Numbers and characteristics of those considered as potential “key workers” in the response to coronavirus (COVID-19), UK. Labour Force Survey and Annual Population Survey.

New insights on the characteristics of non-British nationals and non-UK-born in the workforce between 2017 and 2019, including those who could be considered as key workers in the response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The data collection consists of 40 qualitative interviews with Polish migrant essential workers living in the UK and 10 in-depth expert interviews with key stakeholders providing information and support to migrant workers in the UK. All migrant interviews are in Polish. Six of the expert interviews with key stakeholders are in English and four are in Polish. Fieldwork was conducted fully online during the Covid-19 pandemic between March and August 2021, following the third UK-wide Covid-19 lockdown. Restrictions were still in place in some localities. Interviews took place shortly after the end of the transition period concluding the UK’s European Union exit on 1 January 2021. All Polish migrant worker interviewees entered the UK before 1 January 2021 and had the option to apply to the EU Settlement Scheme.

The objectives of the qualitative fieldwork were to: 1. To synthesise empirical and theoretical knowledge on the short- and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on migrant essential workers. 2. To establish how the pandemic affected Polish migrant essential worker's lives; and expert interviews with stakeholders in the public and third/voluntary sector to investigate how to best support and retain migrant essential workers in COVID-19 recovery strategies. The project also involved: - co-producing policy outputs with partner organisations in England and Scotland; and - an online survey to measure how Polish migrant essential workers across different roles and sectors were impacted by COVID-19 in regard to health, social, economic and cultural aspects, and intentions to stay in the UK/return to Poland (deposited separately to University of Sheffield). Key findings included significant new knowledge about the health, social, economic and cultural impacts of Covid-19 on migrant essential workers. Polish essential workers were severely impacted by the pandemic with major mental health impacts. Mental health support was insufficient throughout the UK. Those seeking support typically turned to private (online) services from Poland as they felt they could not access them in the UK because of language or cultural barriers, lack of understanding of the healthcare system and pathways to mental health support, support being offered during working hours only, or fear of the negative impact of using mental health services on work opportunities. Some participants were in extreme financial hardship, especially those with pre-settled status or those who arrived in the UK during the pandemic. The reasons for financial strain varied but there were strong patterns linked to increased pressure at work, greater exposure to Covid-19 as well as redundancies, pay cuts and rejected benefit applications. There was a tendency to avoid applying for state financial support. These impacts were compounded by the sense of isolation, helplessness, or long-distance grief due to inability to visit loved ones in Poland. Covid-19 impacted most detrimentally on women with caring responsibilities, single parents and people in the health and teaching sectors. The most vulnerable Polish migrant essential workers - e.g. those on lower income, with pre-existing health conditions, restricted access to support and limited English proficiency - were at most risk. Discrimination was reported, including not feeling treated equally in the workplace. The sense of discrimination two-fold: as essential workers (low-paid, low-status, unsafe jobs) and as Eastern Europeans (frequent disciplining practices, treated as threat, assumed to be less qualified). In terms of future plans, some essential workers intended to leave the UK or were unsure about their future place of residence. Brexit was a major reason for uncertain settlement plans. Vaccine hesitancy was identified, based on doubts about vaccination, especially amongst younger respondents who perceived low risks of Covid-19 for their own health, including women of childbearing age, who may have worries over unknown vaccine side-effects for fertility. Interview participants largely turned to Polish language sources for vaccination information, especially social media, and family and friends in Poland. This promoted the spread of misinformation as Poland has a strong anti-vaccination movement.

COVID-19 has exposed the UK's socio-economic dependence on a chronically insecure migrant essential workforce. While risking their lives to offset the devastating effects of the pandemic, migrant workers reportedly find themselves in precarious professional and personal circumstances (temporary zero-hours contracts, work exploitation, overcrowded accommodation, limited access to adequate health/social services including Universal Credit). This project will investigate the health, social, economic and cultural impacts of COVID-19 on the migrant essential workforce and how these might impact on their continued stay in the UK. It will focus on the largest non-British nationality in the UK, the Polish...

