This is according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Swimming and recognised national governing body Swim England.

Learning to swim builds confidence in children, improves development of both fine and gross motor skills as well as their balance. Plus, it is both fun and an excellent way to build fitness. In addition to all of these benefits, it saves lives. According to The Impact of Coronavirus on School Swimming and Water Safety report, drowning remains one of the most common forms of accidental death in the UK.

According to the report, “With pupils not receiving face-to-face learning for a significant part of the 2020-21 academic year school swimming lessons were inevitably massively affected. Additionally, even when schools were ‘open’, public swimming pools across the country were shut, meaning that for schools without their own pool, it was not possible for lessons to take place.”

A staggering 247,000 children missed out on any participation in swimming during the summer term of the 2019/2020 academic year.

It may well be that your little fish has some catching up to do. If they have missed out on very early swim experience, it may be they lack confidence and the best way to address that is to make sure they catch up on lots of swimming experience.

Checklist spoke to Jacqui Tillman, head of sports and Aquatics at Everyone Active, to ask for her top tips when it comes to teaching your little fish to swim.

Have fun in the water

Learning to swim from a young age is important for many reasons; not only does it teach vital life skills but it also develops children in other ways, such as helping them to build confidence and social skills.

It’s important to make sure that however they learn that they always enjoy themselves when doing so.

Make it familiar

For babies, getting in the water is a new and sometimes daunting experience. It is important to make them feel safe and happy so you can build a relationship between you, your baby and the water. This way they will feel comfortable in their new surroundings, increasing their confidence and speeding up their progress.

Try singing songs, blowing bubbles and reassuring them through lots of smiles, splashing and laughter. They will soon be joining in with you.

Fun and games

Young children learn more effectively through play so as they start to move on to the next stage of their swim development make everything into a game to keep their interest. For example, see who can ‘scoop out the most ice cream’ from the water to develop their stroke or use pool toys to engage them.

The more fun they have the more they will enjoy their time in the water and the quicker they’ll start to develop their technique. You’ll also enjoy it more too.

Encourage competition

As children get older and more confident, they may develop a tendency to get bored in the pool but by introducing competition in a fun way you can keep them motivated and active.

Using Dive Sticks to play games is a great way to have fun whilst building confidence, and encouraging competent swimmers to dive under the water, either individually or with others. Ask them to try and beat their previous best time to collect all the Dive Sticks from the bottom of the pool or team up with their friends for a sink and retrieve relay race.

Many people see the ultimate goal of learning to swim as repetitive length swimming, keeping fit or just a survival technique but it can be so much more than this. Being in the pool can be social, stress relieving and most importantly a chance to enjoy yourself!

For many people lane swimming is fun but the water has so much more to offer whether it be playing water polo, diving or synchronised swimming. Teaching your little ones how to have fun from an early age and throughout their swim development will mean they get the most out of being in the water and will reap the rewards later on.

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post How to build your child’s confidence in the water appeared first on Checklists.

As restrictions lift, it feels as though the seas are beginning to calm after a storm that has ravaged our lives for the past 19 months. As we assess the damage, one of the biggest impacts, as we knew it would be, has been effects of the turmoil, on our children’s mental health. (See also this month’s feature on the effects of lockdown on children and their education)

Checklist spoke to therapist and counsellor, Kim Kelly and asked for her thoughts on how best to help our children face life’s post-Covid challenges and nurture their mental health. She told us that one of the greatest assets in maintaining good mental health in children and teens, is resilience.

“Resilience has been defined as “the ability of an individual to function competently in the face of adversity or stress. According to many empirical studies, resilience is positively correlated with positive indicators of mental health, such as life satisfaction, subjective well-being, and positive emotions. Resilient young people become resilient, confident adults and all the happier for it.  We can support our children and teenagers to build and nurture resilience, by trying to follow these simple steps:

1. Love

This is not just the love-you-to-death, you-can-do-no-wrong variety.  This is the kind of unconditional love that holds your young person to account, keeps firm boundaries and lets them feel the consequences of their actions.  It says: I love and support you, even when there are difficult times. I will support you to learn from difficulties and challenges, but I won’t excuse or defend poor choices or behaviour.

