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The last decade saw a major shift in the management of the mentally handicapped and their place in society. The dual influences of the movements for human rights, emphasising the rights of minority groups; matched by an increasing tendency to replace institutionalisation with community based care (often under the banner of economy), have had an impact on the liminal positioning of the mentally handicapped in Western society.

This paper is written with particular reference to service development for the mentally ill and mentally handicapped in the UK.

It has proved useful in studies of the personal social services, and in other areas of social policy, to make a distinction between final and intermediate outputs. Final outputs measure changes in individual client well‐being compared with changes in well‐being in the absence of a caring intervention. In other words, final outputs measure the degree of success of a service or a care unit in meeting its client‐level policy objectives, where due consideration is paid to client states had care not been available. In contrast, intermediate outputs are operationally defined in terms of the care services themselves rather than the effects of these services on clients.

Valuing People has been widely welcomed by learning disability services. But it promises a major expansion of unenforceable assessments which will divert practitioners from responding to the needs of their clients into the production of reports.

This study aims to make explicit fundamental challenges, which includes children with disabilities and special educational needs in education in China, Hong Kong, and Indonesia under the current conceptions of Inclusion and Education for All (EFA). Based on extensive research and staff development work in these places, this chapter argues for uniting the aims of inclusive education and EFA in order to realize the goal of EFA in all countries. Such a transformative agenda will require a new model of looking at difficulties in learning and the concept of diversity in education. Unless a conscious effort is made to move our thinking and planning from EFA to Inclusive EFA, we will not achieve true universal education.

We find ourselves today in two sorts of doldrums. First of all we are in the local government doldrums. Just at this time the whole of local government is in the throes of the most drastic reorganisation that has ever been undertaken in this field, with the consequence that local government officials tend to fall into two categories — those who are secure in their jobs but have two jobs to do; and those who are insecure and are too busy applying for their own or other people's jobs to be much concerned about the future. In the second place we are in the post‐Russell doldrums. We have spent four years waiting for Russell and another eight months (so far) waiting for Mrs. Thatcher to pronounce on Russell and to give the lead we all so ardently desire.

The purpose of this chapter is to describe a study that identified the school variables that seem to have the greatest impact on placement of students in high incidence special education programs (i.e., special programs for students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders, specific learning disabilities, and educable mental handicaps). School records of 42 students who were identified when they were in primary school as at risk for learning, emotional, and behavioral disorders were examined retrospectively over three grades (i.e., grades 3 and 4, grades 5 and 6, and grades 7 and 8). Of these, 21 students had been placed in high incidence special education programs, and 21 had not been placed. Low achievement and academic performance and a high number of negative comments by their teachers were the two most salient variables associated with placement. Implications for prevention/intervention efforts and effective service delivery options are discussed.

The second edition of the Bibliographic Classification of H. E. Bliss (BC2), being prepared under the editorship of Jack Mills, Vanda Broughton and others, is a rich source of structure and terminology for thesauri covering different subject fields. The new edition employs facet analysis and is thesaurus‐compatible. A number of facet‐based thesauri have drawn upon Bliss for terms and relationships. In two of these thesauri the Bliss Classification was the source of both systematic and alphabetical displays. The DHSS‐DATA thesaurus, published by the United Kingdom Department of Health and Social Security, provides controlled terms and Bliss class numbers for indexing and searching the DHSS‐DATA database. The ECOT thesaurus (Educational courses and occupations thesaurus) prepared for the Department of Education and Science, uses the software designed for the British Standards Institution ROOT thesaurus to generate an alphabetical display from the systematic display derived from the Bliss schedules. Problems, benefits, and future prospects of Bliss‐based thesaurus construction are discussed.

Although the nursing profession is a large occupational group and a major part of the National Health Service, surprisingly little is known about the demand for and supply of nurses. Current demographic trends, however, have ensured that a traditional “easy in/easy out” model of recruitment and retention, with high wastage rates during and after training, is being replaced by the idea that nurse education is a valuable and expensive investment and trained nurses must be encouraged to view nursing as a life‐time career. In 1988 there was considerable media interest in shortages of skilled nurses. A number of factors are examined, relevant to assessing whether there are such shortages. In particular, the demand for nurses, manpower and financial aspects of supply, recruitment and retention, and skill mix are considered. Two groups of nurses in which there are said to be shortages are briefly discussed: paediatric intensive care and community mental handicap and mental illness nurses.