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The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of developing a contemporary competency framework for admiral nurses in dementia care.

Information and evidence was gathered from research and policy literature regarding competencies to deliver advanced practice within dementia care. An online survey completed by 75 admiral nurses with follow-up interviews clarified current practice across the range of service contexts in which they work. A focus group (FG) of people living with dementia and family carers, and a reference group of practitioners helped to develop a competency framework which was refined through FGs with admiral nurses working in different areas.

The literature review, survey and interviews provided a framework grounded in up-to-date evidence and contemporary practice. There was broad agreement in the literature and the practitioners’ priorities regarding the core competencies of advanced practice, with constructive suggestions for making the framework useable in practice. This resulted in a robust framework articulating the competencies of admiral nurses which could be used for continuous professional development.

Engaging the admiral nurses ensured the competencies were contemporary, succinct and applicable within practice, and also cultivated a sense of ownership. Developing the competency framework with the admiral nurses not for them provides an approach which may have value for professionals undertaking a similar process in their specialist area. It is anticipated the competency framework will provide further evidence of the benefits of specialist nurse support for families affected by dementia.

Post-diagnostic dementia care is often fragmented in the United Kingdom, with great variation in provision. Recent policies suggest moving towards better community-based care for dementia; however, little is known on how this care is delivered. This study aimed to map the post-diagnostic dementia support provided in England a decade after the introduction of a National Dementia Strategy.

A mixed-methods e-survey (open Nov 2018–Mar 2019) of dementia commissioners in England recruited through mailing lists of relevant organisations was conducted. The authors descriptively summarised quantitative data and carried out thematic analysis of open-ended survey responses.

52 completed responses were received, which covered 82 commissioning bodies, with representation from each region in England. Respondents reported great variation in the types of services provided. Information, caregiver assessments and dementia navigation were commonly reported and usually delivered by the voluntary sector or local authorities. Integrated pathways of care were seen as important to avoid overlap or gaps in service coverage. Despite an increasingly diverse population, few areas reported providing dementia health services specifically for BME populations. Over half of providers planned to change services further within five years.

There is a need for greater availability of and consistency in services in post-diagnostic dementia care across England.

Post-diagnostic dementia care remains fragmented and provided by a wide range of providers in England.

Examines the impact performance appraisal has had, and is having, on public libraries. Considers appraisal in a broader context, discussing the effect political opinions and decisions have had on the way appraisal has been introduced into the public sector. Discusses the theory of appraisal in relation to what happens in practice using evidence from a case study carried out as part of a BA Librarianship at Loughborough University. Considers the purpose of appraisal and how it should be carried out in order to maximize its potential for improving individual and organizational performance. Suggests that appraisal in public libraries has a tendency to fail because not enough attention is given to defining the aim of appraisal, to ensuring communication channels are open and that proposed training is followed through. The design of an appraisal system can also cause problems if the specific nature of library work is not considered. Concludes that the external political and economic environment has significant implications that can make implementation of an appraisal system more difficult.

Stress damages us and our performance. It is a real part of most manager's experience and can be said to occur when significant demands exceed perceived management responsibilities and routines. Stress can be the essence of working life, and certainly need not always be damaging to us. But when it becomes excessive, it is something unwanted.

Assessment of executive functioning is an important element of a comprehensive assessment of intellectual abilities. Few assessments available are accessible for individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID) and none have population-specific norms. This paper aims to describe the adaptation of the behavioural assessment of dysexecutive syndrome (BADS).

Adaptations were made to the BADS tests to create the BADS – intellectual disabilities (BADS-ID). Data from three doctoral dissertations were combined to explore the utility, reliability, validity and component structure of the BADS-ID. Properties of the BADS-ID were compared with the Cambridge Executive Functioning Assessment (CEFA).

The BADS-ID is accessible to IQ range 50–70 and has a two-component structure. It has good inter-rater reliability, but poor internal consistency. It has a good face and content validity but evidence for concurrent and discriminative validity is weak. All properties are comparable to or better than the CEFA.

