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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the content, purpose and effectiveness of the handover of information between care home staff beginning and completing a shift.

This was an exploratory study drawing on ethnographic methods. A total of 27 interviews with a range of care home staff, including managers, registered nurses, senior care workers and care workers were undertaken in five care homes selected to give a good contrast in terms of size, ownership, shift patterns and type of handover.

Most handovers were short – lasting 15 min or so – and were held in the office or secluded area in which staff could talk privately. They lasted longer in one home in which the incoming and outgoing shifts physically visited each resident’s room and the communal spaces. Staff felt that handovers were important for the efficient running of the home as well as to alert everyone to changes in a resident’s health or important events, such as a hospital appointment. In one home, handheld devices enabled staff to follow a resident’s care plan and update what was happening in real time.

This was a small scale study based on data from a limited number of care homes.

The increasing popularity of 12 h shifts means that many homes only hold two short handovers early in the morning and in the evening when the night staff arrive. There appears to be a trend to reduce the number of staff paid to attend handover. Despite this, handovers remain an important component of the routine of a care home. The information contained in handover relates to the running of the care home, as well as residents’ wellbeing, suggesting that, while their content overlaps with written records in the home, they are not superfluous.

Although the literature on handovers in hospitals is extensive, this appears to be the first published study of handover practices in care homes.

The involvement of patients or members of the public within public health, health and social care and addictions services is growing in the UK and internationally but is less common in gambling support services. The purpose of this study was to explore Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) infrastructures and engagement channels used in health and care services and debate their transferability to the gambling support sector (including research, education and treatment).

A narrative review examined data from six English language electronic databases, NHS evidence and grey literature covering the period 2007–2019. We identified 130 relevant items from UK literature. A workshop was held in London, England, with people with lived experience of gambling harm to seek their views on and applicability of the review findings to gambling services.

Synthesis of literature and workshop data was undertaken. Main themes addressed “What works” in relation to: building infrastructures and organising involvement of people with lived experience; what people want to be involved in; widening participation and sustaining involvement and respecting people with lived experience.

Examination of the literature about involvement and engagement of patients, service users and the public in public health, health and social care and addiction services provides potentially useful examples of good practice which may be adopted by gambling services.

The involvement of people with lived experience of gambling harms in gambling support services is under-explored, with little published evidence of what constitutes good practice amongst self-organising groups/networks/grassroots organisations or rights-based/empowerment-based approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to explore current provision of targeted social care services for the growing populations of Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) older people in England and Wales.

This was a mixed study. Following a review of the policy and research literature, 12 semi-structured interviews were undertaken in 2013/2014. Most participants were recruited from BAME policy and service provider organisations and organisations focusing on older people.

There is some evidence that BAME voluntary organisations are experiencing disproportionately greater funding cuts than mainstream voluntary service providers: moreover some mainstream providers reported reducing services targeted at BAME older people, while others expressed the view that choices for BAME older people are likely to become more limited following recent health and equalities policy changes.

Practitioners should contribute to data collection about protected characteristics, such as race/ethnicity to establish if BAME older people’s needs are being assessed equitably, whether access to care and support is easy; and how market-shaping at local levels can ensure a range of providers.

This study provides an overview of voluntary sector provision for the growing numbers of BAME older people in need of care and support that should be useful to practitioners and service commissioners.

The purpose of this paper is to summarise the findings of a desk-based international review investigating the checking of staff and volunteers working with adults who are vulnerable or at risk (or similarly defined) receiving social care in their own homes, or in day centres or residential care.

In England, as part of the government’s attempts to prevent harm to vulnerable people, employers must check if their staff or volunteers are barred from working with vulnerable adults in the health and care sectors or if they have a relevant criminal record. This review sought to explore practices elsewhere, with a view to informing policy and practice debates. The review was undertaken in winter 2014-2015. It mainly involved a search of internet-based material and databases. This was further informed by communications with experts and practitioners from different countries.

The review found a variety of practices, ranging from no checks to substantial checks involving fingerprinting. Reasons for checks identified in different national contexts extend from efforts to stop fraudulent use of government subsidies to minimising the risk of harm to vulnerable adults, and more positively to enhance user and public trust in care providers. A small number of countries place particular emphasis on the rights of individuals to privacy and rehabilitation and this moral imperative overrides other policy goals. This review highlighted a lack of clarity in publicly available documents about the potentially multiple policy goals of different schemes and suggests that there may be advantages to clarifying the options available from other countries.

This review was confined to English language material and to material located through internet searching. Some material may not have been updated on internet sites.

