#yorkshire

Early Years Education and Childcare System in West Yorkshire Report

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Y-PERN and West Yorkshire Combined Authority present a report on the early years and childcare system in West Yorkshire. Written by Y-PERN Policy Fellow Dr Tom Haines-Doran and a research team comprising of Karen Arzate Quintanilla, Dr Lilith Brouwers, Dr Jo Burgess, Dr Amiee Code, Dr Amy Creaser, Dr Erin Dysart, Dr Jack Simpson and Dr Claire Smithson.

The West Yorkshire Local Growth Plan, has identified early years education and high-quality childcare provision as key enabling policy areas for an inclusive economy, performing a dual role for families:

1. High-quality early years education can transform the life chances of children, reducing entrenched inequalities at the earliest opportunity.

2. Affordable and available childcare enables greater parental and carer participation in the labour market, especially for women.

The Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network (Y-PERN) has led new research, bringing together national and regional evidence and taking a systems mapping approach for the West Yorkshire Early Years Education and Childcare sector.

The research found that the Early Years Education and Childcare sector in West Yorkshire is led by providers, their workforce and Local Authorities that are exceptionally dedicated to the education and care of children and their families.

However, the research also found that providers and key stakeholders face considerable challenges in a very complex system.

Affordability for parents remains an issue despite increasing funding entitlements, as does navigating the entitlements, financial support and local availability of places.  

Current funding entitlement for childcare disproportionately benefits higher earning families. Families on the lowest incomes are seeing virtually no direct benefit from increased entitlements because entitlements focus on families with working parents and some providers target wealthier areas for expansion

Workforce challenges reflect national trends and include:  

  • Low recruitment and retention
  • Poor pay
  • Lack of progression opportunities
  • Lack of training and development opportunities (e.g. around special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and caring for very young children)  
  • A highly gendered workforce and a lack of diversity  

The government is seeking to ‘break down barriers to opportunity’ with a focus on the Early Years Education and Childcare sector and the continued roll out of childcare entitlements for working parents on a national level.

The Y-PERN research report offers new insights into how West Yorkshire Combined Authority can best support the revitalisation of the Early Years Education and Childcare sector, alongside Local Authorities and providers.

Through a ‘systems mapping’ exercise, undertaken in conjunction with Early Years Education and Childcare academic experts, providers and West Yorkshire local authorities, Y-PERN researchers identify three regional ‘policy levers’ that the Combined Authority could engage to improve Early Years Education and Childcare quality and accessibility:

  1. Political leadership and advocacy. Many of the challenges facing the Early Years Education and Childcare sector result from under-funding, despite recent increases in ‘entitlements’. The Combined Authority could champion the sector on a national level, while convening providers and local authorities on a regional scale to help overcome fragmentation and unevenness in the system. It could also consider whether targets based on outcomes may be appropriate, to help direct policy.
  2. Information sharing and systemic analysis. Making good policy and making choices as parents relies on good data, but this is unavailable in many key areas, especially at a West Yorkshire scale. The Combined Authority could work with the sector, local authorities and academics to identify where greater data availability could add value to policy, practice and parental choice.
  3. Creation of a West Yorkshire Early Years Education and Childcare workforce strategy. The sector relies on a dedicated workforce, which is too often under-paid, under-prepared and under-appreciated, resulting in a recruitment and retention crisis. The Combined Authority could help to remedy this through a regional workforce strategy that improves both recruitment levels and training provision. Among other priorities, recruitment should aim to increase male representation from low levels. Training should target key challenges, for example around SEND provision and caring for very young children, to improve outcomes and help retain staff.

As an immediate and direct response to the third identified regional lever, the Combined Authority has commissioned Bradford Birth to 19 Institute for the Early Years, to develop an evidence-based, practical workforce plan rooted in the region. The plan will identify practical, implementable steps to address key challenges around recruitment and retention, training, development and progression as well as diversity of the workforce.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, said:

“I welcome this first of its kind report from the Yorkshire and Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network, and we are already taking action to respond to the recommendations.

