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No full textImproving outcomes for care leavers has been high on the policy agenda across the United Kingdom. This chapter provides a synopsis of these developments, which are oriented toward facilitating more extended and gradual transitions into adulthood and include statutory duties to assess youth’s support needs, allocate a personal adviser (aftercare worker) to provide or coordinate support, offer extended foster care post-18 (and extended residential placements in Scotland), and offer access to aftercare support up to 25 (or 26 years in Scotland). Drawing on a rich body of research in each nation, including participatory and coproduced studies with care experienced youth, findings illuminate significant gaps in implementation of reforms and the persistence of inequalities in outcomes within the care experienced community, and compared to the general population. Barriers to implementation include budget constraints, a shortage of suitable accommodation, high thresholds for access to services;, and limited investment to support implementation of reforms and to facilitate a cultural shift away from practice focused on preparing youth to be “independent” and toward broader support for interdependence in early adulthood. The situation in the United Kingdom highlights that legislation and policy guidance are not sufficient in themselves. At the micro level greater emphasis needs to be placed on emotional support and at the mezzo level to resolving barriers to integrated working to respond to intersectional disadvantages. Great attention also needs to be paid to understanding and supporting the process of implementing reforms to avoid further widening of the “care gap” that has been exacerbated by COVID-19
‘Butterfly effects’ in dyadic dynamics: a complex dynamic systems theory perspective on task-based interaction
Get PDFWhile a substantial body of research on L2 oral performance has focused on aggregated outcomes, this study adopts a Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST) framework to investigate the co-constructed processes inherent in dyadic interaction. Specifically, we explore the butterfly effect, wherein minor variations in initial conditions can lead to divergent interactional trajectories. A complex dynamic system comprises many interacting components, where micro-level interactions among components change their properties and, over time, create new properties at a macroscopic level (van Geert, 2011). From this perspective, participants are continuously influenced by their interlocutors through iterative processes of turn-taking, and a macro-pattern of discourse emerges as a result of dynamic co-regulation between the participants (Larsen-Freeman & Cameron, 2008). To investigate dyadic dynamics as a complex dynamic system, we conceptualized planning time (3 minutes vs. none) as the initial condition for a discussion task and re-analyzed the task-based interaction performed by 32 L2 learners in dyads (Nitta & Nakatsuhara, 2014). We employed a microgenetic approach, analyzing turn-taking dynamics and using Conversation Analysis to examine the qualitative features of the conversations to identify emergent interactional patterns under each condition. The analysis revealed a primary pattern observed in the majority of dyads: the non-planning condition fostered a highly collaborative mode of interaction, whereas the planning condition promoted a shift toward a sequence of monologues. However, a deviant pattern, identified in a minority of dyads, was characterized by consistent collaboration across both conditions. These findings suggest that while initial conditions like planning time are highly influential, their effects are not deterministic. We conclude that process-oriented, microgenetic methods are invaluable for understanding the nuanced dynamics of L2 interaction, and that CDST offers a promising theoretical lens for advancing both language learning research and pedagogical practice
Voices from the street: policies, practice and victimisation prevent people escaping life on the streets and contribute to health inequalities
Get PDFEvery human being has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Yet the street community, that is people rough sleeping, ‘begging’, street drinking or selling sex on the streets, have extremely poor health outcomes and lower age of death than the general population. Shockingly, the average age of death for the homeless population is around 30 years lower than for the general population
Towards a holistic understanding of digital innovation:a multidimensional approach
Get PDFThis study develops and empirically validates an integrative model explaining how firms achieve digital innovation through the interplay among digital strategy, absorptive capacity, digital technology deployment, and environmental dynamism. Drawing on the content-context-process-outcome framework, digital strategy provides the guiding content; absorptive capacity and environmental dynamism act as contextual enablers; and digital technology deployment functions as the central process driving innovation outcomes. Survey data from 250 Chinese firms were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and contextualized and externally validated through cross-case and cross-industry validation. The findings reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between digital technology deployment and innovation, challenging the linear assumption of prior research. While deployment is essential, overinvestment without strategic alignment leads to diminishing returns, underscoring the need for strategic coherence and absorptive alignment. Digital strategy and absorptive capacity directly and indirectly enhance innovation through digital technology deployment, while environmental dynamism amplifies the strategic-innovation linkage. Theoretically, the study contributes to the engineering management literature by advancing a holistic, dynamic, and nonlinear understanding of digital innovation as an optimization and orchestration process rather than a purely technological one. It offers a generalizable framework that strengthens integrative and system-oriented perspectives in engineering management research
114 Experiences of and perspectives on timely initiation and uptake of antenatal care among an ethnically diverse maternal cohort
