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An innovative programme to encourage extensive knowledge sharing: the HE KSS/BSMS Primary Care Dementia Fellowship Programme
The HE KSS/BSMS (Health Education Kent Surrey and Sussex / Brighton and Sussex Medical School) have launched the “Primary Care Dementia Fellowship Programme”.
This is a programme for GPs, practice nurses and staff, and community nurses in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
(Health Education Kent Surrey and Sussex will provide the funding to release Fellows to attend a regional skills development programme that will run from March to September 2014.
The Fellows will join with doctors and nurses from Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) to build the knowledge and skills needed for them to create better dementia services in KSS.
Prof Sube Banerjee and Breda Flaherty of Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) are leading this initiative based on their successful experience in the NHS London Deanery.
It appears that the main aim is to build a network of Fellows who can act as ‘change catalysts’ (my words not theirs), to spread best contemporaneous practice in dementia care.
It’s important as dementia is one of the top five strategic priorities in the KSS Skills Development Strategy.
Modules will be led by Banerjee and Flaherty, with contributions from clinical experts in dementia; colleagues in social care; people in the care home sector; NGOs; persons living with dementia and carers; specialists in service development; commissioners and researchers.
I believe that such a course will have considerable competitive advantage in being totally disruptive in how traditional training for juniors in dementia is conducted.
The value is clearly in the collaborative ties between members of the network. By lowering the cultural barriers in this way, the team at Sussex have something very special here.
The set-up is perfect for boundary-less knowledge sharing, and this is enormously value as we all get to grips with what the priorities in local and national policy in dementia might be.
There are three modules running from March to June: good practice in dementia assessment and care, good practice in dementia, and changing practice.
These are followed by a ‘Next Steps’ conference and a period of evaluation and research.
Such an approach might become paradigmatic for future learning in the NHS in dementia.
‘Reasons to be cheerful’ part 4. Prof Sube Banerjee’s inaugural lecture in Brighton on living well with dementia.
For me the talk was like a badly needed holiday. I joked with Kay there, a colleague of Lisa, that it felt like a (happy) wedding reception.
@charbhardy hello Chars – not at all the same without you. Thinking of you and G. Very windy on seafront here at Brighton x
— shibley (@legalaware) February 27, 2014
Unknown to me, the title of Prof Banerjee’s talk is an allusion to this famous track from 1979 (when I was five). It’s “Reasons to be cheerful (part 3)” by Ian Drury and the Blockheads.
The Inaugural Lecture – Professor Sube Banerjee (“Professor of Dementia”), ‘Dementia: Reasons to be cheerful’ was held on 26 February, 2014, 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm, at Chowen Lecture Theatre, Brighton and Sussex Medical School, Sussex Campus. BN1 9PX. Details are here on the BSMS website.
I found Prof Banerjee to be a very engaging, ‘natural’ speaker.
I arrived with hours to spare, like how the late Baroness Thatcher was alleged to have done in turning up for funerals.
Brighton are very lucky to have him.
But his lecture was stellar – very humble, yet given with huge gravitas. Banerjee is one of the best lecturers of any academic rank in dementia I have ever seen in person.
Banerjee started off with a suitable ‘icebreaker’ joke – but the audience wasn’t at all nervous, as they all immediately warmed to him very much.
He is ‘quite a catch’. He is able to explain the complicated issues about English dementia policy in a way that is both accurate and engaging. Also, I have every confidence in his ability to attract further research funding for his various teaching and clinical initiatives in dementia for the future.
Most of all, I was particularly pleased as the narrative which he gave of English dementia policy, with regards to wellbeing, was not only accurate, but also achievable yet ambitious.
1979 was of course a big year.
Prof Banerjee felt there were in fact many ‘reasons to be cheerful’, since Ian Drury’s remarkable track of 1979 (above), apparently issued on 20 July of that year.
Banerjee argued that the 1970s which had only given fruit to 209 papers, but things had improved ever since then.
It was the year of course Margaret Thatcher came to power on behalf of the Conservative Party.
In contrast, there have already been thousands of papers in the 2000s so far.
Banerjee also argued that “what we know is more likely to be true” which is possibly also true. However, I immediately reminisced of the famous paper in Science in 1982, “The cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction”. This paper, many feel, lay the groundwork for the development of cholinesterase inhibitors such as donepezil (“Aricept”, fewer than twenty years later.
It is definitely true that ‘we are better at delineating the different forms of dementia’.
I prefer to talk of the value of people with dementia, but Banerjee presented the usual patter about the economic costs of dementia. Such stats almost invariably make it onto formal grant applications to do with dementia, to set the scene of this particular societal challenge.
I am of course a strong believer in this as my own PhD was in a new way to diagnose the behavioural variant of frontotemporal dementia. In this dementia, affecting mainly people in their 50s at onset, the behavioural and personality change noticed by friends and carers is quite marked. This is in contrast to a relative lack of memory of problems.
Not all dementias present with memory problems, and not all memory problems have a dementia as a root cause. I do happen to believe that this is still a major faultline in English dementia policy, which has repercussions of course for campaigns about ‘dementia awareness’.
A major drive in the national campaigns for England is targeted at destigmating persons with dementia, so that they are not subject to discrimination or prejudice.
