Experiences of post-qualifying study in social work

This article is based on a research project to explore the experiences of past and current candidates for post-qualifying awards in social work in England. Also included in the study are the Leads of the post-qualifying consortia in England. The study used questionnaire survey and nominal group techniques to gather data, which were coded and categorised into themes. The main findings relate to the perceived purposes of post-qualifying study, motivations for undertaking post-qualifying study, the factors that sustain and hinder study, the advice that those who have or who are experiencing post-qualifying study would give to those about to start and future plans and hopes in this area.Post-qualifying study is generally valued, especially in relation to the opportunities it provides for professional development. The support of a mentor who has direct experience of the candidate's programme is highly prized, as are clear and consistent guidance from the programme and meaningful study time and workload relief from employers. There are also frustrations for some candidates who do not feel that their post-qualifying study has stretched them beyond qualifying standards or who experience the teaching as divorced from the realities of daily practice. The appetite for a wider choice of post-qualifying modules suggests that providers of post-qualifying study will need to collaborate within and across regions in order to achieve a critical mass of candidates for more specialist or focused learning. The study suggests a need for further research to understand the impact of post-qualifying study on candidates' social work practice.The article concludes with two checklists of questions, one for individual candidates and another for agencies and programmes. These questions arise from the findings in the research

A model for the anisotropic response of fibrous soft tissues using six discrete fibre bundles

The development of accurate constitutive models of fibrous soft-tissues is a challenging problem. Many consider the tissue to be a collection of fibres with a continuous distribution function representing their orientations. A novel discrete fibre model is presented consisting of six weighted fibre bundles. Each bundle is oriented such that they pass through opposing vertices of a regular icosahedron. A novel aspect of the model is the use of simple analytical distribution functions to simulate the undulated collagen fibres. This approach yields a closed form analytical expression for the strain energy function for the collagen fibre bundle that avoids the sometimes costly numerical integration of some statistical distribution functions. The elastin fibres are characterized by a neo-Hookean strain energy function. The model accurately simulates the biaxial stretching of rabbit-skin (error-of-fit 8.7%), the uniaxial stretching of pig-skin (error-of-fit 7.6%), equibiaxial loading of aortic valve cusp (error-of-fit 0.8%), and the simple shear of rat septal myocardium (error-of-fit 9.1%). The proposed model compares favourably with previously published soft-tissue models and alternative methods of representing undulated collagen fibres. The stiffness of collagen fibres predicted by the model ranges from 8.0 MPa to 0.93 GPa. The stiffness of elastin fibres ranges from 2.5 kPa to 154.4 kPa. The anisotropy of model resulting from the representation of the fibre field with a discrete number of fibres is also explored

Professional boundaries: research report

In 2008 the General Social Care Council (GSCC) published Raising standards: Social work conduct in England 2003-2008. This constituted the GSCC’s first report covering the work undertaken to uphold standards and protect people who use social care services. The GSCC’s analysis revealed that a considerable proportion of conduct cases, some 40%, involved allegations of 'inappropriate relations'. In the light of this finding, and the release by the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) of sexual boundaries guidance for healthcare workers at the beginning of this year (Halter et al, 2009), the GSCC committed itself to exploring the possibility of producing professional boundaries guidance for social workers. To begin this exploration, the GSCC commissioned a study in early 2009.This is the report of that study. There were two main purposes. First, to establish what professional boundaries1 guidance currently exists for social workers, or for sections of the workforce that includes social workers in the United Kingdom, and the content of any such guidance. Secondly, to identify and discuss a number of other examples of professional boundaries guidance to act as points of reference for the GSCC’s project. The aim was to identify and discuss examples relevant to the GSCC’s project

Galactic Halo Stars in Phase Space :A Hint of Satellite Accretion?

The present day chemical and dynamical properties of the Milky Way bear the imprint of the Galaxy's formation and evolutionary history. One of the most enduring and critical debates surrounding Galactic evolution is that regarding the competition between ``satellite accretion'' and ``monolithic collapse''; the apparent strong correlation between orbital eccentricity and metallicity of halo stars was originally used as supporting evidence for the latter. While modern-day unbiased samples no longer support the claims for a significant correlation, recent evidence has been presented by Chiba & Beers (2000,AJ,119,2843) for the existence of a minor population of high-eccentricity metal-deficient halo stars. It has been suggested that these stars represent the signature of a rapid (if minor) collapse phase in the Galaxy's history. Employing velocity- and integrals of motion-phase space projections of these stars, coupled with a series of N-body/Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamic (SPH) chemodynamical simulations, we suggest an alternative mechanism for creating such stars may be the recent accretion of a polar orbit dwarf galaxy.Comment: 12 pages(incl. figures). Accepted for publication in ApJ letters sectio

Water Quality, nutrients and the European Union’s Water Framework Directive in a lowland agricultural region: Suffolk, south-east England.

