‘Bradford’s Speak In Club puts the spotlight on mental health – and urges people to open up’

Telegraph and Argus journalist Felicity Macnamara reports on how Bradford’s Speak In Club helps battle the mental health issues during the pandemic. Click here to read the full story.

How Bolton brought down Covid infection rates

Community engagement and cooperation between public bodies has played a key role in lowering Bolton’s Covid-19 infection rates, reports Liv Clarke for the Bolton News. Click here to read the full story.

How SW London used pedestrianisation for Covid recovery

Sutton & Croydon Guardian reporter Monica Charsley investigates the impact and limitations of pedestrianisation schemes in South West London. Click here to read the full story.

Nanny Biscuit: Community fights back against the mental health crisis – and urges people to open up

Aaliyah Rugg reports on a local community initiative that aims to tackle isolation caused by the pandemic with a buddy call system. Click here to read the full story.

How laughter yoga kept people smiling through the pandemic

A local laughter yoga instructor has kept people smiling throughout the pandemic by taking her sessions online, Bev Holder reports for Stourbridge News. Click here to read the full story.

SCAS’s urgent care pathways project deemed a success

A pioneering initiative led by South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) is helping patients receive the right treatment more quickly – and has so far seen more than 30,000 people avoid unnecessary transfers to emergency departments, reports Sophie Day for the Hampshire Chronicle. Click here to read the full story.

Long Covid: Calls for Wales to follow England with clinics

Patients with Long Covid symptoms in Wales feel their concerns and needs are not being met. Argus journalist Elizabeth Birt looks into how the Long Covid is treated differently in England and Wales. Click here to read the full story.

Art in town centres could help bring visitors back to Somerset high streets

High streets across the UK lost more than 17,500 shops in 2020. Somerset County Gazette reporter Jess Chaffey writes about local art projects looking to attract new visitors. Click here to read the full story.

Insight into pedestrianisation schemes, and the closure of East Street in Taunton

Pedestrianisation has sparked a debate in Somerset. Jess Chaffey’s report on Taunton also looks at the success and failures of similar schemes elsewhere in the UK. Click here to read the full story.

Trust boosts staff numbers and satisfaction after overhauling rota system

An NHS trust has been able to hire 18 more doctors and improve scheduling for its trainees by carrying out a huge redesign of its rota system, Elisabeth Mahase reports for The BMJ. Click here to read the full story.

How NHS Tayside has inspired a new plan across Scotland to slash A&E waiting times

A policy to cut the numbers of people in A&E departments has been in place at NHS Tayside hospitals since 1998, and the new Scottish Government guidance is based in part of its success, reports Alasdair Clark from The Courier. Click here to read the full story.

Covid-19: Refugee doctors join NHS through innovative scheme

A year on, The BMJ reporter Elisabeth Mahase looks at the impact made by the NHS scheme allowing refugee and international doctors to join the NHS. Click here to read the full story.

Dundee botanist’s big plans for a ‘Wee Forest’ in Stobswell

The Courier’s Scott Milne interviews a local environmentalist team behind the plans to create more green areas in Stobswell. Click here to read the full story.

How Dundee Science Centre taught 165,000 children during the pandemic despite closure

This science centre went beyond online lessons to keep their young audience entertained during lockdown, the Courier’s Maria Gran has more. Click here to read the full story.

‘Things were really bad’: How police cut Levenmouth anti-social behaviour calls by 70%

Initiative tackling anti-social behaviour has successfully cut-down calls on anti-social behaviour. The project is also sharing information on best practices with rest of the UK, reports Alasdair Clark for The Courier. Click here to read the full story.

How Covid turbocharged the QR revolution

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, many pubs and restaurants moved quickly to install QR code systems. Public health agencies have also seen value in taking advantage of QR codes. Click here to read the full story on the QR revolution during the Covid time, reported by David Silverberg, BBC.

The remote British village that built one of the fastest internet networks in the UK

The internet is more important than ever during the lockdown, where lack of access exposes other inequalities in internet use and skills. But B4RN means much more to digitally and geographically isolated communities than the internet service it provides, writes Kira Allmann for The Conversation.

Click here to read the full story on how a remote British village built one of the fastest internet networks in the UK.

‘I might have died if they hadn’t rescued me’: life inside the new hotels for the homeless

The coronavirus prompted an emergency operation to house rough sleepers in Travelodges and Holiday Inns. In many ways it has been a success but concerns about what happens next remain. Click here to read the full story reported by Amelia Gentleman from The Guardian.

Separating fact from deadly fiction: the London team factchecking the coronavirus

As Covid-19 spreads, misleading information in the news or on social media can be at best confusing and at worst fatal. Full Fact, the UK’s independent factchecking charity, is working flat out to tackle a flow of falsities. Click here here to read the full story reported by Gavin Haines, Positive.News.

Bristolians are self-organising a phenomenal coronavirus fight back in ways that will outlast pandemic

While the first priority is responding to urgent needs, for many involved, they hope the bonds built in communities will outlast this current crisis. Click here to read the full story reported by Adam Cantwell-Corn for The Bristol Cable.