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Network-based approaches to improvement and specifically, peer challenges have become an integral part of quality assurance in adult social work in England. Whilst the national regulation change in 2011 placed greater weight on local accountability, very few studies have examined the contribution of peer challenges towards improving the quality of adult social work practice. Peer challenge is a process of engaging a wide range of people and experienced peers in relevant service areas to offer a review from the perspective of a critical friend. This article considers how a regional peer challenge process in the West Midlands of England contributed to improving social work practice and processes, which supported this contribution. Drawing on data from fifteen interviews and forty-four survey responses, findings suggest that peer challenges in the short term can have positive impacts including, an understanding of the internal practice conditions and external context, strengths and limitations of social work practice, and the perspectives of local stakeholders and external peers on opportunities to improve practice. The design, commitment to transparency and trust by all parties enable honest reflection and a shared learning experience. To understand long-term impacts, we suggest establishing formal follow-up processes together with developing key baseline indicators to track impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of leadership to creating supportive organizational cultures and positive team cultures for social work practice is well recognized. Yet, there are few opportunities provided for developing leadership behaviors among social workers. Jointly developed by a university and an improvement body, this paper examines the experiences of social workers participating in a post-qualifying leadership program that was aimed at developing participants’ leadership that is embedded in the principles of strengths-based practice. Employing a case study approach, the study presents findings from an end-of-program survey, semi-structured interviews, self-reflection forms, and focus groups. Following the Kirkpatrick evaluation framework as our analytical tool for data collection and analysis, our findings suggest that the design and delivery of the program provided theory informed opportunities for reflection, improving the knowledge, skills, and leadership behaviors of participants. By offering theoretical and practical opportunities for reflection, participants were more confident in claiming a leadership identity and recognizing how to reflect their social work values within their leadership. Greater emphasis in social work education and by professional bodies on the nature of social work leadership would further strengthen its legitimacy and contribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Enduring ethnic inequalities exist in mental healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic has widened these. Aims: To explore stakeholder perspectives on how the COVID-19 pandemic has increased ethnic inequalities in mental healthcare. Method: A qualitative interview study of four areas in England with 34 patients, 15 carers and 39 mental health professionals from National Health Service (NHS) and community organisations (July 2021 to July 2022). Framework analysis was used to develop a logic model of inter-relationships between pre-pandemic barriers and COVID-19 impacts. Results: Impacts were largely similar across sites, with some small variations (e.g. positive service impacts of higher ethnic diversity in area 2). Pre-pandemic barriers at individual level included mistrust and thus avoidance of services and at a service level included the dominance of a monocultural model, leading to poor communication, disengagement and alienation. During the pandemic remote service delivery, closure of community organisations and media scapegoating exacerbated existing barriers by worsening alienation and communication barriers, fuelling prejudice and division, and increasing mistrust in services. Some minority ethnic patients reported positive developments, experiencing empowerment through self-determination and creative activities. Conclusions: During the COVID-19 pandemic some patients showed resilience and developed adaptations that could be nurtured by services. However, there has been a reduction in the availability of group-specific NHS and third-sector services in the community, exacerbating pre-existing barriers. As these developments are likely to have long-term consequences for minority ethnic groups' engagement with mental healthcare, they need to be addressed as a priority by the NHS and its partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stability of levees in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is threatened by continued subsidence of Delta peat islands. Up to 6 meters of land-surface elevation has been lost in the 150 years since Delta marshes were leveed and drained, primarily from oxidation of peat soils. Flooding subsided peat islands halts peat oxidation by creating anoxic soils, but net accumulation of new material in restored wetlands is required to recover land-surface elevations. We investigated the subsidence reversal potential of two 3 hectare, permanently flooded, impounded wetlands re-established on a deeply subsided field on Twitchell Island. The shallower wetland (design water depth 25 cm) was almost completely colonized by dense emergent marsh vegetation within two years; whereas, the deeper wetland (design water depth 55 cm) which developed spatially variable depths as a result of heterogeneous colonization by emergent vegetation, still had some areas remaining as open water after nine years. Changes in land-surface elevation were quantified using repeated sedimentation-erosion table measurements. New material accumulating in the wetlands was sampled by coring.Land-surface elevations increased by an average of 4 cm/yr in both wetlands from 1997 to 2006; however, the rates at different sites in the wetlands ranged from -0.5 to +9.2 cm/yr. Open water areas of the deeper wetland without emergent vegetation had the lowest rates of land-surface elevation gain. The greatest rates occurred in areas of the deeper wetland most isolated from the river water inlets, with dense stands of emergent marsh vegetation (tules and cattails). Vegetated areas of the deeper wetland in the transition zones between open water and mature emergent stands had intermediate rates of land-surface gain, as did the entire shallower wetland. These results suggest that the dominant component contributing to land-surface elevation gain in these wetlands was accumulation of organic matter, rather than mineral sediment, and that accumulation of organic matter in emergent marshes is strongly affected by hydrologic factors. Re-established, non-tidal wetlands with managed hydrology can produce significant increases in land-surface elevations, which can help to improve levee stability and protect subsided islands from future flooding.