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The physical health inequalities experienced by people with severe mental health problems are now well recognised. Lifestyle factors, in particular high rates of smoking, have been identified as a major contributor to the raised mortality and morbidity in this population. A programme was developed in West Surrey to address smoking cessation support needs in people with mental health problems. Mental health workers were trained to deliver stop smoking support and a pilot programme of one‐to‐one stop smoking support was established. An evaluation was conducted using semi‐structured interviews to explore clients' experiences of receiving the one‐to‐one support. Service users positively evaluated the support they had received: in particular, the needs‐led, flexible approach. The study provides further insights into the views and experiences of people with mental health problems undertaking a smoking cessation programme.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a case study where student peer mentors were employed to motivate and assist undergraduates to secure optional professional placement positions.

The paper describes the reasons for establishing the project, the recruitment and work carried out by the mentors. It explains a survey of students who had not undertaken placements the previous year to try to identify the activities that would be most effective on the part of the mentors. The mentors, together with the placement co‐coordinator, devised support ranging from one‐to‐one mentoring, drop in “clinics”, online support and large group talks. It discusses the results of this work and evaluates the responses of both mentors and mentees.

Those mentees who took part in the mentoring were typically those who were already enthusiastic about placement opportunities. The majority of students did not take advantage of mentoring support, including support on a drop‐in basis or one‐to‐one basis or support available online through a social network. It was found that the mentoring scheme did not significantly affect the proportion of students seeking or securing placements. However, the mentors themselves gained tremendous benefits from the mentoring scheme, in particular developing their communication skills and confidence.

A thorough survey of potential mentees was not carried out after the project to ascertain the reasons for their lack of engagement.

There are two separate implications of this project. First, the mentoring scheme was valuable primarily for the mentors and not the mentees; and second, the level of support provided by the University is not the main factor in the low take up of optional placement opportunities. If these are felt to be sufficiently valuable for the student learning experience they need to be compulsory with appropriate support available – a mentoring scheme might then be of far more value to mentees.

There is very little published concerning the use of mentoring to facilitate work‐based learning so this paper is valuable for that alone. Furthermore, most published work on mentoring is located in the “best practice” school of pedagogical research where it is implicitly assumed that one must report on the success of an intervention. Frequently it is more valuable to examine more unexpected results of an intervention. This paper however shows much greater benefits achieved by the mentors than the mentees.

This article aims to investigate some of the pitfalls and potential of supporting people on a one‐to‐one basis in their community in order to stimulate improvements in practice.

The article discusses a range of situations via several vignettes and draws advice out of these for support workers and their managers. Staff are encouraged to reflect on their approach to providing support in community settings in the context of person‐centred planning and Wolfensberger's theories.

Staff are encouraged to plan carefully so that they can hold back from doing too much for the person, engage as full participants rather than passive bystanders, and seek opportunities for the person to develop informal connections in the community. Managers are encouraged to develop risk management systems that promote contact with ordinary citizens and a culture of community participation through training and mentoring support staff.

Whilst most support staff willingly recount stories that illustrate the complexity of providing 1:1 support in the community, they have minimal access to publications, training or supervision on this topic. The article will stimulate further reflection by managers and front line staff so that people are supported more effectively in the community of their choice.

The aim of this paper is to examine whether an information literacy course/module is an appropriate intervention during the initial months of a humanities PhD, and if there is more that can be learned from the course participants that might provide a better understanding of their information behaviour.

A questionnaire was distributed to new humanities PhD students prior to their attending the course. A second questionnaire was distributed to those who had completed the course in full. Interviews were conducted with six participants to gain a richer understanding of how their information-seeking needs had evolved.

Despite the relatively generic nature of the module, and the diversity of humanities research, the course had clear benefits for the participants. In their first year, scoping their topic and finding quality information can pose a challenge. The participants reported that the most appropriate time to attend the course is during the initial months. Some preferred to attend (or repeat) particular units later as workshops. The most valued elements were those that helped them bridge initial gaps. Face-to-face delivery is preferred. There is some potential for further one-to-one contact with librarians and additional follow-up workshops.

This study can inform how librarians can better support PhD researchers in the humanities.

The study is based around an established and accredited humanities PhD course that has already been adapted in various ways in terms of content and timing of delivery. Drawing on Kuhlthau's “Information Search Process”, the study seeks a deeper understanding of a specific humanities group during the initial months of their PhD research.

The purpose of this paper is to share reflections and key learning points from the experience of offering peer support within a crisis house setting.

