effective alternative to hospital.

Further investment and service expansion will be announced when the mental health task force report is published in the next few weeks.

Launching these new measures, the Prime Minster said “Mental illness isn’t contagious. There’s nothing to be frightened of.  As a country, we need to be far more mature about this. Less hushed tones, less whispering; more frank and open discussion.

We need to take away that shame, that embarrassment, let people know that they’re not in this alone, that when the clouds descend, they don’t have to suffer silently.  I want us to be able to say to anyone who is struggling, ‘talk to someone, ask your doctor for help and we will always be there to support you’.”

Paul Farmer, Chief Executive of Mind and Independent Chair of NHS England’s Taskforce on Mental Health, said “This is a significant moment for mental health and we are pleased to see the Prime Minister giving it the attention it deserves. Mental health is hugely important in any discussion about improving life chances and mental health problems can affect anyone, from mums-to-be preparing for their first child to older people at risk of isolation.

The Prime Minister rightly recognises some key priorities that have been identified by the mental health task force, which will soon be publishing its full report. Children and young people, pregnant women and new mums, and those in crisis urgently need better services and support. But it doesn’t stop there. The task force will be setting out the road map for the next 5 years, a transformational plan that will require a commitment at every level, from government right through to every local community.”

Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, said “For both the public and the NHS, improving mental health has rightly now shot up our national ‘to do’ list. Putting mental and physical health on an equal footing is a far-reaching idea whose time has now come. A sea change in public attitudes coupled with an increasing range of effective mental health treatments mean that now’s the time to tackle the huge unmet need that affects families and communities across the nation.

Today’s measures are a critical first step, and when our independent task force publishes its final report in a few weeks, the whole NHS will need to mobilise to translate their wider proposals into action.”

Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, commented “Giving people the right mental health support is one of the most important ways to make sure everyone has the best start in life.

We are boosting the mental health support available for young people with £1.4 billion over the next 5 years, putting more mental health professionals in emergency departments and helping new and expectant mums and their babies to be happy and healthy”.

Aldi Tempting New Graduates with a Starting Salary of £42k plus Benefits

Aldi has announced plans to grow its graduate scheme during 2016.  With a starting salary of £42k plus company car and private healthcare it’s a tempting option for anyone looking to make it big in retail.  They promise the chance to earn up to £70,000 p.a. within four years of joining and boast that 90 percent of their directors joined the company from university.

Aldi continues to take market share from established high street names, and the company plans to open a further 65 stores by 2022 (taking their total number stores to over 1000).

They are not the only discounter investing in the future of graduates, Lidl is also tempting graduates with a starting salary of up to £38,000 a year plus a company car, significantly more than their more established competitors offering graduates a starting salary between £23k and £30k.

These benefits come at a price, Aldi and Lidl workers have reported intense workloads, no work-life balance, night shifts, poor management and unreliable hours.

An Aldi spokesman said: 'We offer a market-leading salary. Yes, we ask a lot of our employees and we ask for commitment but there are great progression opportunities.'

A Lidl spokesman said: 'We promote a healthy work/life balance. We have procedures to ensure our employees feel valued and listened to. Additionally our graduates are offered 35 days' holiday.'

CQC Publishes 282 Adult Social Care Reports - 89 Service Providers Rated as Requiring Improvement or Inadequate

During the last week of 2015 the Care Quality Commission published 282 reports on the quality of care provided by adult social care services across England (in care homes and in people’s own homes), rating services according to whether they are safe, effective, caring, responsive and well led.

Overall 31.5% of the services inspected were rated as requiring improvement or as inadequate.  However there are significant differences between the regions, with less than 20% of services rated as requiring improvement or inadequate in London, and over 40% requiring improvement or inadequate in the North of England.

Regional Findings

·         In the North of England one service provider was rated as outstanding, 49 as good, 27 as requiring improvement and eight as inadequate.

·         In the Central region one service provider was rated as outstanding, 80 care homes and homecare agencies were rated as good, 23 as requiring improvement and one as inadequate.

·         In London one service provider was rated as outstanding, 16 as good, three were rated as requiring improvement and one as inadequate.

·         In the South of England 45 service providers were rated as good, 22 as requiring improvement and four as inadequate.

Nicky Nendick, CQC's Head of Inspection for Adult Social Care, said:

"People are entitled to services which provide safe, effective, compassionate and high quality care. We assess services against five key questions – Is the service caring? Is the service effective? Is the service safe? Is the service well led? Is the service responsive? – and rate each question and the service overall. Where we find a service meets our characteristics of good or outstanding then we will rate accordingly.

"If we find that a service requires improvement, we will expect them to provide us with a full plan setting out how they will address the issue. We will share our findings with local commissioners, and we will return in due course to check that they have made the required improvements.

"Whenever we find a service to be Inadequate, we will consider taking further action on behalf of the people who use the service. Providers of those services should take the publication of the inadequate rating as a signal that immediate action is required to improve the service."