2. Get things wrong

Help your young person to see stuffing things up as a chance to learn and not an embarrassing, shameful thing to be avoided at all cost.  We will all make mistakes. If our learnt response is shame and humiliation, we will become scared to try new things, talk to new people, dance at a party, take a risk. So, practice. Ask for the wrong drink in Costa, then correct yourself; drop your bag at the till in Boots, if you’re brave enough tuck your skirt in your knickers (not you, Dad!). Experience the discomfort and then the evidence that nothing bad really happens and your confidence and resilience will grow

3. Approach the things you fear

Anxiety is a tricky customer.  When we feel fearful and anxious, everything in our body tells us to avoid that thing. We avoid it and feel better in the short term. But all we learn is that whenever we get that anxious feeling, we should avoid it and hide from it. If I feel anxious about going to a party and I stay away, I never learn that it was a great night, I have lovely friends, I can do a handstand drinking a glass of water (just me then?). 

Move toward the feared thing, not away from it. Start small – if you feel anxious going into a large supermarket, start with a small shop.  If you feel anxious about going to the barbers, start going when the shop is most quiet.  It doesn’t matter how small the increments are, as long as you are moving toward.  Make the steps small enough to be achievable, but big enough to feel challenging.  No steps at all is NOT an option when growing resilience.

4. Keep boundaries

There are rules and consequences all the way through our lives and like the toddler that insists they don’t need a nappy anymore and then pees on your neighbour, adolescents will argue until they wear you down …because they know you can be worn down.  See LOVE above – and love them enough to hold your boundary.  Don’t argue – that’s time and breath you will never get back. Don’t over explain, this is not a debate. Be fair and reasonable but hold your line.  There will be tears, but like the toddler your teenager will be all the better for having learnt the action and consequences lesson at home, rather than in the office or worse still, the police station. Remember you are only as good as the last boundary you let slide.

5. Trust them

No bubble wrap! No, “I’ll pack him a lunch or he won’t eat all day” or, “I’ll ring the teacher and tell them it’s not your fault”. Trust your young person to do the things that need to be done.  Help, support and guide them, but let them do. The finest way to make a responsible individual is to treat them as such.  Yes, there will be mistakes – see GET STUFF WRONG above.

6. Needs

Talk about their needs, not your wants.  Don’t assume you know.  Ask.  A teenager comes in crying after an upsetting falling out with their friend.  You know how it goes: you join in the criticism of the friend, say you’re relieved because you never liked them anyway and give them suggestions of three other people you know who would be a better friend for them.  The teenager says, ‘All I wanted was a hug not a bloody lecture’! Then make up with the friend and accuse you of not liking their friends!

When your teen is in a fizz, ask them, what do you need? Hug? Debate? Problem solving ideas? Chocolate?  In this way, we teach good communication to our youngsters.  We teach them to look at and identify their needs, we give them the autonomy over their emotions and the ability to ask for the right kind of help when they need it.  They will become more resilient in the face of adversity.

7. Talk about their solutions

Not your solution.  Ask what would be helpful in this situation?  What can I do to help? Encourage their problem-solving skills, help them to learn trust in themselves when approaching difficulties.

8. Listen

What we say is less important than how we listen.  We have two ears and one mouth – so listen twice and speak once. That is not the same as agreeing with everything your teen says or a walk over. It is showing a willingness to hear their perspective and to value their input even if you don’t agree.

9. Do the crime, do the time

Sometimes there will be consequences and sanctions.  Make sure the consequences are proportionate and fit the action.  Grounding a teenager for a week because they forgot to buy milk doesn’t leave you far to go when they pinch your car keys.

10. Laugh

That’s it! Watch a funny movie together; learn Nicki Minaj’s monster rap for their ridicule and entertainment (and your embarrassment); eat ice cream together for breakfast. In short, make opportunities to enjoy each other’s company, communicate and chat.  An environment where there’s warmth, fun and love even in the hardest of times, helps us to build resilience in any storm.

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email laura@hurstmediacompany.co.uk or editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post The 10 steps to build resilience in your child appeared first on Checklists.

The effects of this educational upheaval on our children, will be studied for many years to come. From early years, to GCSEs and A-Levels, every child has been affected, as busy classrooms, noisy corridors, playgrounds, sports fields and lunch halls were replaced by millions of homes – in their infinite variety. For some children, online learning was actually a positive experience, but for many, it brought challenges to both their educational development and their mental health.

Internet and device access were hugely significant to individual learning experiences. According to Ofcom, around one in five children did not have consistent access to a suitable device for their online learning through the pandemic. In many cases, children were borrowing devices or having to go to friends or relatives’ houses to access the internet.  Further, a quarter of vulnerable children struggle with device access for remote learning and for 3% of school-children, the lack of access to a device prevented them from doing any schoolwork at all.

Government initiatives through the lockdowns went some way to addressing some of these issues and improvements were made. According to Gov.Uk data published in June, over 1.3 million laptops and tablets were provided to schoolchildren during the 2020/21 academic year. Further to this, Ofcom reports that it is likely the proportion of UK homes without internet fell from 11% to 6% during the course of the pandemic so far.

There is a tendency to reduce the disparity to the issue of those who have access to a computer or to reliable internet, but the gap between the haves and have nots is more complicated than this single issue and it is clear that the changes brought by the pandemic, increased this gap. Parental attitudes and support became a significant factor in the online learning experience, often undermining the levelling effect of education provision. Given the enduring social inequalities that education has long sought to address and the failings that remain within the system, the last thing that system needed, was a deepening of the crisis that pandemic brought with it.

Certainly, at the beginning of the pandemic, while the state was reeling and the world was grappling with how to begin to manage this sudden imposition of a new world order, state education looked like a rabbit in the headlights, paralysed by uncertainty. I heard countless stories from parents whose children had been told to just do what they could – anything is better than nothing – at a time when lesson plans were little more than suggestions. While by no means across the board, this was certainly the experience reported by many parents.

Private and public schools were equally wrong-footed, but they were faced with a potential immediate threat of parents removing fees. Staff wages still had to be paid, as well as additional costs for supply staff for quarantine and sickness and the routine expenditure on infrastructure and facilities. The focus on the relationship between customer and service provider is somehow sharpened by the act of handing substantial sums of money, directly to the service provider. Private schools needed to demonstrate that they were providing value – and fast.

During that first week of the first lockdown, I spoke to a friend with children at private school. She told me her WhatsApp parents’ group had suddenly lit up with a frenzy of outraged parents responding to an email from the school confirming that full fees would be charged irrespective of whether the children were receiving their lessons in school or at home. Remember, this was at a time when the concept of lockdown was brand new, we had no idea what it meant or how – or whether our society would cope. Online lessons, GP telephone appointments, Zoom and Teams meetings, interviews and yes, the dreaded virtual quiz nights were not yet part of our vocabulary. The idea that schools would charge fees for a service that children were unable to receive in person, caused uproarious indignation. Private schools had to act quickly – and in a very visible manner – to justify charging for education they were providing. Driven by the need to survive, they had to get their (revolutionised) act together very quickly.

As a result, children attending private schools tended to find themselves required to follow a disciplined structure of education and while the location of the education had changed, the content remained fundamentally the same. Of course, this put an enormous pressure on parents – to police and facilitate this structure and discipline. Let’s face it, this sort of routine is far easier to tackle if at least one parent is not working and there’s enough money available. The amount of support required for this online, home learning cannot be under-estimated – as many exhausted parents of both privately and state educated children, will attest. Considerable resources are obviously required, from reliable internet and device provision and an inexhaustible fridge, to plenty of free-time and a convincing grasp of the education that you’re helping your child to learn.

In that first lockdown, many state school children simply weren’t getting anything like the education that had been provided during in-school learning. One friend recalls:

“My daughter simply couldn’t engage at all with online learning and she was in the year group that missed 202 GCSEs. As a result, she’s now struggling with A-Level content and is still a bit disengaged. And to make it all worse, these will be her first ever proper exams! My other child is a real workhorse, but during the first lockdown, her school wasn’t really doing that much, so she was basically self-teaching her way through her syllabus.

At that stage, only the private schools round here were getting proper online lessons. My partner is a teacher and his children, who both attend private school, had very different experiences. This led to some friction at home, as four kids who were in the same house, seemed to be living in totally different universes – it was like a two-tiered education system in one house. For all of them though, the social isolation has really knocked their confidence and that continues to cause issues for all of them, although they all handle it differently.

