Neuroscience ‘used and abused’

Influential policy-informing ‘evidence’ that children’s brains are irreversibly ‘sculpted’ by parental care is questionable.

A study led by Kent sociologists found that claims that children’s brains are irreversibly ‘sculpted’ by parental care are based on questionable evidence – yet have heavily influenced ‘early-years’ government policy-makers.

The study identified that although there is a lack of scientific foundation to many of the claims of ‘brain-based’ parenting, the idea that years 0-3 are neurologically critical is now repeated in policy documents and has been integrated into professional training for early-years workers.

Dr Jan Macvarish, a Research Fellow at Kent’s Centre for Parenting Culture Studies, analysed the policy literature for the study.

She said: ‘What we found was that although the claims purporting to be based on neuroscience are very questionable, they are continually repeated in policy documents and are now integrated into the professional training of health visitors and other early years workers. “Brain claims” entered a policy environment which was already convinced that parents are to blame for numerous social problems, from poverty to mental illness.

‘The idea that these entrenched problems will be solved by parents being more attentive to their children’s brains is risible. Although aimed at strengthening the parent-child relationships, these kinds of policies risk undermining parents’ self-confidence by suggesting that “science” rather than the parent knows best.’

The study highlights that mothers, in particular, are told that if they are stressed while pregnant or suffer postnatal depression, they will harm their baby’s brain.

‘This dubious information is highly unlikely to alleviate stress or depression but rather more likely to increase parental anxiety,’ said Dr Macvarish. ‘Parents are also told they must cuddle, talk and sing to their babies to build better brains. But these are all things parents do, and have always done, because they love their babies.

‘Telling parents these acts of love are important because they are ‘brain-building’ inevitably raises the question of how much cuddling, talking and singing is enough? Such claims also put power in the hands of ‘parenting experts’ and ultimately risk making parenting a biologically important but emotionally joyless experience.’

The study, titled The Uses and Abuses of Biology: Neuroscience, Parenting and Family Policy in Britain, was co-authored by Dr Macvarish and Dr Ellie Lee of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research and Dr Pam Lowe, of Aston University. It was funded by the Faraday Institute’s Uses and Abuses of Biology programme.

The key findings will be presented at a conference on 28 March. See:http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/parentingculturestudies/files/2010/12/Uses-and-Abuses-of-Biology-final-programme.pdf

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June 2014 Stakeholder Briefing

Welcome
Recent weeks have felt like a time to take stock. With our various partners we have been looking back at what we have achieved, and looking forward at what needs to happen next.

My senior colleagues and I are currently undertaking contract review meetings with all our providers. We also recently held our staff conference where we reflected on the remarkable achievements of the last year. If you haven’t already, please do see our booklet and film for some stories from the frontline that show how, together, we are making a real difference to health and care.

We have also been looking at what more we want to do, and I am excited about the potential of our new research, innovation and evaluation unit to develop the evidence base to embed the work stemming from our skills development strategy. Patient safety is one of our top priorities, and there have been several important patient safety events in recent weeks.

Nationally, Health Education England has proposed changes to the structure of the organisation and Local Education and Training Boards (LETBs) of which we are one.

More details on all these issues are available below, along with other updates on developments across the region.

Finally, I am delighted to welcome Mark Devlin as our new Chair after a short period as interim, a role he also held when HEKSS was established in shadow form. In an ever-changing healthcare landscape, Mark’s vision and extensive experience will, I am sure, help lead HEKSS to continued success as we develop our people to improve health and healthcare across the region.

Thank you for your continued support.

Best Wishes,

Philippa
Health Education England proposes structural changes

HEE has proposed structural changes to the organisation that are intended to create greater alignment between the national and local offices, reduce running costs and increase efficiency across HEE. Under the proposed plans, the 13 LETBs will remain, as will their chairs and governing bodies. Additionally, each LETB will have a vice-chair drawn from providers from the governing body.

The proposed changes mean the senior management structure at the local level will change significantly, as one local director would replace each LETB’s managing director, director of education and quality and head of finance. These three current roles existing in each of the 13 LETBs will be replaced by four regional posts of a national director for each geographical region, together with a regional director of education and quality and head of finance.

It is proposed that HEKSS would be in the Southern Region along with Thames Valley, Wessex, and South West. The role and seniority of each LETB’s local director are not yet determined. A postgraduate dean will remain for each LETB but their roles will be reviewed and they will report to the regional director of education and quality.