The dementia friendship programmes have been particularly successful, and Banerjee correctly explained the global nature of the history of this initiative drive (from its “befriending” routes in Japan). Banerjee also gave an excellent example to do with language of dementia friendship in the elderly, which I had completely missed.
Raising awareness of memory problems in dementia is though phenomenally important, as Alzheimer’s disease is currently thought to be the most prevalent form of dementia worldwide.
The prevalence of dementia may even have been falling in England in the last few decades to the success prevention of cardiovascular disease in primary care.
The interesting epidemiological question is whether this should have happened anyway. Anyway, it is certainly good news for the vascular dementias potentially.
That dementia is more than simply a global public health matter is self-evident.
I’m extremely happy Banerjee made reference to a document WHO/Alzheimers Disease International have given me permission to quote in my own book.
Banerjee presented a slide on the phenomenally successful public awareness campaign about memory.
Nonetheless, Banerjee did speak later passionately about the development of the Croydon memory services model for improving quality of life for persons with mild to moderate dementia.
In developing his narrative about ‘living well with dementia’, Banerjee acknowledged at the outset that the person is what matters at dementia. He specifically said it’s about what a person can do rather than what he cannot do, which is in keeping to my entire philosophy about living well with dementia.
And how do we know if what we’re doing is of any help? Banerjee has been instrumental in producing, with his research teams, acceptable and validated methods for measuring quality of life in dementia.
The DEMQOL work has been extremely helpful here, and I’m happy Banerjee made a point of signposting this interesting area of ongoing practice-oriented research work.
Banerjee of course did refer to “the usual suspects” – i.e. things you would have expected him to have spoken about, such as the National Dementia Strategy (2009) which he was instrumental in designing at the time: this strategy was called “Living well with dementia”.
“I’m showing you this slide BECAUSE I want YOU to realise it IS complicated”, mused Banerjee at the objectives of the current English dementia policy.
I asked Banerjee what he felt the appropriate ‘ingredients’ of the new strategy for dementia might be – how he would reconcile the balance between ‘cure’ and ‘care’ – “and of course, the answer is both”, he said to me wryly.
Banerjee acknowledged, which I was massively pleased about, the current ‘barriers to care’ in this jurisdiction (including the known issues about the “timely diagnosis of dementia”.
Clearly the provision at the acute end of dementia care is going to have to come under greater scrutiny.
I increasingly have felt distinctly underwhelmed by the “medical model”, and in particular the repercussions of this medicalisation of dementia as to how grassroots supporters attempt to raise monies for dementia.
That certain antidepressants can have a lack of effect in dementia – Banerjee’s work – worries me.
That antipsychotics can have a dangerous and destructive effect for persons with dementia – also Banerjee’s work – also clearly worries me.
I am of course very proud that Prof Alistair Burns is currently reading my book focused on the interaction between the person and the environment in dementia.
And of course I’m ecstatic that Lisa Rodrigues and Prof Sube Banerjee signed my book : a real honour for me.
I signed Lisa’s book which was most likely not as exciting for her! X
Tour de force #ProfSubeBanerjee inaugural lecture made extra special by presence of @legalaware #reasonstobecheerful pic.twitter.com/qRpWReZOt0
— Lisa Rodrigues (@LisaSaysThis) February 26, 2014
There was a great atmosphere afterwards: the little chocolate brownies were outstanding!
Being an antisocial bastard, I didn’t mingle.
BUT I had a brilliant chat with Lucy Jane Marsters (@lucyjmarsters) who gave me a little bag of ‘Dementia is my business’ badges, very thoughtfully.
We both spoke about Charmaine Hardy. Charmaine was missed (and was at home, devoted to G.)
I’ve always felt that Charmaine is a top member of our community.
@legalaware oh Shibley how did you enjoy it? I wish I could have been there but it’s not possible to leave G anymore. Good being by the sea.
— Charmaine Hardy (@charbhardy) February 27, 2014
This apparently is a ‘Delphinium’.
A reason not to be cheerful was leaving Brighton, for many personal reasons for me.
Not even the Shard was a ‘reason to be cheerful’, particularly.
@legalaware @lucyjmarsters Come back soon, missing you already!!!
— Lisa Rodrigues (@LisaSaysThis) February 27, 2014
But when I came back, I found out that ‘Living well with dementia’ is to be a core part of the new English dementia policy.
Good to see ‘Living well with dementia’ will be a core part of England’s new dementia strategy 14-19 http://t.co/4rknTTzvl9 @nursingtimesed
— Living Well Dementia (@dementia_2014) February 27, 2014
I have, of course, just published a whole book about it.
The photograph of the poppy was of course taken by Charmaine Hardy: I have such great feedback on that one poppy in particular!
And what does the future hold?
Over to Prof Banerjee…
Is this agreement a contract?
This article is published in good faith. ‘Legal Aware’ is not responsible for the truth or accuracy of this information in the English jurisdiction, but is to the best of his knowledge a substantially correct account of the law at present. It does not constitute professional advice, for which the advice of a practising barrister or solicitor should be sought.
Meaning, and basic elements of a contract
Save for lawyers, only a handful of people perfectly understand what makes an agreement a contract; thus, making it legally binding and enforceable in a court. This article is intended to explain the fundamental principles better.
