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Society | The Guardian

  • ‘I don’t date at all now’: one woman’s journey into the darkest corners of the manosphere

    When Jess Davies was 15, a boy leaked pictures she’d shared with him. At 18, she was a glamour model. A few years later, another man violated her trust. Then she fought back

    Jess Davies was a 15-year-old schoolgirl, sitting in an art lesson, absorbed in her fairytale project about a princess and a postman, when her Nokia phone began to vibrate with messages. “Nice pictures,” read one. “I didn’t think you were that type of girl,” said another.

    To this day, she remembers the racing thoughts, the instant nausea, the hairs prickling up on her legs, the sweaty palms. She had shared a photograph of herself in her underwear with a boy she trusted and, very soon, it had been sent around the school and across her small home town, Aberystwyth, Wales. She became a local celebrity for all the wrong reasons. Younger kids would approach her laughing and ask for a hug. Members of the men’s football team saw it – and one showed someone who knew Davies’s nan, so that’s how her family found out.

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  • GMC approves 36 courses to teach more than 1,000 NHS physician associates

    New accreditation for PAs and anaesthesia associates is ‘important milestone’ for patient assurance, regulator says

    More than 1,000 physician associates (PAs) could begin their careers in the NHS every year after regulators approved dozens of courses to teach them.

    The General Medical Council (GMC) said it had given 36 courses formal approval to teach PAs and anaesthesia associates (AAs).

    Overall, these courses had capacity for up to 1,059 PAs and 42 AAs to qualify each year.

    The GMC said approving training courses would mean that “patients, employers and colleagues can be assured that PAs and AAs have the required knowledge and skills to practise safely once they qualify”.

    PAs are graduates – usually with a health or life sciences degree – who have undertaken two years of postgraduate training.

    According to the NHS, PAs work under the supervision of a doctor and can diagnose people, take medical histories, perform physical examinations, see patients with long-term conditions, analyse test results and develop management plans.

    There were calls for more clarity in the PA role and better patient protection after the death of Emily Chesterton, 30, in November 2022 from a pulmonary embolism.

    Chesterton was misdiagnosed by a PA in London on two occasions who said her calf pain was a sprain, when she actually had a blood clot.

    Most associates work in GP surgeries, acute medicine and emergency medicine while AAs work as part of the anaesthesia and wider surgical team.

    The GMC, which took over the regulation of PAs and AAs in December, said it had approved 33 PA courses.

    Four of these – at Bradford, Greater Manchester, Queen Mary University of London and Sheffield Hallam – had been approved with “conditions” after some concerns were identified during the approval process.

    The GMC said each of these courses had a “targeted action plan” in place to address concerns.

    The regulator did not approve the course at the University of East London.

    There are only three courses for AAs – in Birmingham, University College London and Lancaster – that were all approved, the GMC said.

    Prof Colin Melville, the GMC’s medical director and director of education and standards, said: “This is an important milestone in the regulation of PAs and AAs and will provide assurance, now and in the future, that those who qualify in these roles have the appropriate skills and knowledge that patients rightly expect and deserve.

    “As a regulator, patient safety is paramount, and we have a robust quality assurance process for PA and AA courses, as we do for medical schools. We have been engaging with course providers for several years already, and we only grant approval where they meet our high standards.”

    In November, Wes Streeting, the health and social care secretary, announced an independent review of the PA and AA professions led by Prof Gillian Leng, the president of the Royal Society of Medicine.

    Danny Mortimer, the chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “The formal accreditation of the courses of study that PAs and AAs must complete is an essential component of regulation and public safety.

    “We await the outcome of the Leng review but recognise that individual NHS organisations also have a responsibility to support PAs and AAs to both use their knowledge safely with patients, and to ensure appropriate professional development and supervision.”

    Prof Phil Banfield, the council chair at the British Medical Association, said it was “difficult to understand” how the GMC could approve the courses when the Leng review into PAs and AAs has not concluded.

    He added: “The medical profession has alarming worries about the quality and robustness of these courses, with reports of exams with 100% pass rates.

