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Across the four UK jurisdictions, there are distinct disparities in exclusion rates of school students. Northern Ireland, alongside Scotland and Wales, has demonstrated over time, lower rates of permanent exclusions and temporary exclusions compared with England. This paper examines these disparities from the perspectives of representatives from various system-level educational bodies and third sector organisations representing children and families who experienced the exclusion process. The paper will also present policy and legal frameworks associated with exclusion in Northern Ireland. We interviewed 9 stakeholders, associated with practices of school exclusion in Northern Ireland, from a range of system-level education bodies and advocacy groups. Findings include positive strategies perceived to keep exclusion levels low, types of obstacles or resistance to anti-exclusion policy, participants' perspectives on unofficial exclusion practice, and perspectives on official exclusion data. What emerges from interviews is a series of tensions between implementing a child-centred approach and diminishing support services and resources. We conclude that those working within the Northern Ireland education system, are committed to an inclusive approach. However, the development and implementation of effective supporting frameworks take time and consultation, and there is evidence of tension between the perceptions of those working at a system-level and those working in schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theory and early practice of elected political leadership in the first six English mayoral combined authorities (CAs). It draws on the history of local government in England, policy documentation, and theory on leadership, place and institutional formation to analyse the early leadership of the metro-mayors from the perspective of the leadership of place. It suggests that public policy and the literature on political leadership could usefully recognise the power of place in the exercise of leadership. The paper concludes by raising questions around the development of CAs and their mayors within the wider governance landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses conflicts associated with policies to protect the built heritage. Such conflicts relate to a host of tensions between private and public concerns and specifically between pro-development and pro-conservation approaches. To examine these cleavages, the paper operationalises private and public concerns over heritage by asking if there is a recognisable set of justifications that policy-makers use for supporting a pro-conservation or alternatively a pro-development approach? To do this, the paper looks at appeals decided by Her Majesty’s Planning Inspectors in London. The findings show that although they are not dichotomous, public and private interests in heritage development can be factually recognised in the setting of appeals. Moreover, the paper finds that Planning Inspectors often channel conflicts through the prism of certain public interests, namely, protecting architectural and physical attributes of the building and its surroundings. Although inspectors are instructed to actively weigh in other (potentially overriding) considerations in heritage appeals, such as socio-economic and proprietary issues, these considerations do not appear to have the same standing within the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher shortages are a significant global problem disproportionally affecting "hardest-to-staff" schools and subjects. To better understand (inter)national policy responses to teacher shortages, this paper uses a Bacchian-inspired approach to critically examine proposals suggested as solutions in policy documents from England and Australia, and thus how the problem is being thought about especially in relation to hardest-to-staff contexts. We contend that the problem representations in the policy documents are narrowly conceived and need to be considered differently through the lenses of (re)professionalisation and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the establishment of a pilot neighbourhood- based intergenerational programme and its evaluation in one town in England. It sets this in both the context of English intergenerational programmes involving schools and of English social policy. The latter is currently influenced by Putnam's concept of social capital. It argues that intergenerational programmes of all kinds are likely to be useful contributions to the development of social capital. The paper reports how the evaluation of the pilot has lead to the refinement of the original model. The pilot highlighted the need for more systematic measures of the process and outcomes, including the project's contribution to development of social capital. The revised model is being implemented in a number of contrasting neighbourhoods and will be evaluated in both outcome and process terms. These developments will be reported in further articles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As a key driving force in adult social care policy in both the United Kingdom and internationally personalisation has wide-ranging implications for the social work profession. Yet its meaning can be elusive and is often contested. This article explores findings from a doctoral study which sought to explore the current meanings associated with the notion of personalisation, by asking those with lived experience how it is experienced by them. Unique features of the study's participatory and psychosocial research design, which placed lived experience at its centre, are outlined. Original findings from the study explored in this paper include a range of themes related to dependence, independence and interdependence, depersonalisation and reciprocity. Risks associated with contemporary practice models in adult social work, including strengths-based approaches are explored. Based on the findings a reorientation towards 'contribution-focused practice' within a relationship-based practice model is proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As in many European states, a shortage of housing in England has resulted in some families who are 'waiting for' adequate and secure housing in England while also having the 'weight of' their children being placed outside their care hanging over them. This paper reports on the development of a practice guidance document that included an online survey with 38 children's social services practitioners in England regarding their practice experiences of responding to family homelessness. Findings suggest the complexity of the issue of family homelessness and implicitly highlight its neglect within contemporary research and policy in the UK. Homeless families are caught between the constraints of housing shortages and the complexity of the needs underpinning their homelessness. Despite these constraints, social work practice has an important role to play in providing, or facilitating families' pathway to, housing advocacy and advice. Most importantly of all, social work practice can maximise families' access to statutory family support provision so that families can be helped to remain together wherever this is safely possible. Suggestions for practice, policy, and research development are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Department of Health's Green Paper, Independence, Well‐being and Choice (2005) is subtitled ‘our vision for the future of social care for adults in England’. This article will use the lens of a personal experience of caring to reflect upon its proposals. It does so within the wider context of recent debates on the potential