A contract is fundamentally an agreement between two or more parties, intended to create legal relations, which the law acknowledges as legally binding and will enforce in the event of a breach.
We live in a society where we must interact and in our day-to-day interactions we cannot help but enter into agreements. However, even though contract law evolved to regulate this aspect of human endeavour, thereby ensuring that parties to a contract fulfill their promises, and contractual obligations, this arm of the law will not concern itself with mere agreements, meaning agreements that do not have a binding nature must not be fulfilled. In the event of a breach of such agreements the law will not enforce it.
For example, a court will not enforce a promise made by a man to his son to buy him a car if he learns to cook in the event he does not fulfill his promise. Once again, the law does not recognize promises and agreements in which the parties did not intend to create legal relations. Furthermore, for a contract to be legally enforceable it must include the following: consent of the contracting parties, consideration, parties capable of contracting, and a legal object.
Consent of the contracting parties: The existence of this element is a prerequisite for a valid contract, meaning for a contract to actually exist, consent must be sought and obtained. Both parties to the contract must communicate to each other unambiguously, the nature of the contract, the terms, the subject matter, and everything else that is relevant to the contract. This is usually referred to as a “meeting of the minds”. There has to be an offer by one of the parties (referred to as the offeror) and an acceptance by the other party (referred to as the offeree). A counter offer does not signify acceptance.
For instance, if an offeror proposes to sell his car for a certain price and the offeree counter-offers, this would signify rejection of the initial offer, and should the offeror sell his car to a different person at a different price, the offeree does not possess the right to enforce the initial offer as no contract was made.
Any consent that is obtained through fraud, duress, misrepresentation, undue influence, mistake is not out of freewill, thus, voidable. Apparently, if I sign a contract because I was deceived, I never consented to it in the first place, therefore, I can rescind it. A lot has been written extensively on this. Sometimes, cases regarding this are usually not that straight forward, but do not be dismayed, it is the role of the courts to interpret each specific or particular case. It is advisable to always contact a lawyer before you enter into a contract.
Consideration: This is equally a prerequisite for all valid contracts. This is the price for which the offer is bought. For instance, in a “buyer” and “seller” situation; the buyer receives the goods and the seller receives payment. All parties to a contract must make gains. If Mr. A sues Mr. B for breach of contract without proof that he had furnished consideration (proof that Mr. B had gained something), he will not succeed, because Mr. B has not received any consideration. Sometimes, cases bothering on this issue are always not that open-and-shut. It is usually the role of the court to decide.
Parties capable of contracting: The law prohibits minors, people of unsound mind and drunken person, illiterates from contracting. The contract must identify the parties, first by their names. And sometimes, titles like “Buyer” and “Seller” could be used to further describe the contracting parties. Copious materials that extensively explain this subject, have been documented.
Legal Object: The object or subject matter of a contract must be legal. A contract for the sale of stolen vehicles will not be enforced by the court should there be a breach.
It is important to know that whether your contract is a written or an oral contract, it must include the elements stated above for it to be legally binding and enforceable. Thus, an oral contract can be enforceable if it meets these requirements. However, the validity of certain contracts is hinged on the fact that they be in writing; in such cases they must documented to be legally binding. However, you will be well advised to always document your contracts. It is advisable to always insist that the contract is in writing for evidential basis.
A written contract always serves as a proof that a contract exists in the event of a breach. Always seek the advice of a lawyer before you append your signature to contract papers regardless of how simple the contract is, or how small the contract amount is.
(c) Aniebiet Ubon 2013.
The copyright of the text of this article is owned by the author Aniebiet Ubon. The content of this article, in whole or in part, may not be copied, reproduced, republished, downloaded, posted, broadcast or transmitted in any way without first the explicit permission of the owner and author.
Aniebiet D. Ubon LL.B (Hons), BL (in view) is an independent writer and researcher in the field of law, with special interests in contract law, international law and human rights. He also writes about issues regarding world peace, Education, Politics, Human rights and societal development; He is also a Radio/TV commentator and analyst legal, education, political and societal development.
Ubon is the Founder of the Qualitative Universal Education and Legal Literacy Initiative (QUELL), an movement for young citizens campaigning for the right to free, compulsory primary education for all; the development of secondary and tertiary education available and accessible to all; and the improvement of the quality of our educational system. QUELL also aspires to promote legal awareness.
Contact email: aniebietubon@gmail.com. Twitter: @aniebiet11
Should there be a tax on private health providers?
