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Follows the implementation of a quality programme through from start to finish. Introduces the approach of personalizing quality so that each individual takes an element of responsibility for the quality management system and highlights the importance of departmental qualities with appropriate measures as well. Finally, concludes with five key points for all those trainers tasked with carrying such a programme.

The rearing of food animals by intensive factory methods has received a great deal of publicity in recent months. This has induced the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food to set up a technical committee to examine the conditions in which livestock are raised and kept under systems of intensive husbandry, and to advise if standards should be set in the interests of their welfare. He announced this in Parliament on April 20 and hoped soon to name the chairman and other members of the committee. The committee will quickly note that most criticism has been directed at what many regard as inhumane methods, most of this coming from the heart rather than the head. Battery hens, fooled by changing periods of electric light, have increased their laying and since the broiler industry exploded into the food market only a few years ago, the small seasonal trade has become an all‐the‐year round trade of 100 million birds, a prodigious output that is still rising. This mass production of white meat had already made similar strides in the U.S.A. and a few continental countries a few years previously. Its commercial success, however, is undoubtedly due to the economics of the trade; that it is possible to sell poultry of relatively small size and uniform quality as cheap, or even cheaper, than butchers' meat. All this tends to encourage the application of the same intensive methods of production in the meat trade. Anything that can increase the amount of first‐class animal protein in a world rapidly growing short of it and at lower prices merits more than a sentimental appraisal.

Although diversification is now seen as an inevitable course for grocery retailers, Sainsbury's managing director Roy Griffiths suggests that in the 1980s companies may be less interested in diversification than in divestment. Mr Griffiths was speaking at the Institute of Grocery Distribution Convention in Brighton in April, shortly before his company released news of record figures for 1979–80. He regards earnings per share as a crucial factor in assessing company performance; Sainsbury have increased their real earnings by 4.2% per annum compound over the last seven years — and not, he insisted, at the expense of manufacturers.

This paper examines the social and institutional context of barriers to drug service throughcare and aftercare for prisoners in England and Wales, including those that specifically affect Black and minority ethnic prisoners. A research project in 2004 reviewed relevant literature and statistical data, mapped prison drug services, and sought the perspectives of relevant stakeholders: in total, 334 individuals were recruited to the study. The methodology facilitates analysis of the structure of services and the agency prisoner in accessing them. Recommendations are made for changes to the structure and delivery of prison drug services.

DURING the past six years, a considerable amount of progress has been made, in certain directions, towards improving methods of library work. The improvements introduced have mostly come from the younger generation of English librarians, and it must also be added that this enthusiasm for betterment has been confined to a very small circle of young librarians. The majority of British librarians have apparently remained untouched by the movement towards more perfect methods compassed by their fellows, and it is doubtful if, in spite of the remarkably good work accomplished by a few “earnest men in various parts of the country, there is not, on the whole, a great preponderance of professional apathy in regard to burning questions of librarianship. The proof of this is only too obvious. Anyone who has watched the dwindling attendances at monthly Library Association meetings must have been struck by the fact as indicative of weakness or defectiveness somewhere. No professional association, with professional interests at stake, is going to languish, and practically sputter out, unless the members are bored, or indifferent, or in some way apathetic. For nearly four years, the interest in the Library Association meetings has been declining, and although the annual gatherings have been more or less successful, thanks to the energy of the provincial members, it must be remembered that the monthly meetings have been very badly attended, although their interest has been as great as heretofore—which, however, is not saying much. Recently, this lack of interest has assumed the form of a kind of epidemic rot, which has attacked other associations as well as the parent one. We hear of one kindred society having entirely suspended its meetings for months, while we read of another which can hardly get an attendance large enough to carry a vote of thanks to the speaker. When we hear it stated that the interest in the Library Association meetings is so languid that even the readers of papers do not trouble to appear, and that about half‐a‐dozen members is all that can be mustered on some occasions, it must be obvious to all that there is something radically wrong. We have heard it suggested that the Library Association meetings take place on an impossible day, and that the notice sent out is insufficient because only published in the Record, which nobody reads ! There may be an element of truth in these suggestions, but hardly enough to account for the all‐round apathy which undoubtedly exists. The stimulus derived from the Leeds meeting has apparently evaporated already, and beyond a decidedly more healthy response to the examination scheme of the Association, it is hard to understand in which direction activity of any kind exists. Comparing the professional work on this side of the Atlantic with that of the United States, it must be confessed that the comparison is very unfavourable to the British case. In America there are dozens of flourishing associations, counting their membership in thousands, while here, there are some half‐dozen associations, including the Library Association itself, which can only muster among them a little more than five hundred members. This is a poor record when one considers the possibilities, and if librarianship is to become a more powerful factor in the educational development of the future, it is evident that a strong effort must be made all round to double the membership of all the existing associations to begin with, and then to interest and retain the members who join by means of live meetings, publications, and other enterprizes. It will not suffice to rest on present achievements if librarianship is to be recognized as a greater power in the State than hitherto, and for this reason it behoves those librarians who have any “go” left in them, to try and pull up the existing machinery to a higher state of efficiency.

As the social care system ‐ and potentially the health care system and other public services ‐ move increasingly towards a model of personalised support, questions arise about whether and how it can work for people with multiple and complex needs. The evidence is that it is possible to achieve this, and that the outcomes and quality of life can be dramatically improved, but many councils and their partners have yet to move into this demanding activity, and face considerable obstacles in the form of conventional approaches to policy and practice if and when they do. This article draws on the findings of a special study undertaken for the Commission for Social Care Inspection. Alongside some of the difficulties of personalising support for people with multiple and complex needs are inspirational stories of innovative developments which have transformed the lives of people and their carers.

Specifically feminist perspectives are largely absent from the developing discourse of elder abuse in the United Kingdom. This paper describes how focus groups were used to gather older women's understandings and experiences of elder abuse. A perspective on elder abuse that prioritises relationships, rather than action or behaviour, is proposed as central to assessing the relations of abuse in later life.

Widely varying rates for the prevalence of psychiatric disorder have been reported in the previous published literature. The aims of this study were to describe the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in a random sample of adults with moderate to profound learning disabilities living in the community, and to explore the socio‐clinical factors associated with psychiatric disorders.A process of active case finding was undertaken to identify adults with learning disabilities. A random sample of 240 was taken of whom 121 were found to have moderate to profound learning disabilities at interview. Information was collected on socio‐demographics, service use, physical health, medication use, and life events. Standardised instruments were used to assess psychiatric symptoms, problem behaviour, and severity of learning disabilities. Diagnoses were generated using four diagnostic systems: clinical, DC‐LD, DCR‐10 and DSM‐IV.Higher rates of psychiatric disorder are reported than in previous published studies in the general population and in studies with people with learning disabilities living in the community. Further investigation of the effect of diagnostic system on prevalence rates, and associations of psychiatric disorder are warranted.

Starting with the fundamental question of ‘Why change at all?’ E Roy Griffiths goes on to examine a number of problems faced by the retail business in the planning and implementation of change. Drawing on his experience with Sainsbury's, he considers the strict administrative demarcations which had to be drawn in the hypermarket partnership with BHS, he looks at the problems encountered in the change of image which Sainsbury's had to effect for Discount 78, and regards, with some circumspection, the changes which are increasingly initiated by government intervention. What follows is a shortened version of a talk given to the IGD Convention in Brighton.