Each LETB function will be reviewed to determine what can be carried out most effectively nationally, regionally and locally.

HEE have invited feedback from stakeholders by 22 June. For more information, please see A sustainable future for HEE – Realising our potential which includes key questions for stakeholders and how to feedback.
Mark Devlin appointed as HEKSS Chair
Health Education England has appointed Mark Devlin as the independent chair for HEKSS. Mark, an experienced NHS chief executive, has been acting as interim chair in recent months and was instrumental in the early establishment of HEKSS in 2012.

Many of the organisation’s achievements, particularly the development of the five-year skills development strategy which prioritises and coordinates action for improving health and healthcare for the population of the region, were initiated under Mark’s initial stewardship.

Read the full story on the HEKSS website.
Abdol Tavabie appointed Interim Dean Director
Professor Abdol Tavabie has been appointed Interim Dean Director for postgraduate medical and dental education. Abdol has been with the organisation for over twenty years, most recently as GP Dean and Deputy Dean Director. He is a visiting professor at Brighton and Kent universities, and has been a lead visitor for the GMC.

Philippa Spicer, Managing Director, said “I am delighted to announce Abdol’s appointment. He has great experience and has demonstrated a passion for improving patient care through multi-professional education and learning.”
Ground-breaking research, innovation and evaluation unit established

As part of its multi-professional integrated education strategy, HEKSS has established a research, innovation and evaluation unit to support the implementation and on-going development of the skills development strategy (SDS). This dedicated research-based evaluation and innovation capability is novel in the way it integrates the three activities and will underpin the work of the SDS.

Headed up by recently appointed Dr Chris Loughlan, a former senior NHS executive with extensive experience in education, research and evaluation, a key priority for the unit will be to focus attention on the future sustainability of each of the skills development strategy’s work programmes.

Dr Loughlan said: “We want to ensure that educational investment achieves value for money and meets the needs of providers. I’m looking forward to working with our partners across the region, and HEE nationally, to ensure the benefits of the skills development strategy continue to be fully realised, transforming care and outcomes for local people”.

For more information, please visit the HEKSS website.
HEKSS and BSMS conferences bring patient safety to the fore

Two major events in recent weeks have put training and education at the heart of patient safety in the region, building on the findings of the Francis Report and Berwick Review.

Over 150 stakeholders attended the HEKSS annual conference in Gatwick in April with a focus on multi-professional working to improve patient safety. Attendees including NHS executives, university deans, heads of schools, clinical tutors and trainees explored the use of technology to improve systems and processes, approaches to shared decision making and enabling better communication to enhance teamwork and safe care.

Materials from the event, including videos of presentations, are available on the HEKSS website.

In May, Brighton and Sussex Medical School held a multi-professional patient safety conference for final year students including medical, nursing, pharmacy and allied health professionals. The event stressed that medical knowledge alone is not sufficient to ensure patient safety. Topics included safe prescribing, raising concerns at work, human factors, communication skills, learning from errors and how the culture of the NHS affects patient care.

Conference organiser Dr Rob Galloway, Emergency Medicine Consultant at Brighton and Sussex Universities Hospitals Trust, said “This was the first conference that we have organised like this and we hope to develop it further and make it an annual conference with the medical school working alongside HEKSS and partner organisations.”

The event closed with a passionate talk given by Julie Bailey, founder of ‘Cure the NHS’. She spoke of her traumatic experience of losing her mother whilst she was under care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Julie was instrumental in exposing the failings of the trust which led to the Francis Report.
HEKSS recruitment on track to meet targets

Following a series of highly successful recruitment rounds, HEKSS is on track to meet recruitment targets for the region and on course to make significant improvements in the fill rate for ‘hard to fill’ specialties including emergency medicine and the introduction of the new DRE-EM programme building further entry points into emergency medicine.

Achievements include:
• 99% fill rate in core and run through specialties
• 100% fill rate to 236 GP training programmes.

Attendance at the BMJ careers fair and recruitment events held by the Specialty Workforce Team have been credited with a large number of high-performing applicants accepting positions across the region.

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Sport Scientists in the Media Spotlight

Medway campus-based School of Sport and Exercise Sciences (SSES) experts have been making the BBC news headlines recently.

