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The social work degree has now been introduced in England and it is timely to reflect on and evaluate key changes made by many universities in this process. This paper reflects on the beginning of such an evaluation, presenting a case study of assessment changes made in relation to communication skills teaching in a post-1992 university. This will act as a vehicle to explore some of the inherent complexities involved. Assessment methods implemented on social work courses should be scrutinized in relation to their validity, reliability and feasibility. Drawing upon multi-professional literature, one such process of scrutiny is described, with the intention of contributing to current debates regarding communication skills within the wider arena of developing social work education. The case study presented outlines how one social work programme changed its method of assessing communication skills for social work students. It explores the processes involved in moving from an essay assignment to the use of video interviews, supplemented by a written reflective self-evaluation undertaken in relation to the interview process. The views of students are outlined via their responses to a questionnaire and the paper highlights key themes identified by a student focus group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an eight month experience with three of the four main assessment tools that will be used to validate the successful completion of the FY1 placement. The practical issues around the implementation of these new tools is of great concern to all involved in the management of postgraduate training and it is hoped that this paper will contribute some of the practical elements so far unavailable from Department of Health sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the rich possibilities for social history opened up by the cultural turn. Focusing on the interplay of myth, memory, and place, it begins with the Kymin, a hillside site outside the Welsh border town of Monmouth. In about 1800 this site was carefully remodelled to invest it with a series of meanings—urban/rural, enlightened/romantic, Welsh/English/British—through which those who visited it were able to explore and express their ambivalent identities. The eighteenth-century spa of Bath was also "symbolic territory," and in one of its iconic structures, the Circus, myth, memory, and place combined to allow the elite to examine similar issues of identity to those at the Kymin. Central to the mythical element in both sites was the notion of the hero. It was an idea that was to resurface on a grand scale in late Victorian and Edwardian Bath, as the city's historic fabric was reconfigured as a "mausoleum" to Britain's Georgian imperial heroes. The paper concludes by arguing that the identities examined in the paper were closely tied to ones of social class, and that the way forward for social history is a fusion of the cultural and the structural that emphasizes the interaction between the two. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Produce an evidence-based ranking of the major contributing factors and sources of Campylobacter occurrence in broilers produced in England, Scotland and Wales – Great Britain (GB). Method and Results: Relevant data were extracted from 159 research papers and findings were grouped into 14 sources of on-farm contamination and 37 contributing factors. A relevancy score was developed to take into account various measures from each study of applicability to GB broilers and strength of findings. Results indicate that major sources of Campylobacter include a depopulation event, another house on-farm, on-farm staff, and other animals on farm. The depopulation schedule (staggered slaughter) and multiple houses on-farm were identified as contributing factors associated with increasing the risk, and those decreasing the risk were use of a hygiene barrier, parent company and certain seasons of rearing. Conclusions: Although the review was more resource intensive compared to narrative studies, the system allows an increased level of transparency and the ability to investigate patterns and trends. Significance and Impact of the Study: This paper provides the first evidence-based ranking of the major sources and contributing factors for Campylobacter presence in broilers in GB using a systematic review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two successive terms of a New Labour government have required social work practice in the UK to occupy a particular public policy context that is, at best, indifferent and, at worst, hostile to some of the professional interests and traditional constituencies of social workers. In this paper, the immediate past editors of the Journal reflect on how social work has sought to adapt and survive under these conditions, as revealed in the papers published during the period of their stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reasserts the‘revisionist’ view of responses to fascist violence at Olympia in 1934. It suggests that, as more collections of private papers become available, the close relations between Conservative politicians and fascist organizations have become increasingly clear. It argues that the relaxed attitude towards fascist methods is understandable in the context of long-term reliance on fascist stewarding by Tory politicians, and that there was as much continuity as change in British views on violence in politics after 1918. The article further suggests that any claim that Mosley changed his methods at indoor meetings after Olympia flies in the face of the evidence. Finally, it refers to the home office papers to show why the politicians failed to intervene