How Does Living in Temporary Accommodation and the COVID-19 Pandemic Impact under 5s' Healthcare Access and Health Outcomes? A Qualitative Study of Key Professionals in a Socially and Ethnically Diverse and Deprived Area of London.

Background: Children < 5 years living in temporary accommodation (U5TA) are vulnerable to poor health outcomes. Few qualitative studies have examined service provider perspectives in family homelessness; none have focused on U5TA with a cross-sector approach. This study explored professionals' perspectives of the barriers and facilitators, including pandemic-related challenges, experienced by U5TA in accessing healthcare and optimising health outcomes, and their experiences in delivering services. Methods: Sixteen semi-structured online interviews were conducted. Professionals working in Newham (London) with U5TA families were recruited from non-profit organisations, the health sector, and Local Authority. A thematic analysis was conducted. Findings: Professionals described barriers including poor parental mental health; unsuitable housing; no social support; mistrust of services; immigration administration; and financial insecurity. Digital poverty, language discordance, and the inability to register and track U5TA made them even less visible to services. Professionals tried to mitigate barriers with improved communication, and through community facilitators. Adverse pandemic effects on U5TA health included delay and regression in developmental milestones and behaviours. In-person services were reduced, exacerbating pre-existing barriers. Interpretation: COVID-19 further reduced the ability of professionals to deliver care to U5TA and significantly impacted the lives of U5TA with potential life-long risks. Innovative and tailored cross-sector strategies are needed, including co-production of public health services and policies focusing on early development, mental health support, employment training, and opportunities for parents/carers.

From Centuries to Hours: The Journey of Research into Practice

COVID-19 has made the research-policy nexus visible as never before. Public health officials, doctors and scientists are standing alongside political and other leaders all around the world to promote research-informed health behaviors to ‘flatten the curve' of this global pandemic. Proper hand hygiene, physical distancing and use of masks are now either recommended or mandated everyday public health behaviors across the world. Obviously, application of research to public problem solving is not new. However, the pace of the journey from research to policy and practice has shortened at a similar exponential rate as the spread of the virus. This paper provides a historical overview of research-informed policy and practice. In doing so, it aims to build an understanding of how research is able to address COVID-related policy questions in almost real-time;how the demand-side consequences of this global pandemic have advanced research-informed policy and practice;and how policymakers can harness research to solve public policy problems in the future. © 2022 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Preparedness of Students for Future Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: A Bangladeshi Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on higher education (HE) across the globe, including in Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi HE system is going through an abrupt transition and transformation to cope with the crisis. This chapter is based on data collected from teachers and students of Bangladeshi public and private HE institutions regarding teaching and learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. In Bangladesh, some universities switched to online distance teaching and learning quickly during this period, and others lagged behind in this regard. Teachers and students from both groups of public and private universities participated in the study, including those who attended online teaching and learning activities and those who did not participate. This chapter highlights both teachers' and students' perspectives regarding students' future preparedness for participating fully in the changing landscape of HE, especially technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Understanding these perspectives of teachers and students is important to address the digital divide and social justice issues in the policy and practice. Within the HE sector in Bangladesh, it is especially vital while transforming its education system and adapting emerging technologies to address the challenges of education in future emergencies.

Impact of COVID-19 Induced Teleworking Arrangements on Employees in NGOs: Implications for Policy and Practice for Leadership

The article sought to address real or perceived "teleworking hesitancy" by generating empirical evidence on employee exposure to teleworking in a global south context. The results of the empirical investigation were integrated with the growing body of research on the future of the post-pandemic workplace. The results depicted the opposite and significant effects of perceived workload and organizational teleworking support on employee teleworking experience and the (growing) desire to utilize flexible working options. Furthermore, the results showed the significant effects of nonwork demands (negative) and resources (positive) on work engagement and the moderating role of external support contacts. The results further affirmed the mediating role of work engagement on perceived productivity. Based on these results, incremental "A-E" policy and practice considerations that place talent at the heart of organizational efforts to remain sustainably future-fit are proposed. The proposed policies and practices carry a futuristic bias, a conscious recognition that the future workplace will be "hybrid." Areas for future research are presented.

Interplay Between Risk Perception, Behavior, and COVID-19 Spread

Pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) have been crucial for controlling COVID-19. They are complemented by voluntary health-protective behavior, building a complex interplay between risk perception, behavior, and disease spread. We studied how voluntary health-protective behavior and vaccination willingness impact the long-term dynamics. We analyzed how different levels of mandatory NPIs determine how individuals use their leeway for voluntary actions. If mandatory NPIs are too weak, COVID-19 incidence will surge, implying high morbidity and mortality before individuals react;if they are too strong, one expects a rebound wave once restrictions are lifted, challenging the transition to endemicity. Conversely, moderate mandatory NPIs give individuals time and room to adapt their level of caution, mitigating disease spread effectively. When complemented with high vaccination rates, this also offers a robust way to limit the impacts of the Omicron variant of concern. Altogether, our work highlights the importance of appropriate mandatory NPIs to maximise the impact of individual voluntary actions in pandemic control. Copyright © 2022 Dönges, Wagner, Contreras, Iftekhar, Bauer, Mohr, Dehning, Calero Valdez, Kretzschmar, Mäs, Nagel and Priesemann.