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Across the UK and Ireland, there are a range of processes and interventions offered to adults who, because of personal characteristics or life circumstances, require help to keep themselves safe from potential harm or abuse. The ways in which the statutory and voluntary sectors have chosen to safeguard these adults varies. Different models of intervention and the utilisation of a range of assessment tools, frameworks and approaches have evolved, often in response to policy and practice wisdom. Empirical research in this area is limited. The primary research purpose of the project on which this paper is based is to gather information on the range of tools and frameworks that are used in adult safeguarding practice across the UK and Ireland. In so doing, this paper seeks to contribute and inform the future development of an evidence based adult safeguarding assessment framework.

A team of academics from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland wanted to explore the possibility of adapting a pre-existing assessment framework currently in use in family and childcare social work to consider its utility in assessing carers involved in adult safeguarding referrals. This paper reports on a small pilot study which sought to inform the adaptation of this framework for use in adult safeguarding. This paper is based on a qualitative study involving 11 semi-structured telephone interviews with adult safeguarding social work managers and experienced practitioners. Two to four professionals from each region of England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland were interviewed to elicit their perceptions and experiences of engaging in adult safeguarding assessment processes and their views about models of assessment.

This study identified considerable variation in and between the nations under review, in terms of the assessment frameworks and tools used in adult safeguarding practice. To a large extent, the assessment frameworks and tools in use were not evidence based or accredited. Participants acknowledged the value of using assessment frameworks and tools whilst also identifying barriers in undertaking effective assessments.

There is limited evidence available in the literature regarding the utility of assessment frameworks and tools in adult safeguarding practice. This primary research identifies four themes derived from professional’s experiences of using such frameworks and identifies broader recommendations for policy and practice in this area.

Globally, there is a growing proportion of disabled people as a result of different circumstances. This growth generates attention and leads to ways to integrate the affected population into society. Addressing such disability and integration is particularly important at buildings level, enabling and expanding the scope of activities for people with disabilities (PWDs). The rising number of PWDs and the need to integrate them into society create a need for action to improve their living condition and integration into society. This study aims to examine the issue of accessibility for PWDs in higher education facilities in Qatar.

Addressing accessibility at buildings level is particularly important in higher education because it enables inclusion in training and education and increases the potential for productive engagement in society. The study aims to develop an objective tool to assess and measure accessibility in educational institutions. Five selected buildings were examined and evaluated at Qatar University based on proximity, multi-use, vertical and horizontal circulation availability. The survey respondents were randomly selected. An existing assessment method was used in surveying respondents, including those with and without disabilities.

A comparative study was conducted to explore the discrepancy between facility users with and without disability, indicating the gap in existing tools.

The developed tool generates the same outcome when conducted by different assessors, indicating the level of compliance and percentage met as a benefit, not a focus. It allows professionals and non-professionals with minimal experience to conduct the assessment.

Organization development is focused on implementing a planned process of positive humanistic change in organizations through the use of social science theory, action research, and data-based feedback methods. The role of personality in that change process, however, has historically been ignored or relegated to a limited set of interventions. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a conceptual overview of the linkages between personality and OD, discuss the current state of personality in the field including key trends in talent management, and offer a new multi-level framework for conceptualizing applications of personality for different types of OD efforts. The chapter concludes with implications for research and practice.

This paper proposes a development methodology that uses the assessment criteria of the national quality award as the basis for creating a self‐assessment tool to measure quality performance in organizations. The Singapore Quality Award (SQA) assessment criteria were used as the framework for developing the self‐assessment tool. The SQA award criteria were translated into a multi‐item questionnaire. The self‐assessment tool is used to assess quality performance in various functions of the organization. The scores obtained using the assessment tool was tested against those of the recent SQA applicants. Results showed significant correlation between the assessment score bands and the actual score bands that they received on their SQA application. As of the end of 1998, about 200 business organizations in Singapore had used the self‐assessment tool. Self‐assessment tools using different national quality award criteria could also be developed based on the proposed development methodology described in this paper.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the available risk and assessment tools for child abuse material (CAM) offenders. Noting the rise of internet-based offences surrounding CAM, it has been proposed that there may be substantial differences between internet only (IO) offenders, contact only and mixed profile sexual offenders.

Through online searches, risk assessment tools for sexual offenders were identified. Scoring manuals were consulted for applicability to IO offenders.

Nine risk assessment tools for sexual offenders were included. Risk assessment tools for sexual offenders use cautionary language regarding the application of sexual offence risk assessment tools to IO offenders. An additional five tools were identified specifically addressing IO offenders. Three of these tools address risk assessment and two assess cognitions and behaviours.

Limitations include the identification of static and dynamic risk factors and the application of structured professional judgement.

By drawing together existing tools and recommendations for use with the IO offender population, a gap is identified for CAM specific risk assessment tools.

Appropriate risk assessment, case planning and treatment will contribute to the appropriate management and treatment of the IO offender population.