George Osborne is of course petrified. Last year was supposed to be his great ‘tax reforming budget’ and he’d even bigged it up for Lord Lawson of Blaby. Instead it disintegrated into pasty wars, and Chloë Smith talking gibberish with Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight. Books have been written on the purpose of the tax system, and I suppose that I am thinking about tax a lot because of the impending UK budget, as Britain propels itself into a ‘triple dip recession’. The privatisation of the NHS is widely opposed in fact by the general public, but due to the well-known “democratic deficit” this appears to have evaded English policy makers for the NHS for the last two decades at least. The next Labour government is likely to adopt a redistributive stance of sorts, as that is the ‘road map’ Ed Miliband has declared he wishes to take. It will also attempt to do what it can do by solving the problem before it’s started, or trapping the horse before it’s bolted, by mechanisms such as the ‘living wage’ (nobody of course wishes to mention the dreaded ‘predistribution’). This is a different sort of fairness to the Liberal Democrats, and not even “fairness” as illustrated by LibDems voting for a ‘bedroom tax’. We have a burgeoning deficit, not helped by an economy driven into retropulsion through the economic policies of George Osborne pursued since May 2010, including strangulation of consumer demand, throttling of infrastructure spending, and epitomised by falling tax receipts and stagnating growth. (more…)
Ed Miliband's 2012 conference speech this afternoon emphasising a skilled economy will be seminal
Last year’s Labour conference speech in Manchester had rather mixed reviews, but as John Denham MP pointed out at the policy discussion of the Fabian Society the concept of ‘responsible capitalism’ did not mysteriously appear from outer space. ‘Responsible capitalism’ is based on a popular trending business idea from Prof Michael Porter at Harvard, articulating an argument of business strategy in the context of being a responsible corporate citizen in society.
This week’s conference in Manchester commenced with an inspiring speech by Prof Michael Sandel, a political philosopher from Harvard, providing intelligent capital in a dialogue with his audience about ‘the public good’. On the day before Eric Hobsbawn, valued for his histories discussing the tension between marxism and capitalism, sadly died at the age of 95, the debate has temporarily turned to whether intellectuals have any useful rôle in public life. Ed Miliband, in his limited time as leader since the 2010 conference also held at Manchester, has made his views on the ‘inclusive economy’ known, rejecting division and artificial distinction between the private and public sector.
The challenge for Ed Miliband is not to become as a the man who ‘released the inner geek within you’, and who can communicate with, and more significantly, represent the strong anxieties and concerns of ordinary potential Labour voters. Angela Eagle MP last night referred to a ‘tsunami resulting from a failed austerity programme’, and there is a growing realisation that there is a genuine disconnect between Labour and millions of non-voters who cannot even remember why they did not vote for any political party (according to Peter Kellner and YouGov).
I spoke with Lord Adonis yesterday evening after the policy panel discussion of the Fabians. His views are entirely consistent with the three planks of the intensive policy review under Jon Cruddas, focusing on the economy, society, and political process. I found Lord Adonis extremely pleasant to talk with, as he is intensively positive about a ‘skills economy’. Individuals can no longer take jobs ‘for granted’, and even government departments have been reluctant to take on apprentices. It is a narrative, which I strongly believe in. The shift in gear from university towards apprentices, as Adonis freely admits, has the characteristics of a ‘push-pull’ phenomenon, with a push away from the horrors created by the hike in tuition fees, and pull away towards ‘relevant skills’. Whilst Tony Blair was keen to promote ‘education, education, education’ (indeed the title of Adonis’ new book), a more relevant mantra might be ‘skills, skills, skills’.
This year, I was struck with the official statistics from the Office for National Statistics regarding employment. These statistics show a strong economy in London, but a workforce showing characteristics of being increasingly part-time and consisting of ‘independent contractors’. There is now a challenge for the left to think about how employment rights of freelancers can be vigorously protected, and the Fabians have produced an interesting policy document called ‘New forms of work’ discussing this. There is a perpetual battle for Unions not to appear nor to be irrelevant in the new modern, flexible workforce, and as Prof. Patricia Leighton describes in this policy document such workers can become separated from employment and social security rights. Degrees can indeed seem irrelevant in the ‘job hunt’, with many people competing even just to get an interview, with a II.1 from a good university. Graduates wish their qualifications to be relevant, and Ed Miliband’s desire for people to have access to vocational qualifications is a marked antithesis to the approach taken by Michael Gove. Ed Miliband’s drive here is reminiscent of the ‘equality of opportunity’, a theme which Sandel often goes back to, and certainly a more skilled workforce earning a salary ultimately in a full-top salaried job ultimately benefits the economy. This again is consistent with the ‘predistribution’ doctrine of Prof Jacob Hacker from Yale. It also chimes with the work of young campaigners within grassroots Labour, like Sam Tarry, who have often mourned the lack of an infrustructure for apprenticeships in an era still of troubling youth employment.
In the same way that the economy most blatantly needs to be rebalanced, with some individuals earning vastly inflated salaries as CEO (and who might be targets for the redistribution debate so beloved of Labour strategists), there is a growing appreciation that the education discussion needs to be reframed. In particular, an unresolved issue from the last few decades has been the erroneous perception of vocational qualifications as being seen as ‘inferior’. I perceive that there is much profitability in sectors such as IT/programming, as there never seems to be a shortage of people wanting websites (different from the age of where we needed a lot of people with skills such as mechanical welding). I not only think that vocational training such as nursing (and indeed in paralegal or legal support work) can be rewarding in all senses for all those concerned, but may indeed be valuable export industries for the UK. The explosive growth of the services industry was discussed in Evan Davis’ “Made in Britain” episode 3 in November 2011, and indeed law and medicine, which bridge both professional academic and vocational skills-based practitioner disciplines, could indeed become the ‘wealth creation’ industries so beloved of the right wing.
Rachel Reeves MP, this week, in two separate sessions for the Fabian Society, remarked on the relative success of Dizzy Rascal. Dizzee Rascal has been promoting ‘Futureversity’, which hosts an annual programme for youngsters aged 11 to 25 includes free ‘taster’ courses and activities combining academic and vocational study, personal development and volunteering. The aim is to help reduce street crime by raising youngsters’ aspirations, improving their confidence and self-esteem and breaking down social, racial and religious tensions in an area with the country’s highest youth unemployment at 25 per cent.
