Historical abuse in residential child care in Scotland 1950 -1995

This is a systemic review: it's about systems - the systems of laws, rules and regulations (the regulatory framework) that governed residential schools and children's homes. It's about how these schools and homes complied with the regulatory framework, and about the systems for monitoring and inspecting the schools and homes

Grading the graded care profile

A presentation on grading the graded care profil

Charting the 21st century rise of for-profit residential child care

This article explores the increasing prevalence of for-profit residential care, with a particular focus on Great Britain, while also drawing on the international evidence from the global north. Comprising a critical review of the published evidence (both academic and grey literature), the article seeks to examine what might explain the rising prevalence and the associated impacts of the increase in for-profit provision. The findings indicate that the rise of for profit-companies among residential child care providers appears to have occurred by default, rather than explicit policy design. Our analysis also highlights gaps in the knowledge base about the quality of care, and whether better quality is associated with the type of provider. Furthermore, the relationships between provider, quality, cost and outcomes are unclear. There are inconsistencies in the evidence base with different conclusions being reached. However, available evidence suggests the increased prevalence of for-profit residential child care providers has had an overall negative, rather than positive, effect. The best case in favor of the continued use of for-profit residential care is currently a non-moral pragmatic one: that in countries with medium and high prevalence of the use of residential child care it would be hard to sustain care systems if for-profit providers were to suddenly withdraw, or be withdrawn

‘When you're sitting in the room with two people one of whom… has bashed the hell out of the other’:Possibilities and challenges in the use of FGCs and restorative approaches following domestic violence

Domestic violence continues to be a primary reason for referrals to state child welfare services in advanced industrialised countries. There is growing concern in many state child welfare services to develop responses to it that are both more effective and more humane. The use of restorative approaches, in particular Family Group Conferences (FGCs), has been suggested as one such response. This article draws from data gathered from an evaluation of a UK Government funded “Innovation Project” part of which extended the use of FGCs in an urban local authority area which was already making extensive use of them. This paper presents and explores a typology of FGCs used in situations of domestic violence: pragmatic, resolution-focussed and restorative FGCs, developed from the evaluation data and augmented by relevant literature. The study data revealed pragmatic FGCs to be the most used, restorative the least. It is suggested that each type of FGC brings potential benefits but only restorative FGCs offer the possibility of full restoration in the traditionally understood sense. It is argued that the present mother-centric, risk-adverse, child protection systems which currently operate in many countries provide a powerful resistor to the greater implementation of this restorative way of working.</p

Embedding learning as a practice of value:Learning from the experiences of early career social workers in Scotland

Across the Global North, professional learning for social workers has become a matter of concern. Efforts to ‘fix’ the problem have focused narrowly on formal methods of learning and show limited connect with recent research. In this article we report on findings from a mixed-method longitudinal cohort study, which examined early career social workers experiences of learning over the first five years of professional practice. Drawing on a repeat-measure annual online survey, our findings provide an inside-view of how early career social workers in Scotland experience work-based learning over time and how professional learning for social workers can be enhanced. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis and reflexive thematic analysis respectively and integrated using a convergence coding matrix to identify meta-themes. Our findings support an integrative, developmental and ecological approach to professional learning, embedded in a value-led understanding of social work as practice. We invite the profession to embrace and embed learning as a ‘practice of value’, both as an antidote to managerial approaches to practice and learning and as a way of valuing the extraordinary work that social workers do

Stability and transport of parallel velocity shear driven mode with negative magnetic shear

The linear and quasilinear behavior of the drift-like perturbation with a parallel velocity shear is studied in a sheared slab geometry. Full analytic studies show that when the magnetic shear has the same sign as the second derivative of the parallel velocity with respect to the radial coordinate, the linear mode may become unstable and turbulent momentum transport increases. On the other hand, when the magnetic shear has opposite sign to the second derivative of the parallel velocity, the linear mode is completely stabilized and turbulent momentum transport reduces

Niche partitioning of bacterial communities in biological crusts and soils under grasses, shrubs and trees in the Kalahari

The Kalahari of southern Africa is characterised by sparse vegetation interspersed with microbe-dominated biological soil crusts (BSC) which deliver a range of ecosystem services including soil stabilisation and carbon fixation. We characterised the bacterial communities of BSCs (0–1 cm depth) and the subsurface soil (1–2 cm depth) in an area typical of lightly grazed Kalahari rangelands, composed of grasses, shrubs, and trees. Our data add substantially to the limited amount of existing knowledge concerning BSC microbial community structure, by providing the first bacterial community analyses of both BSCs and subsurface soils of the Kalahari region based on a high throughput 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing approach. BSC bacterial communities were distinct with respect to vegetation type and soil depth, and varied in relation to soil carbon, nitrogen, and surface temperature. Cyanobacteria were predominant in the grass interspaces at the soil surface (0–1 cm) but rare in subsurface soils (1–2 cm depth) and under the shrubs and trees. Bacteroidetes were significantly more abundant in surface soils of all areas even in the absence of a consolidated crust, whilst subsurface soils yielded more sequences affiliated to Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, Chloroflexi, and Firmicutes. The common detection of vertical stratification, even in disturbed sites, suggests a strong potential for BSC recovery after physical disruption, however severe depletion of Cyanobacteria near trees and shrubs may limit the potential for natural BSC regeneration in heavily shrub-encroached areas