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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine school teachers’ experiences and beliefs regarding parenting and infant mental health (IMH) promotion, starting with the research question: How do teachers in two secondary schools view their roles regarding parenting and IMH promotion?

Qualitative, exploratory focus groups were used with two groups of teachers that delivered personal social education (PSE) in schools.

Teachers currently have varying roles in PSE delivery. Interaction within focus groups can generate changes of opinions. Teachers do not promote parenting and IMH but are keen for support and training to do so to enable them to benefit future parents.

This was a small-scale study. There was limited breadth of knowledge and experience of participants. The study highlights the need for further research and support and training for school-based staff in parenting promotion.

The significance of parenting and IMH is well evidenced by theory, practice and policies. A potential strategy to prevent child developmental difficulties is to educate young people about parenting and IMH before they become parents.

No similar research was found in this area at the time of the study.

Many individual and family hardships are associated with poorly understood palliative care needs arising from advanced dementia within India. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experiences of people in India affected by advanced dementia and to shape educational approaches for practitioners and the local community.

Three focus groups with family carers of people (n = 27) with advanced dementia were undertaken with local communities in South India. One focus group was carried out in English and two in the local language (Kannada) and translated to English.

The findings of the focus groups are presented in four themes, conditions of caring, intersecting vulnerabilities, desperate acts of care and awareness of education and training needs. These themes highlight the challenges faced by family carers of people with advanced dementia and describe the potential harm, abuse and poor mental well-being facing both the person with dementia and the family carer as a result of their situation.

There is a need to explore ways to ensure inclusivity and sensitivity in the research process and enable equal participation from all participants.

The findings highlight a lack of support for family carers of people with advanced dementia and demonstrate the need for dementia-specific integrated and palliative care approaches in India.

This paper provides insight into the experiences and challenges facing family caregivers of people living with advanced dementia in India to shape practitioner education in a way that will underpin effective dementia-specific palliation and integrated services.

Little is known about the lived experience of the older user of assistive technology. The aim of the investigation is to gain an appreciation of the experience of assistive technology (AT) in older people.

Qualitative phenomenology was conducted on individual interviews undertaken using a Husserlian phenomenological approach. The participants were six individuals, >65 years who all lived in supported housing.

Six key themes emerged from interviews: being unsure; being old; being a bother; being on my own; being neighbourly and being independent.

Reactions to assistive technology are highly individualised and salient. In order to humanise the technology it is necessary to understand the person who is using it. Further research in this area is a priority as AT evolves and matures.

This study offers a novel insight into a neglected but important area of concern for older people.

The purpose of this paper is to present a proposal for the methodology of developing rescue plans and the concepts of applying recommended response schedules in the context of the State Fire Service’s planning responsibilities (preparation) and public administration (reconciliation and approval), according to the legal order in force in Poland. In the proposed concept, recommended schedules are built on the basis of the matches and successes identified according to the criteria, i.e. the best carried out rescue actions from the register of reports.

The paper is based on the analysis of existing legal status and policy in Poland as well as the selected relevant academic literature.

The result is the formulation of a methodology for drawing up the rescue plans to the extent required by law and proposing a concept for the method of developing and applying recommended response schedules, supporting operational planning and conducting rescue operations.

The proposed methodology is to support the procedure of drawing up rescue plans by implying and implementing them into IT solutions. The suggested recommended response schedules, based on observations and conclusions from the analysis of the past rescue operations, may present circumstances and sequences of the use of forces and measures that have had beneficial effects in the past. An in-depth analysis of historical data from the conducted rescue operations may also be used to determine time indicators for the response phase.

The proposed solutions complement the methods currently used by public administration in Poland. The concept can also be inspiring for the State Fire Service (PSP) which has its own analytical tools in the form of a decision support system and registers of rescue operations carried out. The PSP may undertake the practical verification of the presented methodology for preparing rescue plans and recommended response schedules.

THE ANCIENT and royal burgh of Stirling, at one time the capital of Scotland, was at the turn of the century the county town of Stirlingshire and the centre of a thriving agricultural community. With the exception of a carpet and woollen mill and some neighbouring coal mines, there was little industry in the town. This was reflected in its social structure. There was growing up in the village of Raploch, beneath the castle rock, a sizeable Irish community of labourers and artisans, but of a population of around 20,000 in 1900, middle class businessmen and shopkeepers predominated. The town's structure in turn was reflected in the nature of the Town Council, which, although not always conservative in politics, was generally conservative when faced with innovation, be it a swimming pool or a modern town centre. This might explain why in Stirling the public library movement was late in starting, nearly 25 years after the Public Libraries (Scotland) Act of 1870 authorising the use for library purposes of 1 d. in the £ from the rates. It might also explain why there was some opposition from the Town Council to providing for the upkeep of the library after its foundation.

ONE MUST BEGIN with Dickens. A chapter by Christopher Hibbert in Charles Dickens, 1812–1870: centenary volume, edited by E. W. F. Tomlin, and The London of Charles Dickens, published by London Transport with aid from the Dickens Fellowship, make a similar study here superfluous; both are illustrated, the latter giving instructions for reaching surviving Dickensian buildings. Neither warns the reader of Dickens's conscious and unconscious imaginative distortion, considered in Humphrey House's The Dickens World. Dickens himself imagined Captain Cuttle hiding in Switzerland and Paul Dombey's wild waves saying ‘Paris’; ‘the association between the writing and the place of writing is so curiously strong in my mind.’ Author and character may be in two places at once. ‘I could not listen at my fireside, for five minutes to the outer noises, but it was borne into my ears that I was dead.’ (Our Mutual Friend)

Many years ago a thrifty house‐wife presided over a men's boardinghouse near the campus of a well‐known American university. Often while planning daily menus, the hard pressed matron would appeal to her houseboy, “What shall we serve for dessert?” He persistently recommended, “Ice cream and cake,” but she invariably rejected this extravagant proposal, derisively reminding him, “The boys don't like ice cream and cake.” Then, with painstaking concern, she would judiciously select tapioca, chocolate pudding, or some other gelatinous concoc‐tion. Since all the young college students had ravenous appetites and greedily consumed anything set before them, they always confirmed the sagacious selections of the frugal dame. When anyone asked her what college boys liked most for dessert, she had her time‐proven answer, “Tapioca”. She knew that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating.”

THE announcement that Mr. James Wilkie, M.A., will be President of the Library Association for 1951 is gratifying, He has been for some years the honoured Secretary of the Carnegie Trust and before that was the officer at the Ministry of Education most nearly concerned with the public library. For many years now he has been a familiar figure at library conferences, and his geniality, Strong sense of humour and excellent speaking, have won him the esteem of librarians and others concerned with libraries. He almost invariably attends the meetings of the National Central Library. It is, therefore, appropriate that he should preside over the Library Association, which owes so much to him and the Trust he serves and in many activities represents. We wish him a pleasant year of office and can surely promise him the loyalty of librarians.

THIS was my first experience in my home country of a conference in a university campus, and an impressive experience it was too. Away from the attractions and allurements of sea and coast, I found it particularly conducive to study and reflection, for the atmosphere of learning was all around us in this red‐brick university, the prototype of a civic university, founded in 1900 and with a student population of nearly 5,000.

This was my first experience in my home country of a conference in a university campus, and an impressive experience it was too. Away from the attractions and allurements of sea and coast, I found it particularly conducive to study and reflection, for the atmosphere of learning was all around us in this red‐brick university, the prototype of a civic university, founded in 1900 and with a student population of nearly 5,000.