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School meals were developed because of charitable, and subsequently official, concern about the effects of poverty on children’s capacity to benefit from education. Superficially, one might regard Edwardian interventions – in the early part of the twentieth century – as a historical footnote to today’s issues. In fact, this period of UK history was notable for attempts to find solutions to problems that are still relevant. Despite appearances to the contrary, child poverty has not been eliminated in the UK of today and the recent reintroduction of nutritional standards for school meals in the UK is an important reminder that feeding bodies remains crucial to feeding minds. In this article we map social concern expressed in contemporary studies of Dundee, York and London, the impact of army recruitment problems, and the initiation of a school meals policy in Scotland and England. We conclude with an assessment of the issues and solutions as they relate to the UK in the early twenty‐first century.

Accumulated evidence shows that breast‐feeding not only is beneficial for normal growth and infant development, but also provides a measure of protection against a number of diseases. Few women are unable to breast‐feed but the UK is noteworthy for having one of the lowest breast‐feeding rates in Europe. This paper reports a survey of 50 pregnant women and analyses factors associated with their stated feeding intentions. Over the years, a number of papers have investigated aspects of decision making but this study offers a snapshot of intention in the late 1990s and pessimistically concludes that any behavioural change is hard won. By the time that the women came into contact with midwives, feeding intentions were clearly established and professional procedures were not able to offer effective intervention.

In Scotland and Finland, a relatively small proportion of older people are in some form of residential care, but their numbers are not insubstantial given generally increased longevity. Moreover, those currently in residential care tend to be among the most vulnerable survivors of their generation. Residential care for older people has always been something of a paradox. The state has extensively recognised the vulnerability of those who can no longer care for themselves, or be cared for by their partner and family. However, provision is seldom adequate for the scale of demand and even commercial provision is characterised by low staffing ratios and unmet training needs. This paper outlines the development of Leonardo funded training materials for use across the European Union.

Audit and feedback (A&F) often underlie implementation projects, described as a circular process; i.e. an A&F cycle. They are widely used, but effect varies with no apparent explanation. We need to understand how A&F work in real-life situations. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to describe and explore mental healthcare full A&F cycle experiences.

This is a naturalistic qualitative study that uses four focus groups and qualitative content analysis.

Staff accepted the initial A&F stages, perceiving it to enhance awareness and reassure them about good practice. They were willing to participate in the full cycle and implement changes, but experienced poor follow-up and prioritization, not giving them a chance to own to the process. An important finding is the need for an A&F cycle facilitator.

Research teams cannot be expected to be involved in implementing clinical care. Guidelines will keep being produced to improve service quality and will be expected to be practiced. This study gives insights into planning and tailoring A&F cycles.

Tools to ease implementation are not enough, and the key seems to lie with facilitating a process using A&F. This study underscores leadership, designated responsibility and facilitation throughout a full audit cycle.

The purpose of this paper is to validate measures of professional self-efficacy for detecting and responding to child abuse and neglect presentations, and then evaluate a clinical training programme for health professionals in a tertiary-level hospital in Vietnam.

A prospective, cohort design was used and professional self-efficacy was measured immediately prior to, and shortly after, training 116 nurses and doctors in emergency settings. Longer-term follow-up was measured six months later.

Linear mixed modelling showed that there was a statistically significant improvement in efficacy expectations for both suspected and known cases of child abuse and neglect between the pre- and post-test measures at zero and six weeks. These improvements did not persist to the six-month follow-up.

The training succeeded in improving detection and clinical response to child abuse and neglect presentations but not faith in the provision of ongoing support for children and families.

Practice change in emergency settings in Vietnam can be achieved using a sustainable theoretically driven training programme.

Building the capacity of health professionals to respond to cases of child abuse and neglect relies on the strength of the community and support services within which the hospital is located.

Measures of self-efficacy expectations and outcome expectations for responding to child abuse and neglect presentations in emergency settings in Vietnam are now validated.

This paper describes the results of an observational study of the information seeking behaviour of Members of Parliament. It is argued that political life functions on a flow of information and that information itself is a prime resource. The study sought to determine the characteristics that impact upon the manner in which information is sourced and used by parliamentarians. For this project a shadowing methodology was adopted. The conclusions drawn include that UK Members of Parliament are subject to a range of triggers of information seeking, in an information rich environment where the amount of information presents decision makers with difficulties. Public accountability results in demands from a wide variety of individuals, groups and associations. MPs are also expected to be knowledgeable about a wide variety of issues, while information need is frequently unpredictable and reactive. Members must be efficient information gatherers and managers and they must be flexible in their attitudes to information seeking, while retaining the capacity to critically appraise the quality of sources.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

MANY and sundry are the worries which fall to the lot of the librarian, and the matter of book‐repair is not the least among them. The very limited book‐fund at the disposal of most public library authorities makes it imperative on the part of the librarian to keep the books in his charge in circulation as long as possible, and to do this at a comparatively small cost, in spite of poor paper, poor binding, careless repairing, and unqualified assistants. This presents a problem which to some extent can be solved by the establishment of a small bindery or repairing department, under the control of an assistant who understands the technique of bookbinding.

ALL the auguries for the Bournemouth Conference appear to be good. Our local secretary, Mr. Charles Riddle, seems to have spared neither energy nor ability to render our second visit to the town, whose libraries he initiated and has controlled for thirty‐seven years, useful and enjoyable. There will not be quite so many social events as usual, but that is appropriate in the national circumstances. There will be enough of all sorts of meetings to supply what the President of the A.L.A. describes as “the calling which collects and organizes books and other printed matter for the use and benefit of mankind and which brings together the reader and the printed word in a vital relationship.” We hope the discussions will be thorough, but without those long auto‐biographical speeches which are meant for home newspapers, that readers will make time for seeing the exhibitions, and that Bournemouth will be a source of health and pleasure to all our readers who can be there.

A smoke tunnel for lecture demonstrations was described in the May issue of TECHNICAL EDUCATION. May I put in a plea for demonstration water tunnels? Flow phenomena have been observed with water for a long time — indeed a simple instructional water tunnel was marketed between the two world wars.