for a human rights culture within community care. The article begins with an outline of the Green Paper itself and then moves on to the case study. Thereafter, the discussion considers the wider issues which are raised by this example of community care for vulnerable adults. The concept of independence, expressed as user choice in a social market of care, is central to the Green Paper. Market provision involves contractual relations, yet the Green Paper is not framed within an explicit discourse of rights. Instead, the vision of market‐based independence is to be achieved through improved policies and practices by social care providers and through the development of appropriate public regulatory mechanisms. In line with recent feminist critiques of present welfare provision, critiques that are based on an ethic of care, I conclude that the starting point for policy and legal development should be the necessary interdependence of individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The revocation of the regional tier of planning by the UK Coalition Government in 2010 removed the established framework of strategic planning in England. Using a case study of green infrastructure (GI), this paper examines whether revocation has negatively impacted the development of environmental, and specifically GI policies and practice. It questions if changing government policy narratives have hindered advocacy and subsequently the delivery of GI and the extent to which it has been able to position itself as a mainstream approach in planning. Using the development of the RSS in England, and the North-East and East of England sub-regional GI strategies (areas of significant policy development), as case studies, the paper presents an ex-ante evaluation prior to revocation of the evolution of GI policy at a regional scale, alongside an ex-post assessment (2011–2015) of its continued growth within sub-regional policies. The paper concludes that whilst RSSs provided a promotional forum, that revocation has not negatively impacted upon GI development, as its advocates have facilitated a supportive policy-implementation environment which has led to the development of more integrated approaches in planning praxis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on UK data from an international, comparative project involving eight countries. The study examined how social workers' conceptions and definitions of family impact on the way they engage with complex families, and how social policies that frame social work context impact on the way social workers engage with families. Focus groups were held in which social workers from four service areas (child welfare, addictions, mental health and migration) were asked to discuss a case vignette. Several factors were embedded in the vignette to represent a realistic situation a social worker may come across in their day-to-day work. Social workers clearly identified the complexity of the family's situation in terms of the range of issues identified and candidate 'causes'. However, typical first responses were institutional, looking for triggers that would signify certainty about their, or other agencies' involvement. This resulted in a complicated story, through which the family was disaggregated into individual problem-service categories. This paper argues that understanding these processes and their consequences is critical for exploring the ways in which we might develop alternative, supportive professional responses with families with complex needs. It also demonstrates how organisational systems manifest themselves in everyday reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic suspended established practices that, in normal times, are seen as central to the functioning of education systems. For example, in England, school closures led to the cancellation of national examinations in 2020, and their attempted replacement with an algorithmic model. Following public outcry about what were seen as the unjust effects of the application of that model, there was a very public policy reversal, and examination grades were awarded on the basis of moderated teacher assessments or Centre Assessed Grades, resulting in substantial grade inflation. This paper draws on research that investigated the actors involved in examinations policy in this period and focuses especially on the sources of expertise and the kinds of knowledge that were mobilised - or not - in the decision to cancel examinations, to develop the algorithm and to revert to Centre Assessed Grades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Developing professional identity is a key aim of social work education. This paper argues that the Professional Capabilities Framework (PCF) – a holistic, capability approach to student assessment used in England’s social work education programmes – is ideally placed to promote the development of students’ professional identities. The paper discusses two research studies, each of which was stimulated by significant policy changes in England’s social work profession. The author draws out the implications of both studies for supporting social work students to develop their professional identities. It is concluded that the PCF is valued by practice educators as an assessment and teaching tool, while acknowledging that its future is uncertain due to the lack of continuity impacting on England’s social work profession. This paper is equally of relevance for social work educators outside the UK who may be developing and evaluating their assessment approaches and also for those experiencing the impact of rapid policy changes in their own countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simon Duffy's paper in a previous issue of this journal (Duffy, 2010) is an important contribution to current debates on the meaning and implications of personalisation for social care and social work. Duffy's central argument is that this major policy development is consistent with a social work based on social justice and that social workers should cast aside their reservations and embrace the technologies of personalisation. In this paper, I shall argue that Duffy's paper fails to acknowledge the conflicting agendas involved in current policy debates and, specifically, the extent to which personalisation is also consistent with a neoliberal social and economic agenda which limits, rather than extends, social justice. The important differences between Independent Living models and models of personalisation based on neoliberal assumptions will be explored and the implications of the ‘hybridisation’ of Independent Living and neoliberal discourses examined in respect of the following four areas: choice and control; support and advocacy; ‘enforced collectivity’ and ‘enforced individualism’; and the implications for social work practice. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of Duffy's proposed Theory of Social Justice and suggests that its failure to adequately address issues of redistribution (as opposed to issues of recognition) or to locate the experience of people with disabilities within the wider framework of neoliberal capitalism limits its usefulness as a basis for a progressive social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the United Kingdom as elsewhere, children across the age range are now being adopted from care. Some of these children, by no means all, are expressing additional physical, emotional, behavioural and educational needs. In consequence, the government has introduced legislation and attendant policies aimed at providing adoptive families with support. In 2013, in the northwest of England, a specialist post-adoption support service was established, and an illuminative evaluation of its organisation and provision was conducted. A key theme emerging from the qualitative data concerned the difficulties parents had encountered in accessing appropriate support prior to the creation of the service. These difficulties have been interpreted as: uncertainty in defining the problems encountered and knowing which agencies and professionals to approach; ambivalence about seeking help; professionals' uncertainty in knowing how to respond; and the scarcity of resources. This paper illustrates these difficulties, then draws attention to some of the ways in which they are being addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is set in the context of the proposal by the UK government to introduce a 'performance management' policy as a basis on which to organize the management and remuneration of teachers in England. The performance management model envisaged is firmly embedded within managerialist ideology and sets the context for restructured levels of the teaching force and redesigned patterns of progression. 'Professional standards' form an essential element of the technology of performance management in specifying skills defined as valuable and supposedly amenable to measurement. No account of performance management would be adequate that did not clarify the value assumptions which underpin it, nor grapple with its implications for patterns of social justice and differentiation. The paper explores both of these dimensions. Furthermore, as has been discovered in other sectors and countries that have endeavoured to introduce such policies, some of the proposals have generated a storm of controversy and opposition. We shall illustrate the contours of this in relation to our recent research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a case-study analysis of methylated spirit drinking in England in the 1920s and 1930s, focussing in particular on moral panic about deviant consumption and the development of policy-making. During the interwar years there emerged a statistically minor, but socially significant, culture of drinking methylated spirit - an industrial denatured alcohol - in socio-economically deprived urban communities. In the wake of (often hyperbolic) discourse about the considerable physical damage caused by methylated spirit consumption, and associated concerns about the perceived moral deviancy of drinkers, policy-makers developed a variety of regulatory strategies aimed at curbing consumption. Overall, this paper reveals the complex matrix of legislative, judicial and administrative regulation which framed responses to this widely vilified form of alcohol consumption, and in doing so points to some of the varied pressures and influences which informed harm-reduction policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Delivering optimal and equitable palliative care is an international challenge. There are few cross-national comparisons examining challenges in expanding palliative care along public health lines. This paper presents a critical review of palliative care in the USA and England, which share similar challenges but have different contexts of healthcare. Beyond some obvious differences in the organisation of palliative care, a set of underlying common issues can be identified. A key tension in both is balancing attention ‘downstream’ in the dying phase, as well as ‘upstream’ earlier in the course of serious illness. In both, the dominant models of palliative care provision have resulted in excellent care towards the end of life for some patients, but there remain major deficiencies in care for the majority. England has a National Strategy for End-of-life care; the US has no equivalent, although a number of influential agencies have published statements. Achieving a public health approach in palliative care requires international consensus on the meaning and target population of palliative care, replacement of prognosis based understandings of entitlement to palliative care with a needs-based approach and development of an evidence base for cost-effective partnerships between providers across the specialist–generalist divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined 91 Active Risk Management System (ARMS) assessments from four police areas across England and Wales. ARMS is a tool that guides criminal justice practitioners to assess and develop formal risk management plans based on the risks and strengths of individual clients convicted of sexual offending. This present study is particularly concerned with the application of this new tool and the quality of subsequent risk assessment as a result of police practitioner assessment. Findings indicate the quality of ARMS assessments were not to the expected standard. The study found while there were acceptable levels of detail and evidence documented by practitioners across individual areas; overall, assessor risk ratings and risk management plans were poor. This paper provides an outline of these findings, making suggestions for areas of improvement, along with recommendations for policy, practice, and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapidly changing policy contexts in England have dramatically affected the provision of career guidance, and the training and development of its practitioners. This paper takes an autoethnographic and self-reflexive approach to exploring the experience of a Senior Lecturer in Career Guidance who manages a centre that offers the Qualification in Career Guidance (QCG), and the Level 6 Diploma in Career Guidance and Development. Key questions are considered, such as: the effects of policy context on the type of qualification and curriculum offered, and their differences; the challenges of engaging learners in theoretical concepts and reflective approaches; and the tensions between ‘training’ practitioners and ‘educating’ them to develop a strong core of professionalism. The paper also considers the extent to which the learners develop as ‘knowledgeable social actors’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper uses Lipsky's classic formulation of “street-level bureaucracy” to explore the exercise of discretion by local policy practitioners in relation to a contaminated site in England. The policy literature generally assumes that practitioners seek to expand their discretion because this allows them to shape policy responses through the application of initiative and judgement. However, discretion is linked both to the degree of organisational and task complexity and to the level of uncertainty involved with making and implementing policy decisions. Such uncertainty affects practitioners’ behaviour. They may develop rules to manage uncertainty, thereby tempering discretion. And where policy options offer little prospect for claiming credit and ample opportunity for being subject to blame, policy implementers often adopt a cautious approach to decisions or avoid taking them. The paper illustrates how practitioners use non-decision-making tactics—such as diversion of responsibility and bureaucratic inertia—to minimise the potential for blame. This offers an extended interpretation of the uses of discretion by street-level bureaucrats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the nature of teacher professionalism in England today, tracing how it has changed and developed according to the impact of government policy and the introduction of standards for teachers. It examines the recently published Teachers’ Standards with their emphasis on classroom practice together with the requirement for teachers to uphold public trust. The nature of trust is discussed along with the factors which contribute to its development. Values which inform professional judgement are outlined along with professional qualities, dispositions or characteristics which are argued as being vital to the effective expression of professionalism. It is considered that the upholding of public trust depends more on the exercising of professional qualities or dispositions within the context of agreement making, than adherence to standards and other methods of externally imposed accountability. However, an examination of the Teachers’ Standards shows that the emphasis on professional attributes contained in the previous standards has been dispensed with. This paper argues that adherence to the new Teachers’ Standards which are deliberately ‘assessable’ is likely to result in tick-box professionalism and advocates an emphasis on the expression of professional qualities such as respect in order to develop and maintain public trust. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Considerable debate has taken place in England around the concept of the city-region. While there is contestation over the terminologies and interpretations of city-regionalism, this paper considers the extent to which it can offer a more integrative set of arrangements for community planning practices in England. Community planning is concerned with securing institutional efficiencies and sustainable development gains in the context of local service provision and integration. Attention is drawn to the extent to which the convergence of these two parallel processes may either exacerbate or ameliorate the institutional barriers to securing efficient and effective community planning. The paper argues that the effective translation of city-regionalism into practice is influenced by (i) variance in the territorial imaginaries/operational boundaries of local institutions and the impact on city-regional governance structures; (ii) the consistency of approach to city-regionalism that is evident within central government and the impact of national policy guidance on the establishment of functional city-regions and (iii) a lack of vertical integration between community planning and city-regional working. These impinge on the extent to which an effective 'spatial fix' can be secured locally and the ability of community planning to act as a 'decongestant' within an increasingly congested state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the 1992 Further and Higher Education Act, local education authorities (LEAs) lost control of further education in England. Now, after spending almost two decades out in the cold, from 2010, local authorities are set to become re-involved in the further education system. Given this, this paper takes the opportunity to look back on the end of LEA control and reflect upon why further education colleges were removed from local authorities in the first place. It is acknowledged that the ideological stance of government was clearly an important factor in ending LEA control, and that the perceived need to make cost savings in the early 1990s also contributed to both the form and haste with which colleges were 'incorporated'. However, arguably the end of LEA control was as much a process as a single event. This paper traces the path that, it is argued, made up that long goodbye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of the paper outlines and discusses the nature of work-based learning (WBL) and WBL programmes, and the overall direction of government strategy towards WBL programmes in Higher Education (HE) in England, with particular reference to postgraduate programmes, policy documents, and the WBL literature. Drawing upon case study research, the paper then presents an overview of the postgraduate WBL programmes offered by three English universities. There follows a presentation and analysis of the views of teaching staff and managers with respect to the operation of these programmes. A number of benefits were identified, including flexibility, student career development, and student's enhanced influence over the learning process and content. A number of problems were also identified, including a lack of awareness of, interest in, and resistance to the programmes on the behalf of the wider university academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dargan L. Participation and local urban regeneration: the case of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) in the UK, Regional Studies. The contention of this paper is that the policy discourses of 'community' and of 'participation' underpinning area-based regeneration programmes are overly simplistic, and their use in regeneration policy is, as a consequence, highly problematic. Based on an analysis of a regeneration partnership in the north of England, this paper will demonstrate that, while partnership members share the same levels of access in decision-making structures, the members of partnership boards have such different understandings of the purpose of participation and the role of residents in the regeneration process that it has created conflict serious enough to affect delivery of regeneration. [image omitted] Dargan L. La participation et la restauration urbaine locale: l'etude de cas du New Deal en faveur des communautes au R-U, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a affirmer que les discours politiques sur les notions de 'communaute' et de 'participation' qui etayent les programmes de restauration territoriaux sont trop simplistes et, par consequent, leur emploi dans la politique de restauration s'avere tres problematique. A partir d'une analyse d'un partenariat de restauration dans le nord de l'Angleterre, cet article cherche a demontrer que, tandis que les membres du partenariat jouissent des memes niveaux d'acces aux structures dans la prise de decision, la comprehension des membres des commissions partenariales quant au but de la participation et au role des habitants dans le processus de restauration varie tellement qu'il en a resulte un conflit suffisamment important que la restauration s'avere touchee. New Labour New Deal for Communities (NDC) Restauration Participation Communaute Discours Dargan L. Beteiligung und lokale Stadtsanierung: der Fall des 'New Deal for Communities (NDC)'-Programms in Grossbritannien, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird die These aufgestellt, dass die von der Politik im Zusammenhang mit Gebietssanierungsprogrammen eingesetzten Diskurse der 'Gemeinschaft' und 'Beteiligung' ubermassig simplistisch sind, weshalb ihre Verwendung in der Sanierungspolitik ausserst problematisch ist. Ausgehend von der Analyse einer Sanierungspartnerschaft in Nordengland wird in diesem Artikel nachgewiesen, dass die einzelnen Partner zwar einen gleichberechtigten Zugang zu den Entscheidungsstrukturen haben, doch dass die Mitglieder in den Vorstanden der Partnerschaft derart unterschiedliche Auffassungen uber den Zweck der Beteiligung und die Rolle der Anwohner im Sanierungprozess haben, dass ernste Konflikte entstanden sind, die sich auf die Umsetzung der Sanierung auswirken. New Labour New Deal for Communities (NDC) Sanierung Beteiligung Gemeinschaft Diskurs Dargan L. Participacion y regeneracion urbana local: El caso del New Deal for Communities (NDC) en el Reino Unido, Regional Studies. En este articulo explicamos que los discursos politicos de 'comunidad' y de 'participacion' que socavan los programas de regeneracion de areas son demasiados simplistas y por consiguiente es muy problematico que se usen para la politica de regeneracion. Basandonos en un analisis de una colaboracion de regeneracion en el norte de Inglaterra, en este articulo demostraremos que, si bien los miembros de sociedades comparten los mismos niveles de acceso en las estructuras de toma de decisiones, los miembros de las juntas directivas en sociedad tienen