The coronavirus pandemic has necessitated extraordinary human resilience in order to preserve and prolong life and social order. Risks to health and even life are being confronted by workers in health and social care, as well as those in roles previously never defined as “frontline,” such as individuals working in community supply chain sectors. The strategy adopted by the United Kingdom (UK) government in facing the challenges of the pandemic was markedly different from other countries. The present study set out to examine what variables were associated with resilience, burnout, and wellbeing in all sectors of frontline workers, and whether or not these differed between the UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI). Individuals were eligible if they were a frontline worker (in health and social care, community supply chain, or other emergency services) in the UK or RoI during the pandemic. Part of a larger, longitudinal study, the participants completed an online survey to assess various aspects of their daily and working lives, along with their attitudes toward their government’s handling of the crisis, and measurement of psychological variables associated with heroism (altruism, meaning in life, and resilient coping). A total of 1,305 participants (N = 869, 66.6% from the UK) provided sufficient data for analysis. UK-based workers reported lower wellbeing than the RoI-based participants. In multivariate models, both psychological and pandemic-related variables were associated with levels of resilience, burnout, and wellbeing in these workers, but which pandemic-related variables were associated with outcomes differed depending on the country. The judgment of lower timeliness in their government’s response to the pandemic appeared to be a key driver of each outcome for the UK-based frontline workers. These findings provide initial evidence that the different strategies adopted by each country may be associated with the overall wellbeing of frontline workers, with higher detriment observed in the UK. The judgment of the relatively slow response of the UK government to instigate their pandemic measures appears to be associated with lower resilience, higher burnout, and lower wellbeing in frontline workers in the UK.

Given the outbreak of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), pandemic during March 2020, lockdown measures taken by governments have forced many families, especially those who have children, to re-arrange domestic and market work division. In this study, I investigate the factors associated with partnered and employed individuals’ involvement with housework during the COVID-19 lockdown in the United Kingdom. Drawing evidence from the first wave of the Covid-19 Survey from the Five National Longitudinal Studies dataset with using OLS regressions, this study found that daily working hours, socioeconomic status, and partner’s key worker status are important indicators of daily time spent on housework. Furthermore, interaction analysis showed that women living with a key worker partner not only did more housework than women whose partner was working in a regular job, but they also did more housework than men living with a key worker partner during the lockdown. Policy implications of regulating maximum daily working hours and key worker status are discussed in the context of re-arranging paid and unpaid work between couples during the first lockdown in the United Kingdom.

Citation: Sönmez, I ̇brahim. 2021. A Missed Opportunity for Men? Partnered and Employed Individuals’ Involvement with Housework during the COVID-19 Lockdown in the UK. SocialSciences10: 135. https:// doi.org/10.3390/socsci10040135

COVID-19 UK Non-hospital Antigen Testing Results (Pillar 2) data is required by NHS Digital to support COVID-19 requests for linkage, analysis and dissemination to other organisations. These requests are often urgent and in support of direct care and service monitoring, planning and research. These are all functions that NHS Digital have been asked to deliver as a national resource in response to COVID-19, through the recent direction from the SoS.

Antigen test results relate to subjects who have had swab testing in the community at drive through test centres, walk in centres, home kits returned by posts, care homes, prisons etc.

The dataset is composed of:

• Patient identity and contact details

• Testing centre and laboratory details

• Test results • Test kit types (manufacturer)

The data cover the UK and is collected under SoS Covid Direction under s254 of the HSCA 2012 and s255 requests from devolved administrations for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. This is an expansion of the original scope which only included data for welsh patients tested in other parts of the UK.

Data is currently available for dissemination through the NHS Digital DARS service for England. If your extract is to include data from the devolved administrations their approval will also be required.

Timescales for dissemination can be found under 'Our Service Levels' at the following link: https://digital.nhs.uk/services/data-access-request-service-dars/data-access-request-service-dars-process

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, schools in England closed their buildings to all but vulnerable pupils and the children of key workers on 20 March 2020, representing an unprecedented disruption to the education of children and young people. This project explores schools' responses to the Covid-19 emergency and the impact this is having on pupils and teachers. Data will be collected via two school surveys, each administered to the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) Teacher Voice panel, and all remaining publicly-funded mainstream primary and secondary schools in England. The survey is offered for completion by a senior leader and a number of teachers within each school. The first survey (Wave 1) was administered in schools between 7 and 17 May 2020. The second (Wave 2), focused on the challenges schools would face from September, and was administered between 8 and 15 July.