Throughout, schools have also had to contend with staff shortages due to sickness and more recently, the ‘pingdemic’. Where additional support tended to be provided by Teaching Assistants (TAs), they are now less available as they’re covering for teachers, who have been stretched beyond capacity, running both online and face-to-face teaching. Special Educational Needs (SEN) children have suffered more than many. One primary school teacher told me, there’s been a huge increase in child protection and SEN issues;

“Domestic violence has risen significantly. Currently, in our small school of 130 children, we have four cases under the care of Social Services. This is up from a year-on-year average of one child only a year ago. Mental Health has such an impact on some families and their children and all our SEN budget goes on this. The waiting lists are unworkable. CAMHS are just now seeing a child I referred in March 2017! I have five other children waiting to be seen……Occupational Therapists have been offering us virtual appointments, but unless they’re in person, they can’t really assess the children – I mean there’s a limit over video to how much you can assess the degree of flexibility in an eight-year old’s ankle and fit support splints. And then there’s the issue of bubbles. You can’t run interventions across bubbles and the gap between pupils with special educational needs and their peers has been exacerbated. It’s complex, but it’s been a nightmare and the kids are suffering.”

The social issues faced by children who’ve spent so much time away from school have also impacted their experience and life-learning. Some have suffered as a result of troubled home-lives from which there is little or no escape; from social isolation and from missing out on developing face to face communication skills. Loneliness, boredom and frustration at being unable to take part in their normal activities has caused or exacerbated many mental health conditions in children and teenagers.

For some, home learning has brought benefits, although there is a feeling this is less common for under-privileged children. Many have learned new skills: cooking at home; improving their IT capabilities and even learning teaching skills as they help older family members, less familiar with modern technology systems. Many children in happy home environments enjoyed a more relaxed way or learning and relished family time. In the case of some children who were bullied at school, lockdown provided a safe haven. It goes without saying that it’s a complex issue and the experience of individual children varies depending on their personal circumstances.

Look out for our upcoming feature on mental health helps for kids trying to cope with the extra pressures caused by the pandemic

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post The effect that lockdowns have had on our children’s education is complex and far-reaching appeared first on Checklists.

“We’ve all experienced a very challenging time with the lockdowns, and as measures have eased it will be tempting during the hot weather this week for us to want to spend lots of time outside with our families and take our pets, but taking our dogs out with us for walks or to the park could really put them at risk of suffering heatstroke or exhaustion.  It’s really important that we take extra special care of our pets and wildlife during this extremely hot weather.”

Dogs and horses need exercise, even when it’s hot. But the RSPCA says you should avoid exercising them in excessively hot weather. Experts advise walking or riding in the morning or evening when it’s cooler. When walking dogs keep in mind that pavements can get very hot in the warm weather – if it’s too hot to touch with your hand, then it’s too hot for a dog’s paws.

1. Never leave pets in hot vehicles

Never leave pets in vehicles, caravans, conservatories or outbuildings in the warm weather. Dogs, and other pets, can overheat and die if left in a hot environment, such as a car. Heatstroke is extremely dangerous for animals as it is for people and according to the British Veterinary Association, one in seven dogs affected by the condition dies as a result. Just don’t risk it. Don’t leave your pets in the car.

2. Check the heat of the floor

When walking dogs keep in mind that pavements can get very hot in the warm weather – if it’s too hot to touch with your hand, then it’s too hot for a dog’s paws.

3. Keep them cool!

When it’s hot at home and your pet is struggling to find somewhere cool, wrap an ice pack or frozen water bottle in a tea towel, or use damp towels for your them to lie on.

4. Stock up with sunblock!

Stock up with sunblock! Animals can get sunburnt too – and as in humans, sunburn can sometimes lead to skin cancer. Use animal-friendly sunblock or special SPF fabric clothing. Pink-pigmented skin burns easily – particularly areas around the nose, ears, tip of tail and stomach (particularly for sun-baskers!). Light-coloured pets are most at risk, are very short haired, or have any thin or bald patches of fur. Sunburn is typically very painful, causes skin damage and can sometimes lead to skin cancer. use pet-safe sun cream. Sunburn in pets looks just like sunburn in humans and you should look out for signs of redness, crusting, itching, flaking, blistering or pain. If your pet does burn, gently apply cold compresses to cool their pet’s skin, keep your pet out of sunlight and consult your vet.

5. Find shady spaces

Ensure animals have constant access to shade and fresh drinking water at all times. For animals that are kept outside, remember that as the sun moves during the day so too does the shade. Remember – somewhere that was shaded in the morning could be in full sun by the afternoon.

6. Make some cool snacks

Dogs enjoy a cool snack as much as the rest of us! Add ice cubes to your dog’s bowl, freeze their kong or for a real treat, make an ice lolly for your dog from pet-friendly ingredients! For inspiration, have a look at this RSPCA recipe for easy-to-make peanut butter treats Youtube.com

7. Hydrate your pets!

Keep guinea pigs cool and hydrated by making them a smorgasbord of crunchy, fresh vegetables.

