Immigration skills charge could hit health funding for years

A new immigration skills charge which comes into force on Thursday could take “desperately needed money” from the health service for years to come due to the service’s continuing reliance on foreign staff.

Employers will have to pay a £1,000 annual charge for skilled workers from outside the European Economic Area newly applying for the two main categories of Tier 2 visas. There were more than 6,000 such applications for non-EEA doctors and nurses in 2015 alone.

Smaller businesses and charities will pay a reduced charge of £364 per employee per year. The charge is on top of the fees already in place.

The employers of Tier 2 skilled visa holders who are already in the UK and those currently outside the UK who were assigned a certificate of sponsorship before today will not have to pay the charge.

The British Medical Association and Royal College of Nursing have raised concerns that the £1,000 annual charge could have a “damaging impact” on health and social care funding.

They jointly wrote to the home secretary in March expressing concern that the charges would take millions out of the NHS budget each year. However, their call that the NHS and the wider health and social care system be exempted from the charge has not led to a reversal in the government’s position.

BMA council chair Dr Mark Porter said it was “unthinkable” that trusts should be penalised for trying to fill staff shortages from overseas who it requires to maintain safe staffing levels and safe patient care.

“The government’s poor workforce planning has left it struggling to cope with huge and predictable staff shortages,” he said. “The introduction of this charge could take desperately needed money from an already under-funded health service, worsen the current staffing issues, and impact the level of care that hospitals are able to provide to patients.”

The chief executive of NHS Employers, Danny Mortimer said the immigration skills charge meant recruiting new non-EEA staff in future will become more expensive.

“Because of the workforce shortfalls faced by the NHS, and the time it takes to train new clinical staff, we anticipate employers will still need to recruit more non-EEA staff in the short to medium term,” he said.

Current exemptions only apply to PhD-level occupations and specific categories of trainee graduates and those switching from student visas to skilled work visas.

Detailed figures provided by the Home Office under the Freedom of Information Act show there were 87,280 applications for Tier 2 visas for non-EEA workers in the UK in 2015, an increase of 52% compared to 2011.

Among that figure there were 3,702 applications made on behalf of doctors, including consultants, specialists, GPs and surgeons. The highest number of these were Indian (820) and Pakistani (795) nationals.

3,702 doctors, including consultants, specialists, GPs and surgeons, applied for skilled visas in 2015

There were 2,535 applications for skilled visas for nurses in the same year, the majority of them from either the Philippines or India. A further 130 Croatian nationals also appear on the list of nationalities recruited as nurses due to restrictions on Croatian nationals’ access to the UK labour market.

There were 2,535 applications for skilled visas for nurses in the same year, the majority of them from either the Philippines or India.

Health is not the only industry that will be affected by the charge. The IT industry uses skilled visas more than any other: almost 35,000 tech professionals applied for Tier 2 visas in 2015, 40% of applications.

The vast majority of those who applied for positions in IT in 2015 were Indian citizens, almost 30,000 in total, followed by US citizens.

34,835 IT workers applied for skilled visas in the UK in 2015, up 71% on 2011

Programmers and developers are in highest demand with more than 12,300 applications for skilled visas while business analysts, architects and systems designers accounted for almost 10,500 applications within the sector.

Charlotte Holloway, policy director with techUK says that, while larger companies will be able to absorb the cost and additional bureaucracy the charge will bring, that the new charge was an extra burden on business which would disproportionately affect SMEs.

The business, research and administration sector also relies heavily on the visa scheme, making up 11% of skilled visa applications in 2015, most commonly for management consultants and business analysts and accountants.

In the same year almost 5,000 engineers applied for the skilled visa programme making it the third most reliant industry on non-EEA labour.

Other smaller industries such as speciality restaurants may also see an impact. There have been repeated warnings in recent years of a curry house crisis with the industry warning that a third of curry houses are at risk due to rising costs many of them connected to changes to immigration rules.

This is borne out in the figures provided by the Home Office. The number of non-EEA chefs and cooks applying for visas fell from 1,860 in 2013 to 745 in 2015.

Chart showing that the number of applications for non-EEA chefs and cooks fell from 1,860 in 2013 to 745 in 2015

A government spokesperson said income raised from the new immigration skills charge will be used to address skills gaps in the UK workforce.

“For too long there has been an under-investment in training for UK workers but this government is committed to building homegrown skills and wants to encourage employers to do the same.

“The introduction of the immigration skills charge will help encourage employers to invest in training so that UK workers have the right skills to fill jobs.”

Immigration skills charge could hit health funding for years

UK nurses lacking skills to treat transgender patients, says research

UK nurses are failing to meet the needs of transgender patients and feel they lack training and experience to treat the growing number of trans people seeking medical treatment in relation to their gender identity, according to research.

A survey of more than 1,200 nursing staff across the UK found 87% of those nurses who have directly cared for a trans patient felt unprepared to meet the patient’s needs.

