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With the concept of interconnection among municipal drinking water networks, this paper presents an innovative methodology aiming to identify potential interconnections and new hydropower possibilities between separate municipal networks, at a regional level.

Beside literature research, water framework directive, interviews with local actors and local case studies were employed. To ensure the soundness of the developed methodology and to give more accuracy to the scientific approach, the presented methodology was tested in a Swiss Alp pilot region (Martigny) composed of 23 independent municipal water networks.

A methodology which makes it possible to compile on a unique map complex and dissociated elements describing water networks and their potential interconnections was developed. Furthermore, the methodology brings these elements together giving decision makers an overview focussed on added-value in terms of water resources and consumption as well as economic and energetic impacts.

In a bottom-up approach, the targets of this study have been presented and discussed with all local actors. Some of the suggested interconnections are currently being completed.

The use of GIS-based framework as a decision support system would improve the current practice of integrated drinking water management. The developed methodology would be useful for other watershed region where the efficiency of water networks can be greatly improved by the means of a systemic approach and the designing of new network interconnections.

Discharge preparation from high to medium levels of security has received little attention from researchers to date, but is a critical stage in a patient's pathway. This paper aims to capture the perspectives of patients who are preparing to move on from high to medium security.

Nine patients who were in the “discharge preparation” stage of their pathway were interviewed to capture their perspectives on the process. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis.

Nine themes were identified as representing the patient interviews: trust and support, feeling empowered, journey of self-acceptance, skilling-up, getting to know the Medium Secure Unit (MSU), feeling disempowered and unvalued, issues with the system, anxiety about endings, and stigma and society.

This paper gives voice to patients across clinical directorates at a UK high secure hospital regarding their perspectives on what has helped and hindered their discharge preparation. It presents some new findings, and recommended good practice, which should be of use to clinicians and managers who wish to enhance discharge preparation interventions for patients within high secure services.

Attachment Theory can be regarded as central to the concept of relational security. There is a paucity of research examining the coherence of this construct for ward-based staff. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Five female nurses from the acute admission and assessment ward of a UK medium secure unit acted as participants. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and inductive thematic analysis was applied.

Six themes; “staff-service user relationships”, “staff diversities”, “service user backgrounds”, “variability in service users’ presentations”, “service users with personality disorder are problematic” and “nurses do not use attachment” emerged from the data. The nurses used heuristic models of attachment-related behaviour and they lacked knowledge of constructs associated with Attachment Theory.

Acute admissions may not be representative of all treatment contexts. Traditional models of attachment style may have only limited relevance in forensic services.

Limited knowledge and confidence in the nurses regarding how Attachment Theory might apply to service users is interesting because it may limit the extent to which care, treatment and risk management might be informed by an understanding of service user representations of therapeutic relationships. Training and educational interventions for nurses that enhance understanding of personality development and attachment styles are warranted.

The importance of nurses for achieving relational security is emphasised and the adequacy of their training is questioned.

The purpose of this research was to investigate e‐business and e‐supply strategies in Scottish small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The paper reviews academic literature and recent survey reports on the degree of e‐business adoption in the UK and Republic of Ireland. The qualitative methodology undertaken is described, findings are discussed and implications from this study for e‐business strategies outlined. This was an exploratory study using a small sample with possible geographic biases. Nevertheless, the data so far are in line with findings from larger studies. The role of support agencies is examined, as well as how government could better serve the SMEs. Finally conclusions and future research plans are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to describe some of the basic features of attachment theory, and explore how they relate to the development of the “social mind” and the work of therapeutic communities (TC).

The author describes the essentials of attachment theory in humans; and the development of both secure and insecure states of mind. The author will set out how insecure attachment systems are associated with deficits in mentalising processes which are fundamental to the activity of the social mind.

The author suggests how attachment to a TC can promote mentalising processes. The author draws on the work of other speakers in the conclusions about how to “grow” secure minds and societies.

This paper is a brief over view only and does not address attachment process to TC in any depth.

Attachment theory could help both service users and therapists who work in TCs understand some of the difficulties people have in engaging at the start. Attachment theory also gives a guide to what a “good enough” experience in a TC might look like.

There is little existing discussion of the application of attachment theory to TCs.

The aim is to determine whether staff ratings of service user attachment style are associated with service user misconduct during inpatient treatment in a medium secure mental health unit; also, to gauge whether staff can evaluate attachment style reliably.

Retrospective case note analysis on 55 inpatient treatment episodes were supplemented with staff ratings of service user attachment style. Records of untoward incidents were centrally retrieved. Kappa statistics were used to analyse levels of staff agreement regarding service user attachment style.

Attachment style was associated with hostile episodes, treatment non‐compliance and service user aggression. Post hoc analysis on a subset of data yielded poor overall agreement in ratings of attachment style (Kappa=0.2). Further analysis revealed a sex‐based asymmetry with high consistency in ratings of female service users (Kappa=0.79) and very low inter‐rater reliability for male service users (Kappa=−0.05). It is important to note that the staff included in the interrater reliability analysis were female.

The sample was small, the observation period was short and staff conducting the ratings had no special training in the rating tool.

Attachment style per se played a significant part in the success and/or failure of service user treatment (when measured by misconduct). However, the validity of staffs' ratings of attachment style may interact systematically with the sex of staff and service users. These findings have important implications for the application of the concept of attachment in clinical settings.

Mental health professionals place central importance on the establishment of therapeutic relationships between clinicians and service users. Service user attachment style is assumed to play a role in mediating the success, or failure, of relationships with clinicians.

This study makes a novel contribution to the application of attachment theory to secure mental health care, it also demonstrates that gender is an important factor in staff appraisals of service users' approach to treatment.

Whereas a number of standardised psychological measures exist for the assessment of sex offenders (eg Beckett, 1994), very few such measures are appropriate for use with those with learning disabilities. Measures often use complicated language and concepts, fail to include people with learning disabilities in their standardisation samples and use notions of sex and sexuality that, in many cases, are of little relevance to the lives of people with learning disabilities. In order to help in the psychological formulation of Paul (a sex offender with learning disabilities), a Kelly Repertory Grid (Kelly, 1955) was used. The analysis of the grid provided important information about Paul's sense of self, his attitude towards women and his attitude towards relationships in general. This allowed for a systematic approach to assessment and formulation that might not otherwise have been available. It is proposed as a novel starting point in the process of assessment and formulation in this client group, which fits in well with existing cognitive‐behavioural (CBT) approaches to treatment.