In this way, one can understand how Ed Miliband appears to be genuinely motivated by ‘aspiration’. This is not aspiration in the narrowed definition of individualistic empowerment by Margaret Thatcher, but an idea of aspiration building a stronger community with strong values of solidarity. Of course, it would be utterly useless if Miliband’s aspirations were simply aspirational. It is reported that, this afternoon, Ed Miliband will propose a German style shakeup of post-18 apprenticeships, in which companies, on an industry or regional basis, can sign legally enforceable agreements requiring all participating firms to pay a levy to cover the cost of training, so – ending the scourge of freeloading companies refusing to pay the costs of apprenticeships, but stealing skilled staff from firms that do train. Miliband will also give businesses control of the £1bn budget of the Skills Agency.
Whether you believe it is the correct strategy, or indeed tactic, for Ed Miliband to go on a journey of ‘self discovery’ through personal branding, acquiring a different market strategic position to David Cameron, whose narrative could be motivating to those who seek to get top First class honours degrees in Oxford only ‘to make a difference’, you can see that the discussion is already upsetting parts of the media. I suspect that the general reporting of this, compared to ‘responsible capitalism’, will be less of a problem in the long run, but I am in fact supremely confident that Ed Miliband’s conference speech this afternoon, emphasising a skilled economy, will in fact be seminal.
Ed Miliband's 2012 conference speech this afternoon emphasising a skilled economy will be seminal
Last year’s Labour conference speech in Manchester had rather mixed reviews, but as John Denham MP pointed out at the policy discussion of the Fabian Society the concept of ‘responsible capitalism’ did not mysteriously appear from outer space. ‘Responsible capitalism’ is based on a popular trending business idea from Prof Michael Porter at Harvard, articulating an argument of business strategy in the context of being a responsible corporate citizen in society.
This week’s conference in Manchester commenced with an inspiring speech by Prof Michael Sandel, a political philosopher from Harvard, providing intelligent capital in a dialogue with his audience about ‘the public good’. On the day before Eric Hobsbawn, valued for his histories discussing the tension between marxism and capitalism, sadly died at the age of 95, the debate has temporarily turned to whether intellectuals have any useful rôle in public life. Ed Miliband, in his limited time as leader since the 2010 conference also held at Manchester, has made his views on the ‘inclusive economy’ known, rejecting division and artificial distinction between the private and public sector.
The challenge for Ed Miliband is not to become as a the man who ‘released the inner geek within you’, and who can communicate with, and more significantly, represent the strong anxieties and concerns of ordinary potential Labour voters. Angela Eagle MP last night referred to a ‘tsunami resulting from a failed austerity programme’, and there is a growing realisation that there is a genuine disconnect between Labour and millions of non-voters who cannot even remember why they did not vote for any political party (according to Peter Kellner and YouGov).
I spoke with Lord Adonis yesterday evening after the policy panel discussion of the Fabians. His views are entirely consistent with the three planks of the intensive policy review under Jon Cruddas, focusing on the economy, society, and political process. I found Lord Adonis extremely pleasant to talk with, as he is intensively positive about a ‘skills economy’. Individuals can no longer take jobs ‘for granted’, and even government departments have been reluctant to take on apprentices. It is a narrative, which I strongly believe in. The shift in gear from university towards apprentices, as Adonis freely admits, has the characteristics of a ‘push-pull’ phenomenon, with a push away from the horrors created by the hike in tuition fees, and pull away towards ‘relevant skills’. Whilst Tony Blair was keen to promote ‘education, education, education’ (indeed the title of Adonis’ new book), a more relevant mantra might be ‘skills, skills, skills’.
This year, I was struck with the official statistics from the Office for National Statistics regarding employment. These statistics show a strong economy in London, but a workforce showing characteristics of being increasingly part-time and consisting of ‘independent contractors’. There is now a challenge for the left to think about how employment rights of freelancers can be vigorously protected, and the Fabians have produced an interesting policy document called ‘New forms of work’ discussing this. There is a perpetual battle for Unions not to appear nor to be irrelevant in the new modern, flexible workforce, and as Prof. Patricia Leighton describes in this policy document such workers can become separated from employment and social security rights. Degrees can indeed seem irrelevant in the ‘job hunt’, with many people competing even just to get an interview, with a II.1 from a good university. Graduates wish their qualifications to be relevant, and Ed Miliband’s desire for people to have access to vocational qualifications is a marked antithesis to the approach taken by Michael Gove. Ed Miliband’s drive here is reminiscent of the ‘equality of opportunity’, a theme which Sandel often goes back to, and certainly a more skilled workforce earning a salary ultimately in a full-top salaried job ultimately benefits the economy. This again is consistent with the ‘predistribution’ doctrine of Prof Jacob Hacker from Yale. It also chimes with the work of young campaigners within grassroots Labour, like Sam Tarry, who have often mourned the lack of an infrastructure for apprenticeships in an era still of troubling levels of youth (un)employment.
