Teaching information skills for legal method

I have been involved with teaching information skills as part of the Law Department’s 1st year Legal Method course since 2000. These sessions have developed from a set of half hour sessions offered on a drop-in basis in 2000, to the current format of four seminars of an hour each. The four seminars deal with searching the library catalogue; searching the law databases for cases and statutes; searching for journal articles; and finding and evaluating material for law on the free internet. There are 10 seminar groups for Legal Method so each library seminar is delivered 10 times in the week. The aim of this article is to provide a snapshot of the seminars on journals from January 2009, which I hope will prove interesting to colleagues as an example of services provided by the academic services librarians

'Wet' care homes for older people with refractory alcohol problems: a qualitative study

Background This study describes a registered care home in England and a registered nursing home in Norway which provide permanent care for alcohol-dependent older people who are unable or unwilling to stop drinking and cannot maintain an adequate standard of self-care and/or live independently. Prior to admission, most residents have been living unsafely in their own home or were homeless. They have high levels of contact with health, social and criminal justice services and complex needs as a result of mental illness, poor physical health and physical disabilities. Most have lost contact with their families. The aim is to stabilise drinking, physical and mental health and improve quality of life. The homes are based on a harm reduction philosophy, that is, they focus on strategies to reduce harm from high-risk alcohol use, rather than insisting on abstinence. Residents can drink as much alcohol as they want on the premises but staff encourage them to drink less and in a less harmful way (e.g. spreading drinking throughout the day and having ‘dry’ days). Method We carried out interviews and focus groups with staff and residents, observed verbal exchanges, experiences and routines in communal areas, took field notes during staff rounds and analysed documents such as care plans for individual residents. Key findings • Most residents’ drinking, physical and mental health stabilises and their use of health, social and criminal justice services reduces following admission. • This is achieved by encouraging less harmful drinking, providing on-site health care, assistance with medication and self-care and provision of nutritious meals and social activities. • Wet care homes are viewed by some residents as a safe refuge which has improved their quality of life. • Other residents are frustrated by a lack of personal autonomy. • Suitable outcomes include improved hygiene and nutrition, increased self-esteem, better compliance with healthcare, healthier living which is not entirely alcohol focused and more hope for the future. • Homes should have processes in place to collect quantitative measures which provide clear evidence of impact.        

Transitors

As an expression of integrated languages and an extension of my art practice, Transitors operates at the intersection of data, photography and language to explore the fragmentation and disintegration of the human psyche and bodily awareness through the effects of digital technology and contemporary social dissociation. Elements of the text simultaneously function as formulas, facts, and data interspersed with expository and narrative writing, all relating mimetically to various registers of this dissociation. The text moves amongst these levels, shifting from the personal to hints of a technological sublime to exemplify the predicament of the individual in relation to systems of all sorts. Transitors considers the relation of bodily materiality and information technology in regard to art and gender, speculating on the potential for transcending these historically determined conceptual positions, given a long enough time line

New Spaces: Safeguarding Students from Violence and Hate

Full report of the HEFCE Catalyst funded projectSexual assault, harassment, violence and hate crime on university campuses is a prevalent and pressing concern. A recent Universities UK taskforce report recommended that urgent action in this area is needed. Universities are significant sites for implementing a joined-up approach and tackling these issues. As a campus of Changemakers, students, inter-disciplinary researchers, professional and support staff at The University of Northampton decided to take action to address these significant and important issues, in particular within the context of a major campus move to a town centre location. As one of only 60 institutions across the country to be awarded funding from HEFCE’s Catalyst fund, this ‘New Spaces: Safeguarding Students from Violence and Hate’ cross collaborative project aimed to create vital partnerships in tackling sexual violence and hate crime on campus. The aims of the project were to evaluate existing policies and develop a student-led collaborative approach to identify what currently happens when disclosures are made; staff and student perceptions, knowledge and experiences within the campus transition; as well as providing recommendations for new institutional policies, strategies and recommendations to support students in reporting harassment, sexual abuse, sexual violence and hate crime. This project also contributes to HEFCE’s wider work in creating guidelines and recommendations for HEIs for addressing these issues. A survey of the published literature, as well as an evaluation of existing processes and policies at The University of Northampton were carried out within this project. Data collection involved 2 Staff and 2 student focus groups, as well as 11 interviews with members of the university management team. These were conducted to discuss staff and student experiences, what support was in place for disclosures and recommendations for future practice within the transition to the new campus. One of the student focus groups utilised photo-elicitation methods to allow students to visually conceptualise and create a new, safe campus space. Recommendations are provided for understanding the prevalence of these issues within a campus context; tackle normative beliefs which may influence how they are perceived; increasing knowledge and awareness of sexual violence and hate crime; implementing mechanisms for disclosure and reporting; addressing issues related to security measures and procedures; enhancing partnership working within the local community. These recommendations have local impact and are being used to inform institutional policies and procedures at The University. Project findings are also being implemented into HEFCE’s wider work and national action around these issues. Internationally, the dissemination of these findings is contributing to the limited research in this area

