Vision 2023: An Environmental Vision Plan for Chicago Heights and South Chicago Heights

This document describes the environmental vision plan created by and for the City of Chicago Heights and Village of South Chicago Heights. This plan focuses on clean air, clean land and brownfield redevelopment, quality of water, protection and restoration of natural areas and open space, and compatible development. In addition, the document includes a history, list of participants, and implementation plan

Housing and credit crunch: follow-up

Eight Report of Session 2008-200

The end of the beginning? Taking forward local democratic renewal in the post-referendum North East.

This article draws upon the author’s commissioned research on the nature of regional governance following the 2004 Referendum in the North East on elected regional assemblies. The article aimed to both capture these views and to assess how the ‘No vote in the referendum has impacted on subsequent developments in sub-national governance. The article provides both an empirical overview of recent developments and engages with the wider conceptual debates on democratic renewal. The arguments covered in this output are aimed at both academic and practitioner audiences, and have been also disseminated at regional and national conferences

Understanding the costs of investigating coliform and E. coli detections during routine drinking water quality monitoring

Bacteriological failure investigations are crucial in the provision of safe, clean drinking water as part of a process of quality assurance and continual improvement. However, the financial implications of investigating coliform and Escherichia coli failures during routine water quality monitoring are poorly understood in the industry. The investigations for 737 coliform and E. coli failures across five UK water companies were analysed in this paper. The principal components of investigation costs were staff hours worked, re-samples collected, transportation, and special investigatory activities related to the sample collection location. The average investigation costs ranged from £575 for a customer tap failure to £4,775 for a water treatment works finished water failure. These costs were compared to predictions for US utilities under the Revised Total Coliform Rule. Improved understanding of the financial and staffing implications of investigating bacteriological failures can be used to budget operational expenditures and justify increased funding for preventive strategies

The ombudsman, tribunals and administrative justice section: a 2020 vision for the ombudsman sector

This article analyses the growing role for ombudsman schemes in the UK administrative justice system following the Government reforms post 2010. It argues that the ombudsman institution is perhaps the one example of an administrative justice body that looks set to emerge stronger over the period. But the ombudsman sector needs to guard against complacency, as the demands, expectations and publicity placed upon it are all likely to increase

Delayed bedtime due to screen time in schoolchildren: Importance of area deprivation

Background Sleep duration is an important predictor of obesity and health. This study evaluated the association between late bedtime and screen time, and the role of geographical deprivation in English schoolchildren. Methods We collected bedtime and waking time, screen time, sociodemographic data and measured body mass index in a cross-section of 1332 11-15-year-old schoolchildren (45.7% female) participating in the East of England healthy heart study. Logistic regression was used to determine the likelihood of late bedtime in schoolchildren with different screen time and from a different geographic location. Mean differences were assessed either on ANOVA or t-test. Results Approximately 42% of boys went to bed late at night compared with 37% of girls. When compared to those with 4 h of daily screen time were most likely to go to sleep late at night (OR, 1.97; 95%CI: 1.34-2.89). Late bedtime was associated with deprivation in schoolchildren. Conclusions High screen time and deprivation may explain lateness in bedtime in English schoolchildren. This explanation may vary according to area deprivation and geographic location. Family-centered interventions and parental support are important to reduce screen time, late bedtime and increase sleep duration

Joining the dots: Day to day challenges for practitioners in delivering integrated dementia care

Despite the increasing policy focus on integrated dementia care in the UK, little is known about the opportunities and challenges encountered by practitioners charged with implementing these policies on the ground. We undertook an extensive, mixed‐methods analysis of how a contemporary multidisciplinary dementia pathway in the UK was experienced and negotiated by service providers. Our pragmatic mixed methods design incorporated three types of research interaction with practitioners: (a) Semi‐structured interviews (n = 31) and focus group discussions (n = 4), (b) Practitioner ‘shadowing’ observations (n = 19), and (c) Service attendance and performance metrics reviews (n = 8). Through an abductive analysis of practitioner narratives and practice observations, we evidenced how inter‐practitioner prejudices, restrictive and competitive commissioning frameworks, barriers to effective data sharing and other resource constraints, all challenged integrative dementia care and led to unintended consequences such as practice overlap and failure to identify and respond to people's needs. In order to more successfully realise integrated dementia pathways, we propose innovative commissioning frameworks which purposefully seek to diffuse power imbalances, encourage inter‐provider respect and understanding, and determine clear lines of responsibility