The details of the processes have not previously been collated to the best of the authors’ knowledge.

Critical thinking is a challenging term to describe but considered necessary for academic achievement, success in the global job market, and essential in developing a life-long learner (Dwyer, Hogan, & Stewart, 2012). Many definitions exist, but some of the components include the ability to analyse, reflect, judge, and strategise in a systematic way, to be able to solve problems (Dwyer et al., 2012). Some of the definitions, taxonomies, models, and theories of critical thinking have been built by Western culture, and the United States contributes information towards this Western approach (Nicholas & Raider-Roth, 2016; Wang, 2017). These definitions, taxonomies, models, and theories make a significant contribution to the pedagogical approaches to the teaching of critical thinking in the United States. This chapter details the structures that support the definitions of critical thinking and the history of the connections between critical thinking and classroom instruction in the United States.

Critical thinking is a necessary construct for twenty-first century learning and discussed in scholarly professional literature and popular media (Dwyer, 2017). The term is a part of the twenty-first century four Cs of learning: collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking (Cunningham, 2018). The teaching of critical thinking can be challenging, and this chapter presents an overview of some helpful pedagogical approaches, including project-based learning, project-based design, e-learning, and active learning and descriptions of instructional pedagogy including the general, infusion, immersion, and mixed approaches (Abrami et al., 2008; Dwyer, 2017; Ennis, 1989; Marin & Halpern, 2011; Willingham, 2008). Quality assurance is an essential component in ensuring pedagogical approaches to critical thinking are effective. The contribution of core standards in the teaching of critical thinking in the United States will be discussed.

In exploring the impact of digital technology on leadership, we identify e‐leadership as a complex challenge that is characterized by five key paradoxes: swift and mindful; individual and community; top‐down and grass‐roots; details and big picture; and flexible and steady. For people to function effectively in this changing environment, a broader definition of leadership is needed – one where people in organizations make sense together of the challenges facing them and where they participate in leadership at every level. This requires a training environment where individual skills of perspective‐taking, network and coalition building, and story telling are developed along with team‐based skills of using dialogue, managing networks, and protecting voices from the fringe.

The purpose of this research is to reveal the gendered nature of social arrangements in order to bring to the surface the hidden discourses that mediate the opportunities of women leaders in the field of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability.

The author uses critical sense-making (CSM) to analyze interviews with CSR leaders toward understanding the interconnected layers of influences they draw from as they make sense of their experiences.

Despite the positioning of women as being untapped resources within CSR, the reality within CSR leadership indicates that resilient, stereotypical social constructions of gender are being (re)created. However, cues can disrupt the ongoing process of sense-making and create shocks that represent opportunities for resistance as discriminatory practices are revealed.

Applying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.

If these leaders are able to use their discursive power to establish an alternate, dominant narrative throughout their organizations – a culture of emotional empathy within CSR – alternate meanings about the nature and purpose of CSR may emerge while highlighting the need for change.

Applying CSM as a methodology and to the field of CSR adds a component to CSR and gender scholarship that is currently missing. CSM as a methodology bridges broader sociocultural discourses and the local site of sense-making, making visible the structures and processes that enable some narratives to become legitimized by the formative context and protect the status quo.

Under the Kyoto Protocol Ireland is committed to ensuring that its greenhouse gas emission levels are at or below 113 per cent of 1990 levels for the years 2008–2012. Irish emissions have already exceeded this limit by approximately 10 to 15 per cent and must be reduced if the Kyoto Protocol targets are to be met. In this context, and drawing on relevant theory and research, this paper discusses the rationale for, and the potential impact of, government intervention in the market for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The use of a Carbon Tax as a policy tool in reducing CO2 emissions is examined from both economic and taxation perspectives. Particular attention is paid to the Irish National Climate Change Strategy formulated in 2000 and the consultation process on implementing a Carbon Tax initiated by the Department of Finance in 2003. In September 2004 the Irish Government decided not to implement the proposed Carbon Tax. Submissions from interested parties on the carbon tax consultation process are reviewed against the rationale for implementation of such a tax. The body of evidence presented in this paper supports the implementation of a Carbon Tax—suggesting that the decision not to implement such a tax may have been a lost opportunity. The paper argues that a well‐designed Carbon Tax for Ireland, a simple levy on a close proxy for emissions, would be effective in influencing taxpayer behaviour bringing about a reduction in Ireland's CO2 emissions and supporting the polluter pays principle. In the absence of a carbon tax Ireland's Kyoto target is unlikely to be met and the consequent financial penalties will fall on all taxpayers. The paper concludes that the Irish Government should revisit this decision.