New report into care and the elderly

A new NHS report called 'Delivering Dignity' has been released today and unsurprisingly has been garnering quite a bit of press. It's an investigation looking at how the elderly are being treated in both hospital and care home settings. I expect you'll be more interested in the care home side of things, although I shouldn't make assumptions.

Anyway, the report is available from here but bear in mind this is just an interim version. When the full version is published I'll be sure to share it with you.

Finally, if you are working on any assignments relating to the elderly as a vulnerable group in society (hint, hint)  this may be particularly useful new piece of new research to use.

Proud and Prejudiced.

Channel 4 are broadcasting Proud and Prejudiced tonight at 10pm, the everyday story of two extremist groups, diametrically opposed in their views who just happen to share a town-Luton.

I really wasn't sure whether to post about this or not, but even if the programme can't be referenced for any particular assignment this is an issue that surely affects everybody in Luton, no matter what your political and religious beliefs.

If this post doesn't arrive before 10pm (sometimes emails are delayed by Feedburner, for some reason) and you can't watch it live, here is a link to 4od where you'll be able to watch it online from tomorrow.

Thomas's impressions of a university library.

You'll need to forgive me this one as this is a very self-indulgent post. I promise the next message will be all about academic gubbins.

Thomas, my 10 year-old, was asked to write a piece for his creative writing lesson at school and he decided to imagine what the atmosphere is like within the library at UoB. Below is his piece...

As I enter the university, noises collapse upon me, like a stack of bricks unbalanced. People hurrying to lessons and lectures like little mites in a mound. Left, right and centre coffee shops stand, people nattering away to friends without a care in the world.

Complex works of incredible humane art, showing just how small we are in the size of the weird and wonderful world we live in. Lecturers babbling pointlessly away on subjects with and without meaning.

The endless libraries with countless pages being turned create a tuneless orchestra of infinite sound. From within offices there is the sound of fingers tip-tapping on keyboards, not unlike the sound created when a hamster nibbles on a sunflower seed.

Countless pens scribbling on paper, shaping their lives with ink. This is a place of infinite possibility.


I hope you liked that. I think I prefer his idealised version of the library to reality. And any lecturers reading this - I have never suggested to him that there's any babbling going on!

The much delayed welfare system post has arrived

There's a lot to read here but if you're looking for information on welfare systems stay with it-it'll help.

I've been getting a lot of enquiries about the welfare assignment, as I do every year.
So this post points you towards specific resources which may help you tackle what is a tricky assignment.

Firstly, a database that you probably won't have used before called Marketline offers very up to date social information (unemployment rates, economic forecasts, population distribution and social care statistics) on any country you can think of. I've blogged about how to use Marketline before so if you click here it'll take you to my previous instructions. Current statistics are invaluable in getting a good mark for this assignment. We know how fast the economic situation is changing in many countries at present and the research you'll find on Marketline is the most recent reliable data you can get. The reports are big (100 pages isn't unusual) so target the sections of the reports which are looking at social factors.

I also have two specific and quite new e-books I think are worth a recommendation.

The first of these is The Cameron-Clegg government: coalition politics in an age of austerity edited by Simon Lee and Matt Beech. It's from 2011. Chapter 7 is specifically looking at welfare reform so that's where I'd head first.


The second is The welfare state in post-industrial society: a global perspective by Jason Powell and Jon (Joe) Hendricks. It's from 2009. This book is split into two sections; the first half is looking at different issues relating to welfare (aging, immigration, healthcare...) and the second half is examining specific countries and how their welfare systems operate. Just bear in mind that things will have moved on in some countries in the last 2 and a bit years!


What I haven't mentioned yet is how to locate journal articles. From those training sessions I've done with individuals on this assignment, the most common problem is caused by students trying to find journals which compare two or three systems in one perfectly presented article. You're asking for too much! I think you need to separate out your searches and target individual countries (for example, search for "welfare state" or "welfare system" and Australia). Then your job is to compare the findings with whichever countries you decide to target. 


I told you there was a lot to read! Hope it all makes things a bit clearer and at least gives you some new ideas.

Evidence based health website examining inequality and race.

I owe this website recommendation to Janine Bhandol, the academic librarian responsible for nursing, so if you find anything useful you should be thanking her. The website is called Better Health and it publishes research which addresses inequalities in health between races living in the UK.

There's some terrific reports on here covering subjects such as the health of travellers, ethnic minority women and domestic abuse and BME and mental health issues. Some reports are unpublished (these are known as 'grey literature') and some are evidence based. If you need help with evaluating what you find then I'm happy to share my opinion.