“The evidence is clear – our early years sector in West Yorkshire and across the country is facing significant challenges, and we must take action now to address the concerns of a workforce that is undervalued and underpaid, and of families who deserve consistent and high quality childcare services.

“Faced with unprecedented funding pressures, our councils cannot be asked to meet this challenge alone. Devolution is the green shoot of hope that can empower our region to invest in the early years workforce we need, to set our children on a path to success and sow the seeds of a stronger, brighter West Yorkshire.

“We have commissioned a regional workforce plan for early years education that will enable us to tackle the urgent challenges around recruitment and retention head-on, and we are flexing our adult skills funding to deliver training, development and progression opportunities within the sector.

“But we have so much further to go, and we will continue to work alongside the sector, our councils and the government to make sure that our great region has the powers and funding it needs to build an Early Years Education and Childcare system that works for both parents and practitioners.”

Christian Bunting, Executive Director at Bradford Birth to 19, said:

“We are really excited to be doing this work with the Combined Authority. As a team of Early Years professionals, who are passionate about improving the workforce and in turn improving outcomes for children, we have genuine interest in this work and the drive to ensure that the positive impacts of this project are maximised.”Birth to 19 Institute for the Early Years is the training, sector improvement, research and policy arm of St Edmund’s Nursery School, a maintained Nursery School in Bradford judged Outstanding by Ofsted. The nationally recognised organisation improves outcomes and increases social mobility for children through school and setting improvement, training and qualifications, guidance, and cutting-edge educational initiatives.

The Y-PERN report has also already informed strategic commissioning decisions of the Combined Authority around Skills Bootcamps. Over 200 places to train Early Years Educators are being commissioned, and the training includes a focus on equipping practitioners with knowledge of SEND, speech and language and how to work with the youngest children, following the findings in the report. Three organisations have commenced delivery, including Kirklees Council which has already seen 80% of participants secure interviews in the sector.

You can read the report here: The Early Years Education and Childcare system in West Yorkshire

South Yorkshire Seminars Series: The region’s political and economic history

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South Yorkshire’s past, present and future: what does the data say?

Written by Dan Olner

Dan Olner is a Policy Fellow for Y-PERN, South Yorkshire Mayoral Authority and Sheffield University Management School. Dan is an expert on economic and quantitative geography, data science, politics and international relations.

The Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI) at Sheffield University have organised a set of seminars digging into the political economy of South Yorkshire, bringing together researchers and policymakers to better understand where the region has come from, where it is now and what the future holds.

In the first session, which took place on 5th March 2025, James Evans talked through some of the region’s historical data. James spoke about 1921, when Sheffield was the most heavily industrialised city in the UK. During this period up to the 1960’s employment in coal mining shrank while metalwork jobs carried on rising. In this time, most of the jobs growth happened away from cities, in surrounding towns – often making those towns reliant on a few large employers. This meant that from the 1970s onwards when employment began to retreat across the entire of the UK, some places were more vulnerable than others.

During the seminar, James discussed a typology of surviving versus declining places. Surviving places, more resilient because they were more economically diverse, could adapt. Those in the declining category, including places that had become more economic monocultures, were vulnerable. Impacts on these areas are still visible today in the deprivation data.

I (Dan Olner) then discussed 1970s and beyond, using Census data to dig further into just how profound the employment impacts were during that decade, and how certain parts of the country – including South Yorkshire – missed out on much of the bounce back that took place in the 80s.

1971-1981 employment in England / Scotland. The dark red indicates were employment fell, and the dark blue zones are where employment rose.

From the late 90s onwards, detailed regional productivity data paints a picture of continued structural change in the UK. While manufacturing shrunk and services grew in this period across the entire of the UK – continuing the same decades-long process of deindustrialisation – it was sectors concentrated in the North (like manufacturing) that declined most as a proportion of the UK economy. And whilst more recently there have been positive signs of jobs and output growth in Yorkshire, the region’s difficult economic history is still visible in its struggling productivity levels and low skills equilibrium.

