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The purpose of this paper is to describe an addition to the practice placement design for occupational therapy students in Oslo, and to report on the learning experiences related to this modified practice placement design among the participants.

Occupational therapy students and practice educators were interviewed in focus groups after having participated in an exploration of the utility of the Assessment of Communication and Interaction Skills during mental health placement. Thematic analysis was applied to the data material.

Four themes emerged relating to the students’ learning experiences during practice placement. They were theory-practice integration; the role of supervision; self-awareness of communication; and socialization to the therapist role.

The practice placement design addition presented in this paper was well received by students and practice educators. It contributed to students’ focussed experience and to their active participation within a community of practice. The program appears to be one way of organizing placement with a potential for making a substantial contribution to occupational therapy students’ learning.

The study adds to the existing literature in providing an example of a successful addition to the practice placement design, and in the detailed account of the learning experiences among the participants.

The main purpose of the study is to promote consideration of the issues and approaches available for costing sustainable buildings with a view to minimising cost overruns, occasioned by conservative whole-life cost estimates. The paper primarily looks at the impact of adopting continuity in whole-life cost models for zero carbon houses.

The study embraces a mathematically based risk procedure based on the binomial theorem for analysing the cost implication of the Lighthouse zero-carbon house project. A practical application of the continuous whole-life cost model is developed and results are compared with existing whole-life cost techniques using finite element methods and Monte Carlo analysis.

With standard whole-life costing, discounted present-value analysis tends to underestimate the cost of a project. Adopting continuity in whole-life cost models presents a clearer picture and profile of the economic realities and decision-choices confronting clients and policy-makers. It also expands the informative scope on the costs of zero-carbon housing projects.

A primary limitation in this work is its focus on just one property type as the unit of analysis. This research is also limited in its consideration of initial and running cost categories only. The capital cost figures for the Lighthouse are indicative rather than definitive.

The continuous whole-life cost technique is a novel and innovative approach in financial appraisal […] Benefits of an improved costing framework will be far-reaching in establishing effective policies aimed at client acceptance and optimally performing supply chain networks.

The continuous whole-life costing pioneers an experimental departure from the stereo-typical discounting mechanism in standard whole-life costing procedures.

The large, all‐purpose local authorities established by the Local Government Re‐organization Act, 1972, for England and Wales—Scottish local government re‐organization is yet to be completed—are operative; members have long since been elected and organization and staffing, if not complete, at least ready to commence. It is certainly the greatest upheaval since urban and rural sanitary authorities were set up about the middle of the last century. The last change of any magnitude was in 1934; small, however, compared with 1974. At that time, there were 62 county councils, 83 county boroughs and nearly 300 municipal boroughs, 29 metropolitan boroughs, more than 600 urban and about 500 rural districts; roughly 1,600 local authorities. The tremendous reduction in authorities by the present re‐organization illustrates the extent of the upheaval.