Further research is needed to improve reliability and validity. The development of an accessible test battery with known reliability and validity for individuals with ID should facilitate research into executive functioning in this population. There is the potential to develop population-specific norms from the data.

An accessible test battery for individuals with ID is helpful in clinical situations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the adaptation of the BADS for use with individuals with ID.

The purpose of the paper is to examine processes of entrepreneurial learning and leadership development (ELLD) for women involved in growth-oriented businesses. It considers how ELLD can be supported by building gender-aware ecosystems for growth.

Data are from a small-scale study of a growth accelerator program in Canada run by Alberta Women Entrepreneurs. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, drawing on interview, document, and observational data.

The study finds that three key activities – formal learning, informal learning and peer / community support – are central to women entrepreneurs’ learning and leadership development. In line with emerging scholarship, entrepreneurial learning is found to be strongly relational, with social capital playing a central role in the formation of human capital.

This study contributes to the understanding of the micro-foundations of growth, the processes involved in ELLD and the importance of developing gender-aware ecosystems.

The OCLC CJK Users Group has prepared a list of electronic datafiles for potential loading on to OCLC. The lists of resources are useful in Chinese, Japanese and Korean studies.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how high-performing schools develop and sustain improvement culture. While school culture has consistently been identified as an essential feature of high-performing schools, many of the ways in which culture shapes specific improvement efforts remain unclear. The paper draws on new research from social cognitive neuroscience and the anthropology and sociology of emotion to account for the relative impact of various meanings within school culture and how school commitment is enacted.

The analysis here draws on three years of ethnographic data collected in Harrison High School (HHS) in an urban public school district in River City, a large metropolitan area in the Midwestern USA. Though the school’s surrounding community had been socioeconomically depressed for many years, Harrison was selected for the study largely because of its steady improvement trajectory: in December, 2013, it was deemed a “Celebration” school under the state’s Multiple Measurement Rating system. The paper focuses on a period of time between 2013 and 2015, when the school was struggling to implement and localize a district-mandated push-in inclusion policy.

Study data suggest that the school’s eventual success in localizing the new inclusion policy was due in large part to a set of core interlocking feedback loops that generated specific emotionally charged meanings which guided its priorities, practices and direction. Specifically, the feedback loops explain how staff members and leaders generated and sustained empathy for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, optimism in their capabilities and motivation to help them learn and flourish. Furthermore they show how school leaders and staff members generated and sustained confidence and trust in their colleagues’ abilities to collaboratively learn and solve problems.

The model of the school’s emotional ecology presented here connects two domains of educational practice that are frequently analyzed separately: teaching and learning, and organization and leadership. The paper shows how several key features of high-performing schools are actually made and re-made through the everyday practices of leaders and staff members, including relational trust, academic optimism and collective efficacy. In sum, the charged meanings described here contributed to leaders’ and staff members’ commitment to the school, its students and each other – and what Florek (2016) has referred to as their “common moral purpose.”

This chapter explores the ethical challenges related to the study of children in highly complex and sensitive family circumstances where intimate partner violence has taken place. Drawing on eight months of ethnographic fieldwork at a women’s refuge in Denmark, the author unpacks and discusses three key ethical aspects of conducting research with children: gatekeepers and consent, researcher positionality, and participant confidentiality. These aspects highlight the centrality of trust when undertaking sensitive research with children. In qualitative research, trust is often described as an important aspect of the research process, but research rarely takes into account that trust can vary according to the relationship or research context. What spurred these reflections was questions asked by some of the mothers about what their child had told the author. Examples of this kind illustrate the complex role and positionality of the researcher when seeking to enter and explore the everyday lives of children living in complex family circumstances. Furthermore, the notion of trust brings attention to how different relationships of power – in this case between children and mothers – can influence the research encounter. The chapter concludes with a discussion of children’s own positionality in research about their experiences and life worlds, and calls for researchers to be ethically mindful about how powerful dynamics that emerge during research can support (or hinder) children’s rights as research participants.