Any student at any level who is studying an issue relating to health and race could find something of use on this website and it's available by clicking here.

Call for reform of women's prisons

Clive Chatterton, former governor of Styal women's prison, has been damning of the use of short term prison sentences for women. This morning (Friday 17th February) he was interviewed on Women's Hour. Luckily he was the first item on so if you listen from the start you won't have long to wait. Anyway, the show is here and it's a very interesting listen. Do remember that the link will probably only work for a week.

In addition, The Guardian reported his concerns too and the link to their piece is here.

This is a difficult topic, however listening this morning it seemed to me that it touches on many issues you may discuss in class and which I've mentioned on the blog previously; mental health, children in care and the length of sentences fitting the seriousness of the crime. Although the Corston report was published 5 years ago to look at these very issues, it would appear that little progress has been made.

If you'd like more information on any of the background studies mentioned you know what to do.

Some new e-books on safeguarding

To support the safeguarding assignment that I know some of you are preparing for (or putting the finishing touches to?!?) I've recently bought a few extra e-books on the subject. These won't all be on your reading list, but that shouldn't stop you from at least looking at the chapter headings and seeing what's on offer.
Today I've actually ordered another 3 titles on the subject which should arrive in about a week.

If you click here you can see a list of e-books that have safeguarding in the title.

As always, if you're having any issues around using e-books, let me know.

What is the most influential book on Earth?

If you were going to make a list of the top ten most influential books ever written I think there'd be some fairly straightforward inclusions; The Quran, The Bible, Darwin's The Origin of Species and Einstein's Theory of Relativity amongst others. A less obvious inclusion might be the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (usually referred to as the DSM). This book contains lists of symptoms which then define specific mental disorders and is used by the American Psychiatric Association and many UK based institutions.

The power of the DSM is in its ability to 'create' new mental disorders (as well as revise existing disorders) and as many of you know having studied the legal, social and personal ramifications of dealing with a mental health diagnosis, the fallout can be profound.

In the last week the DSM has become controversial all over again when details of the proposed new edition (DSM 5) started to emerge. This will have consequences for anyone working with people who have a mental health diagnosis and under the new guidelines a number of new symptoms have been medicalised as possible disorders. Amongst these are shyness in childhood and feelings of grief following bereavement.

As a psychology graduate whose course was heavily influenced by social constructionist principles, I find the issues surrounding diagnosis and stigma absolutely fascinating. Have a look at The Guardian if you'd like to read more on the current DSM 5 situation.

Do you want me to buy more books?

What's that?
You do?
I'm going to make two assumptions at this point; firstly, that you're reading this at all and secondly, you want me to buy more books.

Well now there's something practical you can do to make it more likely that my book budget will go further.

Currently VAT is charged at 20% on all e-books, whilst paper books are VAT-free. Quite frankly, this just isn't fair. So by putting your name to this e-petition you increase the likelihood of this being changed. When the petition reaches 100,000 names it has to be debated in parliament.

Even many of you leaving this year will benefit. You may not have an e-book reader today, but many of us will one day, so in the long run it'll make all paper books (they'll have to drop in price to compete) and e-books cheaper.

That's it. You can get back to your weekend now.
I'm off to play video games for 10 hours...

Cafcass report increase in children taken into care.

This week the Children's Court Advisory Service (Cafcass) released new figures showing a sharp increase in the number of children being taken into care. Many commentators have suggested this is as a result of social workers erring on the side of caution after the furore surrounding the Baby P case.

There were a few interesting and measured debates about the issue in the last few days (there were also a few unhinged slanging matches too but I'll steer clear of sharing those with you) and the Today Programme, as is often the case, hosted a brief and insightful discussion on the issue.

The first two episodes of Protecting Our Children, which is still available on iplayer, has certainly provided me with new evidence as to how finely balanced the decision to keep a child with their birth family or remove them can be.

Drop in training sessions.

As well as the training videos I'm currently working on I've been thinking of offering a series of training drop in sessions. For reasons of timetabling and room availability these would probably be at lunch time, possibly 12 until 2 and you'd just be able to turn up without booking.

As for the topics themselves, I was thinking of running sessions on;
1) All the databases that usually get forgotten in favour of SocIndex.
2) How to get the best out of a personal account in EBSCO.
3) Setting up alerting links within journals.
4) Using YouTube for research.
5) How to cook the perfect souffle.

If you'd like to recommend any other areas where a training session would be beneficial, either put a comment on here or email me with your suggestion.

Part 2 of Protecting Our Children

Just a reminder that BBC2 tonight (Monday 6th) at 9pm will be showing the second part of
Protecting Our Children.
Let's hope for some good outcomes for the people involved.