Boris Johnson easing Covid lockdown? The Impact of Covid-19 on children's physical activity, Youth workers seek to rescue victims of violent crime
Adrian Tuitt
Inspirational Speaker | Mental Health Advocate | Expert in Wellness & Resilience for Students and Adults | Empowering Minds through Transformative Talks & Interventions ??
This Monday Boris Johnson will be announcing a roadmap for easing restrictions in England. This will include the re-opening of schools, care homes, retail, and hopefully hospitality.
My name is Adrian Tuitt, Motivational Speaker, Youth Mentor and Sports Coach.
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What must Boris Johnson consider before easing Covid lockdown?
How much do case rates count?
The British Medical Association has said it is only safe to significantly ease restrictions when infections dip below 1,000 a day, a figure far lower than the current seven-day average of 11,500. The chair of the health select committee, Jeremy Hunt, has also urged a focus on case rates.
In recent days Boris Johnson has appeared onboard with this strategy, talking about case rates needing to be “really very low”. But some Tory MPs believe this is shifting the goalposts when the criteria initially set out by the health secretary to lift restrictions focused on the progress of the vaccine programme, the containment of new variants, and hospitalisations and deaths.
How will the data on schools reopening be reviewed?
One area where Johnson appears to have significantly departed from the epidemiological consensus is his plan to bring all schoolchildren back to class from 8 March, rather than a staggered return.
Will the prime minister announce that all reopenings are provisional on monitoring the effect of schoolchildren returning on the R number? Could the Easter holidays on 2 April act as an effective “circuit breaker” if school returns push up infections? All this could be considered in the roadmap.
When can people play team sports again?
A number of scientists have said in recent days that more outdoor socialising is relatively risk-free. Prof Mark Woolhouse, of the University of Edinburgh, whose work feeds into the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) sub-group Spi-M, said the data showed there was no need for the government to be “ultra-cautious” and that outdoor sports should be allowed.
Some MPs and scientists would like to see the prime minister better emphasise the airborne nature of the virus and the relative safety of meeting outdoors compared with household mixing indoors.
At the moment, scientific advisers are reported to be reluctant to allow more outdoor mixing because of a perceived impact on compliance – it could lead people to head indoors together as evening approaches. Will Johnson effectively communicate the different risks?
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Experts 'deeply concerned' about the impact of Covid-19 on children's physical activity levels
New figures from Sport England show the majority of young people failed to meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily exercise in the 2019/20 academic year.
That was a decrease of almost 2% compared with the previous 12 months.
Almost a third of children (2.3 million) were classed as 'inactive' as a result of lockdown restrictions, not even doing 30 minutes per day, up by 2.5%.
The Active Lives survey showed the pandemic has also heightened existing participation inequalities with a 9% drop in activity levels by children and young people from a black background. Children from the most affluent families remain the most active.
In terms of gender disparities, there was a notable fall in activity among boys, who suffered from the stopping of team sport, while girls retained roughly their same activity levels, adapting well to alternative activities such as fitness and walking.
There was a drop of 16% in children taking part in sporting activities - team sports, athletics, running and swimming - but there was a sharp increase in walking, cycling and fitness activities.
Sport England CEO Tim Hollingsworth said: "The pandemic has had a huge impact on children and young people's engagement in sport and physical activity.
Read the full article here:
https://www.bbc.com/sport/amp/55664539
Youth workers seek to rescue victims of violent crime at A&E
Youth workers have begun a partnership with an A&E department in Hackney in a bid to transform the lives of young victims and the perpetrators of violent crime.
The team aims to engage with victims at a “teachable moment” and stem the rise of violent crime in the capital.
The Redthread charity already has workers based in the capital’s four major trauma centres — St George’s, St Mary’s, the Royal London and King’s College Hospital, and has now started a partnership with Homerton University Hospital. They aim to intervene before injuries escalate to life-threatening levels.
Typically young people attend their local casualty department four to five times before attending a major trauma centre with a potentially life-threatening injury.
The programme has embedded specialist youth workers – a team leader, youth worker and a programme co-ordinator — in the hospital’s emergency department.
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If you haven't already, you can read my last article here:
What challenges have young people who face inequalities experienced during the Covid-19 lockdown?, Social media damages teenagers' mental health, report says, Unemployment: 'I've made 200 applications and don't have a job
Stay positive, stay focused and stay active!
The time is now!
Adrian Tuitt
Motivational Speaker, Youth Mentor and Sports Coach.