Assessment is at the core of high-quality education. When educators purposefully engage in assessment, the learning experiences and outcomes of all students, especially of students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities (SLDs), are improved. In this chapter, we discuss assessment as unfolding within a framework that includes purposes, processes, and tools of assessment existing in the educational context. We open the chapter with an explanation of this framework. Then, in Part 1, we review the construct of SLD and detail how assessment is used within prominent approaches to diagnosis. In Part 2, we discuss how assessment is used to inform instruction before and after diagnosis. We ground our discussion in a vignette that follows Tess, a student who, at the beginning of third grade, has undiagnosed SLD in the area of reading. We show how educators at Tess's school collaborate in the purposeful use of assessment to inform instruction before and after Tess's diagnosis of SLD, highlighting traditional and innovative assessment techniques along the way.

Recently, correctional agencies have argued that there are differences between factors influencing men and women’s involvement in the criminal justice system. The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of a gender-informed risk/need assessment tool.

The sample consisted of 620 women offenders admitted to federal Canadian custody, as well as a matched-comparison group of 647 men. Items were selected from routine assessments in an administrative database based on an extensive literature review of factors related to criminal risk for women.

Results showed that the items included in this assessment and the overall rating of risk/need significantly predicted any return to custody for both women and men. As well, ratings incrementally predicted any return to custody over and above other established tools.

The gender-informed risk/need assessment tool, informed by the literature, performed well for both men and women. The research highlights the complementary, not competing, perspectives of gender-neutral and gender-responsive risk and need factors.

Factors commonly considered gender-salient predicted risk for men and women. The present study demonstrates that risk assessments tools for men and women should look beyond the factors routinely assessed in the research to identify novel dynamic factors that contribute to risk for men and women and could be targeted for intervention.

A large amount of research deals with the identification of management practices related to new product development (NPD) success. To this purpose, assessment tools capable of helping enterprises to set up improvement processes are of extreme importance. The aim of this paper is to build a product development assessment model based upon a normative‐contingent approach.

First, a literature review of the main approaches and models used in NPD assessment was carried out. Second, the tool was tested in five firms. The case studies allowed the authors to test the tool in its prototypal phase in order to assess both its limits and potential and also to highlight possible improvements.

The assessment tool developed yields a clear understanding of the current state of product development process in an organization in order to facilitate a shared understanding of the weakness and deficiencies, to enable effective process management, to develop implementation plan to support change initiatives and to support process improvement using metrics.

The product development assessment model is based upon a normative‐contingent approach meaning that the prescriptive requirements are defined according to the logic of coherence: requirements vary in relation to contextual conditions. In particular, there are two important context factors which are considered to have a significant influence on NPD process: the complexity of the product‐market interface and the enterprise's NPD strategic orientations.

Developing countries are currently on the verge of adopting principles used in achieving a sustainable urban future. As the urban population increases due to factors like urban–rural migration, increase in birth rate, migration, industrialisation, commercialisation, amongst others, there is a drastic need to adopt sustainability principles within urban spaces. To understand how sustainability can be achieved, there is a need to recognise how developed countries have designed assessment tools that work within their context which can inform how developing countries can work on their assessment tool. Urban neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools are used to reflect on the overall goal of the project and the most important indicators needed to be implemented within the project. Sustainability indicators are used to measure the levels and progress at which sustainability has been implemented within a project based on the data collected and these results can be used to make informed decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of urban sustainability assessment tool.

This research investigates the techniques utilised in developing an urban sustainability assessment tool Sustainable Composite Cities Environmental Evaluation and Design (SUCCEED-ND) tool within the Nigerian context. The data instrument used includes a questionnaire survey that sampled 50 correspondents, and the results were used to develop an urban assessment tool tailored for the Nigerian countries.

The findings used social, environmental, economic and planning sustainability dimensions in the design of the assessment tool which composes of 21 core sustainability indicators and 105 indicators to develop SUCCEED-ND tool.

This work developed the first urban sustainability assessment tool for the Nigerian urban environment. The result is meant to evaluate and implement sustainability within existing and proposed neighbourhood development.

This paper analyzes recent efforts to measure sustainability in higher education across institutions. The benefits of cross‐institutional assessments include: identifying and benchmarking leaders and best practices; communicating common goals, experiences, and methods; and providing a directional tool to measure progress toward the concept of a “sustainable campus”. Ideal assessment tools identify the most important attributes of a sustainable campus, are calculable and comparable, measure more than eco‐efficiency, assess processes and motivations and are comprehensible to multiple stakeholders. The 11 cross‐institutional assessment tools reviewed in this paper vary in terms of stage of development and closeness to the “ideal tool”. These tools reveal (through their structure and content) the following critical parameters to achieving sustainability in higher education: decreasing throughput; pursuing incremental and systemic change simultaneously; including sustainability education as a central part of curricula; and engaging in cross‐functional and cross‐institutional efforts.