against the fascists for a long period after Olympia, and underlines the electoral dangers for the National Government posed by any precipitate intervention after Olympia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Citations in the serial literature provide a method of investigating how published biomedical research influences work in other countries, in other subject areas and at different research levels (from clinical to basic). This paper examines four successive generations of papers citing to a set of UK arthritis papers to evaluate its 'down-stream' influence. The citing papers are progres-sively more international, less within the arthritis sub-field and on average more basic (not more clinical) in character. Most of these findings can be plausibly attributed to differences in the referencing behaviour of biomedical researchers working at different research levels and in different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent changes in the distribution of income need to be placed in historical context. The paper provides new evidence about the evolution of top incomes in the UK over the 20th century. Making use of published tabulations of the income tax statistics, and of microdata for recent years, we construct estimates of the shares of top income groups, giving for the first time an annual time series for gross incomes that spans more than 90 years. The paper pays particular attention to the problems of data construction and of the interpretation of tax-based evidence. The resulting statistics have evident limitations but throw light on periods, such as that between the First and Second World Wars, for which there is little other empirical material. The results bring out clearly how the major equalization of the first three-quarters of the century in the UK has been reversed, taking the shares of the top income groups back to levels of inequality found 50 years ago. A similar U-shaped pattern is found for the USA, but the post-war experience of France is different from that in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the roles of property and land values in the UK economy and considers property tax reform with the objectives of improving macro-economic stability, resource allocation, economic inequality and the environment. With UK house prices at all-time peaks relative to incomes, concerns about affordability and the distributional consequences have increased. The Barker Review for the UK Treasury of new housing supply reported in 2004 and recommended extensive reforms of the land use planning system, as well as various other reforms, including new development taxes. This paper argues that these taxes are unwise compared to the property tax reforms proposed here. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the scientific/advisory discourse about mobile phone risk that was prevalent in the late 1990s. It argues that advisory responses to public concern constituted a ‘discourse of compliance’, which was strengthened by implicit support from the mobile phone industry. This discourse used compliance with advisory guidelines as the endpoint for discussions with the public. Evidence from non-experts and concerns about the basis of the guidelines were rejected. This discourse acted as a barrier to expert engagement with the public and with the broader context of uncertainties about the safety of mobile phones. The paper explains how this style of scientific advice was exposed as fragile, despite its claims to represent only the best available science, which, it was claimed, was well-understood and consensual. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates critically the socioeconomic and spatial implications of conceptualizing the different forms of community involvement as a hierarchy rather than a spectrum. Drawing upon evidence from the UK, where government policy views participation in community-based groups as a ‘mature’ form of involvement and one-to-one aid as ‘simple’ and ‘immature’, such a hierarchical representation is revealed to privilege the participatory cultures of affluent over deprived populations. Based on this recognition of how participatory cultures differ, the paper thus concludes by calling for the different forms of community involvement to be reconceptualized as a spectrum and the adoption of a variegated policy approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sectors of the US, UK and other EU countries over three decades. It argues that corporate governance and the pressures of globalisation have led to a tighter capacity stance in the UK but not generally in the US or Europe. The paper further explores the nature of the UK experience, in particular, the rival theories that efficiency in capital use has increased venus the view that firms have simply tightened their capacity stance in line with higher hurdle rates of return. The evidence of the paper supports the view that UK firms adopted a `submissive' response to the pressures of globalisation by shutting capacity and retreating from new investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution draws primarily on findings of an interview study with a group of young women living in Britain who conceived a pregnancy when aged under 18. Through discussion of their narratives, it aims to provide insights about areas of young women's experience that legal scholars have highlighted as potentially problematic under the current legal framework; namely involvement of parents when those aged under 16 seek medical treatment, and the provision of abortion to under 18s. The broader aim here is to provide comment on the gap between abortion law `on paper', and `in practice'. The paper finds that abortion law in Britain operates in practice in