8. Keep away the pests

When the sun arrives, so do the pests. Ticks and fleas carry diseases from typhus to Lyme disease and as with most things, prevention is better than cure. Make sure your pets are up to date with their flea and tick treatments and talk to your vet if you’re unsure. If your pet does pick up a tick, it’s important to remove them straight away. To avoid squeezing the body or leaving the head in, which will increase the chance of it passing diseases on, you’ll need to twist the tick off. This can be done using a tick removal tool, which can be picked up at pet shops or the vets. Your vet will be able to show you the best way to remove a tick by twisting. Do not try to burn them off or use lotion to suffocate, as this won’t stop the possibility of getting bacterial infections like Lyme disease, and risks causing injury

9. Get creative

Encourage pet chickens to stay in shaded areas by hanging up a homemade vegetable garland.

10. Splash around!

Fill a paddling pool or spray a hose for your dog to play in, but always supervise them around water. 

To find out more, speak to your vet or check out the new RSPCA website all about Animal Welfare: rspca.org.uk/strategy

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post Best strategies to keep pets cool appeared first on Checklists.

More Harry Potter mash-up of a rabbit, a deer and Buckbeak, than any credible result of evolution, there’s no denying they’re weird. I’m not entirely sure how Nature looked at the alpaca and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s a good day’s work’, but somehow, they made the final cut. Saucer-eyed, buck toothed and slack-mouthed, with a perpetually dropped lower lip, they look in equal parts, astonished and astonishing.

It took me another 10 years to become an owner of four of the estimated 45,000 alpacas that now live in the UK. Indigenous to South America, they are most densely populated in the Peruvian Andes. Closely related to llamas, with which they are often confused, there are two different breeds of alpaca – the huacaya (pronounced wa-ky- a) and the suri.

The huacaya, which makes up 95% of the alpaca population and is the most commonly seen in the UK, has a dense, fluffy-looking fleece, growing straight out from the side of the animal. The suri by contrast, has a fleece that hangs down like shaggy dreadlocks, making it look like a cute version of a 1970’s lampshade.

Products made from alpaca fleece are niche, luxury items with a price tag to match, but they are sought after with good reason. Described by the Peruvian Incas as La fibra de los dioses, ‘The fibre of the gods’, alpaca fleece is as soft and luxurious as cashmere, lightweight and incredibly warm.

If you fancy getting up close and personal with alpacas, an alpaca show is a good way to find out more. Breeders bring their pride and joy to showcase to a fascinated public. Or if you’re looking for something a bit more hands-on, then perhaps alpaca trekking is for you. Basically, it involves taking an alpaca for a walk in the countryside and I’m told it’s very relaxing. For more details about alpaca showing or trekking, you can visit the British Alpaca Society website.

If you’re considering keeping these unusual animals, you can also find plenty of information about their care and welfare on this site. Bear in mind it’s a long-term commitment, alpacas live into their 20s and they are herd animals and shouldn’t be kept alone but ideally in groups of three or more. However, be warned – the fact that you love alpacas is no guarantee that they’ll have the same opinion of you.

Alpacas, it turns out, are naturals at social distancing. Guarding their personal space is really not a stretch. They’re pre-disposed not to like you. Or each other. Or anyone really. They don’t want to be close to you and although they live in groups, they keep each other at legs’ length. Strong legs it turns out. Strong legs, with hard hooves at the end, that pack a really painful kick. Just in case you weren’t sufficiently deterred by the radioactive, projectile spit…

One minute they’re humming companionably at each other, swapping opinions in Les Dawson impressions of gossipy old ladies disapproving of everything around them. The next, they taking outraged offense at one of their compadré’s hummy opinions.

Swinging their neck round in a melodramatic huff, they’ll launch an enormous glob of foul-smelling slime at the surprised recipient. And sometimes it’s not at another alpaca. Sometimes it’s at you! God alone knows what internal alchemy percolates this slime to such heights of stomach-churning pungency, but by all that is unnatural in the natural world, this gunk is biological warfare.

Still love them? Yes, me too.

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post They’re cute, but alpacas pack a punch. And a kick. And a spit… appeared first on Checklists.

