An Evaluation of the United Kingdom Coaching Certification in Scotland

The aim of this thesis was to undertake an evaluation of the United Kingdom Coaching Certification (UKCC) and discuss the implications for current and future designs of the programme. This study extends and expands the research that has previously evaluated coach education programmes by examining the participants’ perceptions of the programme and its impact on their competency. The study draws on Lyle’s (2010) monitoring and evaluation model and examines the relevance, fidelity and effectiveness of the UKCC. The broad research approach was a pre-post methodology utilising multiple methods of data collection and analysis. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed in the form of focus groups, reflective journals and surveys. Four UKCC sports in Scotland were involved in the study and these were rugby, squash, swimming and triathlon. Data was collected at 10 UKCC courses (levels 1-3) and a total of 136 participants were sampled. The study’s main conclusions regarding the relevance, fidelity and effectiveness of the UKCC were as follows. Relevance: At level one the UKCC appeared to play a big part in the participants’ initial development as a coach whereas at level two and three the UKCC played a smaller role in the participants’ development and instead these participants placed importance on their informal learning. The UKCC fulfilled the participants’ expectations however they believed it needed to provide more technical and sport science knowledge, practical coaching experience, and opportunities to learn from others. Fidelity: The importance of informal learning was emphasised by the participants. The participants believed that informal methods, such as learning from others and learning from practical experience, were effective ways to learn. A negative of the UKCC was that it was a rushed learning environment. Effectiveness: The UKCC had a positive impact on the participants’ perceptions of competency as post course competency was significantly higher than pre-course competency. Despite this significant impact, participants still only rated themselves as moderately competent at the end of the course and indicated they needed more technical knowledge and practical experience. Based on these findings, a number of implications were provided for the UKCC. Implications were provided in three areas: the structure of the UKCC, the delivery of the UKCC, and the role of the UKCC within overall coach development

The Issues for Young People Post 16 with Additional Needs in College - A Mixed Methods Study

The new Code of Practice (DfE, 2014) requires Educational Psychologists (EPs) to work with young people up to the age of 25. Therefore they would need to work in colleges with young people that have additional needs. This research asks what issues do young people (YP) with additional needs face in college and what support do they need? A systematic literature review showed that very little research has been done in this area, and most of it has come from the US. From the UK, there was some research around transition from school to college and also transition into adulthood, particularly in terms of medical and health services. Mixed methods exploratory research was conducted starting with an audit of post 16 YP. Further research was then conducted within a local authority (LA) college, firstly with seventeen adults working and living with YP with additional needs and then with eight YP. Data collection involved questionnaires to parents and staff members asking them about the support they would like from EPs and any issues they believed YP faced in college. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with young people aged 16 to 25 asking them about the issues they experience in college, the support they are given and the support they would like. The findings presented three main issues in college. These were personal issues, social issues and issues with the college itself. The YP also identified two other issues, future transition and changes in the past and future. They identified a number of support networks already in place, such as families, tutors, friends and themselves. Adults identified support they could be given by EPs such as training and individual work with young people. iv From these findings, support that college staff and EPs could provide was identified. This included training for staff, individual work with students, helping link with families, linking schools and colleges, enabling peer networks of support and educating young people and colleges about the role of the EP

The Problem of Integrating Ethics into IS Practice

In this paper we discuss a number of implications which follow from the way that the information systems discipline has developed, largely separately, from computer ethics. These include the tendency of quantitative IS studies on ethics to focus on ethical decision making as the most significant activity in the business of behaving morally meaning that other aspects of moral behaviour are overlooked. A second, significant, implication is the difficulty of integrating ethical practice into IS development. This is manifest initially in terms of IS education but later in relation to the development, and use, of IS in the workplace. Focusing on information systems development, we discuss practice, focusing on ethics and IS practice especially rationalistic approach to decision making, the support that conventional development methodologies offer the moral agent followed by learning to practice or the business of integrating ethics into IS education and how to turn moral decision making into teachable ethical constructs. We conclude by offering some suggestions for future directions

Free Personal Care for Older People in Scotland: Issues and Implications

Drawing on recent quantitative and qualitative research, we consider lessons of the Scottish policy of free personal care for older people. The policy is embedded in political debates about devolution and interacts with various changing policies on care and support for older people. Evaluation is complicated by these interactions and by gaps in relevant data, especially concerning costs. Operationally, policy implementation has presented varying difficulties for local authorities. For clients and informal carers it remains popular, but is part of a service-led model of provision which does not reflect their own views of their care and support needs

Warning! : packaging can damage your health

Previous work by the authors has shown that access to packaging in hospitals can influence the nutritional status of patients. This work indicated that five particular pack forms performed badly and that the issue surrounding poor access was both linked to strength and dexterity. The study presented here looks at initial work undertaken to examine the dexterity needed to access these problematic packaging and examine methods for measuring users dexterity. To that end a Purdue Pegboard, questionnaires, HSV and task analysis were used. This work showed that there was a direct link between the reduction in dexterity and the time taken to open a pack. Further, packs that required multiple stages and complex actions were more likely to be ranked as problematic and cause problems for patients and staff. Significantly, even users with poor dexterity were however, able to open the packs. This is consistent with work undertaken by Sangar (2011) that showed users who had very poor dexterity and who had their medication decanted could with some effort open their medication. This leads to the conclusion that inability to open the packs is a function of the dexterity, time taken and motivation. In a hospital setting the 'wellness' and posture of the patient may affect dexterity and hence increase time. The degree of 'wellness' is also likely to contribute to reduced motivation

Promoting excellence, governance and innovation in prescribing education.

The Scottish Prescribing Programmes Leads Network (SPPLN) was first developed several years ago to support the strategic direction of Scottish higher education institutions (HEIs) relating to health professionals undertaking prescribing education programmes. The network promotes a process that is high-quality and consistent across learning, teaching and assessment curriculum in post-registration nursing, midwifery and allied health (NMAHP) prescribing programmes. This preserves Scottish HEI teams' governance and ensures that the national approach and provision is of a One Scotland voice. This is pertinent in the evolving and challenging context of higher education, as staff obtain programme leader roles and require support to develop and progress programmes in line with requirements of professional, statutory and regulatory bodies (PSRB); these prescribing programmes have smaller intakes than preregistration student numbers but they have high stakes in terms of patient safety responsibilities

Counting the Cost of Choice and Control: Evidence for the costs of self-directed support in Scotland

1. Self-directed support (SDS) allows people needing social care services toexercise greater choice and control over how they receive services and support.2. The Scottish Government aims to introduce legislation in 2012 (the Social Care(Self Directed Support) (Scotland) Bill) which will consolidate existing (sometimescomplex) provision for SDS. It is intended to bring SDS into the mainstream ofsocial care and increase the numbers of people directing their own support.3. Under the forthcoming bill, Local Authorities will be placed under a duty to offerservice users a variety of options which include: - Direct Payments (DPs) - the making of a payment directly to serviceusers to arrange their own support; - Directing the available resource - where the user selects the support that they wish and the Local Authority arranges matters on theirbehalf. In practice this would encompass options such as IndividualService Funds (ISFs) where the Local Authority contracts with providers on behalf of the service user; - Local Authority 'arranged' support where the authority arranges support on the user's behalf to meet their needs; and - A mix of the above options for distinct aspects of the user's support.4. This study was commissioned to provide inform the SDS strategy and to provideevidence for the forthcoming SDS bill on the current and future costs of SDS inScotland in order to understand the resource implications of making SDSmainstream and increasing the numbers of people directing their own support