Impact of practice leadership management style on staff experience in services for people with intellectual disability and challenging behaviour: a further examination and partial replication

Background and Aims Practice leadership (PL) style of frontline management has been shown to be associated with better experiences for staff working with people who may exhibit challenging behaviours (Anonymous, 2014). This study aimed to examine additional staff experience factors with a different, larger sample and to partially replicate the findings of (Anonymous, 2014). Methods This study was a survey of staff self-reported data collected as part of a larger study. Information was collected on PL and staff experiences of: stress, turnover, job satisfaction and positive work experiences. Results and Conclusions The results broadly supported Deveau & McGill (2014) and demonstrated an association between PL and greater job satisfaction and positive experiences for staff. Results on staff turnover were inconsistent. The positive impact of PL on staff experience was further supported by this study. Suggestions are made for further research. Implications These findings suggest further research is needed to examine the potential of interventions in frontline management/leadership practice to improve staff experience of working in challenging environments. What this paper adds. Firstly, to the somewhat limited research literature on management/leadership in intellectual and developmental disabilities. Secondly, contributes additional evidence that a PL style of frontline management has beneficial effects upon frontline staff’s experience of working in challenging environments i.e. suggests a new intervention in an important area of policy and practice. Thirdly, suggests that the IDD sector needs to place more emphasis upon frontline management development and practice

Practice Leadership at the front line in supporting people with intellectual disabilities and challenging behaviour: a qualitative study of registered managers of community-based, staffed group homes.

Background The front-line management role in services for people with intellectual disabilities remains rather under-researched. The aim of this study was to examine the experiences of registered managers in services for adults with intellectual disability who exhibit challenging behaviour. Method Interviews, primarily focussed upon staff practice, were conducted with 19 managers of staffed group homes in SE England. Transcripts were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Results Five groups of themes emerged: monitoring staff performance, supporting new ways of working, shaping staff performance, influence of external and employing agencies, and importance of participants' personal values and experiences. Conclusion The themes identified contribute to a conceptual framework for thinking about front-line management/practice leadership. The limitations, and potential implications, of the findings are discussed

QuantumClone: Clonal assessment of functional mutations in cancer based on a genotype-aware method for clonal reconstruction

International audienceMotivation In cancer, clonal evolution is assessed based on information coming from single nucleotide variants and copy number alterations. Nonetheless, existing methods often fail to accurately combine information from both sources to truthfully reconstruct clonal populations in a given tumor sample or in a set of tumor samples coming from the same patient. Moreover, previously published methods detect clones from a single set of variants. As a result, compromises have to be done between stringent variant filtering [reducing dispersion in variant allele frequency estimates (VAFs)] and using all biologically relevant variants. Results We present a framework for defining cancer clones using most reliable variants of high depth of coverage and assigning functional mutations to the detected clones. The key element of our framework is QuantumClone, a method for variant clustering into clones based on VAFs, genotypes of corresponding regions and information about tumor purity. We validated QuantumClone and our framework on simulated data. We then applied our framework to whole genome sequencing data for 19 neuroblastoma trios each including constitutional, diagnosis and relapse samples. We confirmed an enrichment of damaging variants within such pathways as MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinases), neuritogenesis, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, cell survival and DNA repair. Most pathways had more damaging variants in the expanding clones compared to shrinking ones, which can be explained by the increased total number of variants between these two populations. Functional mutational rate varied for ancestral clones and clones shrinking or expanding upon treatment, suggesting changes in clone selection mechanisms at different time points of tumor evolution

Developing a comprehensive research agenda for people with intellectual disability to inform policy development and reform

Gaps in policy and service systems exist for people with intellectual disability (ID). The areas of policy and services research that are required to address this situation are vast, complicated, and often interrelated. Strategically developed research agendas underpinned by a strict adherence to human rights principles can optimally inform policy and service development and reform. A framework to facilitate the conceptualization of a comprehensive and structured research agenda for ID that can underpin policy has been developed. It is informed by templates developed in mental health and health and consists of external parameters and internal domains and elements. It is overarched by human rights principles and takes into account other contextual factors including government policies and resources. The framework is applicable in a range of settings and can be used to prioritize and optimize research efforts and resources in the area of ID. The development, dissemination, and implementation of a comprehensive research agenda for ID requires the involvement of a range of key stakeholders, including consumers and carers, clinicians, researchers, and policymakers