Get PDFAim Antenatal care plays an important role in preventing adverse maternal?and new-born outcomes. The United Kingdom (UK)?clinical?guidelines recommend that women attend their first antenatal appointment by 10 weeks of pregnancy. Women from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to initiate antenatal care later than the recommended 10 weeks, compared to white British women. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences and perspectives of timely initiation and uptake of antenatal care among mothers from ethnically diverse areas in East of England, UK who initiated antenatal care after 10 weeks. Methods We conducted in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews with 20 expectant or recent mothers in ethnically diverse areas who started care after 10 weeks. Mothers were recruited using purposive and snowball sampling, through a number of channels including local networks and online advertisements. Interviews lasted approximately one hour and were conducted in-person, over the phone or online based on participants’ preferences. Data were analysed using a thematic framework guided by Levesque Conceptual Framework.</jats:p> </jats:sec> <jats:sec> <jats:title>Results</jats:title> <jats:p>Three key themes emerged: 1.experiences of and perceptions about antenatal care appointments; 2.factors hindering timely initiation of antenatal care; and 3.strategies to enhance antenatal care uptake. Women felt dissatisfied with limited engagement during appointments and suggested that seeing the same midwife could improve trust and confidence. Delays were linked to low awareness and insufficient information on scheduling, as well as employment and childcare constraints. Participants recommended simplified health information about care pathways, appointment reminders, and multilingual resources to improve access. Conclusion Key barriers and delays in antenatal care appointments highlight the need for targeted interventions, including provision of simplified health information and culturally inclusive resources. Findings highlight?the need for addressing systemic challenges through culturally sensitive community based approaches to enhance timely uptake of antenatal care among women from ethnically diverse areas
Redefining the role of Learning Development practitioners
Get PDFAt a time when higher education (HE) sector funding is reported to be ever more perilous (Simons and Lister, 2024; Wareing, 2024) and means of making savings may need to be enacted at universities, it is essential that the unique role and impact of Learning Development (LD) practitioners is clearly understood by decision makers, for only then will it be valued and resourced. Use of non-distinct titles such as ‘third space practitioner’ or even ‘LD practitioner’, whilst interesting philosophically, hide the powerful ontological roots and epistemic practices of LD and may suggest duplication of role functions and incorrectly the potential to merge roles or teams together. In this opinion piece, I propose there is now a need to adopt greater specificity in how the role of LD practitioners is defined. I suggest this can be achieved by defining areas of activity, quantifying time spent on each and through doing so establish a taxonomy or sub-specialisms of LD practitioners. This serves to emphasise the distinctiveness of LD practitioner work and facilitates comparisons between both LD practitioners and LD community members within and between higher education institutions. It would also allow for the extent to which LD related roles are comparable to other ‘academic’, ‘non-academic’, and/or third-space roles to be determined
Professional development and recognition opportunities for learning development practitioners: international perspectives
Get PDFLearning Development (LD) practitioners have access to an expanding range of professional recognition and development opportunities (see Briggs, 2023). However, reports from members of the LD community highlight variations in the extent to which CPD engagement is facilitated and supported. Associated research that has sought to objectively establish trends pertaining to the factors that inhibit, or support engagement is limited. This 2024-25 ALDinHE funded international research study addressed this gap in knowledge through establishing the factors that impact on LD practitioner access to and engagement with professional development and recognition. To facilitate meaningful comparisons of LD practitioners a taxonomy of LD roles was also developed (as proposed by Briggs, 2025).In autumn 2024, an online questionnaire (comprising open and closed questions) was sent to Academic Language and Learning Development Practitioners. This was administered with support of the International Consortium of Academic Language and Learning Developers (ICALLD) membership and included UK (ALDinHE), Australia (AALL), New Zealand (ATLAANZ), Canada (LSAC) and South Africa. Responses were analysed through a mix of established qualitative and quantitative methods. In this session we shared our proposed thematic taxonomy of LD roles. We then presented results detailing the personal, institutional, national or international factors found to support or inhibit the professional development, recognition and promotion routes available to Academic Language and LD Practitioners. We invited attende</jats:p>
Embracing emancipatory troublemaking in/ through school-based OAA and dance
No full textWhat are your memories of school-based Physical Education (PE)? Does such a question elicit fond recollections or resurface feelings of anxiety and vulnerability? You may recall experiences that oscillate between comfort and discomfort depending on what was being taught and how? Regrettably stories attributing a negative connotation to PE are commonplace (e.g. Miller, 2002) with a narrow sport-centric focus (Ferry & McCaughtry, 2015; Kessell, 2016) and practices that entrench rather than challenge inequalities (Castro-Garcia et al., 2023) being cited as some of the contributory factors. Experiencing PE through a negative filter can stymie the embracement of post-school active lifestyles and realization of holistic health benefits often attributed to effective PE provision (physical, psychological, social, cultural and emotional). With many voicing a troubled relation to PE, it came as little surprise to witness the social media backlash towards calls for PE to be a key player in improving the rising “ill effects on young peoples” mental health and well-being (Kirk, 2018)....<br/
Neurological observations
No full textThe fundamentals series is a collection of articles that present key procedures and competencies, as outlined in the Nursing and Midwifery Council's Future nurse: standards of proficiency for registered nurses. In this article, Barry Hill and colleagues outline how to perform neurological observations and special considerations for a mental health setting
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