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Individuals with intellectual disabilities who are users of day and residential services will often be assigned at least one “keyworker”, a staff member who is expressly responsive to their needs and responsible for co-ordinating services with them. Keyworkers are often given their role because it is a norm in their organisation. However, given the emotionally intensive workload involved in co-ordinating care for a single individual, little attention is given to the potential stress burden of being a keyworker. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A cross-sectional survey study was conducted of professionals’ perceptions of the keyworker role and of levels of workplace well-being. The authors first examine differences between keyworkers and their colleagues along measures of role perception and well-being. The authors then present a new measure of keyworkers’ duties and boundaries (Key-DAB) capturing perceptions of the keyworker role by keyworkers and other staff. The measure was administered to a sample of staff (n=69) from an Irish provider of services for adults with intellectual disabilities. Alongside the new scale, the authors administered established measures of workplace well-being and locus of control (LoC) to examine construct validity and assess if perception of keyworking could be related to stress.

Some differences were detected between keyworkers and non-keyworkers: keyworkers had more internally oriented LoC and experienced lower work pressure than non-keyworking colleagues. The Key-DAB measure possessed favourable psychometric properties, including high internal reliability. External validity was also shown as keyworkers’ scale scores were related to LoC and to role demands. Results suggested: that keyworkers who are clear about what is expected of the keyworker are more satisfied with their role and perceive keyworking as beneficial to them; that role ambiguity and role conflict can undo these potential benefits and render the keyworker’s role a potentially hazardous one.

The authors recommend that employers provide clear guidelines and explicit training to keyworkers and suggest that the measures may be effective tools for ongoing assessment of keyworkers’ role clarity.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the necessary or sufficient methodological elements contributing to benchmarking's effectiveness and to establish them within an acceptable theoretical framework: a theory of benchmarking.

A causal approach is applied to organizational benchmarking's current definitions and implementation frameworks. The resulting theoretical framework is compared with current benchmarking praxis to explain its effectiveness and satisfy historical criticisms. Supervenience and entailment relationships between benchmarking parties, within the umbrella of Peircean Causation, determines the feasibility of a benchmarking proposition.

Benchmarking effectiveness can be established from an organizational axiom and five logical conditions. This paper proposes a new encompassing definition of benchmarking, reduces its typology to a single form, explains current practices and addresses historical criticisms. The logical conditions also explain the effectiveness of business excellence frameworks such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and ISO 9000.

A theoretical framework for benchmarking provides a platform for extending the theory of organizational improvement.

A theoretical framework for benchmarking has potential to enhance organizational sustainability by reducing wasted effort.

The research establishes a new definition of benchmarking and the necessary and sufficient conditions for its effectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to capitalise on three waves of longitudinal data from a cohort of 4,351 secondary school pupils to examine the effects on individuals’ cannabis use uptake of both peer cannabis use and position within a peer network.

Both cross-sectional and individual fixed effects models are used to estimate the effect on cannabis use of nominated friends’ cannabis use, of reciprocity and transitivity of nominations across the friendship cluster, and of interactions between these nominated friends. Post hoc analyses parsed the behaviour of reciprocating and non-reciprocating friends.

Cannabis use varied depending on the stability of friendship network and the degree of reciprocity and interconnectedness within the group. Behavioural influence was strong, but interaction effects were observed between the prevalence of cannabis use among friends, the structure of the friendship group and ego’s proximity to group members. These interactions demonstrate that behavioural influence is more salient in more cohesive groups. When reciprocating and non-reciprocating friends’ mean cannabis use were separated, influence from reciprocating friends was estimated at twice the magnitude of other friends.

While preventing any one individual from using cannabis is likely to have a multiplier effect on classmates, the bonds and interactions between classmates will determine which classmates are affected by this multiplier and the salience of that effect.

Aarhus Kommunes Biblioteker (Teknisk Bibliotek), Ingerslevs Plads 7, Aarhus, Denmark. Representative: V. NEDERGAARD PEDERSEN (Librarian).

The purpose of this paper is to review the epistemology of benchmarking and identify methodological elements of a theory of benchmarking.

A thematic approach is applied to origins, primal and functional definitions of benchmarking.

Benchmarking remains theoretically underdetermined, with publications focusing on pragmatism and praxis rather than epistemology. Analysis of the literature leads to a new definition of benchmarking focusing around the teleological processes that lead to state‐transformation of organizations.

A theoretical foundation for benchmarking should be consistent with current organizational paradigms. Going forward the paper aims to develop a theory of benchmarking based on illustrative model derived from the thematic review.

The paper initiates the development of a more rigorous theoretical base for future benchmarking practice, which will strengthen organizations' business cases for undertaking such processes.

Recasts much of the extant literature in beginning to focus on the fundamentals of benchmarking.

The Glasgow acute addiction liaison nurse service provides a unique service to patients with alcohol and drug issues who are admitted to general hospitals in the Glasgow City area. It offers guidance on withdrawal management, educates patients and staff and provides a facility to refer to appropriate community services. Since its foundation in 2005, patient referrals have increased by more than 3,000. Additionally, it has taken on a greater educational role and is more involved in research and evaluation.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content, purpose and effectiveness of the handover of information between care home staff beginning and completing a shift.

This was an exploratory study drawing on ethnographic methods. A total of 27 interviews with a range of care home staff, including managers, registered nurses, senior care workers and care workers were undertaken in five care homes selected to give a good contrast in terms of size, ownership, shift patterns and type of handover.

Most handovers were short – lasting 15 min or so – and were held in the office or secluded area in which staff could talk privately. They lasted longer in one home in which the incoming and outgoing shifts physically visited each resident’s room and the communal spaces. Staff felt that handovers were important for the efficient running of the home as well as to alert everyone to changes in a resident’s health or important events, such as a hospital appointment. In one home, handheld devices enabled staff to follow a resident’s care plan and update what was happening in real time.

This was a small scale study based on data from a limited number of care homes.

The increasing popularity of 12 h shifts means that many homes only hold two short handovers early in the morning and in the evening when the night staff arrive. There appears to be a trend to reduce the number of staff paid to attend handover. Despite this, handovers remain an important component of the routine of a care home. The information contained in handover relates to the running of the care home, as well as residents’ wellbeing, suggesting that, while their content overlaps with written records in the home, they are not superfluous.

Although the literature on handovers in hospitals is extensive, this appears to be the first published study of handover practices in care homes.