opiniones diferentes en cuanto a la finalidad de la participacion y el papel de los residentes en el proceso de regeneracion, lo que ha creado conflictos lo suficientemente graves como para afectar a la realizacion de la regeneracion. Partido Laborista New Deal for Communities (NDC) Regeneracion Participacion Comunidad Discurso [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares planning system reform processes and outcomes over the last decade in Australia, England and New Zealand. (In the earlier years of last century planning legislation was UK based. However, it has become increasingly different across the four constituent jurisdictions. This paper, therefore, concentrates on the position in England.) All three countries share close cultural ties stemming from colonisation and similar legal systems. However, very different approaches to spatial planning have evolved over time. Nevertheless, a close reading of recent government reports and reform proposals from all three countries suggests that these differences are narrowing, with striking similarities in diagnoses of planning problems and in prescribed solutions. Our analysis highlights these similarities and asks whether apparent policy sharing and transfer across the three countries is reflected in substantive policy decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much public health research considers interventions that influence and are influenced by both individuals’ health and the society around them; this can be described as a complex system. We consider the role of explanation alongside statistical inference as crucial to obtaining credible and useful insights, particularly in light of concerns about a ‘crisis of replication’, and reflect on the difficulty in researching complex systems. In this paper, we make a connection with Lipton’s philosophy of inference to the best explanation, and offer some tentative practical recommendations, extending suggestions from different fields. An extended hypothetical example is given on introducing ‘sugar tax’ in England. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Prior to devolution in 1999, governance of schools and hospitals in England and Wales was similar. After devolution, the funding and organization continued to be similar, but the two governments adopted different policies in the pursuit of common objectives. This paper reports the results of two ‘natural experiments’ which compare outcomes in the two countries before and after these policy changes. The governance model of ‘trust and altruism’ resulted in worse reported performance in Wales as compared with England on what were each government's key objectives. We argue that ‘naming and shaming’ worked in England, as compared with Wales, resulting in improved examination performance and eliminating the endemic problem of long waiting times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British Government announced large-scale reforms of England's planning policy in May 2010. The resultant National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was released in March 2012. Despite assurances from the Government that the principles governing the management of the historic environment through the planning system would remain largely intact, the policy reform process caused considerable concern and upheaval for historic environment interest groups, and prompted a great deal of activity to assure its interest. This paper sets the context for the historic environment sector's political engagement in England, with insights applicable to the place of heritage advocacy within the power webs of wider agencies of government. The paper examines the campaign led by the heritage charity, the National Trust, and contrasts its strategy with that practised by other bodies in the sector to evaluate the (in)effectiveness of advocacy strategies in the current political climate. The power dynamics and the intricacies of policy processes, as well as the strategies of historic environment agencies engaging with them, are considered. The study concludes that, although the NPPF release was eventually received as a reasonably positive outcome for the interests of the sector, it illustrates the lengths to which political advocates must now go in order to effect change and, conversely, shows how vulnerable we may be if we are not alert to the changing public policy environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English planning again finds itself in a transition from one paradigm—spatial planning—to another—localism. Whilst there is uncertainty and a debate over the significance of these changes and whether they represent a rupture or evolution, we argue in this paper that such change is best understood within the framework of neoliberalization. Seen from this perspective planning is a form of, or contributor to, neoliberal spatial governance. We explore how such an understanding helps explain temporal, spatial, and sectoral variance in planning as well as some of the characteristics of recent planning including scalar change, signature policy moments, resistance, tensions, and insurgent movements. We finally turn to some possible implications of the emerging paradigm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the Stern Review of rape in the context of public responses to rape, in England and Wales. The piece is based on an anti-rape feminist approach and so weighs a woman-centred approach to rape responses against the mainstream justice model. Overall, the argument made is that nothing much is really changing in public responses to rape. The work outlines problems with the Stern contention that the conviction rates for rape need to be calculated differently, and takes issue with the claim that the “policies are right”. Stern's call for greater support for women who have been raped is welcomed, but the effectiveness of the review process itself is questioned. These discussions illustrate the process of attrition as it is variously understood by feminists and by Baroness Stern. It is suggested that reviews themselves may be little more than a dampener, brought in when claims for change create a need to be seen to be doing something. A preferred alternative might be some form of ongoing body, reviewing and challenging practice and policy; however, it is recognised that this could be difficult to achieve amid the current spending cuts. The paper then turns to evaluate trends in support for survivors and notes that the more “professional” models of the Sexual Assault Referral Centre and the Independent Sexual Violence Advisers have held sway for some time. However, under the new coalition, government funding is also being directed towards women-only Rape Crisis centres, and this move is warmly welcomed here. The work concludes that much does indeed remain the same, despite positive signs in terms of respect for this survivor-centred model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The objective of the research on which this paper is based is to find out what impact Liverpool 08 will have on local cultural habitus, and how the sustainability of this impact can be measured and monitored. Too often, evaluation became a box-ticking exercise for decision makers to demonstrate transparency and to objectively prove results. However, evaluations are usually ephemeral, and do not systematically integrate inputs from the end-receivers/consumers of public policies. Decision makers prefer quantitative indicators, that are well known, easily applied and comprehensible to a broad audience, but leave out emotional and participatory aspects. Introducing a hermeneutical approach to understand the impacts of cultural policy allows access to the emotional and qualitative experience of policy impacts on everyday cultural life. This paper suggests that cognitive mapping turned into an evaluation method promotes residents as local experts on everyday construction of cultural space, and gives them an opportunity to participate in the evaluation process. The geography of the local population's interaction with urban space as a creative force conveys emotional attachment to particular parts of the city, determines the essential elements for cultural life and space and its comparison to the city's legitimised cultural space shows how far the bottom-up and the top-down approaches match: the smaller the gap between them, the higher the sustainability of cultural policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper draws upon basic distinctions made in Mary Douglas' cultural theory and some of the analytic concepts proposed by Michael Freeden to map and unpack the ideological dimension of recent developments in English third sector policy and politics. It is suggested that the mainstreaming of the third sector into policy debates and discourses in recent years can partly be understood as an attempt to decontest the idea that fatalism, neo-liberalism, plenipotentiary statism and autarky should all be ruled out as bases for engaging with the third sector; and that fostering a healthy civil society involves finding an ideational terrain which seeks to avoid these extremes. However, it is also suggested that developing third sector policy has also involved contesting the content of the shared ideational space thus ruled in. Competing ideational tendencies within the previous (New Labour) government-quasi-market consumerism, civil order renewal and democratic life revival-are identified, compared and contrasted, and the likely direction of travel in the years ahead under a Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition is briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a collaborative initiative within the North East of England which aims to grow and sustain a software industry, based on the strengths of regional players, including in particular the local university. The project Sunderland Software City has the ambitious aim of developing the people, the infrastructure and the business and enterprise culture to create and sustain a software industry within the North East. This paper focuses upon the role which the University of Sunderland plays within the project, and presents and reflects upon the model of knowledge exchange used. We also outline early results achieved and significant successes to date. Conclusions are drawn and comments made on the future directions of the project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of a growth in both participatory democracy and responsible participation, rural decision-making in England has become increasingly complex over the past 30 years, fuelled by national polices relating to regionalism, citizenship and relocalisation. A survey of 'agents of rural governance' (ARGs) in the county of Gloucestershire, England, charts their recent growth, reasons for formation and perceived jurisdiction as well as examining complexities of decision-making relating to partnerships, networks and finance. The survey suggests that policies designed to 'empower' rural people can be seen to have clogged up rural decision-making processes sufficiently to have, effectively, disempowered many of them. The paper identifies and exemplifies six different types of 'clogging up' that impact upon rural decision-making: crowding, knotting, clouding, meandering, subverting and impoverishing. Whilst governmental proposals have been introduced in an attempt to rationalise this decision-making complexity, particularly through the Haskins Review and the English National Rural Strategy, other policy strands have conspired to make such decision-making essentially laissez faire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on data from a broader study, the central object of which was to explore the place of sport and physical activity in young people's lives. More particularly, the paper reports the findings of 24 focus groups conducted with 153 15-16 year olds in north-west England and north-east Wales in order to examine young people's views towards activity choice in physical education (PE). In this regard, it is suggested that despite their deep-seated preferences for 'traditional', games-dominated PE curricula and the constraints imposed upon them from the existence of a national curriculum for PE and government policy over the past two decades, PE teachers continue to provide young people with a degree of activity choice in the later secondary school years. The 15-16 year olds in this study considered activity choice to be a very positive feature of their experience of PE at key stage 4 and viewed it as a vehicle for greater enjoyment of and engagement with PE. It was also the case that the 15-16 year olds appeared to attach a great deal of importance to the ways in which the activities provided them with the opportunity to engage in activities within PE that they also do in their leisure-time, and which they are likely to do in the future. At the same time, however, many young people expressed dissatisfaction with what they perceived as unnecessary and undesirable limitations on the number and range of activities made available to them. Restrictions on choice were particularly felt among girls and those from lower social class backgrounds who were evidently dissatisfied with what they saw as the over-representation of a small number of traditional team sports and activities in PE. It is concluded that if PE teachers and policy-makers want to increase their impact upon young people's participation in PE and 'modernise' further the curricula provided for pupils, then they need to appreciate more adequately the significance of the twin processes of democratisation and informalisation, since both processes help explain young people's growing preference for choice in PE and in other social contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines key findings from Sure Start Local Programme evaluations carried out in the North-East of England and assesses their implications for current policy and professional practice. Sure Start was a major New Labour social policy initiative designed to close the gap in outcomes between children living in poverty and the wider child population. The evaluations focused upon 'crosscutting issues, for example partnership and inter-agency working, programme management and parental involvement' addressing how programmes had worked in practice. Evidence demonstrates congruence with the current government policy for children and families in two main areas — integrated working and parental empowerment/inclusive ethos. The paper concludes that a foundation of good working practices appears to be in place for future advancement of Sure Start Children's Centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews New Labor priority educational policies since 1997 that have attempted to break the link between poverty and low educational achievement in England. It does so by examining these policy priorities against a mapping framework developed by the author for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Education and Poverty programme. This framework emanates from a synthesis of some of the research literature on poverty and education and contains two broad underpinning approaches (functionalist and socially critical) and three levels of analysis (micro, meso, macro). Analysis of New Labor priority educational policies against this framework, particularly exemplified through the current full service extended schools (FSES) initiative, suggests that perhaps too many interventions are underpinned by a functionalist approach that focuses on the more accessible and amenable meso level (and to lesser extent the micro level) with too little emphasis on the macro. At the same time many of the interventions appear disjointed, lack coherence and seem to eschew issues of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The London 2012 bid was based on the promise to use the Olympic Games to promote sports participation for all groups across the UK. This is the most ambitious project in the history of the Olympic Games in terms of both its scope and level of change, as, in order to be implemented successfully, it has to address not only people's behaviour but also deeply rooted social structures and relations. This paper addresses the little explored issue of the link between hosting the Olympic Games and sports participation in the host country within the framework of sustainable sports legacy. It takes a process-oriented approach, suggesting that Olympic legacies are constructed and not given, and explores the role of the International Olympic Committee and the UK government in framing sports legacy. The paper draws from relevant literature and two original case studies, and analyses five main processes involved in legacy construction. It is argued that the role of sports participation legacy has been to compensate for the propensities of Olympic growth. The concept of sustainable Olympic sports development legacy is controversial but appealing. It offers grounds for agreement in Olympic aspirations for social progress and equality while still promoting games that are faster, higher, stronger and the best ever. Achieving sustainable sports participation will remain an illusive target until the rights of different communities and sports are recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the development of the 'knowledge economy' in many advanced industrial nations, there has been a growing interest in regional innovation systems and the role that universities might play in these. One result has been the demarcation by government actors of specific spaces for the creation, transfer and transformation of knowledge. Such spaces have been given various names, such as 'smart regions', 'science cities' and 'innovation corridors'. Whilst the associated policy rhetoric has much in common with the earlier interest in science and technology parks there are also clear distinguishing differences. More recent policy initiatives have sought to foster industry clusters within these spaces to contribute to economic development and diversification and link this to economic, social and cultural regeneration. This paper explores policy-driven creation of 'innovation areas' by focusing on two contrasting examples: Newcastle Science City in the North East of England and the Gold Coast Pacific Innovation Corridor in Queensland, Australia. The paper compares the rhetoric of university-industry-government policies with the realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful modern cities must combine high levels of accessibility and quality of life. These aims may conflict with each other: increasing accessibility could be detrimental to the urban environment while the improvement of urban air quality might mean restricting the accessibility of the city. The challenge for cities in the 21st century is to maintain economic growth, stay accessible and improve quality of life at the same time. The aim of this paper is to increase understanding of how cities should address their transport policies. Examples from London (UK) and Gothenburg (Sweden) are used to emphasize the character of innovative urban transport policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper sets the scene for this Policy Studies special issue on plant closures by outlining the form of the auto cluster in the West Midlands, the nature of structural changes unfolding in the industry, and the decline and eventual collapse of MG Rover (MGR). Structural changes highlighted include: greater pressure on firms to recover costs when technological change has been intensifying, driving up the costs of new model development; increased international sourcing of modular components; and a shift of final assembly operations towards lower cost locations. All of these make maintaining mature clusters such as the West Midlands more challenging for firms and policy makers. The paper then looks at 'what went wrong' at MGR. Given long-run problems at the firm and its inability to recover costs, BMW's sale of the firm in 2000 left MGR virtually dead on its feet, and by 2002/2003 it was clear to many that the firm was running out of time. Whilst recognising that the firm's demise was ultimately a long-term failure of management, the paper also looks at other contributing factors, including government policy mistakes over the years, such as the misguided 'national champions' approach in the 1950s and 1960s, a failure to integrate activities under nationalisation in the 1970s, a mistaken privatisation to British Aerospace in the 1980s, and a downside of competition policy in 'allowing' the sale to a largely inappropriate owner in BMW in the 1990s. The considerable volatility of sterling in recent years hastened the firm's eventual demise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As spaces of complex layering of multiple relations, each with their own space-time dynamics and reach, policies of urban governance and their tangible outcomes can be materially experienced as conjunctions of multiple meshworks of assemblages with different scopes and different systems of values. This paper investigates a case example of a Private Finance Initiative for the construction of Throckley Middle School in Newcastle upon Tyne. Completed in 2003, Throckley school closed in 2005. A Deleuzean-inspired tracing of several Throckley assemblages is presented and the paper concludes by discussing the challenges of adopting a Deleuzean perspective for analysis of urban governance and infrastructure development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Raco M. Key worker housing, welfare reform and the new spatial policy in England, Regional Studies. Under the Labour government the character of spatial policy in England has been subject to significant change. The emphasis has increasingly been on spatial policy as an active social policy. This paper uses the example of public sector key worker housing programmes in England to exemplify and analyse the character of these changes. It argues that the new approach also contains an explicit recognition that social policies can and should be re-oriented towards the wider objectives of accumulation and competitiveness and this has broader implications for the organization and character of the welfare state. [image omitted] Raco M. Le logement des travailleurs essentiels, la reforme du syteme de protection sociale et la nouvelle politique regionale au R-U, Regional Studies. Sous le gouvernement travailliste, la politique regionale s'est sensiblement modifiee. De plus en plus on met l'accent sur la politique regionale comme politique sociale active. Cet article cherche a se servir de l'exemple de la construction de logements destines aux travailleurs essentiels du secteur public en Angleterre pour illustrer et analyser le caractere de ces modifications. On affirme que la nouvelle facon comprend aussi une reconnaissance que la politique sociale pourrait et devrait etre reorientee vers les objectifs plus larges d'accumulation et de competitivite. Il y a des lecons a en tirer pour ce qui est de l'organisation et du caractere du syteme de protection sociale. Politique regionale Politique sociale Logement Travailleurs essentiels