Search results

The purpose of this paper is to formulate a conceptually and empirically grounded new understanding of childcare arrangements for cross-national and longitudinal micro-level empirical research by drawing on theoretical discussions about the social, spatial and temporal dimensions of embodied childcare and empirical data in the form of parental narratives from a Romanian qualitative study.

The paper builds on a critique of an extensive body of empirical literature on the micro-level organisation of childcare and the thematic analysis of in-depth interviews with Romanian parents. The paper combines a critical literature review with findings from a qualitative study on childcare.

The paper formulates a new understanding of household-level childcare arrangements that is context-insensitive, yet reflects the social, spatial and temporal concerns that the organisation of embodied childcare often raises. The paper expands on six real-life care arrangements in Romanian households represented as different combinations of care encounters.

As the paper draws on parental narratives from a single country, Romania, the mapping of childcare arrangements in other jurisdictions and/or at different times would strengthen the case for the proposed understanding of care arrangements as a valuable tool to represent, compareand contrast household-level care routines.

The idea that parents (especially mothers) make work-care decisions in the light of what is best for their child has been widely documented. However, taxonomies of care arrangements have failed to reflect this. The proposed conceptualisation of childcare arrangements addresses this issue by articulating a conceptually coherent approach to developing empirically grounded childcare typologies that “travel well” cross-nationally and over time.

Focuses on how government policy regarding work‐family arrangements affects the labour market position of women and men in the European Union. Discusses the statutory provisions of three different work‐family arrangements: leave arrangements, child care and part‐time work. Finds that the development of work‐family arrangements differs between member states, although these differences can be placed in a typology of welfare state regimes. To determine whether there is more equality between men and women in countries with a more extensive government policy, uses four indicators: the gender‐related development index of the Human Development Report, female labour participation, wage differences between men and women and segregation in the labour market. Suggests from a review of the indicators that there is a positive relation between the presence of statutory work‐family arrangements and gender equality in the labour market. Notes, however, that occupational segregation is less affected by work‐family arrangements. Concludes that a relation between the use of work‐family facilities and the persistence of segregation seems plausible. Argues that if work‐family arrangements are only available to women or if men do not use the existing facilities, inequality in the labour market will be maintained rather than reduced.

Over the past three decades, the U.S. economy experienced a sharp increase in the labor-force participation of women, causing a similar increase in the demand for non-parental child care. Concurrent with these developments has been a dramatic rise in the prevalence of childhood obesity, prompting the question as to what extent the increase in child-care utilization is responsible for the growth in obesity. This chapter examines the impact of various child-care arrangements on school-age children's weight outcomes using panel data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). An advantage of the ECLS-K for our purposes is that it tracks children's child-care arrangements between Kindergarten and the 5th grade. Our fixed-effects' results suggest that non-parental child-care arrangements are not strongly associated with children's weight outcomes. Our findings are robust to numerous sensitivity and subgroup analyses.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for examining variation in care coordination arrangements for older people.

A multi-method approach was adopted combining analysis of secondary data and primary data. There were two stages: the development of the framework and its constituent attributes and indicators; and its validation from two perspectives: a meeting with managers and focus groups with practitioners. It was informed by an existing generic framework; subsequent policy guidance; data from an English national survey; previous research; and international literature.

The framework comprises 19 attributes each with indicators measuring performance relating to: organisational arrangements influencing service delivery; the performance of core tasks of care coordination; and differentiation within the process to distinguish between responses to different levels of need.

Care coordination arrangements in England are characterised by diversity. This paper provides a framework for evaluating local arrangements thereby highlighting strengths and where improvements are needed. It offers a means to promote programme fidelity. As such it has utility for both service commissioners and providers.

Healthcare alliances are a mechanism for developing collaborative and integrated care governance and service delivery arrangements. Yet is not known how widespread alliance arrangements are in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, how alliances function or how effective they are. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of alliances in OECD countries, including key areas covered and how performance is measured.

A structured narrative review of literature published between 2010 and 2018 was undertaken, focussed on OECD countries. The literature included peer-reviewed articles as well as publications from key policy analysis organisations.

Many OECD countries have implemented integrated care models but only a small number had explicitly adopted health alliances that link primary and secondary providers under joint governance arrangements. Most alliances are pilot initiatives and not broadly adopted. Most had not adopted a unified performance measurement framework.

Policy makers and service providers interested in joint governance arrangements that support integration must consider the range of potential options overviewed in this paper, as well as how to create supportive performance measurement frameworks.

This is the first narrative review of alliance arrangements in OECD countries. It provides an overview of arrangements, while illustrating that there is considerable scope for further alliance development.

Joint financing across health and social care represents an opportunity for NHS bodies and councils to improve outcomes and value for money and to integrate services better. There has been much debate about the appropriateness and application of pooled fund arrangements. This article examines and challenges local partners' perceptions and misconceptions of their ease of use, and considers current challenges to implementation posed by central government policies. It assesses the contribution of joint financing to an improved service user experience as, ultimately, partners must shift their focus from process to improving outcomes.

A cursory look at the contemporary social scientific literature shows that the concept of ambivalence has gained prominence in analyses of contemporary societies and identities, and in analyses of interpersonal relationships and interactions. With respect to societal analyses, for example, Bauman has argued that the postmodern habitat “is a territory subjected to rival and contradictory meaning-bestowing claims and hence perpetually ambivalent” (Bauman, 1992, p. 193). “To live with ambivalence,” Varga suggests (Varga, 2001), is the postmodern pronouncement. By using ambivalence as an “interpretive category” rather than as a “research construct” (Lüscher, this volume Chaps 2 and 7), however, sociologists often leave unspecified whether this way of living entails different things for different social actors.

Sheltered housing schemes for older people took a new turn in the UK with the community care policy of the early 1990s giving care provision for people living in such schemes. There is relatively little research on what sheltered housing schemes provide and what makes them work well. Data was gathered in relation to sheltered housing provision for older people in the north Antrim area of Northern Ireland through 10 focus groups with tenants and 16 questionnaires administered with managers of schemes. Tenants valued the independence and choice of sheltered housing in comparison with institutional care. They also highly valued the social interaction with other tenants, fostered by activities such as coffee mornings, regular lunches and social events. Tenants often helped each other with transport and when sick. Tenants of schemes in small towns were generally satisfied, because of access to shops, churches and other services. Transport was an issue for many, particularly in more rural areas and in relation to attending hospital appointments. Scheme managers were often available to tenants for long and anti‐social hours. The home care arrangements were generally regarded as satisfactory although there were criticisms of the limited hours for tasks and the skills of some care workers. Some scheme managers thought that the publicly‐funded homecare service would be more efficient if the staff were managed from the housing scheme. Appropriate social activities and effective care arrangements are an important aspect of supported housing, as well as the independence it offers. Consideration needs to be given to access to services in locating new schemes.

With the tight labour market in Singapore, greater emphasis needs to be put on increasing the utilisation of the woman work force. Although the concerted efforts by the Government are necessary in increasing the female labour force participation rate, employers should develop their own equal opportunity guidelines and policies, which will provide women with a suitable job and ensure that they remain employed. This research aims to study the existing human resource policies on women in Singapore organisations. A survey was conducted on 100 Singapore‐based organisations to investigate their human resource policies on recruitment and selection, career development, training, compensation, flexible work arrangement and child care arrangements.