A different way to look at things : the development of consultancy in a residential service for children and young people

The support of consultancy and the tasks associated with consultation are considered to play a vital role in the development of good practice in residential care and in safeguarding children and young people. Back in the 1970s, Berry (1975) recommended that all residential workers should have opportunities for support and consultation and 'every residential unit requires a special senior supporter who devotes himself (sic) to the staff without being directly responsible for the children... a consultant, counsellor, supervisor or therapist (but not an inspector)' (Berry, 1975, p. 134). More recently, however, Warner (1992) highlighted that too often staff in children's homes are left to cope with abused, disturbed and violent young people without access to the specialist psychiatric and psychological services that are needed (Warner, 1992, p. 144). He stressed the need for support from specialists in other agencies such as child psychiatrists and educational psychologists and for staff care schemes such as stress counselling (Warner, 1992, pp. 154-155). Over half the heads of units in the survey of residential establishments in Scotland felt they needed additional support such as a specialist adviser, consultant or psychologist, and 'often such a specialist was required to provide a service both to residents and/or staff, such as an independent counsellor' (Harvey, 1992, pp. 27-28)

The times they are a changing - post qualifying training needs of social work managers

The article will focus on the changing role of social work managers in the light of recent legislation and policy; the integration agenda; the changing relationship between statutory and voluntary agencies; and the rising expectations of service users and carers. It will link these changes to the ongoing political and societal context in which social work is practised. The importance of effective social work management will be emphasised in the context of the recent enquiries into the deaths and long-term abuse of service users. It will consider the issues for training and development of social work managers and will conclude by considering the issues for providers of training and development, with particular reference to post qualifying academic social work management courses. It will highlight the types of learning experiences social work managers require, outline consultations with students and agencies, and suggest issues for the future

Exploring the perceptions of staff towards children and young people living in community-based children's homes

This article examines the perceptions of staff working in community-based children's homes. Data from interviews with staff, using the repertory grid technique, are analysed and presented in the form of a case study. Particular consideration is given to the child-worker relationship and how it might affect the quality of care provided. The findings are selected from a doctoral study and suggest that despite significant changes in the residential sector, many staff feel powerless to address the real issues and problems affecting children. Rather than confront the realities of the situation and implement strategies that empower staff, it would appear that current developments in social work continue to de-prioritize the needs of children. The authors argue that a fundamental change in residential care is needed if social work is to meet the needs of many of the most vulnerable children in society

Parents with learning disabilities - the lived experience - a study for equal say, Glasgow

In order to more clearly identify the key issues with regard to parents with learning disabilities, Equal Say commissioned the Glasgow School of Social Work to undertake a small pilot study which aimed to: identify the likely demand for advocacy services to support parents with a learning disability living in the community, illustrate the lived experiences of parents with a learning disability and to highlight examples of good practice in terms of what works in supporting parents with a learning disability. A short survey questionnaire was sent to 94 relevant social work, health and voluntary sector organisations within Glasgow City. Five parents from within the Equal Say service who had the capacity to give informed consent were selected at random and interviewed to discuss a range of issues in relation to their parenting. Their experiences of being a parent were also discussed as were the range of support services and mechanisms in place to assist them with this role

School improvement in the marketplace : the case of residential special schools

Over the past couple of decades, residential special schools in Scotland have faced fundamental changes to the way they operate. This has involved the withdrawal of state funding, a shrinkage of the sector and a situation in which schools now have to sell their services in a market economy in order to survive. This article gives a brief outline of the history and development of residential special education for children considered to be troubled or troublesome. It then draws on an evaluation of one former approved, or List D, school to describe how it managed the transition to the marketplace. Findings from the evaluation are introduced and some implications of these are discussed. It is concluded that the shift from state or local authority funding to private provision may have some advantages. However, it also raises a number of questions as to whether provision for some of society's most damaged children should be determined by market forces

