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Young people’s involvement should lead to research, and ultimately services, that better reflect young people’s priorities and concerns. Young people with a history of treatment for alcohol and/or drug problems were actively involved in the youth social behaviour and network therapy study. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of that involvement on the study and what was learnt about involving young people in drug and alcohol research.

The initial plan was to form a young people’s advisory group (YPAG), but when this proved problematic the study explored alternative approaches in collaboration with researchers and young people. Input from 17 young people informed all key elements of the study.

Involvement of young people needs to be dynamic and flexible, with sensitivity to their personal experiences. Engagement with services was crucial both in recruiting young people and supporting their ongoing engagement. This research identified a need to critically reflect on the extent to which rhetorics of participation and involvement give rise to effective and meaningful involvement for young service users. It also highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people’s personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are “less frequently heard”.

This research highlights the need for researchers to be more flexible in response to young people’s personal circumstances, particularly when those young people are “less frequently heard”. It highlights the danger of young people in drug and alcohol research being unintentionally disaffected from involvement through conventional approaches and instead suggests ways in which young people could be involved in influencing if and how they participate in research.

There is an apparent contradiction between dominant discourses and cultures of health services research (including patient and public involvement) that often do not sit easily with ideas of co-production and young people-centred involvement. This paper provides an alternative approach to involvement of young people that can help to enable more meaningful and effective involvement.

The flexible and young people-centred model for involvement which emerged from this work provides a template for a different approach. This may be particularly useful for those who find current practice, such as YPAG, inaccessible.

In the novel, The Member of the Wedding, Carson McCullers probes the American malaise through the longings of a young adolescent girl. Twelve‐year‐old Frankie no longer sees the world as round and inviting as a school globe. No, the world is huge and cracked and turning a thousand miles an hour. Indeed, the world seems separate from herself. In the midst of chaos, Frankie sees her brother's upcoming wedding as a chance to feel connected, to feel that she matters. The story focuses on Frankie's efforts to be a “member of the wedding,” as she recognizes, “they are the we of me.”

This book is about risk management in the public sector, in general, and particularly risk management in public sector organisations. Risk management in the public sector is a much broader topic than risk management in public sector organisations because it touches on many issues of a public nature that are not the direct or sole responsibility of any specific public organisation. Sometimes a public organisation must deal directly with such risks, but often laws and regulations can adequately address broader public risk issues, governments can participate indirectly and behind the scenes, or participation can be in collaboration with private and non-profit organisations. In some cases, government organisations play no role at all.

This chapter focusses on an important contextual issue; the environment in which risk management is practised in the public sector and in which public risks arise. In much of this book, the unique or unusual attributes of the public sector are shown to profoundly affect risk and the forms and functions of risk management. This chapter introduces some of these attributes and highlights their likely impact on risk management. The public environment is one with movable boundaries, and it essentially encompasses any action or object that a society considers public. Over time, attitudes can change about publicness, but a key point is that while government entities occupy part of the public environment, they are not its only inhabitants.

Intervention for young people engaging in harmful sexual behaviour has been largely based on individual-level conceptualisations and assessment. Prevention efforts reflect this individual-focus, relying primarily on offender management and justice responses. Risk of sexual abuse, however, is often situated outside the individual, within the broader social and physical systems in which young people are embedded. Lack of recognition for how contextual factors contribute to sexual abuse narrows the focus of prevention and intervention, overlooking the very contexts and circumstances in which this behaviour occurs. This paper aims to demonstrate the utility of contextual practice with young people who sexually harm, and implications for prevention.

An Australian case study is used to showcase the “why”, “what” and “how” of a contextual approach to assessment and treatment of young people who sexually harm.

Contextual approaches extend the focus of clinical practice beyond the individual to include the physical and social contexts that may contribute to risk. Adding a contextual lens broadens the approach to assessment, affording new opportunities to tailor the intervention to local contextual dynamics, and identifying new targets for primary and secondary prevention.

This is the first known attempt to extend understanding of contextual approaches to clinical assessment and intervention for young people who sexually harm, using a case study method. The case study showcases contextual assessment and intervention processes that challenge traditional thinking and practice in this field. Importantly, the case study also reveals new opportunities for primary and secondary prevention that emerge through this contextual clinical practice.

Public libraries will continue to be challenged by the presence of unattended children in the library as long as parents struggle to provide adequate childcare arrangements. This article discusses some typical library responses to the presence of unattended children and identifies elements that are shared by the most successful programs. Many libraries have found that offering programs for children is an excellent way to strengthen the relationship between the library and its community. In addition, innovative programs that encourage young library users provide an opportunity to foster a new generation of library users, which is critical if libraries are to survive as an institution in the coming years.