This very broad-brush picture doesn’t tell the full story, however. Economic Innovations are taking place that cross sectoral boundaries; for example, those being celebrated at the Digital Forge, are blurring the difference between technology and manufacturing. The region’s devolved organisations are building plans that aim to benefit everyone – SYMCA’s plan for good growth aims to invest in both economic infrastructure and communities; South Yorkshire’s Integrated Care Strategy builds on deep data analysis to identify vital links between the wider determinants of health and economic outcomes.

The seminars into South Yorkshire’s political economical history will hopefully be the foundation to develop practical, policy relevant research that can contribute to helping the region navigate 21st century challenges.

The upcoming sessions will explore inequality, social change and devolution and will take place in person at the University of Sheffield. Contact d.olner@sheffield.ac.uk for further information.

You can view the slides from the first seminar here >

Putting health at the heart of your local economy

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This article was first published on the Yorkshire Universities website.

The NHS Confederation recently hosted a webinar focused on the local growth agenda, the role of acute trusts, and how they can influence local leaders. Y-PERM Policy Director and Yorkshire Universities (YU) Executive Director, Dr Peter O’Brien, was invited to speak at the event to provide broad insights from the higher education sector and regional perspectives from higher education institutes within Yorkshire and the Humber.

The session was chaired by Michael Wood, Head of Health Economic Partnerships at the NHS Confederation, who led the discussion. Christopher George, Health Economic Policy Advisor, also gave a presentation on ‘The NHS as an Economic Actor: The role of the NHS in the Economy’. Accompanying panel members included Mark Rogers, Chief Executive at the Leadership Centre, and Kathryn Lavery, Chair of Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust. Alongside panel members, Peter addressed multiple questions covering collaboration and partnerships, civic goals and local communities, devolution and stability, regional powers and local authorities, financial challenges, and the importance of networks in combating health inequalities.

This webinar supports YU’s work in health & wellbeing, bringing together knowledge to inform our current and future projects. Previous work between YU, the NHS Confederation, and Health Innovation Yorkshire & Humber,  includes the development of the YHealth4Growth white paper. The paper was presented in Parliament, in October 2024, to show how Yorkshire can provide a “blueprint” for the new Labour government, regional mayors, and businesses to address health and economic equalities that cost UK plc at least £180billion a year.

You can download the webinar presentation slides here, which provide details on the NHS as an economic actor and presents a new framework centered around economic growth – in line with the Government’s central mission.

Smaller and Specialist Universities Workshop

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On Tuesday 18th February, leaders and representatives from Y-PERNs smaller and specialist universities met at Leeds Conservatoire to explore the specific challenges and opportunities they faced in undertaking academic policy engagement. Participants from Leeds Arts University, Leeds Conservatoire, Leeds Trinity University, and York St John University discussed how Y-PERN can best build capacity, resources, and activities that provide value to them and the wider Y-PERN network while enhancing their unique role and contribution.

It was noted that there was widespread appreciation amongst smaller and specialist universities for their shared association of Y-PERN and feeling part of a network that larger universities sit within. There was though a divide between larger Y-PERN institutions that measure impact of policy and our specialist and smaller universities who focused predominantly on developing graduate skills, retention and employability and also professional practitioner expertise through teaching and research.

Participants highlighted that the extensive expertise of smaller and specialist universities is not always research focused, so can sometimes be more difficult to identify and value in more typical forms of academic policy engagement. This expertise is however deeply valued by policy partners and can inform evidence-based policymaking as impactfully as more traditional research policy collaboration and knowledge mobilisation.

For example, Leeds Conservatoire have invested considerable time in curating and maintaining practitioner-based networks such as the West Yorkshire Music Network which evidence the impact of expertise-led policy engagement working with broad range of policy, public sector, business, voluntary organisations, charities, and community groups associated with arts, heritage, and culture. However, there was a need to enhance the resonance of creative and cultural economy and better integrate with other areas of social and economic policy such as health, transport, crime, and local growth.