The water quality of 13 rivers in the lowland, agricultural county of Suffolk is investigated using routine monitoring data for the period 1981 to 2006 collected by the Environment Agency of England and Wales (EA), and its predecessors, with particular emphasis on phosphorus (as total reactive phosphorus, TRP) and total (dissolved and particulate) oxidised nitrogen (TOxN – predominantly nitrate NO3). Major ion and flow data are used to outline fundamental hydrochemical characteristics related to the groundwater provenance of base-flow waters. Relative load contributions from point and diffuse sources are approximated using Load Apportionment Modelling for both TRP and TOxN where concurrent flow and concentration data are available. Analyses indicate a mixture of point and diffuse sources of TRP, with the former being dominant during low flow periods, while for TOxN diffuse sources dominate. Out of 59 sites considered, 53 (90%) were found to have annual average TRP concentrations greater than 0.05 mg P l-1, and 36 (61%) had average concentrations over 0.120 mg P l-1, the upper thresholds for ‘High’ and ‘Good’ ecological status, respectively. Correspondingly, for TOxN, most of the rivers are already within 70% of the 11.3 mg N l-1 threshold, with two rivers (Wang and Ore) being consistently greater than this. It is suggested that the major challenge is to characterise and control point-source TRP inputs which, being predominant during the late spring and summer low-flow period, coincide with the peak of primary biological production, thus presenting the major challenge to achieving ‘good’ ecological status under the Water Framework Directive. Results show that considerable effort is still required to ensure appropriate management and develop tools for decision-support

Hard x-ray bursts observed in association with Rayleigh-Taylor instigated current disruption in a solar-relevant lab experiment

Measurements by multiple X-ray detectors show transient emission of a 1 μs pulse of non-mono-energetic ∼6 keV X-rays by a cold, dense MHD-driven plasma jet. Because the collision mean free path is much smaller than the jet dimensions, the acceleration of particles to high energy was not expected. The X-ray pulse occurs when the jet undergoes a kink instability which accelerates the jet laterally so that a fast-growing secondary Rayleigh-Taylor instability is triggered which then breaks the jet. The jet breaking is correlated in time with several other fast changing phenomena. It is proposed that despite the short collision mean free path, an inductive electric field associated with this breaking accelerates a certain subgroup of electrons to keV energies without any of these electrons undergoing collisions. It is further proposed that after being accelerated to high energy, these fast electrons are suddenly decelerated via collisions and radiate X-rays

The use of information in online healthcare provider choice

In order to evaluate and facilitate the provision of health information online, we must first understand how it is perceived by those who use it. Two important considerations in research on patients’ information use in online healthcare provider choice are the need for a conceptual framework for studying information types and methods for studying information use. Therefore, our first contribution lies in using Donabedian's structure-process-outcome model of healthcare quality to identify specific patterns of preference and information use in online healthcare provider choice, and differences in information use between two healthcare provider types. Our second contribution lies in identifying differences in results between data collection methods (importance rating/selection, concurrent self-report of online information use and retrospective information use) in relation to choice tasks. In a mixed-methods design, provider type (primary and secondary care) was systematically varied during participants’ use of the infomediary NHS Choices. Participants preferred process topics over structure topics, in contrast with the results of concurrent and retrospective self-report. We conclude that the differences in results between the types of data collection method reflect underlying differences in choice task. Future research should address the use of novel infomediary user-interfaces, and infomediaries in relation to the use of other information sources and (e-)health literacy

Failing Young People? Addressing the Supply-side Bias and Individualisation in Youth Employment Programming

International development actors increasingly focus on youth employment as a key development challenge. The recognition of high rates of unemployment, underemployment and job insecurity among young people around the world has led to a plethora of youth employment interventions, as well as often problematic discourses about youth ‘dividends’ and ‘bulges’, which instrumentalise young people and paint them as security threats. This report problematises and critiques some of the currently predominant models for getting young people into work. Examining the current state of play of donor policies, the report critiques the supply-side bias built into the majority of approaches, and aims to advance an understanding of the demand-side and structural constraints. If supply-side approaches are not matched by measures to address these constraints, it argues, interventions risk adversely incorporating young people into the economy. The report also develops a critique of the overall narrow economic and individualistic approach currently adopted, building on the concept of social navigation to understand how young people’s decisions and trajectories regarding work are shaped in reality. Young people are socially embedded: their agency and aspirations are shaped by social values, positions and expectations, as well as by their social relationships and immediate political contexts. Consequently, the report argues that policies need to be de-individualised, both conceptually and practically, to better reflect the real constraints, opportunities and forces that will shape young people’s engagement with work.UK Department for International Developmen