Since the early 1990s there has been a growth in local authorities of risk management. However, despite a range of different strategies, initiatives and practices the issue of financing the risks to which authorities are exposed has remained problematic. The traditional dependence on the commercial insurance market has proved to be a flawed strategy. This paper aims to analyse an alternative risk financing strategy which has been successful in local authorities in other countries, that of risk pooling.

The paper analyses the rationale behind risk pools, investigates the legislative environment that appears to make these acceptable to central government and evaluates the likely benefits to local authorities of their adoption.

The paper finds that the perceived main legislative barrier to risk pools may no longer exist. Given that, there is a strategic, financial and operational case to be made for at least exploring the possibility of risk pooling. The experience from the USA would suggest that pools can have an important role to play in risk financing, and evidence now exists that a number of UK local authorities are actively pursuing pool formation.

The development of risk pools is likely to result in a significant reduction in the use of conventional insurance by local authorities. The evidence would suggest that this will be beneficial, but this is subject to the proviso that actuarial, financial and managerial practice within pools is rigorous.

This is an under‐researched area, with almost no extant UK‐relevant academic, or indeed practitioner, literature. The paper adds to the understanding of public sector risk management and financing for both academic and practitioner audiences.

In this chapter, the authors aim to recontextualise the local picture of youth participation in Manchester in a wider European perspective. First, because the research framework was a comparative European research project and, second, because the relevance also of local research depends on the degree to which it provides general insight into a phenomenon. The authors share with the editors and the other authors of this book the aim of questioning dominant understandings that limit youth participation to institutionalised forms and to young people’s involvement in existing practices and processes predefined by others, in most cases adult professionals like educators, youth workers and policy-makers. Based on the identification and discussion of three aspects related to the recognition of young people’s practice as participation in formal, non-formal and informal settings, the current authors want to use their views from the outside to shed light on the tensions and ambivalences of youth participation that do not become obsolete by applying a wider notion of participation.

The purpose of this paper is to review some considerations about a small scale research study conducted in a small town in Northern Italy between December 2003 and April 2004, that gathered quantitative and qualitative data about adolescents aged 11 to 19 who answered 20 questions on their experiences, expectations and perspectives on library use and services.

A quantitative‐qualitative research method based on triangulation of data acquired was devised to increase reliability and validity of the survey.

Teenagers have proved to be a demanding and challenging public, with clear ideas regarding innovation of services and implementation of resources. They believe that libraries are important place to find up‐to‐date information, and to discuss with peers.

The group participating in the survey was about 50 per cent on the total targeted population. Results show that surveys about library services can be of value in order to tailor services to actual and unexpressed needs of a target users' group.

The survey has provided grounds for discussions within different categories of stakeholders such as administrators, carers, educators, and librarians. The results show that maintenance and implementation of services should be founded both on theoretical principles and evidence based practice.

There are still few examples of small scale research studies on teens' experiences, expectations, and perspectives about library services and this paper shows that it is a valuable and rewarding challenge to embark in a target‐oriented survey to explore users' needs and satisfaction on services offered.

The surging cost of living and shortage of affordable and sustainable homes fuel the global housing crisis. Earthship buildings are marketed as the epitome of affordable and sustainable alternative housing. This paper aimed to elicit the perception of Earthship buildings among youngsters in the United Kingdom using immersive virtual reality technology. Additionally, the impact of virtual reality on perception compared with two-dimensional drawings was investigated in the study.

A three-phase, experiment-based survey was adopted: Phase 1: literature review, Earthship house model conception and the virtual environment creation; Phase 2: two-dimensional drawing-based pre-visualisation survey; Phase 3: virtual reality–based post-visualisation survey.

The findings indicated that youngsters had a remarkable, positive change in attitude towards the uptake of the Earthship houses after virtual reality visualisation. In contrast, sustainability experts shared more concerns regarding the concept's viability in the United Kingdom, even after the virtual reality visualisation. However, both youngsters and experts agreed with the pre-eminence of virtual reality over two-dimensional drawings.

The lack of awareness about Earthship buildings for posterity was noted in previous studies, which could be attributed to there being very few Earthship buildings in the United Kingdom. The importance of this awareness among youngsters cannot be over-emphasised since youngsters are affected most by the shortage of affordable and sustainable homes. This gap was addressed by enlightening the youth about Earthship houses and imparting awareness through near-real-life virtual reality visualisation.