The workshop also explored issues of resource and capacities associated with smaller and specialist universities. It was noted that there are many factors to consider, such as staff time, budgets, and the organisational structuring (with some of our universities not having specific research or knowledge exchange capacity). It was noted that what resources are available must be focused on areas of activity that promote student recruitment and the distinctive areas of research which connect to teaching and practice-based professional development. There was as such a need to adopt a more agile and adaptable approach to support smaller and specialist universities that appreciates such challenges and reflected their diversity of key interests.

One key area identified which was seen as delivering value and impact to Y-PERN’s smaller and specialist universities is the training of academic and professional staff to better engage in its work. Y-PERN and its partner universities have hosted a range of training activities and events. It was acknowledged however that there was a need to scale up training activities to develop expertise as this would allow for more opportunities to undertake policy engagement to be realised.

Colleagues from York St John University noted that the York Policy Engine had provided several opportunities including two members of staff participating in York Policy Academy programme at the University of York and other training initiatives. Participants encouraged other larger Y-PERN universities to support smaller and specialist universities in similar ways to support extended peer-to-peer learning across the network, with larger universities representing the interests of smaller and specialist universities in conversations they are not present at.

The workshop participants also discussed how to work more closely with Y-PERN’s Policy Fellows to enhance the resonance and impact of expertise and network building provided by smaller and specialist universities. It was noted that they could play a key role in the developing of Areas of Research Interest (ARIs) and multi-partner communities of practice at a local and regional level, both in shaping existing policy areas and in developing creative and cultural ARIs. They also considered how they might develop staff exchanges and secondments to policy units within the larger universities and with local and combined authorities.

The workshop concluded by identifying several proposals to draw on and address some of the key issues discussed. A short report for publication will be produced from the workshop and Y-PERN will report findings back to relevant stakeholders with recommendations for future policy engagement collaborations with our smaller and specialist universities.

The Y-PERN Year 2 Regional Report has landed

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The team at Y-PERN are pleased to present our Year 2 Regional Report.

The report, which summarises Y-PERN’s activity to date, reflects on what we have learnt about our impact and value, how Yorkshire and the Humber is leading the way in regional academic policy engagement and discusses how Universities can support multi-level governance for inclusive and sustainable growth.

The Y-PERN report evidences in detail how Yorkshire and the Humber is leading the way in regional academic policy engagement, and suggests how Universities can support multi-level governance for inclusive and sustainable growth.
Let us continue to work together across the region for the benefit of the places we live in, work in & call home.

- Andrew Brown, Y-PERN Academic Director, Kersten England CBE, Y-PERN Engagement Director & Peter O’Brien, Y-PERN Policy Director

In the report, you’ll discover:

  • Activities and impacts from the Yorkshire sub-regions including:

o   How Y-PERN synthesized ten projects related to early years education and childcare to help shape West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s economic strategy and local growth plan

o   How Y-PERN’s academic insights on the region’s economic history and recent economic growth areas have fed into South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority’s Skills Strategy and Plan for Good Growth

  •  How Y-PERN is working to connect and our region’s policy makers, researchers and community organisations
  •  Emergent findings on local governance issues with Yorkshire and Humber being a ‘live laboratory’ for regional devolution
  • Strategical next steps for Y-PERN and the future of regional policy engagement

Discover how Y-PERN is transforming the way university academics and knowledge exchange experts work with policy partners across the region in our Y-PERN Year 2 Regional Report

Y-PERN hosts meeting of the Yorkshire and Humber Councils Policy Officer Network

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Y-PERN hosted a meeting of the newly reconvened Yorkshire and Humber Councils Policy Officer Network (YHCPON) at the Cloth Hall Court in Leeds in January 2025. The meeting brought together local and combined authority policy and strategy officers from across the Yorkshire and Humber Councils network to discuss a range of issues.

The meeting was led by Professor Kersten England, the Y-PERN Director of Engagement, and Paul Hayes, Senior Policy Fellow based at the Leeds University Business School, who both have considerable experience of working across local government in the region. Topics discussed include how the group should work, what the most useful issues are to focus on, and how universities can support them.

Participants agreed on the value and appetite to develop the work of the Policy Officer Network to build relationships, collaborations, and shared understanding across the local and combined authority policy officer community of the Yorkshire and Humber region.