It is never too early to start planning for your retirement. It sounds like a boring thing to be thinking about in your twenties and too far off to seem real, but consider:

If you want to retire on say £30,000 a year, then you will need a retirement fund of more than £600,000. That kind of pot is going to require some planning and a lot of saving, so don’t waste any time. After all, the earlier you start to save, the less you will need to save yourself, as growth will be a bigger factor on the size of the fund that you will achieve. Checklist spoke to Nico Goymer of The Wealth Group (Financial Advice and Wealth Management) in Evesham for some pointers on retirement planning at different stages in our life.

In your 20s

When it comes to retirement planning, it really is a case of the earlier the better. Consider setting up a Lifetime ISA (or LISA). A LISA is a tax-free account for saving towards your first home or your retirement, with the government adding a 25% bonus to anything you save.

You can save up to £4,000 a year, either as a lump sum, by regular contributions, or just topping up funds when you can. The state will add a 25% bonus on top. So if you invest £1,000, the state will make it up to £1,250 and if you save the full £4,000 annual allowance, you’ll be saving £5,000 a year. Then there’s interest on top of that and because it’s an ISA, it’s tax free.

If you have parents or grandparents with deep pockets, think about asking for ISA contributions for birthday presents. Every bit helps. It’s more bricks in the wall and remember, the state will add an extra 25% on top of anything you’re given.

In your 30s

Always join the company pension scheme. Younger investors often think retirement is just too far away to be worrying about, but the implementation of Auto-enrolment means many more people now have pension schemes. While the scheme will be a good start and it’s great that a culture of retirement planning is being encouraged in principle, in reality, your scheme on its own is unlikely to be sufficient for your future needs.

Our 30s is often the time that other priorities are calling on our income. Mortgages and the costs of young families often demand most of what the taxman hasn’t already claimed. But try to top up your pension with regular payments if possible – even if it’s only a very small amount. Research different pension schemes to find one that’s flexible enough for your needs and bear in mind that it’s usually the most tax-efficient way of saving for the future. Remember, funds invested when you are younger have more time to grow.

In your 40s

This is likely to be a time when our earning capacity is growing and consolidating. Perhaps a little more is available after the household budget has done its worst. Try to establish whether you might have spare income to supplement your retirement savings. If you’re not certain it really is spare, perhaps put it into a savings account that can be accessed if needed. Then, at the end of the tax year on 5 April each year, if the savings really are available, at this point invest into your pension or an ISA.

It helps to build and develop a retirement plan if you haven’t done so already. Set yourself clear objectives. Ask yourself:

1. What age do I want to retire?
2. How much income will I need in retirement?

Working backwards, consider how these questions will be answered and what funding is potentially required. Consider:

Typical rates of withdrawal are 4-5% p.a. from a pension fund. What guaranteed income will you receive in terms of both state pension and company final salary pension? What assets might you have in terms of investment, inheritances or properties?

If there is a shortfall, do you plan to address this through: Pensions? ISAs? Bonds? Other investments?

In your 50s

This is a time to consolidate the efforts you have made to date. Typically, demands on your monthly income are starting to ease, with children becoming (for the lucky ones anyway!) more financially independent.

Continue to invest as much as you can afford in your pension fund and while most private pensions can be accessed from the age of 55, consider delaying drawing on it if you don’t need the funds and continue to save a little longer. Typically, older savers are likely to focus deposits on their pension fund rather than ISAs or other investments as the tax efficiency is more attractive than the prospect of growth alone over a shorter period of time.

In your 60s

Congratulations! You’ve rounded the corner to the Big Six-O and won yourself free prescriptions and free eye tests! And if you live in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland, a free bus pass too! (If you’re in England, you’ll have to wait another six years until you’re 66.)

Copies of Saga magazine suddenly start dropping onto your doormat and you’ll find you’re eligible for discounts to all sort of attractions and activities – many of which you didn’t even know you were interested in!

Today, you’re eligible for state pension when you reach 66, but it is set to rise to 67 by 2029 and to 68 by 2039. Current maximum state pension is £179.60 a week (HMRC July 2021), but with an ageing population and a financial future that’s more uncertain than it’s ever been, who knows what the value of it will be in 10, 20 or even 40 years’ time. One thing’s for sure, if you start planning early, you’ll be thanking 20-year-old you for looking out for your future self all those years ago.

Visit wealth-group.co.uk

To see your company in any upcoming features we are arranging please email editorial@hurstmediacompany.co.uk

The post The best ways to plan for a rocking retirement appeared first on Checklists.

Has vaccinating the country given us our freedom back?