AGENDA: Community-Owned Forests: Possibilities, Experiences, and Lessons Learned

Community-owned forests may be the answer for some U.S. communities now confronting unanticipated and unwanted large scale land use changes – changes that could irrevocably change their local landscapes and quality of life. Across the country, millions of acres of private forest lands are being put up for sale as the forest products companies who own them find other, cheaper sources of supply. If, as is likely, purchasers divide and convert the forests to residential or other development uses, nearby communities face losing the critical economic, environmental, recreational, social, cultural, and aesthetic values and benefits those forests have traditionally provided. Affected localities are urgently seeking alternatives, such as government acquisition of the land and its addition to existing state or federal forests, identification of private purchasers who will maintain forest uses and/or limit development intensity, the purchase of development rights on the properties, or negotiation of conservation easements. Increasingly, however, forward thinking communities are pursuing a more exciting – and challenging – option: acquiring the lands to manage them as community forests, now and for the future. Community-owned and –managed forests can be found around the world, and are not a new concept. Some New England “town forests,” for instance were established nearly a century ago. The recent surge of interest in community forests in the U.S., however is unprecedented. In response, a three-day national conference was held in Missoula, Montana, in 2005, to bring together practitioners from around the country to explore issues, options, and experiences in community forest establishment, governance, management, and use. Through presentations, group discussions, poster sessions, and field tours to proposed community forests in the nearby Blackfoot and Swan Valleys the conference addressed: Understanding the issues Current and historic community forests in North America Corporate forest land divestiture – issues and opportunities for companies and communities Exploring the possibilities Assessing local readiness and capacity to establish a community forest Forest land acquisition and financing; options, tools, and techniques Costs and revenues: doing the calculations, making the choices Making it work Developing and sustaining a collective vision for a community forest Forest management models that have worked – and some that haven’t Building needed social, financial, institutional, and technical capacity Community learning: multiparty monitoring and participatory science Facing the challenges Defining the “community” Dealing with issues of property, tenure, responsibility, risk, and governance Managing a forest for multiple public and private values Ensuring effective community leadership, investment, and control over the long term The missing pieces: needed new or revised laws, policies, and financing too

Ensuring the right to education for Roma children : an Anglo-Swedish perspective

Access to public education systems has tended to be below normative levels where Roma children are concerned. Various long-standing social, cultural, and institutional factors lie behind the lower levels of engagement and achievement of Roma children in education, relative to many others, which is reflective of the general lack of integration of their families in mainstream society. The risks to Roma children’s educational interests are well recognized internationally, particularly at the European level. They have prompted a range of policy initiatives and legal instruments to protect rights and promote equality and inclusion, on top of the framework of international human rights and minority protections. Nevertheless, states’ autonomy in tailoring educational arrangements to their budgets and national policy agendas has contributed to considerable international variation in specific provision for Roma children. As this article discusses, even between two socially liberal countries, the UK and Sweden, with their well-advanced welfare states and public systems of social support, there is a divergence in protection, one which underlines the need for a more consistent and positive approach to upholding the education rights and interests of children in this most marginalized and often discriminated against minority group

Fundamental Movement Skills of Preschool Children in Northwest England

-This cross-sectional study examined fundamental movement skill competency among deprived preschool children in Northwest England and explored sex differences. A total of 168 preschool children (ages 3-5 yr.) were included in the study. Twelve skills were assessed using the Children's Activity and Movement in Preschool Motor Skills Protocol and video analysis. Sex differences were explored at the subtest, skill, and component levels. Overall competence was found to be low among both sexes, although it was higher for locomotor skills than for object-control skills. Similar patterns were observed at the component level. Boys had significantly better object-control skills than girls, with greater competence observed for the kick and overarm throw, while girls were more competent at the run, hop, and gallop. The findings of low competency suggest that developmentally appropriate interventions should be implemented in preschool settings to promote movement skills, with targeted activities for boys and girls