Evaluation study of the IHM project on the evaluation of the accreditation of health and social care managers: a pilot.

This evaluation report was commissioned by the Institute of Healthcare Management (IHM) in March 2009 and is based on the accredited manager pilot project that started in May 2009. The IHM pilot project was funded by the Department of Health (Estates). The pilot project aimed to offer managers for the health and social care sectors the opportunity to gain accredited manager status based upon their previous performance and achievements towards nine core manager behaviours1. The pilot project was intended to develop and implement materials that would support the managers in completion of a portfolio of achievement to demonstrate competence in the behaviours (Sugden, 2009). The evaluation study of the pilot project has aimed to include the experiences of the main stakeholders, namely; the candidates (Healthcare and Social), the pilot project team, a representative from the Department of Health (Estates), representing the commissioning body for the project, and the assessors of the candidate portfolios and viva voce examinations. The candidates were drawn mainly from the field of estates and facilities managers within the healthcare sector, with two participants for the social care sector. The project was prompted by the recognition that many managers in the health and social care sector may encounter difficulties in finding the time to attend conventionally delivered training and development programmes. There was also recognition of the need for experienced managers to be able to demonstrate their competence towards good practice behaviours rather than have to undertake taught delivery

Concurrent Carbon Capture and Biocementation through the Carbonic Anhydrase (CA) activity of microorganisms ‑ a review and outlook

Biocementation, i.e., the production of biomimetic cement through the metabolic activity of microorganisms, offers exciting new prospects for various civil and environmental engineering applications. This paper presents a systematic literature review on a biocementation pathway, which uses the carbonic anhydrase (CA) activity of microorganisms that sequester CO2 to produce biocement. The aim is the future development of this technique for civil and (geo-)environmental engineering applications towards CO2-neutral or negative processes. After screening 248 potentially relevant peer-reviewed journal papers published between 2002 and 2023, 38 publications studying CA-biocementation were considered in the review. Some of these studies used pure CA enzyme rather than bacteria-produced CA. Of these studies, 7 used biocementation for self-healing concrete, 6 for CO2 sequestration, 10 for geotechnical applications, and 15 for (geo-)environmental applications. A total of 34 bacterial strains were studied, and optimal conditions for their growth and enzymatic activity were identified. The review concluded that the topic is little researched; more studies are required both in the laboratory and field (particularly long-term field experiments, which are totally lacking). No studies on the numerical modelling of CA-biocementation and the required kinetic parameters were found. The paper thus consulted the more widely researched field of CO2 sequestration using the CA-pathway, to identify other microorganisms recommended for further research and reaction kinetic parameters for numerical modelling. Finally, challenges to be addressed and future research needs were discussed

Power, participation and partnership: methodological reflection on researching professional doctorate candidates' experiences of researching in the workplace

This study aimed to explore the candidate experience in order to understand more deeply aspects of the development in work based research. Delphi technique was chosen as an approach in order to capture a range of experience and data, to inform how we may best support candidates on practice based doctorates. Many such programmes include a stakeholder learning agreement between the candidate, the university and the employer organisation with the common aim to bring about transformational and sustainable change. Our research to date indicates a disparity within the agreement in the level of stakeholder participation. Where the organisation stakeholder is not fully engaged and involved in supporting the research, there is a potential threat to the effectiveness of any change outcome. Current practice based doctoral research participants were invited to relate to a range of temporal themes in their research project cycle, for example: setting up the project; implementing the project; changes/ contingency planning within the project; project completion and post completion. Of particular interest in relation to the above was the availability of resources and how they were used within the project life cycle. In this respect, resources are deemed to include, human, material, time, personal and organisational culture influence. The allocation, manipulation and distribution of such resources can be understood in terms of power relationships. The paper presents our experience and reflections from two iterative Delphi cycles and proposes a final stage of greater integration with existing academic resources within the professional doctorate programme. The study has enabled the researchers to gain a new understanding of how power may operate in a work based research project through the experience of undertaking the Delphi approach. Furthermore, by thinking about affordances of the project life cycle, it may help us to better understand needs and strategy for the curriculum in order to more effectively support candidates through their transformational learning experience. The consequences of such change might have implications for participation and power distribution within the management and leadership of doctoral work base research projects

Responding to the risk of reducing resource: a study of the evolution of English environmental health services

Environmental Health services in the UK have been subject to significant resource reduction over the last 3 years. It is suggested that services risk becoming unsustainable unless efficient and effective ways of working are employed. With this in mind this paper presents the findings of research into the experience of practitioners who are developing and delivering evolving environmental health services in English local authorities in the context of deep cutting budget reductions. The research aims to explore the experience of change and identify lessons learnt in the development and execution of new models of environmental health service delivery to mitigate against risks of unsustainable or undeliverable services. Participants were chosen from a range of local authority officers, managers, commissioners and leading members of the professional body who have been closely involved in the planning and delivery stages of environmental health service changes. Interviews were carried out with the participants to capture their experience of change and the impact on service delivery. A range of service delivery models have been examined including outsourcing, shared services, regional delivery models and discussion of mutual arrangements and at various stages of development from planning through to full transformation. Field work was undertaken between June 2014 and November 2015. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts has identified six emergent themes of the experience of change: managing changes effectively; understanding the reasons for change; understanding the nature of environmental health; meaningful consultation; viability of the proposal; planning and timeliness. Environmental health services undergoing transformation may benefit from taking into account the lessons learnt by organisations that have previously undergone significant change in their response to the risk of a reducing resource. The emergent themes are being developed to provide a framework of lessons learnt for environmental health services to consider when making changes to their model of service delivery

Responding to the risk of reducing resources: development of a framework for future change programmes in environmental health services

Environmental Health services in the UK have been subject to significant resource reduction over the last 5 years. It is suggested that services risk becoming unsustainable unless efficient and effective ways of working are employed. With this in mind this paper presents the findings of research into the experience of practitioners who are developing and delivering evolving Environmental Health services in English local authorities in the context of deep cutting budget reductions. The research explores the experience of change and identifies lessons learnt in the development and execution of new models of Environmental Health service delivery to mitigate against risks of unsustainable or undeliverable services. Interviews were carried out with the participants to capture their experience of change and the impact on service delivery. A range of service delivery models have been examined including outsourcing, shared services, regional delivery models and discussion of mutual arrangements and at various stages of development from planning through to full transformation. Field work was undertaken between 2014 and 2016. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts has identified six emergent themes of the experience of change: managing changes effectively; understanding the reasons for change; understanding the nature of Environmental Health; meaningful consultation; viability of the proposal; planning and timeliness. Environmental Health services undergoing transformation may benefit from taking into account the lessons learnt by organisations that have previously undergone significant change in their response to the risk of a reducing resource. Keywords: Environmental Health; austerity; regulation; emerging risk; outsourcing; managing change