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The costs associated with staffing acute mental health wards is the largest expenditure in the inpatient budget. Exploring skill mix and its impact on outcomes, particularly service user outcomes should be of interest to all stakeholders involved in the commissioning, delivery and receipt of acute mental health care. This paper describes the findings of a literature and practice review of initiatives undertaken to improve staffing and skill mix, and their impact on service user outcomes. The practice review was necessary due to the paucity of published research in this area. Both research and practice initiatives do not appear to be driven by service user need. This results in a restricted and service driven range of outcome measures being used. The paper concludes by proposing recommendations for future workforce development in acute mental health settings.

The purpose of this paper is to create a model that compares the effects of product content differentiation and service content differentiation on small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) perceived importance of customer reference marketing in foreign markets.

A theoretical model is developed and tested through multiple regression and mediation analysis, on an effective sample of 188 Swedish SMEs.

The results show that foreign market business assignments characterized by differentiated services make companies relatively more dependent on relationship learning and customer reference marketing. By contrast, situations of differentiated product content correlate negatively with customer reference marketing.

Reference customers can function as vehicles for international expansion when marketing offerings are complex. The findings imply that in service settings, SMEs need to maintain learning regimes with foreign market customers to effectively use them as references to win new business.

The study applies a service perspective to explain the contingencies of customer reference marketing, particularly in international business settings. The study contributes to international small business literature and research focusing on service–firm internationalization by explaining the marketing mechanisms at play in the internationalization of SMEs. In so doing, the findings can enrich relationship and network perspectives of internationalization and add a missing link to studies on networking and internationalization.

The entrepreneur is the main decision-maker in small and medium-sized enterprises and is the principal force in the implementation of a firm's international strategy. Research has paid limited attention to the intangible aspects of human capital, namely behavioural competencies that may have an impact on the entrepreneur's ability to take advantage of international opportunities. This study addresses this gap, identifying the behavioural competencies that distinguish entrepreneurs who pursue a stronger internationalisation expansion beyond the European market.

A competency modelling process is implemented for a sample of Italian entrepreneurs. Data on behavioural competencies are obtained through the coding of behavioural event interviews administrated to the entrepreneurs. Export intensity is adopted as a performance criterion to classify the entrepreneurs.

Three behavioural competencies (change catalyst, teamwork and organisational learning orientation) emerged as more significantly activated by entrepreneurs who show a higher export intensity in the global market.

The exploratory nature of the study, conducted in a small sample and in a specific geographical area, may reduce the generalisability of the findings.

Entrepreneurs can become aware of the behavioural competencies needed for the implementation of internationalisation processes. Additionally, training programmes can be designed to promote the development of these behaviours.

Bridging the literature on international entrepreneurship, cross-cultural studies and competency-based research, this study highlights the role of behavioural competencies in the internationalisation process from a micro level of analysis. This article proposes a competency framework that can be adopted to assess a broader portfolio of entrepreneurs' behaviours.

Using a mixed methodology comprising interviews, case file analysis and descriptive statistics, this study aims to examine the experiences of all 43 young people in Wales subject to secure accommodation orders between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2018.

Children in the UK aged 10–17 years who are deemed to be at a significant level of risk to themselves or others may be subject to a secure accommodation order, leading to time spent in a secure children’s home (SCH) on welfare grounds. Following a rise in the number of children in Wales referred to SCHs for welfare reasons, this paper describes these young people’s journeys into, through and out of SCHs, giving insight into their experiences and highlighting areas for policy and practice improvements.

Findings indicate that improvements in mental health support and placement availability are key in improving the experiences of this particularly vulnerable group of young people throughout their childhood.

Other practical implications of the study’s findings, such as improvements in secure transport arrangements, are also discussed.

While the findings are limited by the reliance on self-report methods and the size of the study, namely, the small number of young people with experience of SCHs who were able to participate, the findings build on the existing knowledge base around children’s residential accommodation and provide new insights into how best to support these children.

Intra and inter-organisational learning holds important consequences for official agencies’ capabilities to reduce harm, particularly in the field of safeguarding children. A range of formal learning mechanisms exist but as these can be limited there is a case for expanding the learning opportunities relied upon. The concepts of “red teaming” and “alternative analysis” though relatively well established in other sectors are under-developed, under-used and under-promoted within policing. They offer flexible conceptual and practical resources that aim to challenge established models, thinking and practices. Policing organisations would benefit from institutionalising alternative forms of analysis though this would involve an attitudinal commitment and shift. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Documentary analysis and reflection.

Consideration of the red team approach by police and partners offers an alternative approach to effective organisational learning to prevent repeating similar mistakes uncovered by Serious Case Reviews.

