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The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the recession has affected UK businesses.

A viewpoint is expressed exploring the reasons for the current recession and its effect on the UK economy.

In order for the British economy to bounce back consumer confidence needs to return, the Bank of England needs to cut interest rates to stimulate consumer demand. Lower interest rates reduce the cost of borrowing and therefore people should be more willing to spend and invest.

Lessons have been learnt from this economic challenge and the UK's business leaders are ready to move on.

The purpose of this paper is to outline the development, piloting and evaluation of the Who’s Challenging Who? (WCW) training intervention for social care staff to improve their empathy and attitudes towards people with learning disabilities (LD) and challenging behaviour (CB).

A phased approach was taken to the development and testing of the intervention. Initially, the existing literature was reviewed, the theoretical background of the intervention was developed, and then the intervention was designed. A pilot study was undertaken, followed by further development, and a large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT).

WCW had a small positive effect on staff empathy 20 weeks after the intervention, and small to moderate effects for other staff reported outcomes (e.g. positive empowerment attitudes and positive work motivation). Being trained by people with LD and CB encouraged staff to reflect on the impact they have on the people they support. The trainers with LD valued their role, and saw benefits beyond this (e.g. friendships).

It is possible to carry out high-quality RCT evaluations of social care practice, and research should continue to generate evidence in this way, as in healthcare settings. However, there were difficulties in retaining participants.

People with LD can be actively involved in the co-production and delivery of social care training.

Employment and a fair wage can increase the confidence and empowerment of people with LD.

This is the first large-scale RCT of an intervention that aimed to improve empathy/change attitudes in social care staff who work with people with LD and CB.

The purpose of this paper is to determine if neurolinguistic programming (NLP) tools and techniques were effective in alleviating the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in clients from the Military and Emergency Services.

This project ran at the “Healing the Wounds” charity in Bridgend. All clients were opportunistic, having self-referred to a charity specifically set up to support Veterans from the Armed Forces. In total, 29 clients from an initial cohort of 106 clients provided pre and post data using Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) and the NLP Wheel of Life scale. Interventions included a range of NLP techniques, addressing self-reported symptoms.

Differences between DASS scores before and after treatment are very highly significant. t-test analysis infers that these results are indicative of the overall response from the clients in this study.

Limitations of the study include: client group; significant levels of incomplete data for the total study group; therapist effect and therapist training; treatment methodology.

Data suggest that NLP has potential as a therapeutic tool in the treatment of symptoms of anxiety and depression associated with a self-report of PTSD. An observation is proposed that these candidates experience an improvement in their emotional state when NLP is used which is statistically significant (p<0.001) both for overall DASS score averages and also for each of the three DASS categories (Depression, Anxiety and Stress). Stress was the highest scoring category prior to treatment for these clients; the reduction in their stress symptoms contributed most substantially to the overall reduction in average DASS score, indicating an improvement in their emotional state.

This chapter investigates the current trend toward both creative and experiential tourism in cities in terms of the development and marketing of local attractions.

Creative tourism in cities is profiled through a literature review and further investigated by means of a case study at a local attraction in Toronto, Canada. The choice of a site was one of a creative city and the re-purposing of a formerly industrial site for visitation.

The study of Evergreens Brickworks demonstrated the use of marketing techniques to identify markets and match visitors with experiences. The visitor segmentation method determined that pre-scheduled and bookable activities offered for locals need to be offered on a different basis for tourists, who may be one time visitors to the site. The product-market match process suggested areas in which products could be modified or indeed created.

This practical study offers lessons for other local visitor attractions and their managers desiring to identify market segments and match them with appropriate activities creating experiential tourism at the site level within the creative city context.

While many studies of the creative tourism concept and cities have been undertaken within the context of destinations this research offers a site-specific perspective as well as marketing perspective that will be of practical value to attraction managers.

The purpose of this paper is to systematically identify, appraise and synthesise qualitative literature exploring the experience, both positive and negative, of clinical supervision from the supervisor’s perspective.

A systematic search of three databases, grey literature, reference lists and citations was conducted. Six articles met the inclusion criteria and their quality was critically appraised by using a modified version of the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme tool. Data extracted from the articles were synthesised using meta-ethnography.

Four key themes were identified: experiencing difficulties in clinical supervision, responsibility, similarities to therapy and capabilities as a supervisor. These demonstrated that the role of a supervisor has the potential to be both beneficial and harmful to personal and professional development.

The quality of the studies was variable. Further research is required to explore how supervisors manage difficult experiences to ensure personal development and growth.

Clinical implications include the need for employers to consider the additional pressure associated with providing clinical supervision and to ensure that appropriate support is available. Results complement previous research on the bi-directionality of parallel process in clinical supervision.

This review presents an original synthesis of the supervisor’s experience of delivering clinical supervision to qualified therapists. This is achieved by utilising a systematic methodology and appraising the quality of the studies included. The review highlights how the effects of clinical supervision are not limited to the supervisee, but also experienced by the supervisor. The competing demands and responsibilities associated with clinical supervision impact upon the supervisor’s experience, both positively and negatively. When beneficial, delivering clinical supervision can lead to personal and professional growth in addition to the acquisition of new skills.

Promoting mental health and meeting the needs of the large numbers of the general public with problems of anxiety and depression is a big challenge. Particular difficulties are the low capacity of the therapy services and the reluctance of the general public to seek help. The aim of this study was to compare the attendance, effectiveness and characteristics of participants self‐referring to six different psycho‐educational workshops, each using non‐diagnostic titles: self‐confidence; stress; sleep; relationships; happiness; and anger. The series of day‐long workshops ran for one year and were offered to members of the general public in south east London. Over a quarter had not previously sought help from their GP. The take‐up rates for the self‐confidence, sleep and anger workshops were highest and one month after attending these workshops, participants reported significantly lower depression and distress. It was concluded that a self‐referral route to some day‐long workshops can attract quite large numbers of the general public and provide access to effective psychological treatment. These workshops can be used as an effective way of promoting mental health and improving the provision of evidence‐based mental health treatment in the community, possibly within the Improving Access to Psychological Treatments (IAPT) programme in the UK.

The average American child spends more time “playing”¹ than doing any other activity besides sleeping and attending school (watching television comes in next, with children gradually replacing play time with TV time as they grow older) (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001a, b). In fact, free, unstructured time makes up between 20 and 50% of children’s waking hours² (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001a, b; Larson & Richards, 1989). Nonetheless, sociologists currently know very little about how children’s free time use influences their well-being. Although scholars, teachers, and parents all have strong opinions about the types of free-time activities that they think are “best” for children, recent studies of the association between children’s time use and their well-being have failed to find consistent associations (Hofferth & Sandberg, 2001a, b; McHale, Crouter & Tucker, 2001).

A process of organisational change has accompanied managerial reforms in the public sector and is oriented towards the development of a post‐bureaucratic organisational culture. However, there remains a limited empirical understanding of culture in public organisations. Contributes to an understanding of organisational culture in the public sector through survey research that analyses culture by reference to the competing values of internal/external orientation and control/flexibility. Focuses on six organisations in the Queensland public sector which have been encouraged to depart from traditional bureaucratic values and to adopt a greater emphasis on change, flexibility, entrepreneurialism, outcomes, efficiency and productivity. Suggests, however, that public sector organisations continue to emphasise the values of a bureaucratic or hierarchical organisational culture.