Universality in protein residue networks

Residue networks representing 595 nonhomologous proteins are studied. These networks exhibit universal topological characteristics as they belong to the topological class of modular networks formed by several highly interconnected clusters separated by topological cavities. There are some networks which tend to deviate from this universality. These networks represent small-size proteins having less than 200 residues. We explain such differences in terms of the domain structure of these proteins. On the other hand, we find that the topological cavities characterizing proteins residue networks match very well with protein binding sites. We then investigate the effect of the cutoff value used in building the residue network. For small cutoff values, less than 5Å, the cavities found are very large corresponding almost to the whole protein surface. On the contrary, for large cutoff value, more than 10.0 Å, only very large cavities are detected and the networks look very homogeneous. These findings are useful for practical purposes as well as for identifying "protein-like" complex networks. Finally, we show that the main topological class of residue networks is not reproduced by random networks growing according to Erdös-Rényi model or the preferential attachment method of Barabási-Albert. However, the Watts-Strogatz (WS) model reproduces very well the topological class as well as other topological properties of residue network. We propose here a more biologically appealing modification of the WS model to describe residue networks

Mathematical modelling of internal HIV dynamics

We study a mathematical model for the viral dynamics of HIV in an infected individual in the presence of HAART. The paper starts with a literature review and then formulates the basic mathematical model. An expression for R0, the basic reproduction number of the virus under steady state application of HAART, is derived followed by an equilibrium and stability analysis. There is always a disease-free equilibrium (DFE) which is globally asymptotically stable for R0 1 then some simulations will die out whereas others will not. Stochastic simulations suggest that if R0 > 1 those which do not die out approach a stochastic quasi-equilibrium consisting of random uctuations about the non-trivial deterministic equilibrium levels, but the amplitude of these uctuations is so small that practically the system is at the non-trivial equilibrium. A brief discussion concludes the paper

Commercial fire-retarded PET formulations - relationship between thermal degradation behaviour and fire-retardant action

Many types of fire-retardants are used in poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, formulations, and two commercial fire retardants, Ukanol(TM) and Phosgard(TM), have been shown to improve significantly PET flame-retardancy when used as comonomers. Phosgard incorporates a phosphorus atom within the main chain whereas Ukanol incorporates a phosphorus atom as a pendent substituent. Despite their acknowledged effectiveness, the mode of action of these fire retardants remains unclear, and in this paper we present a comparison of the overall thermal degradation behaviour of PET and Ukanol and Phosgard fire retarded formulations. DSC and particularly TGA data show that both Ukanol and Phosgard have some stabilising influence on PET degradation, especially under oxidative conditions. TGA and pyrolysis experiments both clearly indicate that neither additive acts as a char promoter. Only the Phosgard formulation shows any release of volatile phosphorus species which could act in the gas phase. On the other hand, the most striking feature of the pyrolysis experiments is the macroscopic structure of the chars produced by the fire-retarded formulations, which hints at their fire-retardancy action - an open-cell charred foam was obtained upon charring at 400°C or 600°C. This foaming layer between the degrading melt and the flame would lower the amount of fuel available for combustion, and would also limit the feedback of heat to the condensed phase

A triangulation approach for design research

Triangulation has been adopted in social science in the study of the same phenomenon through applying and combining several data sources, research methods, investigators, and theoretical schemes. From a post-positivism view point, this paper presents a triangulation approach in design research from two perspectives, data sources and research methods. Data triangulation was achieved through collecting data from multiple sources including company design documents, student design projects, and company design projects. Different research methods, e.g. interview, content analysis, protocol analysis, and questionnaire, were used to conduct data collection and analysis into a particular aspect of design, the nature of coupling design artefact and process knowledge. It was found that triangulation can provide an effective means for design research

Holding safely : guidance for residential child care practitioners and managers about physically restraining children and young people

Residential child care is intensive and at times very diffificult work. Staff in residential childcare, therefore, need training, advice, supervision and support in undertaking this demanding work, since they are often doing the hardest of social care jobs. This good practice guidance has been commissioned to assist practitioners in working out policies and practices for restraining children and young people where no other appropriate options are available