The survey, which was conducted by the Royal College of Nursing, also found that 76% have encountered trans people during their healthcare work and 56% had cared for trans people directly.

Just one-fifth of all nurses surveyed said they thought the nursing workforce had the skills to care for trans adults and children, while 76% said more training for all healthcare staff was needed.

The survey comes after the Guardian revealed there has been a steep increase in the number of trans people referred to all 14 gender identity clinics around the country, with a number of clinics experiencing increases of several hundred per cent.

Referrals to adult clinics

The Guardian found that healthcare options for trans people at specialist gender identity clinics were inadequate, with an average waiting time of nine months for a first appointment for adults and some patients waiting up to four years for a first appointment.

Trans people also reported they often encounter medical staff who did not know how to engage with them, such as GPs having laughed at them when they said they wanted to transition, having their feelings dismissed as “just going through a phase”and being repeatedly misgendered – referred to by their birth sex, not the sex they identify with.

Kirsty Cass, a trans woman who has worked as a nurse for the last two years, says she has encountered prejudice and misunderstanding from healthcare professionals, most of which involved her being misgendered.

In one instance, several years after she had undergone gender reassignment surgery, she went to her local hospital for a biopsy on a lump on her ear. After the procedure, the porters wheeled her to a male ward and tried to make her stay there.

“To say I was upset was an understatement,” said Cass. “I was inconsolable, I was sobbing my heart out.”

Much of the problem, she added, had to do with a lack of training of medical staff, some thing was that was also identified as a point of concern by nurses in the RCN survey. Just 1% of respondents said their pre-registration training dealt with the treatment of trans patients and 78% said they had no training on the subject.

Tavistock clinic referrals

Louie Stafford, the trans programme coordinator for the LGBT Foundation, said he was unsurprised by the survey results.

“Gender identity issues are considered a speciality field, so unless you’re practising in that field, it’s unlikely you’ll have any training or any guidance. It’s great that the RCN are trying to shine a light on this from the medical perspective, there’s an urgency for academic medical institutions to consider the curriculum and the content that they’re teaching and put some awareness training in there.”

Wendy Irwin, RCN diversity and equalities coordinator, said the college was pushing for training regarding the treatment of trans people to become a mandatory part of pre-registration nursing training as well as part of continuing professional development.

“I think nurses are increasingly aware of the gap in their knowledge,” she said. “All nurses have a deep and personal desire to deliver the absolutely best care for all their patients, what they’re looking for is how to do that.”

UK nurses lacking skills to treat transgender patients, says research

Yoshi"s New Island Nurtures Kids" Dilemma Solving Skills

I was actually excited when Nintendo Nintendo advised me Yoshi’s New Island was ready for review. I quickly downloaded it to the 2DS. My youngsters (boy 6 and eight) each started out individual files. And I started one for myself. I’ve constantly loved Yoshi. He’s a single of my favored Nintendo characters.

I also consider platformers are especially very good for my children they are intrinsically motivated to refine their difficulty solving expertise and practice analyzing and interpreting techniques. More about that in a bit. Very first, let me tell you about the game.

My children commenced the game the day we downloaded it and each of them played via to the finish of the initial globe in one particular sitting, mesmerized and thrilled. I began taking part in on a extended plane trip. I’ve played about half of the game so far and prepare to total it on the flight property.

At initial, I was disappointed to uncover that the new Yoshi game didn’t use the two screens as one particular big screen the way the outdated Yoshi’s Island DS game did. But that did not take away from the fun or the familiarity. If you keep in mind the screeching Little one Mario cries, they are nonetheless there–although they seem to come less frequently. Yoshi’s New Island, like the predecessor, teeters admirably among cute and irritating.

During the very first globe of gameplay, the game feels nearly too easy. I felt like I was playing the platformer that fit someplace in between Kirby and Mario. But when I reached planet two, the game started to get challenging.

This is simply because Yoshi’s New Island truly excels when it comes to educating gamers how to perform. New aspects and mechanics styles just preserve compounding quickly until finally you learn your self taking part in a truly complicated platformer that would seem to be incongruent with the nearly-infantile artwork type.

In the press release, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Revenue &amp Marketing and advertising, Scott Moffitt, put it this way, “Yoshi’s New Island will appeal to fans of the earlier Yoshi’s Island video games, but also to younger gamers who are experiencing the series for the 1st time.” That is correct. Despite the fact that, I doubt anyone who by no means played the previous Yoshi games will be as giddy as veterans when they see the giant eggs. Still, this game has a good deal of the previous, with just enough of the new to hold you fired up.

Certain, Nintendo is generally exploiting their outstanding catalogue of old video games, releasing 1 “New” iteration after yet another. But that’s practically nothing to complain about it functions. In truth, the familiarity is element of what helps make these games perform SO effectively for my kids. The studying curve is shallow they can start appropriate away, encouraged by the easiness, but it gets demanding rapidly.

