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The Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) offers a ‘one‐stop‐shop’ for checking the suitability of potential employees to work with adults in health and social care settings. This paper argues that an exploration of the rationale for recruitment decision making following the creation of the CRB is timely and necessary.

Specifically, organisations in both the private and public care sectors will be examined. Incidents reported by the media surrounding the failures in recruitment procedures will be discussed. An evaluation of recruitment decision‐making will be carried out and details of the present study, which considers how recruitment decisions are being made at present by organisations in the National Health Service (NHS), social care (SC), higher education (HE), further education (FE) and care home (CH) sectors, will be reported. The first wave of data collection consisted of informal interviews carried out with a series of recruitment decision‐makers from these organisations. Results showed that a variation in recruitment decision‐making between organisations exists, and so the protection of vulnerable persons may be being put at risk.

Research Governance has been introduced to regulate research involving National Health Service (NHS) patients and staff but the process is lengthy and bureaucratic and has improved little since its introduction. The paper seeks to investigate changes over time.

A comparison between two studies, one in 2003‐2004 and the second in 2004‐2005, provided the opportunity of observing the process of Research Governance as it was developing. Both studies included postal questionnaire surveys and interviews with study participants.

In order to achieve Research Governance approval, application forms have to be completed, reviews undertaken, sponsors and indemnity information identified and honorary contracts from individual PCTs applied for. Honorary contracts can require references and health and Criminal Records Bureau checks. The process reduces the time available for research and employs large numbers of people, yet is still inefficient. Some of the requirements reduce the quality of the research and researchers' rights are marginalised.

The studies took place in a rapidly changing research environment. Further studies should continue to assess the situation and report any progress in making Research Governance less onerous for researchers.

There is an urgent requirement to investigate how procedures can be simplified and made less bureaucratic and costly, and to protect the rights of researchers. Without this, primary care research will be seriously disadvantaged and may become impossible to pursue.

The study compares process over time and shows that achieving Research Governance approval is seriously limiting research in primary care.

The purpose of this paper is to present a discussion of the value of early diversion schemes, underpinned by the principles of restorative justice (RJ), for First Time Entrants (FTEs) into the criminal justice system (CJS).

The paper focuses specifically on the findings of a 12-month study into the introduction of “Triage” by one Youth Offending Team (YOT) in the northeast of England.

Re-offending data suggested that Triage is more effective in reducing re-offending than conventional justice practices, due to the restorative nature of the scheme. However, the qualitative data raised a number of issues, particularly relating to problems of “net-widening” and the impact of recording processes on young people's desistance, as well as the role of victim engagement in the process. These issues could undermine the long-term effectiveness of Triage and its successful application within other youth justice contexts.

The paper aims to contribute further understanding regarding the impacts of RJ practices on reducing re-offending compared to traditional processes, and in particular, consider the role of implementation issues in the production of outcomes and impacts.

This paper presents the findings from an evaluation of a direct payment pilot project for parents of disabled children in Staffordshire. The study found that, for a variety of reasons, parents accessing direct payments did not report any greater benefits than those using traditional services.

This article considers the wide‐ranging situations and circumstances in which sexual abuse of elderly people occurs and suggests that the complexities inherent in the issue mean that policy‐makers and practitioners face real challenges in minimising future instances of victimisation.

In recent months, there have been a number of important changes in how the world of social care is regulated, all of which will have an impact on older people and the organisations that serve them. The key changes are the Vetting and Barring Scheme, the new Care Quality Commission and the Community Area Assessment. In our first article, Deborah Klée clarifies these changes and what they mean for older people's services.

This paper aims to discuss the experiences of a group of eight user and carer researchers from learning disability and mental health services who worked together in a research project. The research was to find out about the changes that took place as over 300 people moved from hostel accommodation into independent tenancies. These moves were part of a three year project involving a partnership between a local authority and a housing association.

The evaluation was based on a model of user participation.

User involvement in research can mean different things with different levels of involvement, from consultation through to user‐controlled research. In this paper the authors discuss some of the challenges in doing this kind of evaluation study, as well as the opportunities that came from involving users and carers in the research. This includes how the researchers got involved and some of the activities they did.

The authors also describe some of the difficulties that were faced, including payments and criminal record checks. The ways in which people were trained and supported to take part and stay involved are outlined as well as how the group feel that they have learnt new skills and increased their confidence.

This paper adds the voices of the co‐researchers to the literature and provides “lessons learned” for other researchers in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a research study to implement a career development framework within a large acute district general hospital facilities directorate. The findings of this study will provide points of interest in terms of the implementation of a career development framework and also a wider, more generalisable analysis relating to the use of action research (AR) in this context. The efficacy of career development frameworks and alternate recruitment strategies will also be considered.

AR was utilised as the primary research methodology, with focus groups and semi‐structured interviews employed as the main sources of data collection. NVivo qualitative analysis software was used to analyse the data. Interventions within the AR cycles have been categorised as micro and macro in terms of the complexity and level of personal and organisational involvement. Although micro interventions will be briefly referred to, macro interventions have been evaluated within this paper in terms of both efficacy and transferability.

There were two main findings from this research project originating from AR interventions that may prove beneficial to other organisations in terms of both organisational and staff development: development of bespoke career development pathways; and creation of a fast track employability scheme within hotel services.

Some of the more longitudinal interventions will require further analysis to gauge long‐term efficacy.

This paper should prove beneficial to those involved with implementing organisational change and the potential use of AR within the facilities environment. The paper should also provide useful alternatives in the recruitment of staff and the use of career development interventions.