Today is Budget day - check out our free links for predictions and news.

Today is Budget 2018! Follow the news and predictions with our  recommended links.

The budget will take place on October 29th 2018 Live TV will be made available on the parliamentary channel
Transcripts will be made available later in the day on Hansard
LSE members can watch archived materials (since 1997) via the Box of Broadcasts service
Read the full text papers on the UK Government website
The Office for Budget Responsibility will publish an accompanying economic outlook on its website
The House of Commons Library also has a good background briefing. They also have some historic facts and figures giving a list of chancellors and lengths of speeches from 1968 onwards.

News reports
BBC news
Telegraph
Guardian

Financial analysis from acountancy and financial services, tax firms
IFS produce a green budget. Their website also has other associated papers.
Institute of Economic Affairs Briefing
Deloitte
PWC
EY Club Budget
Saffery Champness
Grant Thornton
BDO
KPMG
RSM

Industry and think tank submissions to the Chancellor.
CBI
EEF
Federation of Small Businesses
National Housing Federation
ICAEW accountancy

Other organisations
Universities Uk
Low Incomes Tax reform Group.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Womens Budget Group

Its open access week - here are our favourite resources !

There are so many great projects to choose from.- but here are a few favourites.

Core Open access research papers.
Quickly cross search milions of references to online papers includes content major working paper series (Repec) and univeristy repositories

Open access theses.
OATD.org aims to index graduate theses and dissertations published around the world

Directory of Open Access Books
A service of OAPEN Foundation which works with publishers to increase the discoverability of open access material. Search the database by title, subject or publisher.

Europeana
A virtual European library offering free access to Europe's cultural resources. It includes millions of texts (manuscripts, papers, eBooks), images (photographs, maps), films (moving images, videos, film clips, television broadcasts) and sounds from Europe's main research libraries, archives and galleries.

Directory of Open Access Journals. (DOAJ) Over 11,000 academic ejournals covering all subject areas. A key starting point for tracing titles. Also allows some searching at journal article level.


OpenDOAR
Comprehensive list of institutional and subject-based repositories worldwide.

United Nations Day - our recommended free resources!

Today is United Nations Day
Here are some recommended starting points for research

United Nations Documentation Research Guides
From the United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library . Provides clear advice, with links, to researching UN documentation. Includes guides on specific human rights topics.


Key resources.
United Nations Digital Library official online library of the UN which contains a growing collection of full text UN documents, voting data, speeches, maps and other publications. In the future it aims to be a single access points for tracing online content, however at present , full text older materials are not all accessible. Although bibliographic references to all materials produced since 1979 are included. As a result users are advised to supplement it by using these other tracing aids

Official Document System
The official document system provides access to the full text of documents issued since 1993 and the resolutions of all principal bodies and Security Council plenary documents since 1946. Older documents are being added gradually. Treaty content is not currently available.

UNBISnet
A useful source for tracing older materials. Comprises the catalogue of United Nations documents and publications indexed by the UN Dag Hammarskjöld Library and the Library of the UN Office at Geneva. Also included are commercial publications and other non-UN sources held in the library.


UN Member States on the Record
Provides access to official documents which offer insight into the views and actions of UN Member States. Includes statements made before principal bodies, the text of draft resolutions sponsored; and periodic reports submitted on Human Rights conventions.

United NationsYearbook
Official source of information on the activities of the UN. Free access to all editions since 1946. Lists resolutions and key publications.

United Nations Treaty Collections

Statistical Data

UN Data
major statistical datasets produced by bodies of the UN. Check date of coverage for individual series as these often differ.


United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
Produces the Human Development Report series which aims to assess the political, economic and social well-being of populations. Country profiles and data are on open access from 1990 onwards.


UNCTADStat
Free access to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. This is taken from the statistical annex of the World Investment Report which can be consulted on the main UNCTAD website unctad.org


UNEP Environmental Data Explorer

Free access to over 500 up to date environmental indicators used in the Global Environment Outlook report. They include data at national, regional and local levels and be displayed in a range of formats including GIS mapping.

World Food Day useful resources

World Food Day was 16th October.
the official website states its origin and aims
2018 theme was zero hunger.

useful resources on hunger include
United Nations World Food Programme annual reports

World Bank SDG atlas has data on world hunger in 2018. Globally 1 in 10 people are malnourished by generally rates of child malnutrition have declined since 1990.

UNICEF annual State of Food Security and Nutrition in the world 2017 recorded the figure as 1 in 9 who are hungry

International Food Policy and Research Institute has a Global Hunger Index . See the 2017 version. It tracks progress in over 119 nations.

The FAO produced extensive data
Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS)
GIEWS provides information on food production and food security for all countries. The commodity price database disseminates up-to-date information on prices of agricultural commodities. Includes weekly data, monthly and annual averages. 

UK data
End Hunger UK data on child malnutrition.
Trussell Trust usage of foodbanks

Today is mental health day- why is it important?

Today is international mental health day

the first Global Ministerial Mental Health Summit has been held.this wek. Its website has reports and decisions.

Why is it necessary to focus on mental health?
Education Policy Unit Access to childrens mental health services report for 2018 found that the number of referrals to mental health services had increased by 26 per cent over the last five years. Many areas of the country lack sufficient alternative services for young people who have not been accepted for treatment.


LGBTQ+ Student Mental Health: The challenges and needs of gender, sexual and romantic minorities in Higher Education Latest report from Student Minds completed by 467 students, recent graduates and members of University/ Students' Union staff. Found that ‘Many respondents noted that they experienced barriers accessing support because they feel misunderstood or judged’. It has recommendations for student unions and LGBT networks in universities.

Mental Health care letting down students’ According to the latest report released by Universities UK which considers a better coordination between universities and NHS mental health care providers.

NHS England states that one in four adults experience issues .
Mental health monthly statistics focus on admissions including those to adult mental health care.
The ONS has data on suicide rates.
It also has number of working days lost due to various illnesses including stress
look at this map to explore variations in national well being


Useful mental health resources include:
World Health Organization Mental Health Atlas
the latest 2017 edition has just been released. This key work provides data on 177 WHO members covering mental health policy, planning and sevices. It contains economic expenditure on mental health, measure of public mental health promotion campaigns and take up rates in individual nations


Time to Change has resources to combat stigma

Mental Health Foundation resources and campaigns

Mind has well-being tips

Is homework pointless?

With the return of the university academic year

some TV programmes have discussed whether homework matters. Is it worth it?

The UK originally had guidelines on the numbers of hours but in 2012 these were scrapped. 
 DERA digital library from the UCL Institute of Education. has some digitsed documents from UK government education bodies about hours of study

OECD conducts international studies which focus on areas like hours of study and achievement.
In the this book

Low-Performing Students: Why They Fall Behind and How To Help Them Succeed

there is an interesting graph on Hours spent doing homework and low performance
this is discussed further in this blog post. in general it finds- The PISA figures show that on average across OECD countries, for each hour per week students spend doing homework, they score 4.5 points higher in reading and mathematics and 4.3 points higher in science.
However concerns have been raised that homework perpetuates socio-economic inequality as  the amount set is usually related to what type of school and background the children have,