This is exactly why I adore providing my little ones these Nintendo platformers. In a familiar way, my little ones get to refine their problem solving capabilities and practice techniques considering.

Proficiency in systems thinking is what it takes to be successful in any video game. Underlying each and every game no matter how complicated is a relatively basic puzzle, a reasonably easy systematic pattern. At root, the player is tasked with finding out a combination of actions and responses. The game does a single thing. The player responds with one more. My children discover, by way of trial and error, which responses are most powerful, most effective, and most most likely to yield the sought after end result.

In his book A Theory of Exciting For Game Style, Raph Koster explains that video games work because people adore patterns. You have witnessed a Rorshach test. You have laid in the grass and imagined the clouds have been shaped like animals. We like to seem for patterns. Presented with any random collection of idiosyncrasies, human’s will usually categorize, organize, and label that chaos in such a way that it gets a system that is useful for us.

The excellent factor about new Nintendo iterations like Yoshi’s New Island is that the underlying program of these games stays much more or less the very same. But the knowledge is different.

The experience and the challenges in Yoshi’s New Island are not always less complicated than the ones in the New Super Mario Bros. or New Super Luigi Bros. platformers. But the game as entire feels less difficult. That’s due to the fact it is more difficult to die. When Child Mario falls off Yoshi’s back you have a handful of seconds to get him back ahead of you get rid of a existence. This helps make the game easier, but it also implies it may possibly be far better for my little ones. Because the games utilizes simulation in the greatest feasible way for learning.

See the point most folks misunderstand about simulation is that what’s simulated is always failure. I’m not afraid to fly a actual airplane. What scares me is crashing it. So I use a flight simulator to make positive I understand the technique prior to the stakes turn out to be actual, prior to there is really some thing on the line.

Video games all have a single issue in widespread. They simulate failure without any consequences. When I die, I get an additional lifestyle. A do in excess of. A replay. Practically nothing misplaced. I just get to consider once more. I attempt and fail. And I fail once again and yet again till I recognize the method nicely enough to do it right. This encourages perseverance, refines dilemma solving abilities and, drills programs pondering acuity.

Of program, these are the constructive impacts that come from taking part in any video game.  It doesn’t have to be Yoshi’s New Island. However, Yoshi’s New Island is a very good one particular, specially for younger children.

Jordan Shapiro will be speaking about methods thinking and how kids understand issue solving capabilities at the Global Training And Capabilities Forum in Dubai (March 15-17) about game-based studying, educational technology, and the future of understanding. 

Yoshi"s New Island Nurtures Kids" Dilemma Solving Skills

Discover Wilderness Survival Skills While Receiving Match - In Luxury Style

Canyon Ranch Tucson’s Outside Sports activities Manager Randy Kinkade teaches visitors how to start fires in the wild without having tools as portion of the resort’s new outside “primitive skills” classes.

Enjoy Television demonstrates like Survivorman, Man vs. Wild and Dual Survival? Or maybe you just worry about how you’d fare following surviving a plane crash, getting misplaced hiking or operating out of fuel in the middle of nowhere? Either way, this may well be the ideal trip for you.

Tucson’s Canyon Ranch is well-known as a luxury fitness retreat, a white glove boot camp of kinds the place people go to get into shape swiftly under the eye of specialist trainers supplying a enormous slate of workout courses although staying in posh accommodations, enjoying spa remedies and consuming healthily, but without having sacrifice.

Now it is tackling wilderness survival.

Hiking is a massive element of the fitness offerings at Tucson’s Canyon Ranch, in which hikers can also now learn better wilderness survival and security abilities.

The initial Primitive Outdoor Survival Capabilities session is currently being held at the Tucson Canyon Ranch place (there are also Canyon Ranch locations in the Berkshires, Miami Seashore, Las Vegas and at Sea) from January 22-25, 2014. If that’s too short recognize, just hang onto this info as the Primitive Outdoor Survival Skills will be repeated, whilst numerous elements of the plan are now permanent offerings guests can enjoy at any time. The resort not too long ago added a “Primitive Technology” part to its checklist of “Sports &amp Outdoors” classes, with Animal Tracking and Make Your Personal Arrowheads from stones portion of Canyon Ranch’s slate of paid extra-curricular classes, while other essential expertise, such as Primitive Fire Making and Normal Awareness (“Develop Your Outdoor Senses”) have been added to the roster of cost-free, integrated courses.

The real scheduled session is a bit much more immersive and consists of these over aspects plus partaking in a Spirit Lodge, a session on Naturopathic Medicine, and understanding the psychology of ecology. It concludes with the “The Ultimate Check,” exactly where the group operates collectively to attain a shock challenge using their newly acquired abilities. Participants also get access to all of Canyon Ranch’s several extra actions such as an outdoor rock climbing wall, hiking, biking and a lot more fitness courses than you can envision.

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Discover Wilderness Survival Skills While Receiving Match - In Luxury Style