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The Boys and Girls Welfare Society’s Family Group Meetings Service: An evaluation for Cheshire Children’s Fund
Get PDF© University of ChesterThe Children’s Fund is a national initiative established as part of the Government’s wider strategy to promote multi-agency working in preventative services for children and young people at risk of social exclusion. Cheshire Children’s Fund is the local response to the national initiative, and supports a county-wide programme of preventative work with children. One service, commissioned in respect of the theme of supporting families, is the Family Group Meetings Service, co-ordinated and managed by the Boys and Girls Welfare Society in collaboration with Cheshire County Council. This Service is based on a model of family group conferencing that differs quite markedly from traditional approaches to the management of child welfare problems in that families play an active and pivotal role in deciding the most appropriate way to meet their child’s needs. Internationally and nationally, there is evidence to suggest that this can be an effective model of provision. However, locally, the Service has experienced difficulties in establishing and maintaining a caseload of appropriate referrals that were effectively taken through the family group meeting process. The aim of the evaluation was to explore why this was the case by studying the implementation of the new Service in relation to the process of referral and mechanism of delivery
Becoming conservation champions through science learning
No full textThe chapter explores the theory and practice of teaching aspects of biodiversity and conservation to primary-aged children through the science curriculum
Key changes to NMC programme standards: an opportunity for progress
Get PDFThis document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in [British Journal of Nursing], copyright © MA Education, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see [https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/abs/10.12968/bjon.2023.32.17.854].AAM uploaded to CR 04/10/202
An Exploration of the Drivers for Professionalism within UK Jewish Heritage Charities
Get PDFThe thesis explores the drivers of professionalism for Jewish Heritage Charities as well as the impact on the organisations in the study. Though there was a growing body of research on development of professionalism in charities, there is very limited studies on how this was impacting Jewish Heritage Charities in the UK.
Charities have been reporting decreasing revenue from traditional fundraising activities over the last decade as well as significant competition for major grants and governmental funding. The loss of traditional funding and the increase in reliance on major donors and funding bodies has led to more regulation and now the growing concern with the management and accountability of charities. The study explored how this development of professionalism has impacted on (JHC).
Using a case study approach, 11 interviews took place with senior management, trustees, and volunteers of three JHC’s and one non-Jewish museum that had recently been through major governance and structural changes. Due to the nature of the research and small sample the findings are limited to the case study however some good practice has been highlighted and professionalism within the case study was identified by the developing business processes and managerialism. The study also identified that rigorous governance procedures for trustees as well as performance management of trustees was needed however proved controversial.
The study also identified the need for more development of recruitment processes of volunteers and trustees alongside professional development and training programmes to ensure professional practices are embedded into the organisations and good practice is maintained
Curated Immersion: An Exploration of Participatory Arts Practice in Healthcare Contexts
Get PDFResearch into the nature of participatory arts practice in health is scarce. Literature discussing this practice lists successful components but there are few conceptualisations of the practice that draw these components together. Assemblages available are specific to health contexts or art-forms and therefore this research investigates the common componential nature of participatory arts practice in health (PAPH) and aims to map a casual network of this practice.
Artist ‘case studies’ are formed from data gathered through social-science methodologies (observations and semi-structured interviews). These case studies are coded and then displayed as data matrices, used to collate common components across the diversity of practices. Causation networks then plot the causal relationships of these components and a map is created to visualise the collective whole. This map is then analogised as a terrarium, an emblem of the whole practice, describing both the constituent parts of PAPH and its assembly.