A reflective account of experiences of offering one-to-one peer support and the learning that has been taken from these experiences.

Key reflections centre on the importance of being emotionally honest and supporting personal well-being while offering peer support.

While there is a great deal written about the theory of peer support work, few first persons accounts of peer working have been published. This paper provides important insights into the nature of peer support work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges faced by tutors who were providing remedial literacy support to New Zealand apprentices.

As part of a wider, triangulated study of employers, tutors, apprentices, and industry training coordinators, the author undertook a qualitative analysis of ten in‐depth interviews with apprentices’ literacy tutors.

It was found that three issues strongly affected what tutors could achieve for their students. First, tutors experienced substantial role ambiguity; second, apprentices were working in oral and experiential modes more than in print‐literate modes; and third, tutors found they had to employ an instrumental approach to their teaching in response to the situation they encountered. For example, this often meant serving as a scribe for their student rather than being able to focus on building the apprentice's print literacy.

It is possible that the difficult situation faced by these literacy tutors may be replicated in similar situations where funding is insufficient to build competence in literacy.

The constraints on what the tutors could actually achieve within tight funding limits meant that most students, while on track to successfully complete their apprenticeship, still remained of low print literacy.

The study reveals how tutors’ instrumental approach ran counter to their traditional ethical stance associated with building empowered, competent citizens who could participate fully in their civic, social and economic settings. It also shows how this literacy support enhanced the apprentices’ confidence, yet they probably became further reinforced in their little‐changed, oral work culture.

The purpose of this paper is to present insights into the way in which system change can be activated around the provision of services and support for people experiencing multiple disadvantages in an urban setting.

This paper is informed by a thematic analysis of reflections, reports, learning logs, interviews and experiences of those “activating” system change in the Golden Key partnership in Bristol between 2014 and 2021.

Four themes are identified, including “creating the conditions for change”, “framing your involvement”, “investing in relationships” and “reflective practice and learning”. For each of these, an illustrative vignette is provided.

Practical recommendations and reflective questions are provided with suggestions of further considerations for applying this approach in different contexts.

This paper describes an original approach of activating and supporting people to do system change to improve the lives of people facing multiple disadvantages.

A research paper on the design and implementation of an e-learning resource responding to the globalisation of education. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the challenges presented in learning and teaching on how to support international postgraduate (PG) students undertaking the specific task of a dissertation.

Using findings from 250 PG students, 40 supervisors and two module tutors the research identified the content and language issues faced by students and recognised the need to design an enabler supporting the latter as independent learners and the academic staff delivering support.

The e-learning tool provides an independent learning tool which addresses student concerns relating to the process and content of structuring a dissertation and the function of language. Initial responses have been positive from both staff and students in respect to providing a source of student support and feedback.

The research shows how the Dissertation Game Model (DGM), evolved into an e-learning resource supporting student understanding of the content, structure, planning and writing of a dissertation. The e-learning tool focuses on helping international students understand what the generic contents of each chapter of a dissertation should contain and supports them in engaging in research as a transferable skill.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the development of the final outputs of a research project looking at partnerships between technology‐based start‐ups and large firms (“asymmetric” partnerships). It presents the stage of the research aimed at understanding how best to design outputs to assist firms in managing such partnerships.

A combination of company case studies, company workshops, an end‐user survey and pilot dissemination programme were used to identify an appropriate form for the packaging and delivery of the research findings (i.e. what problems can be encountered in such partnerships, and what approaches companies have implemented to overcome these problems).

A range of approaches for overcoming the problems of managing partnerships between firms whose age and size are markedly different were catalogued. The research presented in this paper revealed that companies felt best able to learn from the experiences of others through a combination of direct support, multi‐company workshops, and online access to selected materials.

The generalisability of the findings may be limited by the fact that the majority of the organisations collaborating in this research either were located in the high‐technology business cluster in and around the city of Cambridge, UK or had formed partnerships with companies in this geographic region.

Partnerships between technology‐based start‐ups and technology‐intensive large firms can provide an effective means of accessing and integrating the complementary assets required to bring a novel technology to market. This research will help firms overcome the numerous challenges involved in setting up and managing such partnerships by providing stakeholders with easier access to academic research findings. It will assist researchers who are considering how to disseminate research outputs to industry.

There is a strong body of work on improving the performance of partnerships in general, but less on overcoming the practical challenges of managing partnerships between firms of markedly different age and scale. In addition, the selection of the optimum process for ensuring that the findings of such research are used to support implementation remains a topic of debate. This work helps to address both gaps.