There was agreement that the network should focus on the more significant policy issues and broader trends at a local, regional, and national level, providing ‘headspace’ to explore opportunities to identify and implement systematic transformational change.

A key aim was to facilitate smarter working through sharing and agreeing priorities and explore how local and combined authorities might better engage with academics and access research. The challenge of navigating diverse local and combined government was signposted as important, as was engaging early career policy officers with academic researchers.

Key Outcomes:

  • Discussions about the importance of place as a key lens to focus activities for the network were had, particularly as a Yorkshire and Humber regional or mayoral combined authority scale is not always the most appropriate to consider policy issues. Merging research with context and circumstances of place is thus important, as is consideration for research and policy transfer and scaling.
  • Place was also seen as important to understand better the local and regional intelligence and data landscape.
  • The network also stressed a keenness to better connect local and combined authorities with bodies such as the National Institute for Health Research ‘Health Determinants Research Collaborations’ with those without to develop shared understanding of their place-based working approaches.

  • A presentation on the English Devolution White Paper, published in December 2024, was also provided by Y-PERN Policy Fellow, Neil Barnett (Leeds Beckett University), who outlined some of its challenges and opportunities. Subsequent discussions about devolution indicated that plans for local government reorganisation (outlined in the White Paper) would not impact on the region as there were now four combined authorities already in existence – which will now be called strategic authorities. Some concerns were expressed, however, about a potential ‘power drain’ if local government is increasingly seen by central government as a ‘delivery agent’ of combined authorities with little agency for local policy initiatives.
  • There was a shared desire to develop shared oversight and understanding of regional and sub-regional interactions with the UK government to build a collective Yorkshire Humber voice with the government and relevant departments and agencies. It was noted that the White Paper opens space for the regional policy communities to enhance joined-up and wider determinants policy work and collectively determine (and innovate) in shaping local and regional evaluation and outcomes frameworks, measuring and valuing things in ways which are reflective and sensitive local, place-based contexts and needs. Participants noted that better connect emergent Local Growth Plans across the region could be a valuable tool in this facilitating this work.

Policy Officers noted that the region’s universities were seen as key to facilitating collaboration through Y-PERN, YPIP, the Yorkshire and Humber National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Consortium (particularly the region’s four Health Determinants’ Research Collaborations) and the wider Yorkshire Universities in supporting place-based engagement and policymaking.

Ongoing work on local and combined authority Areas of Research Interest was identified as potentially significant in establishing policy-themed ‘communities of practice’ across the region to support collaboration, policy transfer and scaling.

Several participants noted however, that it was also important to open up spaces to consider how to strengthen community engagement, voice and agency in both widening and deepening devolution, and shaping evaluation and outcomes criteria. The potential role of YPIP in this work was identified as significant.

The meeting concluded with agreement that YHCPON should meet regularly, with future meetings focusing on issues such how to build ‘communities of practice’ linked to identified policy areas, the better circulation of information about research and policy, how can universities enhance engagement with non-university local authorities, and how can ‘best practice’ be transferred between local authorities and combined authorities.

Y-PERN presents a Research Note to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire

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Y-PERN recently presented a brief research note to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire on the challenges and opportunities presented for the region by the recently published UK Government English Devolution White Paper. The APPG brings MPs and Peers of all parties together with key leaders – those in local and combined authority government, public and private sectors and social enterprises – to help maximise future investment in the region for the benefit of all local communities and economies. Secretariat support for the APPG is provided The Public Affairs Company and North Star Public Affairs.

Y-PERN Policy Fellows, Dr Neil Barnett (Leeds Beckett University) and Dr Andy Mycock (University of Leeds) drew on recent research evidence from an ongoing devolution project which is being co-delivered with Yorkshire Universities and Yorkshire and Humber Councils.

The Research Note highlighted that the English Devolution White Paper draws attention to the challenge of aligning formal and informal levels of government and policymaking. There is a need to align existing strategies from local authorities alongside those outlined by the region’s combined authority local growth plans. There also needs to be wider strategy across the region. The White Paper also raised questions as to where local authorities fit amongst increased powers for combined authorities. The lack of funding for local authorities may increase tensions between these two levels of government.

Combined authorities also need to have the resources in order to carry out these new powers as well as implement plans from local authorities. It was noted that some government departments have not been involved as much as they should in the development of the Devolution White Paper, in particular DEFRA and DWP. Some policies from the previous Levelling Up agenda have also been moved to the peripheries. The Research Note also drew attention to the shift towards combined authorities on local democracy, particularly local councillors who may experience a power drain as local authorities become primarily delivery agents.

During his presentation of the Research Note to the APPG, Dr Andy Mycock stressed that there is a considerable role that the APPG can play in utilising their connections with government ministers and civil servants as well as connecting the Yorkshire and Humber voice and projecting it onto various levels of local and national government. He went on to argue there is a need to consider the opportunities presented in the White Paper, making sure that the success of devolution is set by local MPs, not the Government. He also noted that devolution will play a pivotal role in setting future policy agendas, and that the APPG has a role in both its deepening and widening as outlined in the White Paper.

Y-PERN and its partners will continue to support and collaborate the APPG in the new parliament, exploring opportunities to provide a strong, unified voice to drive economic growth across the region and are looking to work alongside our external members and to develop policy proposals that can be put to the Government that would support economic growth.

You can read the Research Note here >

Hull Poverty Truth Commission Evaluation Report

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University of Hull’s First Hull Poverty Truth Commission Evaluation Report  has now been published.

Written by Dr Gill Hughes and Y-PERN Policy Fellow Dr Juan Pablo Winter, the report discusses how the first Hull Poverty Truth Commission has inspired a major cultural shift to ensure that people who experience the impact of decisions should be part of the decision-making process.

The evaluation report shows how a ‘new business as usual’ is unfolding and speaks to the statement that the Poverty Truth Network (PTN) embraced:

“Nothing about us, without us, is for us.”

Read the Hull Poverty Truth Commission Report here >

You can also find out more about the story of the first Hull Poverty Truth Commission by viewing the University of Hull commissioned film “My pockets” here >

The film identifies the process as an ‘engine switch’ not a ‘paint job’ – this is about a participatory needs-led approach that shifts power through equitable trusting relationships to create transformative systems change.

Y-PERN: Place-based policy that is grounded in evidence, developed in partnership

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Y-PERN is transforming the way academic researchers and knowledge exchange experts in the 12 Yorkshire and Humber universities work in partnership with policymakers in the region.

The deepening of devolution across our region presents a unique opportunity to co-create evidence based policies that bring real benefits to communities.

Take a look at Y-PERN’s 4-page summary to find out what we’re doing, where and how.

Opportunity: Y-PERN Policy Fellow role

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Y-PERN is recruiting a new Policy Fellow based at the University of Bradford‘s School of Management to become a key part of our team changing the way academics and policy makers collaborate.

Y-PERN Policy Fellows are impact-focused academic positions working across Y-PERN partner institutions and policy organisations, reflecting the increasing importance of the impact agenda in academia. They form a bridge between academia and the policy world with the aim of enhancing the contribution of academic research to support evidence based policymaking across the region.

As the Bradford Y-PERN Policy Fellow this role will coordinate and deliver the University of Bradford’s work within and across the network. The post will work closely within the University with Professor David Spicer, the Y-PERN academic lead at the University of Bradford, the Y PERN Chief Policy Fellow, and with other Y-PERN Policy Fellows across the network.

The University of Bradford focus within Y-PERN is on the policy and engagement support for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and on the potential and impact of the Bradford 2025 city of culture on the small business economy for Bradford and Yorkshire and Humber more widely. The role will be responsible for leading your own programme of research focussed on local Bradford business, as well as contributing to wider Y-PERN policy research objectives and representing the University of Bradford when working with external partners and wider networks.

Apply for the role here: HR0164994 Yorkshire & Humber Policy Engagement and Research Network Policy Fellow – Jobs at the University of Bradford

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