Further information and research findings may be found on the NFER Schools' responses to Covid-19 webpage.

Latest edition information
For the second edition (December 2020), data and documentation for Wave 2 were added to the study.

Senior Leaders' survey:

Wave 1:

• Mechanisms for supporting remote learning
• Curriculum, teaching and learning and assessment via remote learning
• In-school provision for vulnerable children and the children of keyworkers
• Remote support for vulnerable pupils who are not attending school
• Job satisfaction
• Preparing schools for opening more fully
• Personal characteristics

Wave 2:

• The school’s provision during the Covid-19 crisis
• 'Catch-up' arrangements
• Preparing for the new school year
• Staffing in the school
• Personal characteristics

Teachers' survey:

Wave 1:

• Mechanisms for supporting remote learning
• Curriculum, teaching and learning
• Provision for vulnerable children and the children of keyworkers
• Job satisfaction
• Personal characteristics

Wave 2:

• Questions about teaching and learning during the Covid-19 crisis
• Identifying pupils' needs and deciding where support is most needed
• Personal characteristics

Datasets and interview transcripts from a Q-methodology study with 54 individuals with a range of different experiences of, and expertise in relation to, the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants included, for example, seldom-heard and low-income individuals, health practitioners, health and social policy academics and relevant policy makers, key workers, furloughed staff, and individuals directed to shield by the NHS. Participants from England and Scotland rank ordered 60 statements onto a quasi-normal shaped grid according to their point of view in 2021. The dataset includes data from the Q sorts (n=54), socio-demographic survey (n=54) and post-sort qualitative interviews (n=53).

Amongst those hit hardest by COVID-19, and the associated social and economic measures put in place to combat it, will be people in low-income settings, and, within that group, those in hard-to-reach groups continually threatened by financial exclusion. People in such situations already live in precarious financial situations which could be amongst the most vulnerable to measures such as social distancing and self-isolation. A Q study was conducted, with a focus on perceptions of COVID-19 and the societal responses to which study participants have been subjected. Q methodology is an established approach to study subjective opinion and beliefs. The views of seldom-heard individuals were complemented and compared with those of a wide range of other participants, for example, health practitioners, health and social policy academics and relevant policy makers, key workers, furloughed staff, and individuals directed to shield by the NHS. We purposively selected 54 individuals with a range of different experiences of, and expertise in relation to, the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants rank ordered 60 statements onto a quasi-normal shaped grid according to their point of view. These data will be useful in enhancing the acceptability of, adherence to and effective delivery of evidence-based strategies for future prevention and containment.

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented global public health crisis that continues to exert immense pressure on healthcare and related professional staff and services. The impact on staff wellbeing is likely to be influenced by a combination of modifiable and non-modifiable factors.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the self-reported wellbeing, resilience, and job satisfaction of National Health Service (NHS) and university staff working in the field of healthcare and medical research.MethodsWe conducted a cross sectional survey of NHS and UK university staff throughout the COVID-19 pandemic between May-November 2020. The anonymous and voluntary survey was disseminated through social media platforms, and via e-mail to members of professional and medical bodies. The data was analyzed using descriptive and regression (R) statistics.ResultsThe enjoyment of work and satisfaction outside of work was significantly negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic for all of staff groups independent of other variables. Furthermore, married women reporting significantly lower wellbeing than married men (P = 0.028). Additionally, the wellbeing of single females was significantly lower than both married women and men (P = 0.017 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Gender differences were also found in satisfaction outside of work, with women reporting higher satisfaction than men before the COVID-19 pandemic (P = 0.0002).ConclusionOur study confirms that the enjoyment of work and general satisfaction of staff members has been significantly affected by the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interestingly, being married appears to be a protective factor for wellbeing and resilience but the effect may be reversed for life satisfaction outside work. Our survey highlights the critical need for further research to examine gender differences using a wider range of methods.

This statistic shows what businesses in the innovative industry consider to be the key selling point in attracting new employees in the industry in the United Kingdom (UK), according to a survey conducted in 2015. Of the executives surveyed, 32 percent said they think that brand, culture, mission and reputation are the key selling points.