In the same way that the economy most blatantly needs to be rebalanced, with some individuals earning vastly inflated salaries as CEO (and who might be targets for the redistribution debate so beloved of Labour strategists), there is a growing appreciation that the education discussion needs to be reframed. In particular, an unresolved issue from the last few decades has been the erroneous perception of vocational qualifications as being seen as ‘inferior’. I perceive that there is much profitability in sectors such as IT/programming, as there never seems to be a shortage of people wanting websites (different from the age of where we needed a lot of people with skills such as mechanical welding). I not only think that vocational training such as nursing (and indeed in paralegal or legal support work) can be rewarding in all senses for all those concerned, but may indeed be valuable export industries for the UK. The explosive growth of the services industry was discussed in Evan Davis’ “Made in Britain” episode 3 in November 2011, and indeed law and medicine, which bridge both professional academic and vocational skills-based practitioner disciplines, could indeed become the ‘wealth creation’ industries so beloved of the right wing.
Rachel Reeves MP, this week, in two separate sessions for the Fabian Society, remarked on the relative success of Dizzy Rascal. Dizzee Rascal has been promoting ‘Futureversity’, which hosts an annual programme for youngsters aged 11 to 25 includes free ‘taster’ courses and activities combining academic and vocational study, personal development and volunteering. The aim is to help reduce street crime by raising youngsters’ aspirations, improving their confidence and self-esteem and breaking down social, racial and religious tensions in an area with the country’s highest youth unemployment at 25 per cent.
In this way, one can understand how Ed Miliband appears to be genuinely motivated by ‘aspiration’. This is not aspiration in the narrowed definition of individualistic empowerment by Margaret Thatcher, but an idea of aspiration building a stronger community with strong values of solidarity. Of course, it would be utterly useless if Miliband’s aspirations were simply aspirational. It is reported that, this afternoon, Ed Miliband will propose a German style shakeup of post-18 apprenticeships, in which companies, on an industry or regional basis, can sign legally enforceable agreements requiring all participating firms to pay a levy to cover the cost of training, so – ending the scourge of freeloading companies refusing to pay the costs of apprenticeships, but stealing skilled staff from firms that do train. Miliband will also give businesses control of the £1bn budget of the Skills Agency.
Whether you believe it is the correct strategy, or indeed tactic, for Ed Miliband to go on a journey of ‘self discovery’ through personal branding, acquiring a different market strategic position to David Cameron, whose narrative could be motivating to those who seek to get top First class honours degrees in Oxford only ‘to make a difference’, you can see that the discussion is already upsetting parts of the media. I suspect that the general reporting of this, compared to ‘responsible capitalism’, will be less of a problem in the long run, but I am in fact supremely confident that Ed Miliband’s conference speech this afternoon, emphasising a skilled economy, will in fact be seminal.
A nostalgic misfounded intellectual rigour is not the future of education
The idea that GCSEs are not rigorous does a great disservice to those who have them or about to have them, and to the teachers who are equally hard-working. There seems to be confusion between developing an education programme and an academic masturbation which is founded in nostalgia. I’ve always had ‘issues’ with the education budget being used for the upkeep of listed buildings of the Cambridge colleges – such spending should come out of the heritage budget, meaning that the money is fully spent on teaching, lecturing and research. Likewise, Michael Gove’s yearning of O Levels is back to the 1950s. It would be a retrograde step which would be extremely dangerous for education.
Education is about a balanced curriculum. To this end, if we could swallow our pride, a broad-based education akin to the International Baccalaureate may not be a bad idea. There are some fundamentals we need to address – people specialise too soon, and too many people are written off by the end of GCE A levels if they do them. The nostalgia about mathematics is ill-founded, as an extensive training in mathematics only hyper trains the parietal cortex part of your brain. It is much better that a rounded curriculum teaches other parts of the human brain, including attention, perception, memory, planning, decision-making, social cognition and emotion. It’s obvious isn’t it? This doesn’t mean parrot-learning rhymes and poems, or learning a method how to work out the tangent to a sphere in 3D. This means using your brain, and interacting with other people.
Whilst I don’t quite share some aspects of the argument, @charonqc is utterly correct in warning over the hypereducationalisation (sic) of programmes. Such hypereducationalisation is not edifying – and quite often common sense has gone out of the window. However, I do share with @colmmu and @vidalandreas that the key to successful learning is learning how to learn, and how to access information and analyse it cogently. You don’t need a superbrain to do this – we virtually all have access to the internet. Innovation should be pervasive in all aspects of education – this means that learners interact with one another. After all, whilst law firms look for teamwork as a competence, wouldn’t it be rather nice if the education system rewarded team ability as well as individual ability?
For too long, the outcome of education has been an outcome of how well you have been educated. I don’t think it matters how you test the learning objectives, whether this be coursework or written examinations. If you subject a learner to an exit exam of 3 hours duration only as a rite of passage inflicting intellectual pain, and because you believe in ‘rigour’, there is something fundamentally wrong with you. This is what Michael Gove and the Conservatives wish to do, and I wish all the parties follow the lead of the President of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, and Nick Clegg to avoid a two tier system where some students will be forced onto a scrapheap. Good for Clegg and Farron on their decree nisi in 2015 from the Tories. What I think has been incredibly commendable is how they have proved themselves in providing a stable government – I just happen to believe that the Liberal Democrats would be wonderful if they were allowed to implement their own policies, that’s all. @DavidAllenGreen and several others are completely correct in my view to voice concerns about how competition amongst exam boards may not have worked thus far. Turning the clock back decades a few decades favouring the few is not the answer – but a solution which recognises the aspirations of the many hard-working students is.
