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The purpose of this paper is to document augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) training provision by clinical services in England.

A questionnaire was used to obtain the following information concerning AAC training provision; frequency, length, type, content and cost, trainee occupations and numbers, and future training priorities, and information concerning training providers – service type, geographical area.

In total, 98 clinical service training providers in England responded. Services commonly reported providing AAC training to speech and language therapists, teaching assistants and teachers. Training around “use of specific AAC products, systems and technology” and “introducing/awareness raising of AAC products” were rated as high priority for future training and were two of the three subject areas where services reported the highest percentage of training. Training was predominantly provided at a foundation (basic) level.

There is no consensus on the amount or content of AAC training which professionals in England must receive. Evidence suggests that AAC training for pre-qualification professionals is limited and this paper has identified variation in the amount and type of post-qualification AAC training. While knowledge concerning specific AAC systems is necessary, focussing training primarily on this area may not address critical gaps in knowledge. There is a need for specific recommendations regarding AAC training for professionals in this field, to ensure professionals can fully support people who use AAC.

The phenomenon of conversion is usually associated with religion. This paper points out that it has close parallels in romantic love and in political and academic life. It goes on to maintain that the salesman too is an evangelist and that the conversion of the customer or prospect is vital not only to much legitimate selling but to many successful frauds. It concludes by arguing that the conversion of prospects can have protective effects for the fraudster even when his enterprise later fails, since the truly converted are reluctant to believe that he could be a cheat Since many substantial frauds also involve elements of legitimate business activity, this increases the fraudster's chances of succeeding in the struggle for his good name in the politics of morality.

This paper maintains that regulatory effectiveness can be understood in terms of two models of regulation, the enforcement and the regulatory. Further, effective regulation is much influenced by the strengths and weaknesses of regulatory agencies, their regulating grasp.

This paper looks at how the new money laundering regulations are likely to work, not in the light of the stringent penalties for failing to observe them, but of the practicalities of implementation. These include the traditional concern with speed and discretion in banking transactions, the lack of capacity of the reporting authority the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS), and of the supervisory authority the Bank of England, the risk of regulatory arbitrage and the feasibility of sanctioning individual bank employees for lax observation of the regulations. Finally the implications of partial success of the regime are evaluated in terms of the increased pressure upon launderers to find an outlet for their money.

In a recent paper Adams begins by noting that the French term for compliance, déontologie, is explicitly moral in character, being the logic of obligation and permissibility, but goes on to analyse compliance at length in terms of risk in a morally neutral fashion. He concludes by comparing this approach to the analysis of risk undertaken by many businesses, and notably by banks as lenders, and suggests that this is a route to gaining acceptance of the practical importance of compliance. It is preferable, he points out, to the attitude that perceives compliance as an arbitrary, externally imposed set of demands, since risks can be specified and engaged with.

The present state of film information is nothing short of chaotic. Individual organizations do sometimes keep records of films in their own fields of interest and occasionally publish these lists. The Educational Foundation for Visual Aids has catalogues of films of use in direct teaching; the Royal Institute of Chemistry has published a list of films on chemistry; the Scientific Film Association has published many catalogues on different subjects but these are restricted—because the Association lacks funds—to subjects on which another body is prepared to spend money. The British Film Institute has extensive records but these exist only in the form of its own card indexes and are available only at the Institute's premises. If information is to be wholly useful, it must be freely available and known to be available. The haphazard nature of current sources of film information makes it extremely difficult for the outsider to use them.

This edition's spotlight on services tells the story of how two service users got involved with the Blenheim Project, a London‐based programme designed for crack/cocaine users. The Blenheim Project encourages users to get involved with the Project, offering invaluable experience, supervision and support alongside counselling and alternative therapies, day programmes and dropins. After decades of drug addiction, Tim Sampey and Terry Swinton, two former drug users tell Michael Clarke their personal accounts of the chain of events that led to their involvement with the Project.

The aim of this study is to explore short‐term outcomes of communication aid provision from the perspective of children with complex communication needs.

A total of ten children were interviewed at two time points. The first interviews took place before or within two weeks of the arrival of a new communication aid. A second follow‐up interview was carried out between six and ten weeks later. Initial interviews explored children's views concerning their ability to engage in school activities that they deemed important but difficult to achieve. First interviews also examined children's self‐perceptions related to their self‐efficacy and self‐esteem, and perceptions of others' attitudes towards themselves. Children's views concerning the likely impact of the new communication aid on taking part in activities and their self‐concepts were also explored. The follow‐up interviews asked children to reflect on the short‐term impact of the new communication aid.

Children reported expected and unexpected positive changes at follow‐up. Notably, unanticipated and undesirable changes were also reported.

The paper addresses the critical issue of early outcomes following communication aid provision from the viewpoint of children themselves.

This paper reviews the issues surrounding jury trials in fraud cases in the context of the Home Office's consultation document in early 1998. It includes an account of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and concludes that a greater willingness to use regulatory institutions to deal with misconduct is essential to permitting the SFO, as the leading fraud prosecution agency, to discharge its responsibilities effectively.

Representatives from 28 professional and chief officer associations recently attended the first meeting of its kind, hosted by the Local Government Training Board in London. The meeting was called to look at the experience of the professional bodies in promoting management training and development activities, and to explore their needs for the 1990s. LGTB Director Michael Clarke said that the Board knew many of the organisations were actively concerned about management as well as professional development. He pointed out that there was still much to be done if local government were to have sufficient people of the right calibre to manage its services through continuing rapid change. He challenged the meeting to look to the new kind of professional needed for the 1990s, and asked whether the organisations represented existed to defend the status quo or to promote a new breed of manager. Professor John Stewart helped those attending define a new professionalism by suggesting that the present boundaries and single career model were inhibiting and outdated. He stressed: