Implementing personal health budgets in England: A user-led approach to substance misuse

Personal health budgets (PHBs) in England have been viewed as a vehicle for developing a personalised patient-based strategy within the substance misuse care pathway. In 2009, the Department of Health announced a 3-year pilot programme of PHBs to explore opportunities offered by this new initiative across a number of long-term health conditions, and commissioned an independent evaluation to run alongside as well as a separate study involving two pilot sites that were implementing PHBs within the substance misuse service. The study included a quantitative and qualitative strand. The qualitative strand involved 20 semi-structured interviews among organisational representatives at two time points (10 at each time point) between 2011 and 2012 which are the focus for this current paper. Overall, organisational representatives believed that PHBs had a positive impact on budget-holders with a drug and/or alcohol misuse problem, their families and the health and social care system. However, a number of concerns were discussed, many of which seemed to stem from the initial change management process during the early implementation stage of the pilot programme. This study provides guidance on how to implement and offer PHBs within the substance misuse care pathway: individuals potentially would benefit from receiving their PHB post-detox rather than at a crisis point; PHBs have the potential to improve the link to after-care services, and direct payments can provide greater choice and control, but sufficient protocols are required

Inclusive growth in English cities: mainstreamed or sidelined?

<p>The concept of inclusive growth is increasingly presented as offering prospects for more equitable social outcomes. However, inclusive growth is subject to a variety of interpretations and lacks definitional clarity. In England, via devolution, cities are taking on new powers for policy domains that can influence inclusive growth outcomes. This opens up opportunities for innovation to address central issues of low pay and poverty. This paper examines the extent to which inclusive growth concerns form a central or peripheral aspect in this new devolution through the content analysis of devolution agreements. It concludes that inclusive growth concerns appear to be largely sidelined.</p

The normalisation of drug supply: The social<i>supply</i>of drugs as the “other side” of the history of normalisation

Aims: Describes how the relative normalisation of recreational drug use in the UK has been productive of, and fused with, the relatively normalised and non-commercial social supply of recreational drugs. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with 60 social suppliers of recreational drugs in two studies (involving a student population n = 30 and general population sample n = 30). Respondents were recruited via purposive snowball sampling and local advertising. Findings: Both samples provided strong evidence of the normalised supply of recreational drugs in micro-sites of friendship and close social networks. Many social suppliers described “drift” into social supply and normalised use was suggested to be productive of supply relationships that both suppliers and consumers regard as something less than “real” dealing in order to reinforce their preconceptions of themselves as relatively non-deviant. Some evidence for a broader acceptance of social supply is also presented. Conclusions: The fairly recent context of relative normalisation of recreational drug use has coalesced with the social supply of recreational drugs in micro-sites of use and exchange whereby a range of “social” supply acts (sometimes even involving large amounts of drugs/money) have become accepted as something closer to gift-giving or friendship exchange dynamics within social networks rather than dealing proper. To some degree, there is increasing sensitivity to this within the criminal justice system

Linking industry with education A report on the research carried out by the RSA on the relevance of student placements in industry today

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:99/34381 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Opening doors An accreditation guide for the voluntary sector

Produced by PROJECT2001 in partnership with the National Association of Councils for Voluntary ServicesAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/30508 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Leading the continuously creative enterprise

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/42087 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

Business partnerships Beyond the rhetoric; manufacturing, wealth creation and the economy

Report on the RSA's seminar held in London in May 1997 to discuss business partnershipsSIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/42077 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

To boldly go The voluntary sector and voluntary action in the new world of work

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:99/14524 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Re-assessing the context of manufacturing success A report of a study on the future of manufacturing

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:m00/42089 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo