The role of corporate governance and boards in organisational performance

For more than two decades, successive UK governments have been concerned with modernising the delivery of public services and seeking performance improvements. As part of this drive, corporate governance arrangements across the sector have been reformed and much greater attention has been paid to the training, development and support of those serving on governing bodies and boards. An underlying assumption of these shifts in policy is that improvements in corporate governance arrangements, and in particular the working of boards, will lead to improvements in effectiveness. This chapter examines what evidence there is to support that assumption

Organising care around patients

Healthcare aims to be patient-centred but a large gap remains between the fine words and the reality. Care often feels designed for the convenience of the organisations that deliver it, and not enough around patients and their families, or even around the frontline staff who provide it. Why does this happen? What does it feel like? What can be done about it? This book stimulates reflection on these questions by listening closely to those at the frontline. It provides accounts from patients, carers and healthcare professionals who are patients about what it’s like when services get it right, and wrong, from birth up to the end of life. Quite simply, we want to draw upon the power of storytelling – which is increasingly valued as a tool for learning – to help policymakers and practitioners to understand how to deliver better care. We also hope to enlighten the general reader about how they might go about navigating “the system” while it remains imperfect. There is a growing literature of first-person accounts from patients and from healthcare professionals. This book differs by providing a collection of narratives of experiences of the NHS in England to paint a rich and varied picture. Alongside these narratives we provide some international context, and an overview of the history of moves towards a more patient-centred approach to care. We present the theory and practice of storytelling in the context of healthcare. We also seek to help the reader to draw out the practical learning from the individual accounts

Linear Electronic and Optical Processes in Fullerene Thin Films

The electrical properties of C60 have been extensively studied in both the solid and solution phases. The vibrational spectroscopy of C60 is predominantly molecular in character. However electronic spectroscopy reveals features, which are specific to the solid. These features have been attributed to intermolecular charge transfer states. The relative importance of these inter – and intramolecular processes in terms of their contribution to the electronic transport is discussed. Cyclic voltammetry is employed to generate charged molecular species, which also contribute to the conduction process and comparisons to optical excited states species are drawn. The cyclic voltammetry was monitored in situ with vibrational spectroscopy so as to observe any shifts in the C60 spectrum due to charging. The current voltage characteristics of thin film sandwich structures fabricated by vacuum are then presented and discussed. A strongly non-linear behaviour is observed, a sharp increase in the device conductance being observed at relatively low voltages at both room temperature and at 20K. The room temperature IV curves confirm a lattice collapse upon charging. The high conductivity state is however observed to be stable at low temperature