Brendan Clifford, Sandra Squires and Jenny Layton Wood
To share a case study of a service improvement review of practice and ambition for Health and Wellbeing Boards in the English West Midlands in the changing context of Integrated…
Abstract
Purpose
To share a case study of a service improvement review of practice and ambition for Health and Wellbeing Boards in the English West Midlands in the changing context of Integrated Care Systems.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed qualitative methods: 33 semi-structured interviews with senior care and health leaders; a computer-based self-assessment tool for Health and Wellbeing Boards; and desktop analysis of Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies.
Findings
“Place-based partnership” is a motivating concept, embracing the agency of leaders in pursuing local strategies and solutions. The need for strong leadership was recognised. The opportunity for Integrated Care Systems to contribute to narrowing health inequalities was welcomed by building on local place-based models, maximising council expertise in managing population health and wellbeing in their areas.
Research limitations/implications
The case study is a snapshot of a developing area at a time when further government guidance for Integrated Care Systems was pending. More specific analysis of place-based partnerships in the West Midlands in the context of Health and Wellbeing Boards and Integrated Care Systems would seem beneficial. In addition, further research of subsequent changes such as the Hewitt Review is also considered important.
Practical implications
The review shows the assertion of “place” as a unifying concept for Health and Wellbeing Boards and Integrated Care Systems. It suggests closer involvement of leaders in children's services with local Health and Wellbeing Boards is needed.
Social implications
Health and Wellbeing Boards and Integrated Care Partnerships share common aims of improving the health and wellbeing of local populations. Maximising integration especially on preventative approaches and fully engaging communities in health would have positive social impact.
Originality/value
The case study adds to the relatively less well-developed literature on Health and Wellbeing Boards and their link with Integrated Care Partnerships.
Details
Keywords
Maggie La Rochelle and Patsy Eubanks Owens
To provide insight into young people’s attitudes toward community, place, and public discourse on youth and the environment, and to constructively situate the concept of “a sense…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide insight into young people’s attitudes toward community, place, and public discourse on youth and the environment, and to constructively situate the concept of “a sense of place” within these insights for critical pedagogy and community development.
Design/methodology/approach
This project utilizes a grounded theory approach to identify salient themes in young people’s expressions of place relationships through poetry. About 677 poems about “local watersheds” written by youth aged 5–18 for the River of Words Poetry Contest between 1996 and 2009 are analyzed using poetic and content analysis.
Findings
Findings include the importance of place experiences that employ risk-taking and play, engage central family relationships, and provide access to historical and political narratives of place for the development of constructive place relationships. We also present findings regarding emotions in the sample, showing changing levels of hope and idealism, sadness, pessimism, and other emotions as expressed in the poems.
Research limitations/implications
Using poetic analysis to study attitudes, values, and feelings is a promising method for learning more about the perceptions and values of individuals that affect their self-efficacy and agency.
Practical and social implications
Engaging youth as active participants and empathetic knowledge-creators in their own places offers one opportunity for critical reflective development in order to combat and reframe disempowering public discourses about young people and their relationships to nature and community. Educators can use this research to adapt contextually and emotionally rooted methods of place-based learning with their students.
Original/value
The paper uses a nontraditional, mixed methods approach to research and a unique body of affective data. It makes a strong argument for reflective, experiential, and critical approaches to learning about nature and society issues in local contexts.