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The Health and Personal Social Services, Improvement and Regulation (NI) Order 2003, provides a legal framework that places a statutory requirement on health and personal social services in Northern Ireland to provide good quality services. Social care governance underpins the execution of this requirement, and relates to the delivery of safe and appropriate services for people with learning disabilities. The Directors of Social Services asked DHSSPSNI to fund a project worker through the Clinical and Social Care Governance Support Team to take this work forward. They asked for learning materials to be developed. A partnership was formed with the Social Care Institute for Excellence, and they provided the knowledge base for the workbook. The process of developing the workbook involved working with five pilot sites throughout Northern Ireland. The community learning disability team based in the Newry and Mourne Locality of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust participated in the pilot. This paper details the experiences of the team, the work done to date and the ongoing process of maintaining a focus on governance issues.

Presents a review on implementing finite element methods on supercomputers, workstations and PCs and gives main trends in hardware and software developments. An appendix included at the end of the paper presents a bibliography on the subjects retrospectively to 1985 and approximately 1,100 references are listed.

Fiction has the potential to dispel myths and helps improve public understanding and knowledge of the experiences of under-represented groups. Representing the diversity of the population allows individuals to feel included, connected with and understood by society. Whether women and girls with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are adequately and accurately represented in fictional media is currently unknown. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Internet and library searches were conducted to identify female characters with ASD in works of fiction. Examples of such works were selected for further discussion based on their accessibility, perceived historical and cultural significance and additional characteristics that made the work particularly meaningful.

The search highlighted a number of female characters with ASD across a range of media, including books, television, film, theatre and video games. Many were written by authors who had a diagnosis of the condition themselves, or other personal experience. Pieces largely portrayed characters with traits that are highly recognised within the academic literature. However, some also appeared to endorse outdated myths and stereotypes. Existing works appear to preferentially portray high functioning autistic women, with limited representation of those whom also have intellectual disability.

This is the first exploration of the depiction of ASD in females within fiction. There is a need for more works of fiction responsibly depicting females with ASD, as this can help reduce stigma, develop public awareness and recognition and increase representation.