admission. This proportion could already be greater in some parts of the country and may increase if referrals of cases of self-poisoning increase faster than the facilities for their assessment and management. The provision of social work and psychiatric expertise in casualty departments may be one means of preventing unnecessary medical admissions without risk to the patients. Dr Blake's and Dr Bramble's figures do not demonstrate, however, that any advantage would attach to medical teams taking over assessment from psychiatrists except that, by implication, assessments would be completed sooner by staff working on the ward full time. What the figures actually suggest is that if assessment of overdoses were left to house doctors there would be an increase in admissions to psychiatric units (by 19°U), outpatients (by 5O°'), and referrals to social services (by 140o). So for house doctors to assess overdoses would provide no economy for the psychiatric or social services. The study does not tell us what the consequences would have been for the six patients who the psychiatrists would have admitted but to whom the house doctors would have offered outpatient appointments. E J SALTER

Vitamin D deficiency.

The main purpose of this paper is to draw attention to some facts and ideas that perhaps can help to identify problems or fields for development and research within the evaluation of training. Topics for group discussion are preceded by material on some basic concepts of evaluation and educational measurement. The ratio scale, the interval scale, the ordinal scale, and the nominal scale are given as examples of kinds of scales used in educational measurement; the problem of norms is discussed; potential purposes of evaluation or educational measurement are outlined; and some characteristics of a good measuring instrument are explained. The author also defends the inclusion of evaluation as an Integral part of a model for planning and carrying out educational programs. (BW) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. *********************************************************************** U S DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION &WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EVALUATION OF TRAINING

/pdf/evaluation-of-training-4s7htqhxas.pdf

Evaluation of Training.

Smart sustainable cities of the future: An extensive interdisciplinary literature review

Learning the lessons.

Lipsky’s classic study of ‘street-level bureaucracy’ (1980) provided a perceptive analysis of front line practice in public organizations that has continuing relevance to recent literature, which has debated whether discretion continues to operate in social work or whether it has been curtailed. Having considered contributions to the debate on the continuation and curtailment of professional discretion in social work, it becomes clear that there are significant differences between these two positions, differences which focus on beliefs about manager’ desire for, and ability to secure, control and workers’ ability to resist control and seek discretion. However, after examining these issues further, through an examination of key aspects of Lipsky’s work and Howe’s (1991) critique of that work, a unifying strand is identified in the curtailment and continuation perspectives. Both perspectives have a tendency to treat professional discretion as a phenomenon that is either present or absent and rest on a background assumption, particularly in the curtailment literature, that professional discretion is self-evidently a ‘good thing’. An alternative argument is advanced, based on two propositions: first, that the proliferation of rules and regulations should not automatically be equated with greater control over professional discretion; paradoxically, more rules may create more discretion. Second, discretion in itself is neither ‘good’ nor ‘bad’. In some circumstances it may be an important professional attribute, in others it may be a cloak for political decision-makers to hide behind or it may be an opportunity for professional abuse of power. If this alternative argument is soundly based, future analysis of and research into professional discretion rooted in ‘all-or-nothing’ formulations are unlikely to advance understanding much beyond the impasse in the existing literature. Rather, the alternative argument suggests that discretion should be regarded as a series of gradations of freedom to make decisions and, therefore, the degree of freedom professionals have at specific conjunctures should be evaluated on a situation-by-situation basis.

Street-Level bureaucracy, social work and the (exaggerated) death of discretion

This paper reviews literature and research evidence which suggest that recording remains a residual activity in social work practice. It warns of the dangers of, and explores some possible reasons ...

A Matter of record

Social care - the policy context values in social care training and staff development conflicting imperatives and practice dilemmas - finding creative and coherant solutions conflicts of interest in social care power, partnership and empowerment managing the social-care process empowering practice - understanding and managing user-worker processes understanding and managing the inter-professional system managing the personal experience of work.

Empowering practice in social care

Concepts and constructions of resilience have assumed a significant position in contributing to understandings of the psychosocial development of children and young people. This paper examines how concepts of resilience are constructed within the literature, and then explores social workers’ perceptions and use of resilience with young people who were ‘looked after’ or at risk of becoming ‘looked after’. It addresses the interface between social workers’ views and understandings of the emotional health needs of their clients, and the responsiveness of accompanying service interventions.

Using the Framework for Assessment as a platform for discussion, 32 semistructured interviews were conducted with 19 social workers relating to a purposive sample of 52 children and young people (31 boys and 21 girls). Social workers experienced difficulty in conceptualizing resilience, often providing cursory, general or non-expert explanations. Furthermore, social workers described all children and young people within the sample as being resilient, drawing only upon face-value observations to evidence this. Related to this was the low frequency of social workers’ reports of children and young people's mental health difficulties and the concomitant low referral rate to secondary tier services.

The authors argue that social workers’ optimistic perceptions of the resilience of children and young people within this sample, alongside their positive appraisal of their emotional needs, impact on the interventions that are put in place. The paper concludes that the tendency of social workers to project optimism onto their client base calls our attention to a possible transference of the collective need for the social work department itself to be resilient within that local authority.

Constructing resilience: social workers' understandings and practice.

There is a driving force within current UK child welfare policies which promotes a strengths led approach to both assessment and care planning for children in need. Social policy emphasizes the importance of tangible outcomes such as education achievement, which have been enshrined in statute. However, other developmental outcomes, such as identity, are subordinated. Notwithstanding the relevance of these more concrete indicators, this paper suggests that this focus has left a gap at theoretical, strategic and operational levels relating to more psychosocial aspects of human growth and development, such as identity. This paper seeks to redress that gap by considering identity as both a process and an outcome. Following a review of the literature on identity development, it presents an analysis of semi-structured interviews with 13 young people and their social workers. The findings show how young people's identity is shaped by their relationships, can be a protective mechanism, and deferred or put on standby. In the concluding discussion the implications for social work practice are highlighted.

Shards of the old looking glass: restoring the significance of identity in promoting positive outcomes for looked-after children

List of Abbreviations - Table of Cases - Circulars - Preface to the Second Edition - Towards Practising Social Work Law - Values and Functions within the Law - The Law and Social Work's Practice Dilemmas - Deciding to Use the Law - The Law Available to Social Workers - The Law on Social Work Practice - Making Sense of Practice - References - Index

Michael Preston-Shoot

Papers

A Matter of record

Empowering practice in social care

Constructing resilience: social workers' understandings and practice.

Shards of the old looking glass: restoring the significance of identity in promoting positive outcomes for looked-after children

Practising Social Work Law