    “We have made doctors’ concerns clear in our submission to the Leng review, which includes a call for an independent body of doctors, without links to course providers, to determine proportionate and safe expectations of what can be covered in curricula for assistant roles within a two-year training period.”

    PA Media contributed to this report

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  • Measles cases in Texas rise to 663 amid outbreaks in other US states

    Texas officials say 87 patients hospitalized as researchers say country at tipping point for return of endemic measles

    Measles cases in Texas rose to 663 on Tuesday, according to the state’s health department, an increase of 17 cases since 25 April, as the US battles one of its worst outbreaks of the previously eradicated childhood disease.

    Cases in Gaines county, the center of the outbreak, rose to 396, three more from its last update on Friday, the Texas department of state health services said.

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  • Exercise can counter side-effects of cancer treatment, biggest review of its kind shows

    Exercise such as aerobic and resistance training and yoga found to reduce heart and nerve damage and brain fog

    Exercise can counter the detrimental effects of cancer treatment, according to the most comprehensive review of its kind.

    Several studies have evaluated how physical activity affects the health outcomes of patients with the disease, but significant gaps in the evidence have remained until now.

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  • Fly-tippers’ vehicles to be crushed in bid to save England from ‘avalanche of rubbish’

    The scheme, part of policy blitz for local elections, will encourage councils and police forces to work together

    Councils will be encouraged to work with police forces to seize and crush vehicles used by fly-tippers, in the latest phase of a government policy blitz before Thursday’s local elections.

    Under a scheme being led by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), new legislation will impose jail sentences of up to five years for people who illicitly transport waste in England.

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Community Care

Blogs

Social Care Network | The Guardian

  • 'Don’t expect a survivor to tell you her experience of undergoing FGM'

    Specialist social workers explain how they support women and girls affected by the practice

    When social worker Sam Khalid [not her real name] first began working with women affected by female genital mutilation (FGM), she found there wasn’t much awareness of the brutal practice in the UK.

    She was in her first year at university, in 2011, on a placement with a Women’s Aid team. “The service I was placed in was just starting its FGM unit, and I learned about the practice and met and spoke to many survivors,” she says.

    This article was amended on 12 December 2018. An earlier version referenced statistics from a recent Guardian article which was taken down after the Guardian was notified of a fundamental error in the official data on which it was based.

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  • We want to attract the right people with the right values to social care | Caroline Dinenage

    New government recruitment campaign will raise the image and profile of the sector

    This year we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of our amazing NHS, but we must not forget that adult social care is also marking 70 years. The National Assistance Act 1948 that created many of the core elements of the modern social care system came into effect on the same day as the NHS act.

    In the NHS’s birthday month we have heard many stories of the dedicated nurses, doctors and support staff who have been saving and transforming lives across its seven decades. While these staff are rightly seen as the backbone of the NHS, hardworking care workers, nurses, social workers, managers and occupational therapists are, likewise, the foundation of the adult social care sector – and they have been on the same 70-year journey as colleagues in health. They are two sides of the same coin – inseparable and essential to each other.

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  • The UK project giving refugees another chance at childhood

    Young refugees face unspeakable trauma to get here. But a cross-charity initiative is helping them to rebuild their lives

    It is hard to be an adult when you feel like you haven’t had the chance to be a child.

    This simple statement has stayed with me over the last 12 months of working with young refugees and asylum seekers. Among them, a 17-year-old boy forced to sleep in a railway station for months; and another who witnessed the killing of his brother and father and escaped from his home country in fear of his life.

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  • UN: spend an extra £5tn by 2030 to tackle global 'care crisis'

    Report highlights risk of rising inequality against women worldwide

    The world economy faces a looming “care crisis” risking further division between men and women across the planet, according to a UN report calling for governments and companies worldwide to spend at least an extra $7tn (£5.3tn) on care by 2030.

    Making the case for spending on support for children, old people and the neediest in society to double by the end of the next decade, the UN’s International Labour Organisation (ILO) warned demographic changes alone mean the current path for care funding falls far short of requirements.

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  • Theresa May got it wrong with her cash boost for the NHS. Here's why

    Assessing what the health service needs is essential before giving it more money to meet demand

    Four key things were missing from Theresa May’s announcement of extra money for the NHS.

