Residential child care : between home and family

Government statistics show that around 1,700 Scottish children and young people are in residential care at any one point in time. In addition several hundred others, including those with significant learning, physical and communication disabilities, receive regular periods of respite care in residential units. Residential child care has also been the focus of a considered amount of government policy-making. There have been changes in the average size and location of residential units, changes in staffing structures and repeated attempts to better train the workforce. Residential care has also been the focus of considerable regulation and scrutiny, much of it in response to scandals associated with abuse; both contemporary and ‘historic’. Scotland’s residential care services are strongly supported by central government policy and the government continues to play a major role, particularly for the most disadvantaged or ‘troubled and troublesome’ children. The sector is noteworthy in that Scotland does not have a separate juvenile justice ‘detention’ sector and it only has a tiny in-patient child and adolescent mental health service. Another notable characteristic of the Scottish children’s homes sector is that a significant number remain under local authority control. Meanwhile there has been a steady decline in voluntary sector provision and a steady growth, from a low base, of private provision. This is the first dedicated study of the Scottish children’s residential care sector. Throughout appropriate comparisons are made to parallel provision elsewhere in the UK and in Europe. The result is a text of great interest and utility to all those working, training to work or formulating practice and policy for the children’s residential care sector in Scotland

Guidance on minimising the use of physical restraint in Scotland’s residential child care establishments

This guidance has been developed by a working group drawn from a comprehensive group of stakeholders representing all sectors, including the regulatory and inspection agencies and advocacy services. The main task of the group was to, building on the guidance in Holding Safely, clarify procedures for staff, service users and regulators, and help staff to understand when it is safe and appropriate to restrain a child

Measuring adult mortality in developing countries : a review and assessment of methods

In most developing countries, data collection methods in the civil registration system and health services are woefully inadequate and methods for adjusting them apply only at the national level. The authors argue that the best way to collect data on adult mortality is probably to combine sample community based health reporting systems and singleround surveys in which respondents are asked about the survival of various relatives. The method's main limitation is that it provides rather broad, nonspecific measures of mortality - but these are adequate for allocation of resources, which is likely to be affected only by large differences.Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Demographics,Health Systems Development&Reform,Health Economics&Finance,Adolescent Health

The F-signature and strong F-regularity

We show that the F-signature of a local ring of characteristic p, defined by Huneke and Leuschke, is positive if and only if the ring is strongly F-regular.Comment: revised version, incorporating referee's comments. 6 page

Assessment of the Foster Care Pilot Project in Albania

CELCIS was contracted by UNICEF Albania in August, 2013, to carry out an evaluation of the pilot foster care project (FCPP). UNICEF had contributed to funding for a foster care project which operated in Tirana and Shkodra. The operational aspects of the projects were run by two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called Bethany Social Services (BSS) and Every Child Albania (EC). The consultants carried out a brief literature review and a desk review of relevant documentation. They also undertook a period of fieldwork in Albania, interviewing key stakeholders and carrying out observational visits

Computing aspects of problems in non-linear prediction and filtering

Imperial Users onl

The application of multi-objective robust design methods in ship design

When designing large complex vessels, the evaluation of a particular design can be both complicated and time consuming. Designers often resort to the use of concept design models enabling both a reduction in complexity and time for evaluation. Various optimisation methods are then typically used to explore the design space facilitating the selection of optimum or near optimum designs. It is now possible to incorporate considerations of seakeeping, stability and costs at the earliest stage in the ship design process. However, to ensure that reliable results are obtained, the models used are generally complex and computationally expensive. Methods have been developed which avoid the necessity to carry out an exhaustive search of the complete design space. One such method is described which is concerned with the application of the theory of Design Of Experiments (DOE) enabling the design space to be efficiently explored. The objective of the DOE stage is to produce response surfaces which can then be used by an optimisation module to search the design space. It is assumed that the concept exploration tool whilst being a simplification of the design problem, is still sufficiently complicated to enable reliable evaluations of a particular design concept. The response surface is used as a representation of the concept exploration tool, and by it's nature can be used to rapidly evaluate a design concept hence reducing concept exploration time. While the methodology has a wide applicability in ship design and production, it is illustrated by its application to the design of a catamaran with respect to seakeeping. The paper presents results exploring the design space for the catamaran. A concept is selected which is robust with respect to the Relative Bow Motion (RBM), the heave, pitch and roll at any particular waveheading. The design space is defined by six controllable design parameters; hull length, breadth to draught ratio, distance between demihull centres, coefficient of waterplane, longitudinal centre of floatation, longitudinal centre of buoyancy, and by one noise parameter, the waveheading. A Pareto-optimal set of solutions is obtained using RBM, heave, pitch and roll as criteria. The designer can then select from this set the design which most closely satisfies their requirements. Typical solutions are shown to yield average reductions of over 25% in the objective functions when compared to earlier results obtained using conventional optimisation methods

The Effect of Flow Regulation on Channel Geomorphic Unit (CGU) Composition in the Soča River, Slovenia.

This paper sets out to examine the effects of flow regulation on the size, spatial distribution and connectivity of physical habitats or channel geomorphic units (CGU) of an upland river system in Slovenia. A river channel survey was completed along three reaches (totalling 14.3km) of the Soča River in order compare an unregulated stretch (reach 1), with two regulated reaches with lower discharges, i.e. a bypassed section that experiences significant flow reduction (reach 2), and a stretch regulated by dam operation (reach 3). CGU’s were classified according to a modified version of the Hawkins et al (1993) system, and mapped on foot and from a boat using a combination of visual assessment and physical measurement. Mapping-grade GPS was used to locate CGU boundaries to sub-metre accuracy, and the application of GIS (MapInfo) enabled the description and analysis of the longitudinal distribution of CGU’s along each reach. Results demonstrated significant differences in the CGU composition between the unregulated and regulated reaches. The unregulated stretch (reach 1) was dominated by the glides (55%) with relatively fast-flowing and turbulent features (runs, riffles and rapids) making up the rest of the reach. The dominant feature of both of the regulated reaches were the slow flowing pool CGU’s occupying 44% of the bypassed section (reach 2), and 76% of the dam regulated section (reach 3), with glides, runs, riffles and rapids forming the remainder of the CGU’s. Physical measurements highlighted the extent to which the reduced discharge in the regulated reaches was dewatering the channel and reducing the size of the CGU’s. The average CGU size in the unregulated stretch (reach 1) was 58m2 of water area per m of channel length (m2/m) compared to 18.42m2/m in the reach 2, and 29.22m2/m in reach 3. CGU’s tended to be shorter, and hence there was greater habitat division or fragmenta-tion evident in the two regulated reaches, particularly the bypassed section. For example, there were on aver-age 6.81 CGU’s per km in the unregulated reach (reach 1), 18.12 CGU/km in reach 2, and 8.08 CGU/km in reach 3. This study suggests that in the Soča River under the flow conditions present during the survey, flow regula-tion alters the dominant types of CGU’s present (to slower flowing and less turbulent features), significantly reduces the size of CGU’s, and affects the longitudinal distribution of types by reducing habitat connectivity and creating greater habitat fragmentation