The expectations of families and patterns of participation in a Trailblazer Sure Start

The aim of this case study was to evaluate the local impact of an innovative Sure Start located in the east of England. The evaluation addressed the expectations of parents/carers for themselves and their children, and the extent to which Sure Start contributed to their achievement. A distinction was made between regular users and families that did not engage with services. Methods included individual interviews, events data linkage, goal attainment scales for parents and children and group review with stakeholders. The participants were 67 local families (160 individuals), all of whom had at least one child born between August 2001 and April 2004. An exploration of the utilisation of services over time and consumer engagement with services showed that the programme became more effective at engaging families. The role of community practitioners in the early promotion of Sure Start became apparent. Certain entry points, such as a home visit by a health visitor, were associated with more contacts, and more sustained pathways through the programme. Families that were actively engaged with Sure Start identified a range of benefits, especially greater social inclusion. The expectations of families who were 'active users' of Sure Start services matched the aims of Sure Start, and were being met

The role of interprofessional working in the Pathways to Work Condition Management Programmes

Condition Management Programmes (CMPs) were established in seven pilot sites in the UK as one strand of the Incapacity Benefit Pathways to Work programme, an initiative that exemplifies interprofessional working beyond traditional healthcare boundaries. During the evaluation of the pilots, 103 stakeholders in the CMPs took part in focus group discussions or telephone interviews. This article examines their perceptions in relation to interprofessional working and its impact on service provision and practice. Although teething problems were experienced in establishing the interprofessional working necessary for success, a shared commitment to the CMP ethos enabled these to be largely overcome. Outstanding issues raised by participants concerned the boundaries around the CMPs’ new ways of working, in particular around treatment versus self-management and around the combined health and work focus of the pilots. One of the recommendations from Dame Carol Black’s recent review of the health of Britain’s working population was for a drive to promote the understanding of the positive relationship between health and work. The experiences of the staff involved in the CMP pilots provides a useful insight into the benefits and difficulties experienced in relation to interprofessional working between different professional groups in this area

Student beliefs and attitudes about authorial identity in academic writing

Authorial identity is the sense a writer has of themselves as an author and the textual identity they construct in their writing. This article describes two studies exploring psychology students' authorial identity in academic writing. A qualitative focus group study with 19 students showed that authorial identity was largely unfamiliar to students, and highlighted the obstacles perceived by students to constructing authorial identities in university assignments. A questionnaire survey of 318 students explored the factor structure of an 18-item Student Authorship Questionnaire. Three factors described aspects of student authorial identity ('confidence in writing', 'understanding authorship' and 'knowledge to avoid plagiarism'), and three factors described approaches to writing ('top-down', 'bottom-up' and 'pragmatic'). Confidence in writing and knowledge to avoid plagiarism were significantly higher among year 2 than year 1 students. Both studies could inform interventions to reduce unintentional plagiarism by improving students' authorial identity

Evaluation of an intervention to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by improving their authorial identity.

Evaluation of an intervention to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by improving their authorial identityStudents with poorly developed authorial identity may be at risk of unintentional plagiarism. An instructional intervention designed specifically to improve authorial identity was delivered to 364 psychology students at three post-1992 universities in London, UK, and evaluated with before-and-after measures of beliefs and attitudes about academic authorship, using the Student Authorship Questionnaire. Changes in questionnaire scores showed that the intervention led to significantly increased confidence in writing, understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism, and top-down approaches to writing, and significantly decreased bottom-up and pragmatic approaches to writing. For understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism and pragmatic approaches to writing, significant intervention by year of study interaction effects showed that the greatest improvements were among year one undergraduates. Direct evaluative feedback showed that 86% of students believed the intervention helped them avoid plagiarism and 66% believed it helped them write better assignments. Post-intervention focus groups revealed changed student understandings about authorial identity and academic writing. The results show that interventions can help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by adopting more authorial roles in their academic writing. Further research could explore other influences on authorial identity, and examine the impact of authorial identity interventions on other outcome indicators.UK Higher Education Academ