Interactions with Queensland show children: enhancing knowledge of educational contexts

This paper analyses one element of Shulman's (1987) categories of the teacher knowledge base - knowledge of educational contexts - in relation to the education of Queensland travelling show children. This knowledge includes three sets of interactions: the children's relationships on and off the show circuits, the children's interactions with their teachers, and the teachers' interactions with the children's parents and home tutors. The concepts of 'border crossing' (Giroux, 1990) and 'boundary maintenance' (Barth, 1969) underscore the importance of show children and their teachers being able to cross the boundaries between show life and formal schooling

Here today, gone next week: some lessons for the delivery of itinerant primary schooling of a distance education program designed for the children of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia

This paper presents initial results of research on a distance education program developed in 1989 for the children of the Showmen's Guild of Australasia. The program accommodates the mobility of children and their parents who are rarely in any town for more than a week during the show circuit. The children complete correspondence lessons in various subjects and are assisted by their parents or home tutors. Several times a year, distance education teachers join the children during the show circuit and work intensively with them for several weeks. Unlike many other groups involved in the distance education program, the Showmen's Guild is well organized. It has a very supportive parent base and has campaigned over the years to establish favorable political support for a program to meet the special needs of its children. A literature review reveals that high mobility can place students at an educational disadvantage while placing an enormous burden on those providing the education for the mobile group. Interviews conducted with parents, children, home tutors, and teachers revealed close and trusting relationships between parents and distance education teachers and between students and distance education teachers. In addition, there is typically an intimate relationship between the mother and her children as it is the mother who takes on the responsibility for organizing and managing her children's education during a hectic working day. This paper concludes that the uniqueness of each mobile group must be taken into account when implementing an educational program, and delivery must respond to the socioeconomic and cultural attributes of each group. (LP

Who would most benefit from improved integrated care? : Implementing an analytical strategy in South Somerset

Conclusions: The linked dataset makes it possible to understand existing patterns of health and social care utilisation and to analyse variation in annual costs, for the whole population and for sub-groups, in total and by setting. This has made it possible to identify who would most benefit from improved integrated care and to calculate capitated budgets to support financial integration. Aims: The Symphony Project is designed to identify which groups of the South Somerset population in England would most benefit from greater integration across primary, community, acute and social care settings. Methods: We analysed linked health and social care data for the entire South Somerset population for the financial year 2012/2013. The data captured acute, primary, community, mental health and social care utilisation and costs; demographic characteristics; and indicators of morbidity for each individual. We employed generalized linear models to analyse variation in annual health and social care costs for all 114,874 members of the South Somerset population and for 1458 individuals with three or more selected chronic conditions. Results: We found that multi-morbidity, not age, was the key driver of health and social care costs. Moreover, the number of chronic conditions is as useful as information about specific conditions at predicting costs. We are able to explain 7% of the variation in total annual costs for population as a whole, and 14% of the variation for those with three or more conditions. We are best able to explain primary care costs, but explanatory power is poor for mental health and social care costs

Generic modelleing of faecal indicator organism concentrations in the UK

To meet European Water Framework Directive requirements, data are needed on faecal indicator organism (FIO) concentrations in rivers to enable the more heavily polluted to be targeted for remedial action. Due to the paucity of FIO data for the UK, especially under high-flow hydrograph event conditions, there is an urgent need by the policy community for generic models that can accurately predict FIO concentrations, thus informing integrated catchment management programmes. This paper reports the development of regression models to predict base- and high-flow faecal coliform (FC) and enterococci (EN) concentrations for 153 monitoring points across 14 UK catchments, using land cover, population (human and livestock density) and other variables that may affect FIO source strength, transport and die-off. Statistically significant models were developed for both FC and EN, with greater explained variance achieved in the high-flow models. Both land cover and, in particular, population variables are significant predictors of FIO concentrations, with r2 maxima for EN of 0.571 and 0.624, respectively. It is argued that the resulting models can be applied, with confidence, to other UK catchments, both to predict FIO concentrations in unmonitored watercourses and evaluate the likely impact of different land use/stocking level and human population change scenarios

The importance of multimorbidity in explaining utilisation and costs across health and social care settings : evidence from South Somerset’s Symphony Project

Since the inception of the NHS, an ever-present challenge has been to improve integration of care within the health care system and with social care. Many people have complex and ongoing care needs and require support from multiple agencies and various professionals. But care is often fragmented and uncoordinated, with no one agency taking overall responsibility, so it is often left to individuals and their families to negotiate the system as best they can. South Somerset’s Symphony is designed to establish greater collaboration between primary, community, acute and social care, particularly for people with complex conditions

Predicting microbial pollution concentrations in UK rivers in response to land use change

The Water Framework Directive has caused a paradigm shift towards the integrated management of recreational water quality through the development of drainage basin-wide programmes of measures. This has increased the need for a cost-effective diagnostic tool capable of accurately predicting riverine faecal indicator organism (FIO) concentrations. This paper outlines the application of models developed to fulfil this need, which represent the first transferrable generic FIO models to be developed for the UK to incorporate direct measures of key FIO sources (namely human and livestock population data) as predictor variables. We apply a recently developed transfer methodology, which enables the quantification of geometric mean presumptive faecal coliforms and presumptive intestinal enterococci concentrations for base- and high-flow during the summer bathing season in unmonitored UK watercourses, to predict FIO concentrations in the Humber river basin district. Because the FIO models incorporate explanatory variables which allow the effects of policy measures which influence livestock stocking rates to be assessed, we carry out empirical analysis of the differential effects of seven land use management and policy instruments (fiscal constraint, production constraint, cost intervention, area intervention, demand-side constraint, input constraint, and micro-level land use management) all of which can be used to reduce riverine FIO concentrations. This research provides insights into FIO source apportionment, explores a selection of pollution remediation strategies and the spatial differentiation of land use policies which could be implemented to deliver river quality improvements. All of the policy tools we model reduce FIO concentrations in rivers but our research suggests that the installation of streamside fencing in intensive milk producing areas may be the single most effective land management strategy to reduce riverine microbial pollution