a way that differs from what might be expected on the basis of its terms on paper, in that most young women are unlikely to encounter major difficulties when accessing abortion. Nevertheless a key criticism made of the law by legal scholars - that it medicalizes abortion - emerges as having continuing validity, and the conclusion is drawn that the rules that regulate abortion in Britain should remain subject to challenge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the pattern of jobs in projects implemented by foreign-owned plants in the north east of England Over the period 1985-1998. It analyses the characteristics of projects generating a greater or smaller number of jobs. The paper finds a substantial concentration of investment in a relatively small number of projects, but that the jobs are much less so. At the project level, the characteristics that are important for determining the number of jobs are the project activity and type(ie start-up, acquisition,joint venture or re-investment) but other factors have no influence. However, in aggregate, the paper finds that there is a substantial concentration of jobs by the country of origin, the location and by the manufacturing activity. lt also finds that the national inward investment agencies tend to concentrate their efforts on certain kinds of project. It concludes by questioning the optimality of this concentration of inward investment for regional development and employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to investigate the ways in which the makers of home craft negotiate the meanings of 'design', 'craft' and 'art'. Developing from studies in sociology, anthropology, design history and material culture, this paper questions the production and consumption of home-crafted objects within the domestic environment and aims to question the meaning of making in contemporary Britain. A discourse is constructed around oral history testimonies in which home craft makers are also its consumers, which situates the home as a site of production and consumption. Rather than interpreting person/object relations as an extension of 'taste'. a more dynamic interplay of social and cultural relations is established by investigating the choice of kits, patterns and subjects made by respondents. This is discussed in relation to their display and juxtaposed with popular concepts of art, artistry, aesthetics and decoration. This article therefore confronts the ordinary and its consequent transformation into the extraordinary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the within-household distribution of income influence household consumption patterns? In one attempt to answer this question, Lundberg, Pollak and Wales (1997) exploited the 'natural experiment' of a change in family benefits in the UK. They found that the within-household income distribution did have a significant impact on expenditure. This paper exploits a similar natural experiment in Australia. During the 1990s, unemployment benefits for unemployed married couples changed from being paid almost entirely to husbands, to being paid primarily to wives. Using household expenditure data it is found that, although the changes in the within-household income distribution were large, the changes in expenditure patterns were small and not in the expected direction. The data do not, therefore, provide support for the hypothesis that women's control over household expenditure was increased. The paper concludes with a discussion of the possible reasons for this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to establish the degree of presence and potential impact of ethnic minority scientists on UK science. It does this by examining their published outputs (present in SCI). Ethnic minority researchers were identified and classed within seven distinct groups based on their surname. A fractional count of their papers was used to establish which field's they research into, what types of research they conduct (from basic to applied) and what is the potential impact of their work (citations to journal). Key findings suggest that in the last 20 years the proportion of ethnic-authored papers almost doubled, Chinese were the group which contributed most papers, ethnic minorities are best represented in engineering and technology, physics and chemistry and they tend to publish in applied journals with potential impact factor lower than that of non-ethnic authors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The UK ‘New’ Labour Government has introduced a number of regional, local and neighbourhood initiatives. These claim to share similar characteristics based upon the concepts of ‘partnership’ and ‘multi-agency’ cooperation. New structures to ensure the accountability and the delivery of these new forms of governance and service delivery have been established. Local Strategic Partnerships, with an emphasis on community ‘capacity’ building are the latest policy response. This paper, drawing upon research in Manchester and Glasgow, suggests that whilst these initiatives use a new language, they are steeped in old practices. Changing structures does not, of itself, alter the power differences inherent in local neighbourhoods where community groups are cast as ‘dependent’ by regeneration managers seeking to meet performance targets. The paper seeks to identify ways in which this relationship can be altered to enable local groups to negotiate a new agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents research taking place in the midst of a series of shifts in biodiversity policy in the UK. It examines recent attempts to enrol volunteer naturalists and lay citizens into biodiversity action planning, suggesting that such attempts can be seen as a nascent form of environmental citizenship, which is based on the exchange of knowledge of nature among the different communities involved (policy makers, volunteer naturalists and lay citizens). By focusing on a range of knowledge practices, the paper explores the selective appropriation of some ways of knowing over others. It documents ways in which some actors involved are beginning to reflect on what it might mean for biodiversity policy to accommodate each others' knowledge and practices. The paper suggests that an increased sensitivity to the range of practices and knowledges embodied within these different domains may result in a redefinition and expansion of the category of citizen, and may in turn have implications for the way in which 'biodiversity' comes to be defined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the anxieties being expressed in the UK and elsewhere about the lack of impact that philosophy now has on education are nothing other than the inevitable manifestation of a fundamental intellectual disorder deeply rooted in our contemporary understanding of the philosophy of education. In trying to substantiate this claim, the paper offers an historically informed philosophical analysis of how philosophy is related to education and education to philosophy that concludes by clarifying how any debates about the current problems and future development of the philosophy of education ought to proceed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents a framework for small area population estimation that enables users to select a method that is fit for the purpose. The adjustments to input data that are needed before use are outlined, with emphasis on developing consistent time series of inputs. We show how geographical harmonization of small areas, which is crucial to comparisons over time, can be achieved. For two study regions, the East of England and Yorkshire and the Humber, the differences in output and consequences of adopting different methods are illustrated. The paper concludes with a discussion of how data, on stream since 1998, might be included in future small area estimates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January of 2001 the British Government announced its intention to repeal Part II of the Family Law Act 1996. Originally scheduled for implementation in 2000, the Act provided for several fundamental changes to English divorce law, including the removal of matrimonial fault from the divorce process. This no-fault process was, however, situated within a piece of legislation that explicitly declared its support for marriage, and which imposed a framework of mechanisms designed to encourage couples to stay together. Drawing on a series of interviews conducted with key individuals active within the Family Law Act process, this paper examines this duality between supporting and ending marriage. In particular, the various connections drawn by policy-makers between marriage and divorce law, and the ways in which those connections feed into competing constructions of the proper role for law, are explored. Additionally, and in view of the ultimate failure of the Act, this paper also goes on to suggest that a basic reorientation of policy is necessary if workable divorce law reform is to be achieved in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary. The paper is written to inform public discussion on whether or not statistical legislation for the UK is needed and, if so, on its nature and content. A brief account of the background to the current position is given. The Government's stated intention is to create an ‘independent statistical service’ and a discussion of the meaning of independence in the context of official stat- istics and governance arrangements is provided. Recent international experience is described and the Statistics Acts of some other countries are used to distil the key features of Statistics Acts in other countries. The arguments for and against possible legislation are described. Whether or not a Statistics Act is desirable for the UK depends strongly on the legislation being well framed. There are several key issues on which Parliament would need to develop an informed view and these are set out towards the end of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the need for better links between research and practice in relation to work with children and health inequalities. Despite continuing discussion about the need to improve dissemination of research activity in general, study of this area remains largely neglected. As a result, despite the rhetoric, the research and practice gap continues to exist. An attempt to remedy this was undertaken through the support of a user fellowship as part of the UK Economic and Social Research Council Health Variations Programme. The paper describes a number of activities that were undertaken during the fellowship, and discusses the implications of these for improving connections and minimizing the research and practice 'gap'. It argues that a need exists for researchers to develop innovative dissemination strategies and suggests that potential exists for an interactive model of dissemination. Such a model implies a more active role for users of research in the shaping of research agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the empirical evidence on the use and usefulness of performance measures in the public sector. It begins with consideration of the features of the public sector which make the use of performance measures complex: the issues of multiple principals and multiple tasks. It discusses the form that performance measures may take, the use made of these measures, and the responses that individuals may make to them. Empirical examples from the fields of education and health, with a focus on the USA and UK, are examined. There is clear evidence of responses to such measures. Some of these responses improve efficiency, but others do not and fall into the category of ‘gaming’. Generally, there has been little assessment of whether performance measures bring about improvements in service. The paper ends with consideration of how such measures should be used and what measures are useful to collect. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The year 2002 has seen plenty of constitutional developments and proposals for reform, notably a white paper on elected regional assemblies and a white paper on House of Lords reform, followed by the establishment of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to consider options on the composition of the upper house. There has also been considerable innovation in the pilots of electronic and all-postal voting in the local elections. However, as so often since 1997, many have been disappointed with the content of reform proposals and the piecemeal approach the government has continued to take. Although this article is retrospective, much of the last year has been spent looking forwards. Freedom of Information is moving up the agenda of public bodies as the full commencement date of 2005 approaches, while the devolved institutions are looking towards their second elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the work of the Family Welfare Association's (FWA's) Tower Hamlets Family Support Services projects (FSSs). Tower Hamlets is a multiracial area in East London, which according to the 1991 census has high levels of poverty, overcrowding and unemployment. Increasing poverty and social exclusion, which further entrench inequalities in health, are reported by sources such as Government, health and social services departments as requiring innovative local responses to meet pressing welfare needs. Innovative projects are especially urgent with vulnerable families whose experiences of racism, bullying, mental health difficulties, domestic violence and child abuse are the rule rather than the exception. In common with other initiatives in the United Kingdom and abroad, the FSS aims to be non-stigmatizing, non-intrusive and responsive to the ethnicity, views and specific needs of families. The paper focuses on the FSS's participatory work with families to illustrate effective methods of quality support, detail outcomes and draw lessons for policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of comparative corporate governance, a thesis that is currently influential is that the ‘law matters’. The thinking is that laws which allow investors to feel confident about owning a tiny percentage of shares in a firm constitute the crucial ‘bedrock’ that underpins a US‐style economy where widely held public companies dominate. The paper outlines the normative implications which the ‘law matters’ thesis has for countries where diffuse share ownership is not the norm. It also draws upon the historical experience in the US and the UK to cast doubt on whether law is as pivotal as the thesis implies. Finally, the paper considers the dynamics that are likely to affect the pace of legislative change when reforms designed to foster the confidence of minority shareholders are on the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper John White argues that there has been a decline in interest in and support for liberalism in British philosophy of education. He provides examples of work by leading figures in the field that demonstrates scepticism about the key liberal value of autonomy and offers an analysis of new influences in the field that have contributed to this decline. In particular he notes the increase of work from a religious perspective. Doubts are expressed about the practical relevance to education of some of these avenues of thought, and the suggestion is made that they cause those within the field to be more out of touch with society at large, in which liberal values have continued to be the major source of animation. The paper is followed by short responses from four philosophers of education whose work he criticises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of force by the police is an area of significant concern both within and outside the police. The police struggle to find effective but publicly acceptable options. Recently in the United Kingdom, the deployment of CS chemical incapacitant sprays has emerged as a key initiative in the protection of officers and the enforcement of the law. Yet, the sprays have proved controversial. Reflecting debates within criminology about the contribution of police tactics and equipment to public disorder, radically different assessments of the sprays have been offered. This paper examines the conditions under which assessments of the legitimacy of the CS sprays are made. The findings of this paper suggest the need to reframe existing analysis of the use of force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the challenges in conducting criminological research involves addressing and understanding the law regarding protection and disclosure of sources and/or information in respect of offences or intentions to commit offences. This paper presents how this challenge has been addressed by researchers in criminology and examines a range of issues involved. The paper sets out the legal position in the United Kingdom and offers a number of suggestions for addressing the legal and other issues arising. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the current Labour government's industrial policy—as most recently reflected in its document on manufacturing strategy—in the context of industrial policy in the UK over the last 50 years and the form that it has taken elsewhere in Europe. It concludes that the thematic priorities for UK industrial policy in the 1960s—international competitiveness, innovation, competition, and skills—continue to be the key themes of UK policy today. The paper presents data that illustrate the gaps that exist in key indicators of performance between the UK and its main economic competitors. The difference between the 1960s and the 2000s is that there are new instruments of policy. Two areas in particular are focused on—competition policy and technology policy—and an attempt is made to assess the likely effectiveness of these new instruments. The paper concludes that the international evidence base for these new approaches is reasonably robust but that it is still too soon to tell if they are having the hoped‐for impact on the performance of the UK economy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the performance of the National Health Service under the Labour government of Tony Blair. It shows that there have been some dramatic increases in resources going into the service, but also that these do not seem to be delivering the improvements in activities that might have been expected. The paper argues that this is partly because of capacity constraints, but also because the mixture of organizational forms introduced by the government has resulted in misdirected and conflicting incentive structures for the key actors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the achievements of the Labour government's education policy between 1997 and 2001. Tony Blair claimed that his government would make education a priority. The first part of the paper reviews the scale of education spending in relation to the economy at large and within the education budget. The second part of the paper looks at the productivity of schools. How far have the changes that have affected schools in the past 10 years, and in the past 5 years in particular, had an impact on the quality of school achievements? The paper suggests there have been significant improvements, not just on average but especially in the gains made in poor areas and in the least good schools. Finally the paper discusses the funding of higher education, the introduction of income‐related loans to cover maintenance, and up‐front fees. The paper concludes that some serious errors were made in policy design. Even so, the use of the Inland Revenue as the collection agency was a successful innovation and should be built upon. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper extends previous work on the changing importance of individual and contextual social class in Britain. We adopt a multi‐level framework for analysis, linking surveys fromthe 1964–1997 British Election Studies with Census data on the social‐class composition of constituencies. The goal of the paper is to test whether, net of individual social‐class effects, the social‐class composition of the constituency in which the voter lives has declined in importance over time. We found that contextual class effects were consistently significant and fairly constant throughout the period under study. We also find a gradual increase in the amount of constituency variation in vote. Although the proportion of this variation explained by contextual and individual social class has remained fairly constant for Conservative vote, it has decreased for Labour vote. Ultimately, we find evidence of a decline in class voting, but no evidence of a growth in the individualism of voters. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article reflects on the application of social work knowledge and values in practice, with reference to the implications for issues of gender. It draws on ethnographic research in a child-care team in Great Britain which set out to explore the construction of clients as gendered. It is argued that social workers' accounts of practice reveal tensions between an emphasis on clients as individuals and an emphasis on social collectivity. These tensions could be seen as inherent in social work knowledge and values. There are various implications of these tensions between the individual and the social, but there is a particular focus in the paper on the implications for questions of gender. It concludes with some ideas for a theory for practice that would better equip social workers for the complex task of negotiating the gender tensions raised in the paper. Debates about knowledge and values in social work need to take place on several different levels.

Summary. The annual 5% increase in tobacco taxes in real terms proposed in the recent White Paper on smoking has reaffirmed the commitment of successive UK Governments to above-inflation increases in tobacco taxation to encourage people to stop smoking. This paper presents evidence on the determinants of starting and quitting smoking by using data from the British Health and Lifestyle Survey and is the first to identify tax elasticities for starting and quitting smoking using British data. Self-reported individual smoking histories are coupled with a long time series for the tax rate on cigarettes to construct a longitudinal data set. Estimates are obtained for the effect of aboveinflation tax rises on the age of starting smoking and the number of years of smoking. The estimates of the tax elasticity of the age of starting smoking are 0.16 for men and 0.08 for women. The estimates of the tax elasticity of quitting are -0.60 for men and -0.46 for women. These are robust to different specifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing briefly on the quite different discourses of schooling-as-performance and education-as-exploration, the paper opens by exploring some