The findings reveal that, despite the diversity of PAPH, common components - and their assembly - exist. This research suggests that PAPH consists of a carefully curated and attentively adapted space in which an immersive, co-created, participatory experience is nurtured
Reinvigorating the drive to improve diversity across the legal sector through improved flexibility and targeted action
No full textAn opinion blog on the need to ensure flexibility within the workplace to improve gender representation and diversity within the legal sector supporting the research carried out by LexisNexis on the future of law
Importance of GNSS data quality assessment with novel control criteria in professional soccer match- play
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Performance Analysis in Sport on 06/07/2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/24748668.2021.1947017This study assessed the quality of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal during professional football match-play in different stadia with the application of a novel Data Quality Control Criteria (DQCC). DQCC was applied to GPS-files from match-play, derived using 10 Hz GNSS devices for 27 professional soccer players across a season to assess external load measures accounting for poor positioning quality (%) and horizontal dilution of precision. Performances were categorised on playing position as Wide or Central to assess proximity to stand cover on GNSS signal quality. An average reduction in total distance (11.2%), high-speed running distance (6.4%), sprint distance (7.0%), accelerations (10.3%) and decelerations (10.0%) (all P <0.01) was observed upon DQCC application. In worst cases, 90% of an external variable was affected by poor quality signal. Signal quality was worse for wide positioned players than centrally positioned (positioning quality 2.6% lower (P <0.01)), resulting in a larger reduction of external variables upon DQCC application. Large stands in football stadia affect the data quality of GNSS and is exacerbated for players positioned closer to stand cover. Viewing only data with acceptable Position Quality and HDOP meaningfully reduces measured external loads, which has implications for the application of match data
Evaluating use of the Doppler effect to enhance auditory alerts
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction on 10/02/2021, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2020.1870818Auditory alerts are an essential part of many multi-modal interaction scenarios, particularly in safety and mission critical settings, such as hospitals and transportation. A variety of strategies can be employed in the design of auditory alerts, often orienting manipulation of volume and pitch parameters. However, manipulations by applying a Doppler effect are under-investigated. A perceptual listening test is conducted (n = 100) using multiple alert sounds that are subjected to a variety of volume, pitch, and Doppler manipulations, with the unaltered sounds serving as a benchmark. Applying a mixed methods approach consisting of inferential statistics and thematic analysis, it is found that decreases in volume and a Doppler simulation of a sound moving away reduce importance and urgency, increase safety, are harder to detect, and are perceived as being more distant in perceptions of auditory alerts. Further, increases in volume and a Doppler simulation of a sound approaching are effective in communicating safety, whilst pitch manipulations were much less effective. Further work is required to provide wider, ecologically valid, verification of these findings, particularly as to how listener detection of Doppler and volume manipulations can be improved
His Dark Materials in a Post-Truth World
No full textPhilip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy (and indeed the side trilogy, The Book of Dust) focus on the separation of truth from faith. Yet, when we actually dig into the type of truth proposed by Pullman, we can glean valuable lessons about how truth works in itself, and how we define it. Pullman is aware of the power of interpretation: ideas of truth and divination are expertly woven around notions of storytelling, and the presence or absence of the author. This quite postmodern notion – separation of author from content and the freedom of the reader to interpret – influences a number of important themes, characters and objects within Pullman’s texts.
The truth-telling alethiometer, the I Ching and Mary Malone’s Dust-detecting computer - even Dust itself – all toy with ideas of fate, free-will, and truth. As well as this, there are factors in the text that offer truth; things like the Magisterium preach that their word is fact. Particularly in the Book of Dust, Pullman focuses on a regime that wishes to stifle speculation and assert truth. This conflict suggests that there is the potential to glean objective, universal truths, but only through a paradoxical combination of constructivist epistemology, correspondence and epistemic investigation. His Dark Materials’ truth-telling devices need to be interpreted. They offer a truth that is rooted in self-discovery. This is somewhat paradoxical, as it suggests that objective truth exists, but that it is centred around subjectively bringing your own experiences to bear on the interpretation of it.
Pullman’s themes both reflect and comment on the current post-truth and post-fact political climate. A re-reading of his texts in this light can offer a valuable commentary on the slippery nature of truth itself. This article examines Pullman’s creation of truth through the lenses of structuralist and post-modernist critics. It examines the notion of socially constructed ideas of truth in the texts through Marx and Hegel, before moving to consider truth in the postmodern world in light of more contemporary philosophers such as Slavoj Zizek. Pullman dissects the whole notion of assumed truths and enforced faith, yet still appears to believe in a spiritual sense of destiny and a universal truth. This article aims to establish just what type of truth this is, and what lessons we can learn from it in a world where the truth may or may not exist
The Oxford Handbook of Mesolithic Europe
No full textIt has been over a century since the first palaeoenvironmental records and animal bone assemblages were recorded from deposits recognised as belonging to the Mesolithic. In the intervening years hundreds of pollen and plant macrofossils profiles have been recorded from lake sediments and peat bogs, while faunal assemblages representing the remains of terrestrial and marine mammals, fish, and birds have been documented from secure Mesolithic contexts across much of the continent. With developments in absolute dating, these records have come to provide a rich account of the changing character of the environment of Mesolithic Europe.
The ways in which human communities engaged with this environment
has been a key theme in Mesolithic archaeology throughout much of its history, and it is a great strength of our discipline that research has often been grounded in detailed studies of faunal and palaeoecological data, as well as material culture (see also Mithen 1999). Indeed, the development of Mesolithic archaeology has been closely aligned to developments in environmental archaeology, often through collaboration by researchers in both fields. Pollen analysis and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction played a central role in many early studies, both as a means of establishing a relative chronology for the archaeology, and for describing the ecological conditions in which humans lived. Similarly, the analysis of animal remains played a key role in the interpretation of some of the first Mesolithic sites, providing information on hunting economies and the season of occupancy. This tradition of collaboration continued into the second half of the twentieth century as developments in palaeoecology and zooarchaeology, particularly those arising from the economic archaeology of the 1960s and 1970s, drove a new wave of research that continues to this day. As a result, we have a rich body of evidence both for the character of the environment, and the ways in which people engaged with it. However, the way we interpret these records has also been influenced by theoretical models of human-environment relationships developed within archaeology and anthropology. As both disciplines have developed throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, it has led to new ways of conceptualising the relationship between humans, plants, and animals during the Mesolithic
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