Young disabled people moving into adulthood in Scotland

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently published a Foundations (Morris, 2002) reviewing research, policy and practice relating to young disabled people moving into adulthood in England. This Foundations reviews the situation in Scotland which, increasingly, has its own distinct legal and policy framework. A few, but not many, Scottish studies have explored young disabled people's transition to adulthood: not surprisingly, these indicate that young people's aspirations and experiences are very similar to those of their peers south of the border. A number of official documents have identified difficulties around the move into adulthood for young disabled people and a major policy initiative relating to transition, the implementation of the Beattie report Implementing inclusiveness - realising potential, is now under way

Career pathways in Scottish social services : a pilot study

The main aim of this study, commissioned by the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), was to explore social workers' career pathways, in order to inform future workforce planning. The objectives were first, to obtain some preliminary data on the factors influencing social workers' career moves, secondly, to increase understanding of workforce mobility and, thirdly, to test out ways of gathering longitudinal data to inform future development of modelling and skills foresight

An in-depth examination of the implementation of the Disability Equality Duty - Executive Summary. A research report for the Office for Disability Issues

In 2007 the Office for Disability Issues commissioned this seven-month study to examine the implementation of the Disability Equality Duty (DED) in England. The research was conducted by teams from the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde. The full report is available at www.officefordisability.gov.u

Young disabled people leaving care

Speech presented at the Transitions Seminar: Looking at the implementation of the SCCYP report 'Sweet 16?'; focusing on related research including disability issues

Injection of clarity needed?

The legal status of children who stay in hospital for three months or longer gives rise to considerable confusion among managers in social services and social work departments. And the number of young people affected is significant. NHS statistics for the year ending 31 March 2000 suggest that in England around 2,800 children aged 0-19 on admission were discharged after spending more than two months in hospital, as were more than 500 children in Scotland. (A small number of these would have been discharged as adults.) A two-year study, commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation1 and carried out by the universities of Stirling, Durham, Newcastle and York, investigated the numbers, characteristics and circumstances of children and young people with complex needs who spend long periods in health care settings. Interviews were conducted in England and Scotland with 11 social services or health managers responsible for these children. The findings show a worrying degree of uncertainty about the position of young people who find themselves in a hospital or other health care setting for at least three months. One social services manager believed such children become looked after under the terms of the Children Act 1989. Another said children are not formally looked after but nevertheless receive the same services and safeguards as those who are. One Scottish social work manager did not know whether children going into health care settings for short-term (respite) care are looked after or not. And discussion with the research team's advisory group indicated that the confusion is not confined to our fieldwork areas

Supporting disabled parents' involvement in their children's education. Good practice guidance for schools

In this guidance you will find the voices of a range of disabled parents describing how good practice in schools has helped them to be involved in their children's education. The guidance is based on the findings of a research project. It is intended for people working in schools, especially heads and teachers seeking to improve parental participation and inclusion. Education policy makers and Inspectorates may find it helpful for informing their reviews of policy and practice. It may also be of interest to disabled parents and the disability voluntary sector. The document contains information about current UK policies on parental involvement and describes the research project which investigated the perceptions of disabled parents. It looks at five different aspects of parental involvement, giving examples of good practice and highlighting suggestions as these emerged from the research project. Key points are summarised in the conclusion, while the appendices include useful resources and contacts

Don’t get involved: an examination of how public sector organisations in England are involving disabled people in the Disability Equality Duty

The Disability Equality Duty (DED) came into force in December 2006. It stipulated that all public sector organisations were to develop policies to promote the equality of disabled people as staff members, consumers or visitors. Its emergence comes as part of a network of social policies developed over the last 20 years to promote disability rights and citizenship in the UK. However unlike previous legislation, the DED set in place the need for organisations to be pro-active in their policies and work with disabled people to move towards change in public sector cultures and working practices. This article reports on this early stage of implementation in England. Findings show that whilst some progress has been made in securing change, practice varied greatly. Therefore if a fundamental change in the culture of work and service provision is to be secured, this key requirement will need to be given a higher priority by organisations

An in-depth examination of the implementation of the Disability Equality Duty in England

This seven-month study examined the implementation of the Disability Equality Duty (DED) in England. The DED, introduced through the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, applies to public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland

Species measurements in a hypersonic, hydrogen-air, combustion wake

A continuously sampling, time-of-flight mass spectrometer has been used to measure relative species concentrations in a two-dimensional, hydrogen-air combustion wake at mainstream Mach numbers exceeding 5. The experiments, which were conducted in a free piston shock tunnel, yielded distributions of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, water and nitric oxide at stagnation enthalpies ranging from 5.6 MJ kg(exp -1) to 1.2 MJ kg(exp -1) and at a distance of approximately 100 times the thickness of the initial hydrogen jet. The amount of hydrogen that was mixed in stoichiometric proportions was approximately independent of the stagnation enthalpy, in spite of the fact that the proportion of hydrogen in the wake increased with stagnation enthalpy. Roughly 50 percent of the mixed hydrogen underwent combustion at the highest enthalpy. The proportion of hydrogen reacting to water could be approximately predicted using reaction rates based on mainstream temperatures

Mass spectrometer measurements of test gas composition in a shock tunnel

Shock tunnels afford a means of generating hypersonic flow at high stagnation enthalpies, but they have the disadvantage that thermochemical effects make the composition of the test flow different to that of ambient air. The composition can be predicted by numerical calculations of the nozzle flow expansion, using simplified thermochemical models and, in the absence of experimental measurements, it has been necessary to accept the results given by these calculations. This note reports measurements of test gas composition, at stagnation enthalpies up to 12.5 MJ.kg(exp -1), taken with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Limited results have been obtained in previous measurements. These were taken at higher stagnation enthalpies, and used a quadruple mass spectrometer. The time-of-flight method was preferred here because it enabled a number of complete mass spectra to be obtained in each test, and because it gives good mass resolution over the range of interest with air (up to 50 a.m.a.)