Dr James Hopker, Senior Lecturer in SSES, features today (13 June) on BBC’s Radio 1 Newsbeat running tests on reporter Steffan Powell in SSES’s atmosphere chamber. The tests, putting the reporter through his paces with a football fitness test in 30 degree heat and 80% humidity, were aimed at replicating the conditions England’s footballers will face playing in the World Cup in Brazil. See here

Dr Hopker was also interviewed by BBC Medical Correspondent Fergus Walsh for a report on the health benefits of cycling that was broadcast on 24 April on the BBC News at 6 and all regional BBC news programmes. Dr Hopker provided expert comment on the effects of ageing on human physiology and also assessed the fitness of Fergus Walsh as part of the piece. See here.

The School also showcased its world-leading research to the public when a team took part in a national event at the Natural History Museum on 11 June. Kent was one of only 47 university’s selected to take part in the event, which formed part of Universities Week 2014, focusing on how universities engage with the public to demonstrate the way research can improve people’s lives.

Dr John Dickinson, Lecturer in SSES, and others from the School demonstrated to hundreds of schoolchildren and members of the public how their research improves the performance of elite athletes, including professional cyclists.

It is expected that SSES will receive further media attention for its pre-Tour de France conference in Leeds (2-3 July) on the science behind elite cycling performance. The conference has already attracted a range of high profile figures from the world of professional cycling with more big names to be confirmed. See here.

 

Contact: M.J.Herrema@kent.ac.uk

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KSS AHSN Newsletter – 11 June 2014

Data, analysis, action!  

This week NHS England issued a patient safety alert about standardising the early identification of Acute Kidney Injury (AKI).It’s estimated that 20% of emergency admissions into hospital are associated with AKI. It contributes to around 100,000 deaths annually, many of them avoidable if AKI had been avoided or detected earlier.

It’s an issue we highlighted a few weeks ago following the publication of The economic impact of acute kidney injury in England (abstract available here). It’s a prime example of the power of rigorous use of data to illuminate an issue, expose a problem and prompt action.

In Kent, Surrey and Sussex, colleagues are using our Enhancing Quality methodology to reduce the incidence and impact of AKI – measurement and analysis being implemented to save lives. 

Publication

Next week we’ll publish the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Ambulatory Care Sensitive Emergency Admissions Analysis Report, a collaboration between the AHSN and Quality Observatory. It provides new analysis that has never before been available for our patch. Co-author Kate Cheema from the Quality Observatory will present highlights at our conference next week and her insight will help take us into discussion about co-ordinated action across the counties to tackle the issues.

The analysis uses similar methodology and data sets to last year’s report from the Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust ‘Focus on preventable admissions’ which gave real insight into emergency hospital admission trends and opportunities. It prompted us to analyse the position here on a theme which is so critical to the long term sustainability of health and social care services

Tuesday

I look forward to the discussion with you if you’re joining us on Tuesday. For those of you that can’t make it, we’ll publish the report and share with you the outcomes from the day.

Whether you’re coming to the conference next week or not, you might find these of interest:

Kind regards,

Guy Boersma
Managing Director, KSS AHSN

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Medway event to focus on endurance motorcycling research

Results from University of Kent research into the physiological and psychological demands of adventure motorcycling will be presented at a public event on Thursday 12 June at the University’s Medway campus.

Professor Samuele Marcora, who is a keen motorcyclist and Research Director at Kent’s School of Sport and Exercise Sciences based at the Medway campus, will present findings  from research he conducted last year on a scientific motorcycle expedition from London to Beijing.

The marathon motorbike ride, running from April-July 2013, saw Professor Marcora use himself and fellow bikers on the Globebusters-organised adventure ride to measure how the gruelling conditions affected physical and mental performance. The research findings will include details of the effects of using caffeine to reduce fatigue in motorbike riders.

‘Adventure motorcycling: the impact on mind and body’, which will take place from 7-9pm at the Pilkington Lecture Theatre, Chatham Maritime on 12 June.  As well as the presentation of the research findings and a Q&A session, the evening will feature a screening of the Globebusters’ film The Ride: London to Beijing.

Places at the event are free and open to all but are limited. To register for a place, see: https://alumni.kent.ac.uk/events/adventure-motorcycling-june-2014

The event is part of Kent’s contribution to Universities Week 2014, being organised by Universities UK with Research Councils UK, the Higher Education Funding Council for England and the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement.