Competitivite Raco M. Wohnungsprogramme fur offentliche Angestelle, Sozialreform und die neue Raumpolitik in England, Regional Studies. Unter der Labour-Regierung hat sich das Wesen der Raumpolitik in England grundlegend verandert. Die Betonung liegt zunehmend auf der Raumpolitik als aktiver Sozialpolitik. In diesem Beitrag wird anhand des Beispiels von Wohnungsprogrammen fur wichtige offentliche Angestellte in England das Wesen dieser Veranderungen beschrieben und analysiert. Nach meiner Argumentation wird durch den neuen Ansatz explizit anerkannt, dass sich Sozialpolitiken an den breiteren Zielen der Akkumulation und Wettbewerbsfahigkeit umorientieren konnen und sollten, was zu weitlaufigeren Folgen fur den Aufbau und das Wesen des Sozialstaates fuhrt. Raumpolitik Sozialpolitik Wohnungswesen Offentliche Angestellte Konkurrenzfahigkeit Raco M. Alojamiento para trabajadores clave, reforma del bienestar y la nueva politica espacial en Inglaterra, Regional Studies. Bajo el gobierno laborista el caracter de la politica espacial en Inglaterra ha experimentado importantes cambios. El enfasis ha recaido cada vez mas en la politica espacial como una politica social activa. En este articulo ilustro y analizo el caracter de estos cambios con el ejemplo de los programas de alojamiento para trabajadores clave en el sector publico en Inglaterra. Sostengo que el nuevo planteamiento tambien reconoce explicitamente que las politicas sociales pueden y deben ser reorientadas hacia objetivos mas amplios de acumulacion y competitividad y esto repercute en mayor medida en la organizacion y el caracter del estado del bienestar. Politica espacial Politica social Alojamiento Trabajadores clave Competitividad [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English Learning and Skills Sector (LSS) contains a highly diverse range of learners and covers all aspects of post-16 learning with the exception of higher education. In the research on which this paper is based we are concerned with the effects of policy on three types of learners - unemployed adults attempting to improve their basic skills in community learning settings, younger learners on Level 1 and 2 courses in further education colleges, and employees in basic skills provision in the workplace. What is distinctive about all three groups is that they have historically failed in, or been failed by, compulsory education. What is interesting is that they are constructed as 'problem learners' in learning and skills sector policy documents. We use data from 194 learner interviews, conducted during 2004/5, in 24 learning sites in London and the North East of England, to argue that government policy assumptions about these learners may only be 'half right'. We argue that such assumptions might be leading to half-right policy based on incomplete understandings or surface views of learner needs that are more politically constructed than real. We suggest that policy-makers should focus more on systemic problems in the learning and skills sector and less on problematising groups of learners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the stated aims of government policy in England is to put teaching, training and learning at the heart of the learning and skills system. This paper provides a critical review of policies on teaching, learning and assessment in the learning and skills sector over the past five years. It draws upon data collected and analysed in the early stages of an ESRC-funded Teaching and Learning Research Programme project.1 Using evidence from policy sources, we argue that despite policy rhetoric about devolution of responsibility to the 'front line', the dominant 'images' that government has of putting teaching, learning and assessment at the heart of the learning and skills sector involves a narrow concept of learning and skills; an idealization of learner agency lacking an appreciation of the pivotal role of the learner-tutor relationship and a top-down view of change in which central government agencies are relied on to secure education standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a case study approach to illustrate how government policies for restoration and income generation affect service delivery in three urban parks. The cases are based upon the service offerings in Happy Mount Park in Morecambe, Williamson Park in Lancaster and Stanley Park in Liverpool, located in the Northwest of England. The discussion utilizes service delivery and customer focus literature but will extend into the dimensions of public goods, commodification and gradual privatisation of public parks. The paper contains a discourse on the management and the demise of urban parks over the last 30 years. The notion of service quality and a customer focus normally relates to fee paying attractions but the authors' conclusions are contextualized within the service offerings of public parks with an operational environment of 'free admission at the point of use'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers two examples of recent policies affecting teachers' work, Performance Threshold Assessment in England and Chartered Teacher status in Scotland. Through tracing their origins and motivations, a comparative analysis is offered, which seeks to explore the extent of the influence of national contexts on developments in the restructuring process. Both policies purport to meet the professional needs of teachers who are a few years into their careers, yet the Scottish example is strongly oriented towards professional development, while the English example is oriented towards performativity and teacher assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emphasis of this paper is on the differential impact of Labor Government policies on the City of London in the years 1964-7. Three different areas of Government policy are distinguished and it is shown that Government-City relations in each area had their own very distinct characteristics. Whether or not the policies in a particular area were framed in such a way as to satisfy the perceived interests of the financial institutions was closely related to respective Government-finance power resources and to their respective strategies and objectives. These conditions varied in each of the three policy areas. Controversially, it is argued that the Wilson Government's strategy was informed throughout by Labor party ideals and that these were pursued with loyalty and great skill in the face of much hostility from the City. The final section draws on the analysis of the present paper to indicate just how misleading the standard accounts of City-Government relations have been. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The housing system in England has experienced unprecedented stress and instability over the last decade, absorbing the impact of demographic pressure, a credit-fuelled boom, financial crisis, recession and policy change. A failing supply system and unexpected tenure changes now confront austerity and welfare cutback. How have these conditions impacted on traditional and contemporary indicators of housing need and what does this tell us about the drivers and dynamics of housing need outcomes? Drawing mainly on analysis of large-scale longitudinal and cross-sectional surveys, linked to subregional market data, this paper describes and models the changes in housing need outcomes over two decades. It explores the impact of demography, market affordability, labour markets, tenure change and supply on these outcomes. Particular attention is paid to the persistence or recurrence of need in the context of different housing pathways and different market contexts, including the relationship with poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]