To view the full list of service providers inspected, and find out more about the CQC’s findings visit the CQC’s website at http://www.cqc.org.uk/

NHS End of Life Care Documentation Project for London

The London End of Life Care (EOLC) Clinical Network has initiated a project to facilitate the adoption of standard forms across care settings in the city.  Facilitating the smooth transfer of patients between services, supporting patients, their carers and service providers in the process. 

50,000 patients in London experience EOLC each year and currently a variety of processes and forms are used to communicate important decisions relating to their care. These forms are not used universally, and only some are valid when moving patients across care settings.

The development of a set of documents and associated processes to facilitate transfer of care, including records of discussions and decisions taken in relation to EOLC, will ensure the provision of high quality, compassionate, integrated end of life care:

• Empowering patients to be involved in decision making around their care
• Strengthening communication between care providers
• Reducing unnecessary duplication and the number of times a patient or their carer is asked the same questions.
• Reducing unscheduled hospital attendances

The EOLC working group is made up of representatives from:

• CCGs
• Coordinate My Care
• Critical/intensive care
• GPs
• London Ambulance Service
• Paediatrics
• Palliative care in acute trusts, community settings, the private sector and hospices
• Patients/members of the public
• Social services
• Urgent and emergency care

The network’s work is aligned with, and builds on, the work of the Resuscitation Council (UK).

DoH NHS Mandate Published - With Clear Targets for NHS England

The Department of Health has published its annual mandate for NHS England, this time including objectives up to 2020. 

The Department of Health has told NHS England that it expects to see at least 50% of the English population being served by the new GP care model by 2020. The model will see single organisations providing primary and secondary care:

• Ensuring that all patients have access to weekend and evening routine GP appointments.
• Delivering ‘a measurable reduction’ in emergency admissions and emergency in-patient bed days by 2020.
• Significantly reducing age-standardised emergency admission rates and emergency inpatient bed-day rates.
• Making significant, measurable progress in health and social care integration, urgent and emergency care (including ensuring a single point of contact), and electronic health record sharing.

These plans are in line with NHS England’s Five Year Forward View, published in 2014.  The document covers primary and secondary care, step-down services, home care, counselling, dentistry and community services. 

In addition they expect to see:

• All GP patients in England being given access to weekend and evening routine appointments.
• The publication of practice-level metrics.  On access to, and the quality of, GP services.
• No patient left waiting for more than 28 days for cancer diagnosis.
• An increase in the number of patients diagnosed with dementia within 6 weeks of their initial referral.
• 5,000 extra doctors in general practice.
• A reduction in childhood obesity.
• A new range of ‘Ofsted-style’ CCG level indicators, which include clinical outcomes.
• Development of the new voluntary contract for GPs (Multidisciplinary Community Provider contract) for implementation in 2017-18.

Prior to publication a public consultation was held, with an unprecedented response rate of 127,400 responses compared to just over 150 in the previous year.

• The public was mainly concerned with:
• The extent of private sector involvement in NHS services.
• The practicalities of plans to offer 7-day services safely.

The Department of Health sought to reassure the public, reiterating that it plans to increase the primary and community care workforce by 10,000 by 2020, ‘including an additional 5,000 doctors working in general practice’.

The Kings Fund Takes a Comprehensive Look at In-Patient Experiences Over 8 Years

The King’s Fund and Picker Institute Europe analysed inpatient survey data for acute trusts over a nine-year period (from 2005 to 2013). Assessing attitudes towards:

• access and waiting
• safety
• care
• information and choice
• relationships and communication
• cleanliness and comfort

Key findings:

• Whilst patient experience over the period reviewed has improved in some areas, that improvement has been modest.
• Improvements have typically been driven by national initiatives and policies to tackle widespread or high-profile problems.
• On average, patients are less satisfied now with some aspects of care (such as length of wait from admission to hospital, to a bed on a ward, and timely discharge from hospital) than they were in 2005. These areas happen to be those where there are well-recognised pressures in the wider health and care system. 
• There are still some aspects of patient care where performance is generally low and needs to improve, for example, noise levels at night and timely discharge.
• Areas of care that patients were generally less satisfied with were also those that showed erratic annual changes and exhibited wider variations in performance between trusts.
• Patients’ ratings relating to interactions with staff were generally more positive than for other aspects of care.
• There are significant differences within and between trusts in how they approach patient experience work and how they use the data.  In general, specialist trusts performed well, whilst London trusts had some of the lowest scores.

Prof Sir Mike Richards, Chief Inspector of Hospitals, said: "We welcome the publication of the Kings Fund’s analysis of a decade’s worth of inpatient survey results."

"It is encouraging that patients are reporting improved care experiences in areas such as mixed sex accommodation and in cleanliness. While the results indicate that people’s experiences have been largely positive, overall there has not been much change over the last ten years and there have even been some areas of deterioration, such as with patient flow."

"We are clear that patient feedback should be a key driver for quality improvement in the NHS."
"How providers consider and act on patient feedback, including complaints and survey findings, is a core element of our inspections. Where a provider does not have systems in place to do this effectively, this would make us question the quality of its leadership and how ‘caring’ and ‘responsive’ its care can be."

"We encourage NHS trusts to reflect on their findings to understand what their patients really think about the care and treatment they provide, so that they can identify what is working well and what should change."