Fair access to education, promoted by Prof Les Ebdon, is important for law students
Prof Les Ebdon CBE DL is to become Director of Fair Access to higher education.
It has been remarked that Ebdon, throughout his 44 years in higher education, and in particular his period as a vice chancellor, has developed an impressive record in improving access among lower socio-economic groups, from neighbourhoods with low rates of participation, and from black and minority ethnic groups.
Prof Ebdon is currently the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bedfordshire. He attended Hemel Hempstead Grammar School (became The Hemel Hempstead School in 1970). Ebdon obtained both his BSc in Chemistry in 1968 and PhD in 1971 at Imperial College London. Ebdon was appointed Vice Chancellor and Chief Executive of the University of Luton in 2003, replacing Dai John. With the merger of the University and De Montfort’s Bedford campus in 2006 he became the Vice Chancellor of the new University of Bedfordshire. In August 2009 Ebdon, via the think tank “Million Plus”, made the controversial suggestion that students from less wealthy families be allowed entrance to universities based on lower grades.
BPP University College offers a unique opportunity for widening access to higher education. Like the new University of Luton and Bedfordshire, students want a high-quality professional education, and I am proud to be a student at a place which encourages excellence which is recognised by a plethora of employers. Recently, the Guardian newspaper observed the following.
With shrewd timing, as Scottish universities prepare to charge £9,000 a year to non-Scottish UK students from 2012, BPP University College – the UK’s only for-profit private provider with degree awarding powers – has announced it will set fees at £5,000 a year for its three-year programmes, and £6,000 a year for two-year programmes.
The announcement wasn’t only significant for the contrast with the Scottish universities, but more pertinently because it has deliberately moved to undercut all English universities with the exception of the Open University, which has set its fees at £5,000 for 120 credits (equivalent to a full year of study in a traditional university).
So with BPP aggressively positioning itself to undercut mainstream provision, and with a confident pitch of career-focused courses to deliver on the employability agenda, the foundations are surely set for an aggressive growth strategy to start snapping up increasing numbers of undergraduate students.
Whatever the official statement of BPP is regarding this appointment, which I have nothing to do with, my fellow students at BPP work very hard, and many of us will support the idea of people succeeding irrespective of whether or not they have gone to a ‘prestige’ university at some time in their life. That Les Ebdon has a proven track record in this impresses me. I am also mindful of fair access to education is vital in the wider context of fair access to the legal profession, which many of us have a vested interest in.
The quotation is from an article which first appeared in the Guardian here written by Aaron Porter on 8 September 2010, entitled “First or fail: BPP University College and Edinburgh University fees”. Shibley, the author, is the President of the BPP Legal Awareness Society, a Society run by BPP students for BPP students, to promote the importance of law and regulation to corporate strategy.
Is the modern book dead?
Paradoxically, I love using my #ipad2 in BPP Law School library, Holborn.
I use my #ipad2 during my LPC, and I latterly used to use it in my MBA. The future of knowledge changing and sharing is changing. Edmund Hewson recently discussed the presentation of media for students like me on the BPP blog:
I chair our university’s publishing company. I worry as much as any manufacturer about the cost of print (a ‘non-strategic cost’), which includes holding stock, returns policies, stock write-offs, the ecological impact of paper, carbon footprints (or whatever we print people photocopy when they sit on the copier), recycling, forest stewardship, fire, glue, chiropractic or osteopathic bills (as students carry weighty tomes around on their backs) and ‘just-in-time’ production.
In fact, our company has digitised its workflow to create a seamless link between print and the type of interactive content we have been providing for some time. All our books can be bought as eBooks. With eBooks, students can create links to other digital content. They can access their entire library from anywhere near a wireless network connection. A shared eBook library can encourage collaborative learning: students can share their mark-ups and create, together, a modern palimpsest. (see Wikipedia’s definition of palimpsest, in case you don’t know what this means.)Amazon announced volume sales of ebooks exceeded paperbacks and hardbacks combined…though I suspect this referred to fiction not academic titles.
Moreover, I work for a university that is committed to:
- blended learning, with a full use of digital media
- supplying ebooks
- fully using for learning what technology has to offer.
William Rankin, Director of Educational Innovation and Associate Professor of English, Abilene Christian University presents at the LWF Festival of Learning & Technology discussing the campus wide deployment of iPads and mobile devices within the university. London, January 10th 2011. What are we to do with the modern book? Is this a technology which has outlived his shelf life? What will ‘disruptive technologies’ like ebook do for modern education.
Rankin argues that ‘digitising a text is not the same as producing a digital book’. Anyone who has ever used the Morris app for the #ipad2will definitely know that. Today, apparently, Apple is to announce a platform that might ‘destroy’ book publishing. It’s very interesting to see some preliminary thoughts on this:
Technology-in-education expert Dr. William Rankin also believes digital books will expand with tools that will enable social interactions among textbook users. Rankin, who serves as Director of Educational Innovation of Abilene Christian University and has extensively researched the use of mobile devices in the classroom, was one of three authors of a white paper on the effects of digital convergence on learning titled “Code/X,” published in 2009.