    There was no admission that there is an NHS crisis that needs tackling. Or that money is needed now for both the the health service and social care. Without this emergency cash injection, there will be insufficient time and resource to make the necessary preparations to avoid a repeat – or indeed worsening – of last year’s winter crisis in the NHS and social care with the trail of waits, delays, suffering and extra deaths that accompanied it.

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Opinion | The Guardian

  • Russia has offered a short ceasefire in Ukraine – but here’s what Putin really wants | Andriy Yermak

    As part of the price for peace, Moscow would like sanctions on Russian airlines lifted. That’s no surprise: they’re vital to the Kremlin’s war machine

    On Monday, the Kremlin offered a three-day pause in hostilities against Ukraine in May, to coincide with Moscow’s celebrations of the end of the second world war. In a context where Ukraine is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, and the US a permanent one, Russia wants concessions before a lasting pause or permanent peace can even be discussed. Central to the Kremlin’s demands is the removal of sanctions – especially those restricting its aviation sector.

    We must be cautious not to make concessions prematurely, under the guise of quick progress. The short pause offered would not make a meaningful difference to the war, and accepting it would enable a regime that has repeatedly shown intent to prolong its war of aggression and undermine this chance for a just, fair and lasting peace.

    Andriy Yermak is head of the Ukrainian presidential office

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  • The Guardian view on Canada’s Liberal election: Carney’s triumph is a rebuff to Trump | Editorial

    The US president’s territorial and economic threats have prompted voters to unite against his bellicosity

    Canada’s astounding election comeback by the Liberals will hearten many outside its borders as well as within. The governing party’s Lazarus moment was sparked by a man who was not on the ballot – though he took the chance to reiterate that the country should become the 51st US state, implying that voters could then elect him.

    By then it was already clear that Donald Trump’s threats had backfired. Monday’s result was a clear repudiation of his agenda. For two years, the Conservatives’ Pierre Poilievre looked like a dead cert as the next prime minister, assailing Justin Trudeau’s government on issues including the cost of living, housing and immigration. His party built a 25-point lead. But within four months, Mr Trudeau’s resignation, his warning that Mr Trump’s “51st state” remarks were no joke, and the imposition of swingeing US tariffs, transformed the contest. Mr Poilievre lost his seat. The Liberals are embarking on a fourth term, though this time perhaps as a minority, under Mr Trudeau’s replacement Mark Carney.

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  • The Guardian view on teachers’ pay: ministers must fund an increase | Editorial

    Schools are tough workplaces, and the government should endorse the case for higher pay

    Teachers deserve a pay rise. So it was good to learn that the independent pay review body is expected to recommend an increase of around 4% in England for 2025-26, along with 3% for NHS workers. There are staff shortages across many parts of the public sector. Schools are not unique in having trouble with recruitment and retention. But the importance of education means that the government must do all in its power to prevent children from missing out, and fund the increase in full.

    By refusing to do so, ministers would send the wrong signal to a beleaguered profession and the country at large. There are strong arguments for investing in public services across the board – and not only in England. But the case for ensuring that there are enough teachers should be unarguable for a government that is hopeful about the future and wants voters to feel the same.

    Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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  • Pete Songi on Conservative preparations for England’s local elections – cartoon
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  • Extra time in exams is a challenge to the system | Letters

    Readers respond to an article about the increasing number of children who are given special ‘access arrangements’ for exams

    Sally Weale’s article on the increased use of “access arrangements” for children who would otherwise be at a disadvantage in exams gave a reasonable account of the logistical demands that this places on schools and colleges (Extra exam time: why do so many schoolkids suddenly need it?, 23 April). As an assessor for such arrangements in a large further education college, I am aware that the year-on-year increase in them was established long before Covid, suggesting another possible mechanism for the trend beyond the likely culprits outlined by Weale.

    To sit still, concentrate at length, recall and regurgitate knowledge, generate creative ideas, endure fatigue, write legibly, spell accurately and process large amounts of text accurately and at speed, during a strictly timed examinations season, still seems to be regarded as the gold standard for children’s assessment. This is despite there being no meaningful correlation to any real-world application (that I can think of).

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