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The purpose of this paper is to describe and illustrate the use of the Engagement for Learning Framework developed through the Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities (CLDD) Research Project (2009-2011). The resources support mainstream and special educators to extend the engagement of learners with CLDD.

In total, 95 educational settings and 224 students took part across three phases of research (November 2009-March 2011) comprising a resource development phase and two trial phases in mainstream and special schools. The researchers used an exploratory, multiple case study approach and action research methodologies. A recent case study from Hamilton School, Birmingham, illustrates the Engagement for Learning Framework.

The resulting Engagement Profile and Scale data showed increases in engagement for similar proportions of the student cohort. Across the three phases, 81-85 per cent (mean: 83 per cent) increased their levels of engagement for learning, 2-9 per cent (mean: 5.3 per cent) showed no change, while 5.5-16 per cent (mean: 11.6 per cent) showed decreased levels of engagement. Descriptive data corroborated these scores.

This original research added value to existing work by developing resources for educators that enabled them to adapt activities to encourage students’ engagement in seven engagement areas (awareness, curiosity, investigation, discovery, anticipation, persistence and initiation). The resources enabled educators to score learner engagement over time to show progress and collected associated descriptive data.

Autistic Spectrum Disorder is a developmental disorder estimated to inflict 1 in every 150 children, regardless of socio-cultural aspects, with a four to one prevalence in males over females, (ADDM, 2007). It involves a complex sensory perceptual model, variant from that of the typical individual. It manifests itself in the form of repetitive behaviour, lack of social skills and communication delays and challenges. Being a life-long infliction, individuals with autism require a comprehensive range of specialized support services, including residential, from childhood to adulthood.

Housing services for special needs, in general, conventionally deal with issues of physical access. The provisions required for developmentally challenged individuals, such as those with autism are rarely considered.

This paper aims to provide a precedent to help guide the adaptation process in the case of group residential accommodation for autistic adults in mass housing projects. After a brief examination of the available literature in the field, a case study will be presented, illustrating design criteria developed for adapting housing for autistic use.

Fumes, grit, dust, dirt—all have long been recognized as occupational hazards, their seriousness depending on their nature and how they assail the human body, by ingestion, absorption, inhalation, the last being considered the most likely to cause permanent damage. It would not be an exaggeration to state that National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) provisions, now contained in the Social Security Act, 1975, with all the regulations made to implement the law, had their birth in compensating victims of lung disease from inhalation of dust. Over the years, the range of recognized dust disease, prescribed under regulations, has grown, but there are other recognized risks to human life and health from dusts of various kinds, produced not from the manufacturing, mining and quarrying, &c. industries; but from a number of areas where it can contaminate and constitute a hazard to vulnerable products and persons. An early intervention by legislation concerned exposed foods, e.g. uncovered meat on open shop fronts, to dust and in narrow streets, mud splashed from road surfaces. The composition of dust varies with its sources—external, atmospheric, seasonal or interior sources, uses and occupations, comings and goings, and in particular, the standards of cleaning and, where necessary, precautions to prevent dust accumulation. One area for long under constant scrutiny and a subject of considerable research is the interior of hospital wards, treatment rooms and operating theatres.

At a recent inquest upon the body of a woman who was alleged to have died as the result of taking certain drugs for an improper purpose, one of the witnesses described himself as “an analyst and manufacturing chemist,” but when asked by the coroner what qualifications he had, he replied : “I have no qualifications whatever. What I know I learned from my father, who was a well‐known ‘F.C.S.’” Comment on the “F.C.S.” is needless.

Conceptualizations of work coordination historically assumed that work systems are put into place and that these systems shape the ability of workers to accomplish tasks. Formalization has thus long been invoked as an explanatory mechanism for work coordination. Recent studies have extended interest in emergent implicit and relational coordination, yet their underlying mechanisms of bottom-up coordination have yet to be explicated such that formal top-down coordination can be approached as a complementary mechanism rather than an alternative substitute. The purpose of this paper is to integrate the literatures related to coordination and routines, and extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations. Implications of this work, for both theory and practice, are discussed.

A conceptual review was conducted.

By integrating the literatures related to coordination and routines, the authors extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations.

From a theory-based point of view, in the present work, the authors integrated the literatures related to coordination and routines and arrived at the conclusion that bottom-up coordination can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations.