Technology reviews by First Year Law Students

First year Law students submitted technology reviews as part of an assessment for their Legal Method course with the promise that the best reviews would be submitted to Compass.They were asked to base their reviews on any freely available app, tool, piece of software which you feel has a benefit for anyone studying or teaching LAW

Population trends of Gentoo Penguins Pygoscelis Papua breeding at the Falkland Islands

The fourth archipelago-wide census of Gentoo Penguins Pygoscelis papua breeding at the Falkland Islands was conducted from 24 October to 8 December 2010. The number of Gentoo Penguins breeding in 2010 was estimated to be 132 321 ± 2 015, the highest number of breeding pairs recorded for this species at the Falkland Islands since the first survey in 1933. The global population of Gentoo Penguins is conservatively estimated to be about 384 000 breeding pairs, of which the Falkland Islands accounts for 34%, probably the largest component of the global population. Annually monitored study colonies accounted for 20% of the total number of Gentoo Penguin breeding pairs at the Falkland Islands in 2010 and proved to be a reliable proxy for archipelago-wide changes in the number of breeding pairs. Recent trends at annually monitored study colonies, combined with archipelago-wide trends, indicate that the number of Gentoo Penguins breeding at the Falkland Islands has increased between 2005 to 2010. However, annual monitoring data also revealed large inter-annual variability in the number of breeding pairs, which makes assessing systematic population changes challenging

Place to Call Home Project Evaluation Report: Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children, Foster Care and Supported Lodgings Placements in the East Midlands

This is the evaluation report of the Place to Call Home Project. It looks at how the Project was designed, adjusted in response to government restrictions in relation to Covid and whether its operationalisation achieved the key priorities set out in this report. Funded through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), Controlling Migration Fund (CMF), East Midlands Strategic Migration Partnership (EMSMP) sought to increase its regional in-house foster care and supported lodgings provision for Unaccompanied asylum seeking children and young people. Demands on local provision have increased significantly with an increase in the number arriving to the region and will continue as the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) became mandatory on 14th December 2021 (Home Office, 2022). Of concern has been the resourcing of appropriate care provision for this cohort of Looked After Children (LAC), which the East Midlands Councils (EMC) found to be problematic in its report ‘Analysis of the Local Authority Costs incurred in support of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking children in the East Midlands’ (2017). The cost of providing care or support to UASC and young people in the region outweighed the sum received from the government for this purpose by £25,000 per UASC, not least because local authorities had to rely on independent care provision at a far greater cost than in-house placements. With this in mind 9 local East Midlands local authorities: Derby City Council, Derbyshire County Council, Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council, Lincolnshire County Council, Northamptonshire County Council, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Rutland County Council sought funding from the national CMF which would help them to set up a regional co-ordination team that spearheaded a recruitment campaign, specialised UASC foster care and supported lodgings training in order to develop the regional capacity of inhouse care provision in the East Midlands. This report focuses on the current literature relating to the care provision of UASC and experiences of and support for individuals who foster or provide supported lodgings to this complex group of LAC. In setting out the current concerns raised by the literature it will highlight the challenges that the Place to Call Home Project sought to address as it attracted potential applicants and then worked with them through the assessment process, delivering specialist training. Findings will be reported on the key stages of the process: the recruitment campaign, the assessment process and the training. Highlighted will be some important lessons that can be used to inform future funding of UASC foster care provision. The key summary findings are: The number of Foster Care Placement Approvals were: 41 The number of Supported Lodging Provider Approvals were: 4 37.57% of completed initial enquiries to the project were with people with BAME backgrounds 83.3% of enquirers were interested in working specifically with migrant children 28 prospective carers participated in the specialist UASC training that was developed by the project; overall their evaluations of the training were very positive Regional Co-ordination has been challenging to set up and should be continued to ensure the sustainability of the Projec