The effect of school resources on pupil attainment: a multilevel simultaneous equation modelling approach

Improving educational achievement in UK schools is a priority, and of particular concern is the low achievement of specific groups, such as those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. An obvious question is whether we should be improving the outcomes of these students by spending more on their education. The literature on the effect of educational spending on pupil achievement has a number of methodological difficulties, in particular the endogeneity of school resource levels, and the intra-school correlations in student responses. In this paper, we adopt a multilevel simultaneous equation modelling approach to assess the impact of school resources on student attainment at age 14. This paper is the first to apply a simultaneous equation model to estimate the impact of school resources on pupil achievement, using the newly available National Pupil Database (NPDB)

What have our homes become? Metaphor and metamorphosis in the pandemic lockdown

During the lockdowns enforced to meet the COVID-19 pandemic, homes were tasked with sustaining life in a time of emergency, taking on multiple new functions and inviting reflection on modes of their inhabitation. Asking ‘what have our homes become?’, the article explores the metaphorical life of ‘home’ as the locus of a set of powerfully normalizing and normative functions as well as potentials for transformation. The article weighs the meanings to be found in the exceptional time we were ‘at home’ during lockdowns, in company with Bruno Latour’s sense of the metamorphosis lockdowns brought, Giorgio Agamben’s analysis of this as a time of emergency, heightening executive powers, and Bonnie Honig’s counter-story of emergency politics as requiring democratic attention to the time and terms of emergence from a period of difficult choices and narrowed capacities

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF NHS REFORMS ON PHYSIOTHERAPY AND ITS MANAGEMENT STRUCTURES IN ENGLAND AND WALES

Background. A constantly changing reform agenda has frequently changed NHS management arrangements. Impacts are documented for medicine and nursing but much less so for the third largest profession, physiotherapy. Aims. To evaluate the impact of NHS reforms on physiotherapy analysing whether the resulting management structures impacted on staff and patient care; comparing English and Welsh arrangements with previous periods. Method. Observational mixed methods including a narrative literature review; questionnaire census; semi-structured interviews; physiotherapy narrative history; and a normative evaluation of physiotherapy management structures. Results. NHS reforms had impacted on the structure of physiotherapy management and organisation. Of the eight management structures described in Øvretveit’s (1992) schema: Three were not observed; two were observed but needed modification; three were observed and empirically applicable with small modifications; social enterprises had evolved with management structures similar to those in the NHS. The main changes to physiotherapy managers’ roles between1989-2014 were substantial reorganisations affecting the employing organisation and role of the managers with a reduction in Community Trusts and the introduction of competing providers into English NHS physiotherapy. Clinical autonomy had been extended with advanced practice roles in some areas. The role of the professional body and TU (the CSP) was generally well-regarded by managers. The differences between England and Wales related more to management structures than national policy differences. Conclusions. Most physiotherapists were managed within cross-AHP structures. Devolved structures were increasingly emerging but physiotherapy managers preferred professionally-led structures. Physiotherapy managers ranked the AHP Directorate the highest and the Fragmented structure the lowest. The AHP professions will need to consider merging to conserve their power as professions and to maximise their combined contribution to patient care and organise to meet fiscal challenges in both countries.Cardiff and University health Boar

Capturing the temporal sequence of interaction in young siblings

We explored whether young children exhibit subtypes of behavioral sequences during sibling interaction. Ten-minute, free-play observations of over 300 sibling dyads were coded for positivity, negativity and disengagement. The data were analyzed using growth mixture modeling (GMM). Younger (18-month-old) children’s temporal behavioral sequences showed a harmonious (53%) and a casual (47%) class. Older (approximately four-year-old) children’s behavior was more differentiated revealing a harmonious (25%), a deteriorating (31%), a recovery (22%) and a casual (22%) class. A more positive maternal affective climate was associated with more positive patterns. Siblings’ sequential behavioral patterns tended to be complementary rather than reciprocal in nature. The study illustrates a novel use of GMM and makes a theoretical contribution by showing that young children exhibit distinct types of temporal behavioral sequences that are related to parenting processes