Do you remember the days when we were begging the media to talk about something – anything – other than Brexit? There can’t be many of us now, who wouldn’t give a bumper pack of face masks to return to the naïve exasperations of picking a side in the case of Boris vs Barnier.

Desperate to move on from the bereavements, traumas and sacrifices of coronavirus, into a happier summer of freedom and hope for better things to come, our government promised a return to ‘normal’ on 19 July. Yet, as the much-touted Freedom Day edged closer, doubts and anxieties about the wisdom of easing restrictions clouded that cautious optimism. Did we dare to hope that our brave new world might be within touching distance, or was it reckless irresponsibility to even consider throwing our facemasks and hand sanitiser to the winds?

Boris’ Churchill moment stolen by the ‘Pingdemic’

As Freedom Day dawned and Boris was denied his Churchillian moment, holed up in his bunker of self-isolation after shooting his own PR in the foot, it’s reasonable to imagine that the speech, now playing only inside his own head, might have undergone a re-write or two. Who knows what words he’d have borrowed from his hero? Perhaps: “If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Or possibly, “Everyone has his day, and some days last longer than others.” Some of Boris’s days recently must have seemed pretty interminable.

Now that the dust has had a chance to settle, what does Life after Lockdown look like in reality? Have we really been released? Should we even be released? Amid desperate pleas from exhausted NHS staff, who surely are placed to know the answer to these questions better than anyone, many of us believe that restrictions were lifted far too early and feel safer continuing to behave as if lockdown has not been lifted.

Perhaps Boris had planned to use one of our wartime prime minister’s most famous lines in his speech and if he hadn’t, he certainly should have: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” perfectly describes our debt to the remarkable army of over-worked, underpaid and in many cases, emotionally traumatised, individuals that make up NHS Team UK.

We can never adequately thank this formidable and selfless army, but we should never stop trying. And amid the absurd weight of expectation that is daily fulfilled by this skilled and compassionate staff, a vaccine rollout has been undertaken, whose success is unrivalled by any comparable undertaking in history.

Vaccines, antibodies and herd immunity

Herd immunity is an inexact science. Calculations for the level of population protection required to reach herd immunity, vary between around 80 and close to 100 per cent.

At the time of writing, 70% of the adult population has had both doses of a vaccine. Based on available government data that over-18s make up 79% of the population, around 55.7% of the entire UK population is currently double vaccinated. (This calculation discounts the small number of under-18s who have been double-vaccinated, for which no figure is available.)

Approximately 14% of the entire UK population has had a single dose. Both these figures are rising, but there is of course no way of knowing for how long and where they will level off. Booster planning is now underway, projected to begin in September this year and there’s no doubt that science is hot on the heels of emerging variants.

A considerable proportion of the population has also previously been infected with coronavirus. A UK Coronavirus Survey, produced in partnership with the Universities of Oxford and Manchester, Public Health England and the Wellcome Trust, on 21 July 2021, estimates that around 9 in 10 UK adults would have tested positive for Covid antibodies in the last week – whether as a result of vaccination or past infection.

Although we do not yet know whether the recent decline in cases is set to be a reliable trend, these figures might suggest some level of herd immunity is contributing to the decline. We should also consider that even with immunity levels below those required for herd immunity, the more we slow the spread, the easier it becomes to control the virus though ongoing and proven public health measures. We might feel as though not much changed since 19 July, but there are at least glimmers of hope that, while the road ahead will be bumpy, it might be easier than the rollercoaster behind us.

Relentless news coverage means we’re constantly reminded of the spectre of the virus and there’s a lot of residual caution remaining: since 19 July, social contact levels have remained at two-thirds of the pre-pandemic figure of 10 contacts per day. Out and about, you’re unlikely to have noticed a significant drop in numbers of mask-wearers and people are still conspicuously distancing from each other in queues and on public transport. What should the new world order look like? Vaccine passports went from a controversial possibility to all but essential for travel and soon-to-be mandatory for anyone wishing to set foot in a nightclub and probably football stadia, other entertainment venues, university lectures and certain professions. Like Brexit, very few people are ambivalent and are likely to come down hard either for vaccine passports or against them.

Whatever your view, it might not be the same as it was two months ago when Freedom Day first became a probability. If we have learned anything from events of the past 18 months, it’s that the only thing we can predict is that the future is unpredictable. Perhaps Churchill really did sum it up best after all, “It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.”

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