The authors suggest that there is a need in the contemporary workplace for implicit, relational processes to enable individuals to continuously assess what changes are needed and adapt coordinated routines to accomplish the task at hand. This propensity will continue to increase as technology facilitates even more seamless communication among employees, organizations, and external partners.

For the first time the authors integrate the literatures related to coordination and routines, in order to extend analysis of bottom-up coordination toward an understanding of how it can be complemented by top-down formalized coordination of routines within organizations.

Evidence from a variety of sources indicates that there is a correlation between environment, support structures and behavioural response for people with complex needs which affects the quality of life in living environments. As part of the shift from institutional living to community‐based options, an inclusive approach, working on a theoretical and practice‐based response, was established. The aim of the project was to achieve an inclusive package of support while encouraging development of individual skills of daily living, in a flexible and interactive environment. During the course of the project, 39 purpose‐built housing units were established using the approach described, and they are currently the subject of evaluation.

Reporting to the police incidents of challenging behaviour displayed by inpatients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and learning disability (LD) represents an important but often controversial issue. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to this topic through a brief literature review and the presentation of a clinical case.

Case study and literature review.

The action of reporting to the police can be a useful tool within the therapeutic input provided to patients with ASD and LD who present with challenging behaviour. This can enable staff to feel legally supported, and can promote patients’ learning of social rules, in respect of their rights and duties. The clinical case highlighted that reporting to the police can be effective when it is part of a comprehensive, multi‐professional therapeutic process. This should aim at directing patients towards rehabilitation rather than incarceration. This should also entail the identification of clear pathways and ongoing involvement of patients and families.

Despite the relevance for clinical practice of the above debate, little has been published on this topic. This paper contributes to this discussion through the presentation of a clinical case and by describing how this issue was addressed within a secure inpatient setting.

EVERY librarian in his inmost heart dislikes newspapers. He regards them as bad literature; attractors of undesirable readers; a drain upon the limited resources of the library; and a target against which the detractors of public libraries are constantly battering. From the standpoint of the librarian, newspapers are the most expensive and least productive articles stocked by a library, and their lavish provision is, perhaps, the most costly method of purchasing waste‐paper ever devised. Pressure of circumstances and local conditions combine, however, to muzzle the average librarian, and the consequence is that a perfectly honest and outspoken discussion of the newspaper question is very rarely seen. In these circumstances, an attempt to marshal the arguments for and against the newspaper, together with some account of a successful practical experiment at limitation, may prove interesting to readers of this magazine.

This paper focuses on the analytical importance of voice and the value of listening and representing voices in private contexts. It highlights the under-theorised position of relationality in family research. The paper introduces the listening guide as a unique analytical approach to sharpen researchers’ understanding of private experiences and articulations.

This is a conceptual and technical paper. It problematises voice, authority and analytical representation in the private location of family and examines how relational dynamics interact with the subtleties of voice in research. It also provides a practical illustration of the listening guide detailing how researchers can use this analytical approach.

The paper illustrates how the listening guide works as an analytical method, structured around four stages and applied to interview transcript excerpts.

The listening guide bridges private and public knowledge-making, by identifying competing voices and recognises relations of power in family research. It provides qualitative market researchers with an analytical tool to hear changes and continuities in participants’ sense of self over time.

The paper highlights how peripheral voices and silence can be analytically surfaced in private domains. A variety of studies and data can be explored with this approach, however, research questions involving vulnerable or marginal experiences are particularly suitable.

The paper presents the listening guide as a novel analytic method for researching family life – one, which recovers the importance of voice and serves as a means to address the lack of debate on voice and authority in qualitative market research. It also highlights the under-theorised position of relationality in tracing the multiple subjectivities of research participants. It interrupts conventional qualitative analysis methods, directing attention away from conventional coding and towards listening as an alternative route to knowledge.

This paper reports on the pilot phase of a participatory project to develop an online ‘AS portal’, which provided peer‐to‐peer support for higher education students with Asperger's syndrome. The process of development is described and the initial outcomes of the pilot evaluated, including qualitative feedback from participants. Participants actively engaged with the portal, by giving and receiving support through in‐depth discussion, much of which centred on the experience of having autism. The research indicates that there is value in further exploring peer support networks for individuals on the autism spectrum and highlights the importance of appropriate design and sufficient time‐scale for such initiatives. It also reflects on the implications of participatory methodologies for both researchers and participants.