of the consequences of the distinction between schooling and education for any system of school inspection. The second section of the paper examines the conceptual and practical inadequacy of ‘accountability’ as an agent of reciprocal public engagement in a participatory democracy. In its stead a more robust, more open notion of ‘reciprocal responsibility’ is offered as a more fitting means of professional and communal renewal. Section III focuses on the relationship between means and ends that is at once central to democracy and so conspicuously absent from current inspection arrangements. The short conclusion suggests we need a radical break from OFSTED if we wish to approximate more closely to our democratic aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article introduces papers in the November 2001 issue of "The Economic Journal" about the scarring effect of unemployment in the case of British men during the 1980s and 1990s. The papers by W. Arulampalam, and M. Gregory and R. Jukes examine wage scarring, the effect of unemployment on subsequent wages. While the paper of P. Gregg examines the effect of unemployment on subsequent unemployment. Both authors used the generalization of the methodology most commonly referred to as difference-in-difference estimation. Arulampalam used a sample constructed from the British Household Panel Survey while Gregory and Jukes used a very large sample constructed from an administrative dataset.

This paper considers how far the New Labour educational policy represents a clear shift in focus from the policies of the Conservative administrations of the 1980s and 1990s. As in other areas of social policy, the paper concludes that current government policy owes as much—if not more—to ‘New Right’ ideology than to that of the ‘Old Left’. With a new emphasis on social inclusion, the paper considers the contribution of, and implications for, contemporary developments in education policy and practice for child and family social work in general, and education social work in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports the findings of a survey of Social Services Departments, Probation Services and the major voluntary agencies in the UK. The survey aimed to shed light on the factors which promote successful groups in social work and probation agencies. The survey did not attempt to map the extent of current groupwork. A questionnaire was piloted in a Social Services Department in northern England with social work and social care practitioners participating in ‘The Groupwork Project’, a training and development programme which continues to have as its aim the establishment of a groupwork service in a mainstream social services agency. The survey was designed to be illuminative and exploratory rather than conclusive. In this paper, the authors reflect on the research process and on the findings of the survey. These findings point to the complexity of factors considered significant to the success of a group, and to the importance of contextual factors in establishing and sustaining a groupwork service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between women's qualifications and their labour-market participation up to the age of 33 for a cohort of women born in Great Britain in one week of march 1958. The period of the life-cycle on which the analysis focuses is one during which many women are attempting to juggle the competing demands of young children and employment. In Britain, with very limited institutional support for retaining employment during family formation, we examine the role which occupationally specific qualifications exert in helping women to return to paid employment. The second part of the paper focuses on the occupational attainment of women at age 33, operationalized using log hourly earnings. The earnings equations are corrected for possible selectivity bias into employment. The paper makes an important theoretical distinction between occupationally specific and non-occupational qualifications. We argue that, for women, occupational qualifications are associated with greater attachment to the labour-market following the birth of children. By including work history variables in the earnings equation we ate also able to examine the consequences for women's wages of having time out of the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the trends in cohabitation over the last twenty-five years using information from the General Household Survey GHS, and then provides a summary of some key results on cohabitation, such as the stability of cohabiting relationships. The paper then provides some first results from a recent pilot survey aimed at investigating the circumstances surrounding the ending of couples living together-due to the end of accommodation sharing and relationship breakdown. Finally, some analyses are presented on cohabitation, accommodation and property ownership using data from the GHS. These four sets of analyses not only provide fuller background to the characteristics and circumstances of cohabitation for general information, but also chart the progress made and planned in extending the range and type of questions asked on cohabitation in the GHS. These improvements, it is hoped, will provide relevant information for a wide variety of users, and especially for professionals in the fields of social policy and family law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes how in refugee determination procedures, the 1951 Convention social group definition has been interpreted to the disadvantage of ‘non‐traditional’ social groups in the United Kingdom. The non‐traditional social group central to this analysis is male homosexuals. As well as focusing on episodes where homosexuals were