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Objectives: Ancillary staff – cleaning, catering, housekeeping and laundry workers – play a crucial role in care homes, by promoting infection control, food preparation and hygiene, and contributing to the care home environment. This study sought to understand the experiences of ancillary staff working in English care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results will inform policy makers, employers, care home managers and others, both in England and overseas, as how to best support the ancillary workforce. Methods: Between March and August 2021, video and telephone interviews were conducted with those working or living in care homes in England. Participants comprised ancillary staff (n = 38), care home managers (n = 8), care home residents' family members and friends (n = 7), human resource managers (n = 5) and care home residents (n = 5). Results: Ancillary staff often had increased responsibilities and contributed to pandemic efforts by changing working practices, routines and job roles with the aim of supporting residents and other staff. Teamwork, underpinned by strong leadership, helped ancillary staff feel supported. Conclusions: Ancillary staff should be better recognised as being central to care home care. They are essential workers helping to keep residents safe and well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the restructuring of education in England and Spain. Against a presumably homogeneous global streamlining of educational systems according to competition-driven goals, the comparison of teachers' work-lives and professional knowledge evidences a variety of experiences under-represented in discourses on global restructuring. Our argument highlights how in England political reforms have worked their way deep into the working lives of professionals, giving rise to a "managerial" model of professionalism, whereas in Spain reforms are more loosely coupled with teachers' work, favoring a "social service"-oriented model. However, despite the different professional ideals, teachers uniformly stressed the challenges they face were predominantly due to broader social transformations for which policy reforms provided few if any remedies. Our study emphasizes the variety of educational reforms and teachers' experiences in the European context and argues further educational change should be bound to the historical trajectory and the concrete needs of the professionals in question. (Contains 1 note.)

Personal Assistants (PA) or client‐hired workers are directly employed by people needing care and support, often making use of government funding. In the context of Covid‐19, questions emerged about how this workforce is supported to practice safely. This paper reports PAs' understanding and views of infection control during the early months of the Covid‐19 pandemic in England. Telephone interviews were undertaken with 41 PAs between 16th April and 21st May 2020. PAs were recruited from a sample that had participated in a previous study in 2014–16. Interview questions focused on changes arising from the pandemic. Data were transcribed and analysed using Framework analysis. This paper focuses on PAs' perceptions of their role and responsibilities in preventing and managing infection. Arising themes were identified about barriers and facilitators affecting infection control in five areas: accessing information, social isolation, handwashing, hygiene, personal protective equipment and potential attitude to vaccines. Infection prevention and control are under‐researched in the home care sector generally and efforts are needed to develop knowledge of how to manage infection risks in home settings by non‐clinically trained staff such as PAs and how to engage home care users with these efforts, especially when they are the direct employers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a shortage of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs), who are responsible for compulsory admission decisions under the Mental Health Act (MHA), 1983. Only 5% of AMHPs are health professionals, over a decade after the role was opened to them. The research aimed to identify factors motivating and discouraging health professionals from becoming and working as AMHPs. Semi-structured interviews (n = 52) with professionals enabled to become AMHPs by the MHA, 2007, including AMHPs; those that had not become AMHPs; and AMHP managers. Additionally, a survey of AMHP senior managers. Interviews and open-ended survey questions were analysed thematically. Motivating and discouraging factors were grouped as intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivations were: altruism; the dynamic and contained nature of the work; and fit with experience. Intrinsic discouraging factors were: damage to therapeutic relationships; the perceived clash between AMHP work and professional values. Extrinsic motivations were: career progression; and professional esteem. Extrinsic discouraging factors were: profile and reputation of the service; organisational commitment; management support; and level of remuneration. The research suggests that changes in organisational responsibility for running AMHP services and raising the profile of the role might help increase recruitment and retention of health professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work has long-standing, well-recognized problems of recruitment and retention in England and many other jurisdictions. Policymakers and employers are exploring if there are untapped sources of potential employees. We conducted a scoping review in 2018 to explore current practices and the potential to employ people with criminal records in the social work profession in England. Eighteen studies were located and two themes were identified within these: 1) the potential for people with criminal records to gain qualifications in social work and 2) the potential for people with criminal records to gain employment within social work. More research is needed to establish evidence about current responses to applications from people with criminal records seeking to access training and employment. More evidence is also needed about current practices in decision-making by all parties, together with exploration of people with criminal records' experiences of gaining qualifications in social work and then seeking employment, changing employers and pursuing career progression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social care policy-making seeks to address longstanding staff recruitment and retention problems but also to protect vulnerable clients from harm. Internationally many states have policies requiring disclosure of conviction histories by applicants seeking work with vulnerable populations. Policies also seek to encourage rehabilitation of people with offending histories, particularly in countries with high employment. This article presents and discusses the policy implications of a scoping review conducted in 2019 to explore evidence of current practice in employing people with criminal records as care workers in social care and the potential to recruit new staff from this group. The literature contains limited evidence about the effectiveness of policies inhibiting or facilitating social care work by people with criminal records. Further research should clarify policy contradictions, identify barriers and facilitators in different parts of the care sector to employment and protection, while holistic evaluation of initiatives in this area is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores arguments for and against increasing social workers' legal powers in adult protection (safeguarding) in England, where there is no direct power of entry. It draws on a research study conducted in 2016–17 involving an international literature review, interviews with social workers (n = 22), managers (n = 15), older and disabled people (n = 6) and carers (n = 5) and a survey of adult safeguarding managers (n = 27). The paper contextualises findings by exploring concepts of vulnerability and autonomy. Findings: Most participants were in favour of increased powers for social workers undertaking safeguarding enquiries. A power of entry was seen to strengthen the legal basis of safeguarding and provide legitimacy for social workers to act. However, many participants expressed reservations, arguing that cases could generally be resolved with good social work, there would be a risk of negative impact on adults at risk and their families, the power of entry conflicted with social work practice and values and it could negatively affect social work relationships. Such arguments indicate a nuanced view of autonomy and vulnerability, which allow for doubt about the autonomy of people with capacity in certain circumstances. Applications: The paper suggests the need for investment in the processes of implementation of risk management if increased legal powers are introduced. There could be a value in encouraging social workers to make explicit their assumptions about the definitions of vulnerability and its impact on autonomy and to explore the subjective experience of vulnerability in their judgements about intervening in these kinds of situations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a considerable body of literature on the importance of effective shift handovers in hospitals and other health-care settings but less is known about the transfer of information between staff starting and completing stints of paid work in care homes. In the first of two articles considering this under-explored topic, we report findings from a scoping review examining what is known about shift-to-shift handovers in care homes for older people and their equivalents. It is based on systematic searches of electronic databases of English-language journals on ageing and internet searches for material published between January 2005 and October 2016. Guidance from the regulatory body for health and social care in England, the Care Quality Commission, highlights the importance of handovers in care homes but the degree to which they are embedded into care home routines appears to be variable, influenced by factors such as workplace culture, shift patterns and the extent to which they involve all those on duty or just those with professional qualifications. Staffing shortages and whether or not members of staff are paid for their time attending handovers appear to be further constraints on their use. We conclude that there is considerable scope for further research in this field to identify and develop good practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]