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This article considers the interagency challenges to improving provider performance and quality through the development and ongoing implementation of a new Caerphilly Area Adult Protection Committee (AAPC) provider performance monitoring process. It details procedures for moving from a reactive to a preventative approach to raise quality and to reduce abuse and neglect, exploring the links between commissioning and protection of vulnerable adults.

Many entrepreneurs want to reach high to the heavens to achieve unlimited success. These hardworking, often underappreciated, venturers often crave fame and fortune as they strive to create their personal business legacy. One strategic path many have wandered down is that of the Initial Public Offering (IPO), whereby shares of the company are sold to the public. The IPO has many strong attractions. Large amounts of capital can be brought into the company.The company's stock can be used as currency to acquire other companies. Early investors realize a good ROI. Employees can perceive real value in their stock options. Customers, banks, vendors, and other stakeholders pay more respect to the company. Is this truly the entrepreneurʼs nirvana? Or is it a case of “Be careful of what you wish for because it may really come true?” Read on.

This study aims to understand how staff in homelessness services conceptualise readiness for change in the individuals they support and how this informs their decision-making in practice.

A qualitative design was used. Ten staff members participated in semi-structured interviews. Data were examined through inductive–deductive thematic analysis, using a social constructivist epistemological lens.

Five main themes were constructed: “multiple complex needs mean multiple complex changes”, “talk versus behaviour”, “change is not a linear trajectory”, “the role of consistent boundaried relationships” and “change is not solely within the individual’s control”.

This research challenges existing notions of “readiness for change” as located within individuals and a prerequisite for using support from services. It has implications for staff and services, particularly those which are time-limited and address only single problems; service users may not be ready for some changes, but it should not be assumed they are not ready for change in other areas of their life. The offer of supportive relationships may precede and contribute to readiness for positive changes. Support should be offered based not only an individual’s intra-psychic readiness for change but also how the system might actively work to promote hope that change can be achieved and maintained.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore staff members’ conceptualisations of readiness to change in relation to individuals with multiple complex needs and how this might influence practice.

Educational statistics in Britain make depressing reading. Recent surveys show that 80% of children from professional families gain university degrees compared with 14% from working class homes:¹ that black children are more likely to leave school with fewer academic qualifications even though they enter the system showing promise: that only a small minority of children from comprehensive schools² gain places at Oxbridge although 90% of the population attend such schools: that a mere 4% of medical and dentistry students come from working class backgrounds etc. In spite of John Major’s³ optimistic insistence that Britain has become a classless society, it would appear that class differences in educational performance are not disappearing. On the contrary, a recent OECD⁴ survey, based on data gathered from 16,000 people born in 1958 and 1970 shows that the detrimental effects of inequality of opportunity are actually growing and that the opportunities gap between those from different social backgrounds is no better for those born in 1970 than it was for those born a generation earlier in 1958.

This paper reports on the processes and outcomes of a collaborative self-study conducted by three beginning teacher educators who sought to examine the efficacy of their teaching practices while working with student teachers in the field. By systematically embracing opportunities to explore mutually pressing issues and concerns manifest across the student teaching semester, the authors found that collaborative self-study provided a useful framework for considering their pedagogical reasoning and decision making as they encouraged student teachers to engage in rationale-based practice. The understandings gleaned from this study provided the authors with a basis upon which to reexamine their developing teacher educator pedagogies, as well as to critique the nature and structure of their teacher education program.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a profile of Dave Morrison.

In this case study, Dave provides a short biography of his background and is then interviewed by Jerome.

Dave has had two careers. The first as a scaffolder. The second as a nursing assistant in mental health services. He has ended up bruised and battered in both.

Every case study tells a different story. The effects of stress can be cumulative.

There are many accounts of how hospitalisation has traumatised service users. Yet, working in these services can also be traumatic for the care staff.

Professor Tony Butterworth used to say “Happy nurse equals happy patient”. If you look after staff needs, they will provide better care. Have we ever really looked after the needs of mental health-care staff?

Dave’s story is unique. As Nicola Adams says, “Fall down eight times, get up nine”. Dave has fallen down many more times than this. Eventually, it gets harder to get back up.