excluded from the Convention social group definition in the UK, this paper also examines a discernible shift in the determination of ‘non‐traditional’ social group membership cases in various countries such as the USA, Canada, and New Zealand. These developments in international refugee law are described in terms of the increasing connection between international refugee law and international human rights law. The paper demonstrates that applications for refugee status based on homosexuality are at the forefront of these developments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper examines the pension programme in Britain, focusing on reforms that have increased the fraction of the work-force opting out of public provision and that have permitted individuals to choose their private pension provider. It also examines the issue of pension provision and household saving. The paper highlights the disparities in retirement saving behaviour across types of pension provision and different households. The paper discusses the policy issues of the adequacy of household saving, and the impact of pension reform on household saving and the public finances. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews the developing commitment in UK educational policy-making to 'evidence-based practice', and its implications for applied linguistics research. Given the sceptical view which has predominated in UK applied linguistics towards 'technical' solutions to educational problems (Rampton 1995), this development poses a dilemma for applied linguists wishful to engage actively with policy for language education. The paper examines the particular history of grammar pedagogy in UK foreign language education, documenting its decline and recent revival. The international literature on form-focused instruction is then examined, to determine how far an evidence base exists to underpin any particular recommendations for grammar pedagogy. The paper concludes by posing some alternative forms for such an evidence base, and argues that the future development of pedagogically oriented applied linguistics is bound up with the choices made. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses a new source of data to study the dramatic increase in cohabiting unions in Great Britain. It analyses, in turn, entry into first partnership, the stability of cohabiting unions and repartnering after dissolution of cohabitation. In excess of 70% of first partnerships are now cohabitations, and these last a relatively short time before being either turned into marriage or dissolved. The shift to cohabitation as the dominant mode of first partnership plays an important role in the delay of first marriage and motherhood. The paper also investigates the factors that are associated with the outcome of cohabitations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a number of models for the growth of a barnacle goose population. These geese spend their summers breeding in Spitsbergen and then winter in Caerlaverock on the Solway Firth. The population growth is modelled using exponential models and a variety of logistic models. The paper shows how each of the growth phases in the post-war history of this population can be related to conservation measures. Microsoft Excel spreadsheets have been used to find appropriate parameters for each of the models. The paper, and the student project it is based on, exemplify the use of modelling to generate understanding of the processes represented by raw data. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper investigates trends in the frequencies and numbers of fatalities in fatal train collisions, derailments and buffer overruns on the national railway system of Great Britain. The main part of the paper is based on the 31-year period 1967-1997. After the paper had been completed, but before it was due to be published, the most serious train accident for more than a decade occurred on October 5th, 1999, at Ladbroke Grove in London, in which 31 people lost their lives. That accident was by far the most severe ever to have occurred in Great Britain with modern rollingstock; it leads to an upward revision in the estimates of current and future fatalities in train accidents. To provide a context for the statistical interpretation of the Ladbroke Grove accident, and to avoid the temptation of being wise after the event, the main part of the paper (Sections 1-5) is presented exactly as it was finalized before the accident; a postscript (Section 6) is then added to update the conclusions in the light of the accident. Railway safety has improved over the long term: even after including the Ladbroke Grove accident in the data, the paper estimates that the current mean frequency of fatal train accidents from all causes is just over 1 per year, and the mean number of fatalities in such accidents is just under 4 per year. It is an indication of the exceptional severity of the Ladbroke Grove accident that the number of people who lost their lives was so much larger than this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are of growing importance, and emerging community economic development policies and practice have begun to recognize this in their support of a wide range of projects. This paper argues that whilst community-oriented initiatives have a great potential to address the many issues associated with local regeneration, any benefits will have to go beyond a belief that such projects will automatically secure some form of competitive advantage or modernization. The paper argues for the policy discourses of integration, identity and power to be fully considered in the design and implementation of projects and strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]