Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice and Control

Since the late 1990s, there has been a concerted policy drive across social care towards cash based modes of support and strategies to personalise services. Support for this shift was initiated by the disabled peoples’ movement, both in the UK and globally. Policies introducing direct payments in lieu of provided services have been secured gradually as a central plank of the campaign for independent living. Successive governments have promoted a shift towards personalisation as part of a wider focus to develop local care markets and to facilitate enhanced choice and control in service provision. In Scotland, this has been pursued through new legislation for self-directed support. The authors examine some of the key themes and debates emerging from the implementation of this policy. These include a look at the evolution of this concept and its development within the wider personalisation agenda, as well as the changing roles for users, carers, local authorities and service providers. The authors focus on the impact of change for front-line workers and reassess the progress of personalisation across the UK and in Europe during a time of widespread austerity and financial cuts. Written for professional and academic audiences Self-directed Support: Personalisation, Choice & Control will stimulate those wrestling with these themes from policy and professional perspectives and provide essential analysis for those studying health and social policy

Go for It! Supporting people with learning disabilities and / or Autistic Spectrum Disorders in Employment

This study, commissioned to inform The same as you? National Implementation Group, looked at what employment support there is in Scotland for people with learning disabilities and/or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and identified good practice. The research surveyed providers of employment support, looked at the literature on best practice, gathered opinions about barriers and key issues, and explored experiences and views of supported employees, their families and employers

Breaking Legal Ground: A Bivens Action for Noncitizens for Trans-border Constitutional Torts Against Border Patrol Agents

This Comment assesses whether noncitizens can sue in U.S. courts when they have sustained an injury outside of U.S. territory. This Comment assumes the underlying merits of the Hernandez’s claim that Agent Mesa used excessive force when shooting at Sergio. It will not address whether Agent Mesa acted in self-defense. Part II will discuss the context of the Hernandez litigation and its claims against the U.S. Government, its agencies, and employees for the use of excessive force against a noncitizen. It will also discuss the legal requirements for bringing an excessive force claim under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics for violations of Sergio’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Bivens provides a cause of action in U.S. courts for damages remedies for constitutional violations committed by federal agents. Part III will discuss the direct and extraterritorial application of the U.S. Constitution to provide standing for an excessive force claim on the border. Part IV will explore the viability and obstacles of pursuing a Bivens claim on the border. Part V will discuss the possibility of alternative non-judicial remedies to addressing civil rights violations by Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) agents. Also discussed is whether existing international agreements may provide the basis for judicial redress

Reports in Discourse

Attitude or speech reports in English with a non-parenthetical syntax sometimes give rise to interpretations in which the embedded clause, e.g., "John was out of town" in the report "Jill said that John was out of town", seems to convey the main point of the utterance while the attribution predicate, e.g., "Jillsaid that", merely plays an evidential or source-providing role (Urmson, 1952). Simons (2007) posits that parenthetical readings arise from the interaction between the report and the preceding discourse context, rather than from the syntax or semantics of the reports involved. However, no account of these discourse interactions has been developed in formal semantics. Research on parenthetical reports within frameworks of rhetorical structure has yielded hypotheses about the discourse interactions of parenthetical reports, but these hypotheses are not semantically sound. The goal of this paper is to unify and extend work in semantics and discourse structure to develop a formal, discourse-based account of parenthetical reports that does not suffer the pitfalls faced by current proposals in rhetorical frameworks

The Effects of Graphing Calculator use on High-School Students\u27 Reasoning in Integral Calculus

This mixed-method study investigated the impact of graphing calculator use on high school calculus students\u27 reasoning skills through calculus problems when applying to concepts of the definite integral and its applications. The study provides an investigation of the effects on reasoning when graphing calculators are used, since it is proposed that, through reasoning, conceptual understanding can be achieved. Three research questions were used to guide the study: (1) Does the use of the graphing calculator improve high school calculus students\u27 reasoning ability in calculus problems applying the definite integral? (2) In what specific areas of reasoning does use of the graphing calculator seem to be most and least effective? and (3) To what extent can students who have used the graphing calculator demonstrate ability to solve problems using pencil and paper methods? The study included a quantitative, quasi-experimental component and a qualitative component. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that (1) graphing calculators had a positive impact upon students\u27 reasoning skills (2) graphing calculators were most effective in the areas of initiating a strategy and monitoring progress (3) students\u27 reasoning skills were most improved when graphing calculators were used together with the analytic approach during both instruction and testing and (4) students who used the graphing calculator performed equally as well in all elements of reasoning as those who used pencil and paper to solve problems