The UK's decision to leave the EU has necessitated a wholesale rethink of UK immigration policy with the ending of free movement of workers. The motivations for this work then were to examine the immigration/worker protection boundary from a number of perspectives, with particular emphasis on the legal dimension. While understanding the developing EU and domestic (macro) perspective our aims at a micro level were to understand the legal problems EU citizens in low paid work in the UK were facing and how they resolve those problems. These legal problems were at times exacerbated by Brexit, particularly with the advent of the new digital EUSS (EU Settlement Scheme)- our research followed this in real time and recorded issues. One of our key findings and covered by the book published as a result of the dataset here is that of Pragmatic Law and the role of everyday community advice in the wider legal advice eco-system. This is an element of legal advice which to date had been little researched. Another key outcome was the contribution to literature on both EU free movement and citizenship studies, particularly in the context of vulnerable EU citizens.

The number of hospital employees in the health sector in the United Kingdom increased by 84,452.6 employees (+5.36 percent) in 2021 in comparison to the previous year. Therefore, the number of hospital employees in the United Kingdom reached a peak in 2021 with 1,660,883.41 employees. Total hospital employment includes the headcount of all people employed in a hospital structure and the number of full-time equivalents (FTE). These broad employment figures encompass general or specialty hospitals and self-employment or service contracts.Find more key insights for the number of hospital employees in the health sector in countries like Denmark, Spain, and Greece.

The Care Leavers, COVID-19 and Transitions from Care (CCTC) study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19 (ES/V016245/1).

The research explored care leavers’ experiences of the pandemic. Analysis of local authority management information system data on over 1300 young people from 10 local authorities and over 60 interviews with young people and professionals informed the study.

As part of the study care experienced adults, leaving care workers and operational managers came together to form a Networked Learning Community (NLC). Over a series of sessions the NLC supported the research team to interpret the findings, develop recommendations and tools for practice.

Care leavers typically leave their foster homes or residential placements at 16-18 years and cannot necessarily rely on receiving as much practical, emotional or family support, once they have moved, as their peers in the general population. Research shows that young people leaving care can feel isolated and abandoned at this time and that they are vulnerable to poor outcomes including poverty, homelessness, mental ill-health and unemployment. The health, social and economic impacts of Covid-19 heighten the challenges they are likely to face at a stage of life that can be difficult in the best of circumstances.

The study will involve analysis of quantitative data on around 900 care leavers and in-depth interviews with senior and operational managers from children's services and health on around 50 care leavers and their key workers, (at two time points), to inform understanding of the impact that the Covid-19 has had on the timing of young people's transitions from care, where young people go ('transition pathways'), what services and support they receive, and how they fare. In particular we will focus on understanding the impact that the pandemic has had on the health and wellbeing of care leavers and the strengths and limitations of the mainstream and specialist health services they receive. We will then work together with care leavers and professionals to develop recommendations for policy makers and tools to support best practice.

The Gig Rights Project survey was undertaken to gain a deeper understanding UK platform worker support for labour rights, policy interventions and collective representation. Therefore, the aim of the survey was to gather data on the policy and representation preferences of these workers as well as other key factors which might influence these preferences. Respondents were asked to select the three labour rights and policies that would most benefit their working life if applied to their platform work. Respondents had a choice of 13 labour rights and 13 other policies to make their selection from. These labour rights and policies were generated from reviewing publicly available policy recommendations and discussions with our external advisory partners (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas), Charted Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), International Labour Organization (ILO), Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) and Trade Union Congress (TUC). We additionally adopted questions from the Understanding Society, COLLEEM, iLabour, Skills and Employment, British Social Attitudes surveys in order to collect data on respondents’ platform work, working conditions, representation preferences, and political values.

The survey was piloted with five current or former platform workers: two current remote platform workers, a former delivery local platform worker, a former ridehail local platform worker and a current handyperson local platform worker. Where possible, to ease comparison with existing quantitative research, we based our questions or survey items on established social surveys. Improvements were made to the wording of the questions based on the feedback provided during the piloting. The research received ethical approval from the Bristol University School of Management Research Ethics Committee.

