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There is evidence that students’ experiences in higher education can be adversely affected by mental health issues, whilst well-being can be bolstered through a sense of belonging. This study aims to draw from Student Minds research into student mental health to consider the importance of peers to constructing a sense of belonging.

This paper draws from a thematic review of 12 focus groups – involving student services staff in six UK universities (69 participants) – conducted as part of the consultation and creation of the Student Minds University Mental Health Charter. The schedule considered student support, service structures and developments to enhance student well-being and manage mental health risks.

A significant theme explored here is the positionality of student peers in terms of relatability, and the importance of orientation and belonging for student mental health and well-being. The findings also consider types of peer involvement (formal/informal) and the influence of structure, training and boundaries in interventions.

Findings reveal the importance of feeling a sense of belonging in the university community to achieve well-being and good mental health. Peer support is an important contributor that supports transitions into university and creates a sense of belonging, which is important to all students, but more so to those less familiar with university, who lack role models and more easily feel isolated.

The research has implications for higher education providers, which should inform the promotion of peer support within student services, based on the recognised contribution to well-being and mental health. This is important for student success and related opportunities.

Success in higher education will open opportunities and create improved future prospects for individuals. This will not be realised for individuals who face boundaries and barriers to successful transition through university. The importance of belonging and role of peer support has implications for those who find themselves excluded in society.

This is a qualitative study which gives voice to individuals in universities across the UK. The theme of peer support within this context and linked with mental health and well-being is underexplored.

The purpose of this paper is to stimulate a wider debate around the coordination of workforce planning in non-statutory services (in this case, specialist housing for older people or those with long-term health and social care needs, such as learning disabilities). The authors argue that current NHS reforms do not go far enough in that they fail to include specialist housing and its workforce in integration, and by doing so, will be unable to optimise the potential efficiencies and streamlining of service delivery to this group.

The paper used exploratory study using existing research and data, enhanced by documentary analysis from industry bodies, regulators and policy think tanks.

That to achieve the greatest operational and fiscal impact upon the health care services, priority must be given to improving the efficiency and coordination of services to older people and those requiring nursing homes or registered care across the public and third sectors through the integration of service delivery and workforce planning.

Whilst generalisable and achievable, the model proposed within the paper cannot be fully tested theoretically and requires further testing the in real health and social care market to evidence its practicality, improved quality of care and financial benefits.

The paper highlights some potential limitations to the current NHS reforms: by integrating non-statutory services, planned efficiency savings may be optimised and service delivery improved.

Digitisation should not provoke fear. This paper looks at ways of making a digitisation project run smoothly and introduces the work of the Higher Education Digitisation Service (HEDS). Issues such as preparation, work flow issues and the decision to digitise in‐house or to outsource are discussed.

In response to the Three-Step-Approach (TSA) that Cortina, Pant, and Smith-Darden (this volume) have suggested, Chan (this volume) expressed his reservations regarding the usefulness of a procedure that explicitly ignores measurement considerations and does not include mean scores. In this reply, we argue that the purpose of TSA is heuristic in nature and does not involve statistical testing of assumptions. In this spirit, the software, illustrated by Grimm and McArdle (this volume), rounds out our more conceptual considerations.

The role of the learning disability (LD) nurse has developed and expanded significantly within recent years, especially their responsibility for delivering a variety of specialist treatment programmes. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the facilitation of Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTP) and the issues this raises in providing support for LD nurses.

This is an opinion paper and the views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any organisation or group with which the author is affiliated. The aims of this paper are: first, to explore the support needs of the LD nurse facilitators of SOTPs; second, to consider the practical implications of providing clinical supervision and support for LD nurse facilitators of SOTPs; and third, to highlight the need for further research in this area.

This paper does not contain original research findings but offers a discussion of the support needs of the LD nurse who facilitate SOTP, concentrating on the specific themes of training, clinical supervision and support.

Implications for clinical practice are identified and recommendations for further research are made.

Whilst this is not the first consideration of the support needs of facilitators of SOTPs, it offers a contribution to the discussion of how best to support the LD nurse to continue to deliver the high quality, specialist care for people with learning disabilities.

Although studies suggest alcohol abuse is not the major problem among offenders and others with intellectual disabilities (ID), it is still a significant problem. There are also suggestions that alcohol may have a more serious effect on those with ID. The purpose of this paper is to describe a treatment for alcohol-related difficulties designed for people with ID.

A programme for alcohol-related problems is described and four case studies are presented to illustrate the sessions and review the way in which people with ID have responded to the methods. The cases have a mixture of alcohol-related problems including anger, anxiety, social withdrawal and depression. The alcohol programme is coordinated with a range of person centred interventions for specific difficulties.

All cases responded to the programme positively. Two cases showed reductions in anger, two reported reductions in anxiety and one reported reductions in depression. All cases increased their alcohol knowledge considerably.

The programme seems promising in its approach to alcohol-related difficulties. It is noted that alcohol education alone is likely to improve participants’ wellbeing in the absence of coordinated intervention for other relevant personal difficulties. A controlled treatment trial for effectiveness is clearly required.

The paper describes a programme for alcohol-related problems and may be the first such programme that has contained pilot evaluation.

Over the last decade, latent growth modeling (LGM) utilizing hierarchical linear models or structural equation models has become a widely applied approach in the analysis of change. By analyzing two or more variables simultaneously, the current method provides a straightforward generalization of this idea. From a theory of change perspective, this chapter demonstrates ways to prescreen the covariance matrix in repeated measurement, which allows for the identification of major trends in the data prior to running the multivariate LGM. A three-step approach is suggested and explained using an empirical study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

1. INNOVATION IN ORGANIZATIONS: A MULTI-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE ON CREATIVITY

This section contains a range of topics from diverse, international, primary journals, including: an evaluation of PR effectiveness; a look at total quality management at Girobank, which was the first bank to win a British Quality Award; an examination of the principles of competitive marketing based on a case study; a discussion of how companies can sustain competitive advantage; and a report on retail‐oriented risk for bank branch operations.

Digitisation, as it will be explored in this issue of VINE, can be defined as the creation of an electronic version of an item such as a text, photograph, slide, illustration, microfilm or map. Combined with the forces of the Internet and CD‐ROM/DVD technology it offers the potential to allow previously inaccessible material to be viewed by fresh eyes and saved for posterity without risk of deterioration by handling or age.