This paper will allow practitioners to reflect upon current serious reviews of cases and offers an alternative and effective way of improving partner agencies capabilities to reduce harm.

The purpose of this paper is to present a novel online video-based approach to supervision for statutory caseworkers. Caseworkers recorded a video of their meetings with their clients and sent the video to their supervisor. The supervisor selected clips in the video. They held an online meeting where they reviewed the clips, and the supervisor gave feedback and they reflected together. The caseworker then used what they had learnt in their future practice. The caseworker then recorded a new meeting, and the supervision cycle restarted.

In total, 11 statutory caseworkers from three municipalities in the Copenhagen area participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews. The interviews focused on the professional learning and challenges caseworkers faced in relation to participating in the supervision process.

The caseworkers reported that they used the method to assess their own practice in a more realistic way as the use of video gave a more accurate image than merely recalling what had occurred. They reflected about and developed their relationship with clients, their conversational style and use of communication techniques, skills in relation to running meetings, and skills in relation to eliciting the young person’s perspective. The caseworkers were anxious when they received their first feedback from supervisors, but this diminished. The focus on supporting clients in their personal development challenged caseworkers who identified as having an administrative rather than interventional role. Some found the online meeting technology difficult to master.

This study presents and explores the use of a novel approach to statutory casework supervision.

The aim of this article is to identify the issues of short food supply chains (SFSCs) in three countries of Central and Eastern Europe, i.e. Lithuania, Latvia and Poland, to compare the barriers to shortening food supply chains and to indicate business models for short supply chains.

Within the AgroBRIDGES project, the authors organized local co-creation workshops from August to September 2021 in 12 European regions and countries, engaging 150+ agrifood stakeholders of the project’s local communities.

The development potential of SFSCs in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland is high and seems to be growing every year. Currently, the development potential of SFSCs in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland is stimulated more by social trends than by public support. Traditional business models based on the distribution of food products through local and regional markets have a definitely diminishing potential.

Although this article covers an existing gap in the literature, it also has several limitations that may serve as an inspiration for future research. First, the results draw on a sample of agrifood value chain stakeholders in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland; hence, the findings might be industry specific. Therefore, future studies should explore this topic on wider target groups or different industries. Moreover, the method is qualitative and could be supplemented with additional quantitative analysis of similar tools or the experience of other agrifood companies from European countries.

The article seeks to build bridges between consumers and producers by supporting SFSCs through a systemic, holistic and multi-actor approach.

The study elaborates on the under-researched topic of SFSCs in the context of barriers to shortening food supply chains and business models for short supply chains in Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

The statements which have recently been made in various quarters to the effect that Danish butter is losing its hold on the English market, that its quality is deteriorating, and that the sale is falling off, are not a little astonishing in face of the very strong and direct evidence to the contrary furnished by the official records. As an example of the kind of assertions here alluded to may be instanced an opinion expressed by a correspondent of the British Food Journal, who, in a letter printed in the March number, stated that “My own opinion is that the Danes are steadily losing their good name for quality, owing to not using preservatives and to their new fad of pasteurising… .”

Identifies key activities that network users can perform in order to use the network effectively. Offers recommended reading, from beginner to expert user status. Explains some commonly used terms (e.g. Turbo Gopher with Veronica!). Lists useful Internet resources.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the hypothesis that the university context may partially determine the growth of university spin-offs (USOs), with a cross-national analysis and using an “interactionist” approach.

Two samples of USOs, from Spain and Italy (531 and 952 firms, respectively), were examined over the 2005-2013 period. Multilevel modelling was applied to empirically test the hypotheses.

The results confirmed that the university context is a critical and effective element for explaining USOs’ growth. The university context affected USOs’ growth only for the Spanish firms, while for the Italian spin-offs the evidence does not report a significant determining influence of the university context. This finding may be interpreted as the localization externalities, determined by the Spanish universities, have a more effective impact at firm level compared with those generated by the Italian universities.

The paper provides evidence that the university context has a significant role in supporting USOs’ growth in Spain, but not in Italy. This finding, together with the fact that the Italian USOs showed lower growth rates over the period of analysis, may suggest that greater involvement by the Italian parent universities is needed to foster USOs’ growth. The main point to be underlined to decision makers is that policies aimed at fostering USOs need the active involvement of the parent university in the whole growth process of the nascent firm, rather than just in the USO creation process.

A multilevel approach provides both methodological and theoretical contributions to the study of USOs’ growth, which was adopted as an “interactionist” approach is recommended by literature. In addition, a cross-national approach allows for exploration of the actual effect of the university on the growth of USOs, taking into account international differences.