The survey was administered to a strategically targeted ‘river’ sample which included good representation across conceptually important categories, such as remote or local platform work, migrant or UK-born, male or female, younger or older and more or less educated. By doing so, it is possible to highlight where preferences for rights and policies seem unlikely to be influenced by such characteristics due to the absence of substantial differences between groups. Conversely, this approach allows to identify outcomes that are more likely to be sensitive to the actual makeup of the platform worker population. To generate our targeted sample, we advertised our survey directly to UK-based workers active on Facebook and Instagram using the advertising portal. (Facebook Ads Center) which allows the placement of advertisements on both social media platforms. The advantage of this approach is that Facebook and Instagram use is so widespread that self-selection into the sampling frame is not a concern. Recent estimates indicate that approximately 71 per cent of adults in the UK are active on Facebook and are not especially stratified by demographic characteristics.

Using the platform advertising features, we directly targeted our survey at users who, for example, listed their interests as ‘Ubereats’, ‘delivery (commerce)’, ‘Uber (company)’, ‘Drive with Uber’, ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Hybrid electric vehicle’, ‘TaskRabbit’, ‘Care.com’ or ‘Airtasker’; their employer as ‘Deliveroo’, or their job title as ‘delivery’ ‘Taxi Cab Driver’ or ‘Car Driver’. Users matching these interests, employer or job titles, were targeted with bespoke adverts designed for delivery, drivers and domestic platform workers on Facebook/Instagram. We recruited 257 local platform workers in this manner. Those who completed the survey were offered the chance to win an iPad.

Previous quantitative research has demonstrated the potential for using platform-based adverts to effectively sample remote platform workers. We therefore followed this proven approach and recruited 253 remote platform workers from Upwork - a leading remote work platform. To do this we listed our survey as a job on the platform and in line with quotas for task and gender derived from the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Online Labour Index. Those who completed the survey were compensated with a £10 payment. Between March and June 2022, 510 UK gig economy workers active on Facebook, Instagram or Upwork were surveyed.

Key findings are strong support for labour rights, trade unions and co-determination. Low pay, insecurity, risk and lack of organizational voice provides a rationale for these preferences. Moreover, platform workers’ preferences are seemingly influenced by wider inequalities, with significant differences according to gender and country of birth. Additionally, remote platform work entails significantly better pay, more flexibility, greater influence over how to do their job, greater sense of doing useful work, better health and safety, less pain, and less work-related insecurity. In contrast, local platform work entails greater organisational influence and less physical isolation.

Revenue in the Temporary Employment Agency industry is anticipated to drop at a compound annual rate of 4% in the five years through 2024 to €236.5 billion. The COVID-19 outbreak meant key employers of temporary workers in the hospitality and tourist sector shut their doors, and companies froze hiring due to economic uncertainty - a sizeable blow to revenue in the three years through 2022. Workers on temporary contracts represented a significant chuck of employment losses in all quarters of 2020. According to Eurostat data, temporary employment declined across Europe in the four years from 2017 to 2020, dipping from 13.8% to 11.9%. Since COVID-19 has slowed, companies have resumed hiring as confidence levels have been restored and vacancy levels have soared. An increasingly tight labour market encourages employers to rely on temporary employment placement agencies to fight in an increasingly competitive market. Several countries rank highly in terms of temporary workers with a large short-term job market. In 2022, the Netherlands and Spain have more than 15% of employed people under temporary contracts, according to Eurostat. Industry revenue is expected to shrink by 1.6% in 2024. Revenue is expected to grow at an annual rate of 4.5% in the five years through 2029 to €295.4 billion. With the labour market is likely to remain tight in many countries due to skill mismatches, employers will keep turning to placement agencies for their databases to track and identify the right candidates. Companies will lean on temporary hires as the economic outlook remains unclear and inflation keeps squeezing budgets. The automation of more routine jobs will be a threat to some long-standing temporary jobs. Across Europe, countries that traditionally rely on a strong network of short-term workers are implanting policies that may disrupt or expand services. Spain has already introduced reforms that are taking effect to increase permanent positions and remove temporary contracts, while Italy is expanding its voucher scheme to encourage temporary hires.

Pay level risk faced by different occupations, based on ability to work from home and whether or not they are a key worker, UK, 2020. Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

COVID-19 Key Worker Testing Results data is required by NHS Digital to support COVID-19 requests for linkage, analysis and dissemination to other organisations who require the data in a timely manner.