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Researching Social Exclusion: Relevance for Public Policy and Practice

An event hosted by the University of Kent will bring together psychology researchers, practitioners and voluntary organisations working on social exclusion and its consequences.

Organised by Dr Ayse Uskul and Dr Lindsey Cameron from the University’s School of Psychology, the one-day workshop on 6 June will showcase the impact research by psychologists into social exclusion is having on public policy and practice.

Among the presentations at the Canterbury campus event will be Dr Hannah Swift, of the School of Psychology, who will talk about ageism as a form of social exclusion, looking at its causes, consequences and solutions. Emily Georghious, of Age UK, will provide a commentary on this session. Prof Dominic Abrams, also of the School of Psychology, will join the panel discussion in the afternoon.

For further details see the event web page.

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Alcohol-related language can increase aggression

New psychology research shows that exposing people to alcohol-related words can influence aggressive behaviour in ways similar to actually consuming alcohol.

Researchers found however that this aggressive behaviour occurred when people were subjected to provocation in a way that was not a clear-cut insult.

Although it has been long known that drinking alcohol can increase aggression, a team of five psychologists, including Dr Eduardo Vasquez of the University of Kent School of Psychology and others from two US universities, demonstrated in two experiments that participants exhibited aggression following exposure to alcohol-related words – known as alcohol priming. This effect was demonstrated in situations when they were provoked in a way that was ambiguous or not obvious.

These findings will have implications for understanding the way people behave in situations where alcohol is present, including bars sporting events and parties.

For more information, see the full press release.

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Dr Eduardo Vasquez

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Anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and children’s health

A belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories may have significant and detrimental consequences for children’s health, new research from the University has shown.

Researchers Daniel Jolley and Dr Karen Douglas, of theSchool of Psychology, surveyed 89 parents about their views on anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and then asked them to indicate their intention to have a fictional child vaccinated. It was found that stronger belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy theories was associated with lower intention to vaccinate.

In a second study, 188 participants were exposed to information concerning anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. It was found that reading this material reduced their intention to have a fictional child vaccinated, relative to participants who were given refuting information or those in a control condition.

Daniel Jolley said: ‘This research is timely in the face of declining vaccination rates and recent outbreaks of vaccinated-against diseases in the UK, such as measles. Our studies demonstrate that anti-vaccine conspiracy theories may present a barrier to vaccine uptake, which may potentially have significant and detrimental consequences for children’s health.’

Dr Karen Douglas_preferredDr Douglas added: ‘It is easy to treat belief in conspiracy theories lightly, but our studies show that wariness about conspiracy theories may be warranted. Ongoing investigations are needed to further identify the social consequences of conspiracism and to identify potential ways to combat the effects of an ever-increasing culture of conspiracism.’

The research, titled ‘The effects of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories on vaccination intentions’, was carried out by Daniel Jolley, Postgraduate Researcher, and Dr Karen Douglas, Reader in Psychology, at the University of Kent. It is published in the open-access, online journal PLOS ONE and is available here: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089177.

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Queen’s Anniversary Prize 2014

Representatives of the University of Kent and the Tizard Centre  were presented with a Queens Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education by the Queen during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on Thursday 27 February.  The Prize was for the work of the Tizard Centre and its contribution to improving the lives of people with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) and their families.

Dame Julia said: ‘I am delighted that the Tizard Centre should receive such an accolade. It is a tribute to the outstanding work of the staff and students at the Centre and to the difference they make to the lives of people with disabilities and their families.’

In a joint statement the Centre’s Co-Directors, Professor Glynis Murphy and Professor Peter McGill, said: “We are very honoured to receive such a prestigious award. The Prize not only acknowledges the work of both the staff and students at the Centre, it reflects the legacy of its founder, the late Professor Jim Mansell.”

http://www.kent.ac.uk/campusonline/updates/campusnews.html?id=qap_buckingham_palace.txt

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New appointment – JARID Co-editor

We are delighted to announce that Dr Peter Langdon, who recently joined the Tizard Centre, has been appointed as the next Co-editor of JARID.  The appointment was made following the resignation of the current Co-editor, Prof Glynis Murphy who has decided to retire in July 2014.

The appointment was made following an open application and interview process carried out by Wiley, BILD and Prof Chris Hatton, all of whom warmly welcome Peter to the Journal.

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