“What we really believe is important is the role of social networking in a converged learning environment,” Rankin told Ars. “We’re already seeing that in Inkling’s platform, and Kno‘s journaling feature. Future digital texts should allow students to layer all kind of other data, such as pictures, and notes, and then share that with the class or, ideally, anyone.”
Exactly how what Apple announces on Thursday will impact digital publishing isn’t certain, however.
“Think about how meaningful simply authoring and publishing to an iPad will be for K-12,” MacInnis said. “However, it might not be great for molecular biology.”
MacInnis sees Apple as possibly up-ending the traditional print publishing model for the low-end, where basic information has for many years remained locked behind high textbook prices. Apple can “kick up dust with the education market,” which could then create visibility for platforms like Inkling. This could then serve as a sort of professional Logic-type tool for interactive textbook creation complement to Apple’s “GarageBand for e-books.”
I am a huge fan of e-books, but I like the physical feel of books. It’s really exciting going to BPP Law School library where you don’t have to carry huge volumes of books, and you can just go on a pleasurable learning journey on a ‘bppstudents’ broadband connection. I think the future for law students, writing their own professional material in a spirit of collaboration, is also a good way, and very sociable in fact.
The new @Legal_Recruit verbal reasoning practice assessment for law students
The @Legal_Recruit system (which will be available here) is a very attractive easy-to-use cloud-based service which will allow @Legal_Recruit learners to complete sample tests, under real assessment conditions.
It will be available on Monday 3 October 2011 for the first time.
Current law students, who are doing the GDL, LPC, LLB(Hons) or LLM, especially those who are seeking training contracts or vacation placements for 2013/4/5 being made available in the next academic year may find this new service/product useful. It will be available on the internet via a secure website, and will cost £7.50 for unrestricted lifetime use. All Legal Recruit learners will have their own secure website username and password, and be invited to participate in the development of the huge bank of validated questions. These questions are set in a fair way, with due attention to equality, diversity and culture.
This product has been built because it is felt by many that law students, the staff of their colleagues/universities (including their academics and their career services) and corporate law recruiting managers that the pivotal importance of the verbal reasoning test is grossly underestimated. This is not sensible, given the intense effort needed to complete any qualification in law. However, if your performance in a verbal reasoning test, and you fail to meet the cut-off score, it is possible that you will not be invited for interview, despite having a II.1 or above. This is clearly a tragedy.
Such practice will be ideal for any law students needing to complete a SHL Direct assessment for their real training contract/vacation placement application. Candidates are strongly advised to look, as a top priority, the practice tests in the practice area of the SHL website. There you can take a full-length verbal reasoning test which has been made available from the main SHL Direct website and it’s well worth looking at the example questions. You’ll also most likely enjoy looking at the advice given about verbal reasoning tests on leading corporate law recruitment sites, such as Eversheds and Clifford Chance. Obviously, Legal_Recruit does not actively endorse any of the entities above, or vice versa.
There will be very clear instructions in the @Legal_Recruit practice assessments which are akin to the current SHL verbal reasoning instructions. In the practice test, you are allowed to go backwards, although in the real assessment you will not be given this option. You must complete the practice examples before you do the test, and you are told not to press any function keys or do any background jobs such as printing during the test itself.
The word count per passage will ideally vary from 70 to 150, with a mean length of 107. Passages will avoid as far as possible the use of semi-colons, and be of no shorter than 8-10 words. They will be written in plain English, with no spelling or grammar errors. The passages will therefore avoid American spelling or American English. The mean number of words in a sentence will be about 15-20.
Assessments will consist of 30 questions, containing 15 passages (2 questions per passage). The 15 passages will be selected at random by the Legal_Recruit system from a huge database consisting of an equal number of questions in the following 16 subject areas.
- Biology
- Business
- Economics
- Education
- Engineering
- Environment
- Geography
- Geology
- Health and Safety
- Human resources
- Medicine
- Modern Languages
- Physics
- Technology
- Transport
@Legal_Recruit follows the leading twitter accounts in the world which daily produce news stories, which make excellent narratives for the verbal reasoning assessment that Legal_Recruit will be offering.
Legal_Recruit learners will be able to choose a maximum time permitted from 19 to 39 minutes; this is to that it’s easy to do the assessments with reasonable adjustments for learners who will benefit from them to allow them to perform on a ‘level-playing field’.
It’s interesting that there is no subject bias at all in the exemplars. Interestingly the passages appears to avoid contentious branding, politics, or subjects which are generally controversial.
It is essential for our system to work for our questions to be carefully set in keeping with the real verbal reasoning tests which our Legal_Recruit learners will face in their real assessments set by SHL for their training contract/vacation placements. If you would like to participate for free, and receive immediate feedback, in our sample assessments, please direct message @legalaware or @legal_recruit, and if there are any problems in me following you, please do let me know immediately, and I will remedy. We benefit from obtaining a huge bank of normative data, which indicates to us that all the questions are of the same (correct) standard, and from being able to give you an accurate indication of where you sit on the normal distribution curve.
You may enjoy following up-to-date developments in online psychometric assessment on the @SHLGROUP twitter feed.
