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THE AUTHOR, UNTIL RECENTLY Commissioning Manager — Supported Housing with Hertfordshire Social Services, describes findings from recent research. The paper examines the potential for ‘move on’ in learning disability services, and argues that the focus should shift to one of ‘fixing’ the community rather than the individual.

TWO RECENT CONFERENCES AND publications on direct payments indicate how these are integral to the Modernising Government agenda. They will have implications where supported housing is part‐funded by social services and where tenants receive services arranged or provided by social services. They can be used to help people with learning difficulties.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical overview of claims and counter claims around increased expectations that the third sector organisations (TSOs) will compete for contracts to deliver public services. It does this through the lens of contested notions of being “businesslike” and “entrepreneurial” across the public and third sectors. Then it assesses how some of these tensions are currently played out between public sector commissioners and third sector service providers.

This paper is based on a one‐year project funded under the ESRC Business Engagement Opportunities scheme (2009‐2010) in which the authors are working with NHS Manchester (responsible for commissioning and directing NHS funds into a wide range of services for communities across the city) and local third sector delivery and infrastructure organisations. The project consists of a set of knowledge exchange activities (scoping, workshops, placements and an on‐line tool) intended to help NHS Manchester reshape its local provider profile through market making and commissioning new service contracts from TSOs, especially social enterprises. Preliminary findings are reported from the review of academic and policy literature that formed the scoping stage of this project.

Public sector commissioners and TSOs often struggle to make sense of each others' world views and working assumptions. This cannot be easily overcome but ways of improving dialogue are proposed through exploration of third sector outcomes and entrepreneurial language, practices and mindsets.

This paper offers a new, grounded reflection on the nexus of public sector contracts, entrepreneurship and third sector values.

The concepts of well‐being and participation are prevalent in current regeneration policy, being seen as crucial to alleviating disadvantage and marginalisation in deprived communities. However little is understood about how such ambiguous concepts are articulated within urban regeneration practice. This paper seeks to present a reflective case study of research in a New Deal for Communities (NDC) area designed to understand different conceptualisations of well‐being and participation in community places and regeneration practices.

The perspectives of regeneration professionals, local residents and academics were revealed through the development of a multi‐method and participatory research approach using interviews, observations, video diaries and workshops. An action oriented event aimed at developing overlapping communities of practice was held to engage in active dialogue and develop shared understandings between the resident, professional and academic communities.

Conceptualisations of well‐being and participation articulated through regeneration policy and practice between the different stakeholder groups are contradictory. The absence of a shared vision for regeneration and differing expectations of participation can have detrimental effects on both the well‐being of local residents and the sustainability of the long‐term participation of local residents in the regeneration process. This challenges the recent government approach to creating a Big Society which is underpinned by devolved decision making and the desire for local leadership through realising the potential of communities.

The research has helped to create new relationships between residents and professionals organised around joint working and changed practice.

The third sector has been promoted by progressive English governments as a provider of health and social care services for people with mental health difficulties. This article aims to consider the assumptions that lie behind these polices and reviews the evidence that third sector organisations can be said to have a “unique” role and approach. The challenges and opportunities of the current market‐based reforms for the third sector are discussed.

The article is based on literature reviews of the third sector's role in mental health care and commissioning of third sector organisations.

The third sector delivers a range of mental health services in England, in particular those related to accommodation, advice, advocacy and employment. Its activity extends into other roles such as campaigning and development of new approaches to care and support. Evidence of the distinctiveness of the sector as a whole is limited, but there are examples of such organisations providing innovative and user‐led services. Market‐based reforms are seen as posing a threat to smaller organisations in particular but personalised approaches (including allocation of individual budgets), outcome‐based payments and a need for large‐scale service redesign are seen as offering considerable opportunity for expansion.

For the new market to include a strong third sector will require leadership within organisations, a collaborative approach within the sector, and commissioners that understand and engage positively with the sector in all its diversity.

This article draws together the research literature on the third sector's engagement in mental health and the impact of market‐based reforms and in doing so provides original value in the fields of mental health and third sector studies.

Policy has identified the need for integrated dementia services for older people. However, the role of the formal carer within an integrated framework of service delivery has not been well articulated in practice. The aim of this paper is to understand the experiences of formal carers working with the context of an integrated dementia service by exploring findings from a research‐based evaluation.

The evaluation captured the experiences of formal carers working within the service via observations, semi‐structured interviews and focus groups.

Working with an integrated service brings about individual, social and organisational challenges to the role of the formal carer, in terms of: delivering flexibility and responsiveness, providing continuity of care, ensuring cross‐organisational working and acquiring skills, knowledge and expertise.

To facilitate the successful delivery of integrated care, the emerging role of the formal carer needs to be more clearly articulated and supported within a service context.

Despite the growing area of research involving falls in the residential care setting, the link between contextual and environmental factors in falls is poorly understood. This paper aims to draw upon existing research being undertaken in long-term care (LTC) in Metro Vancouver, Canada, with a particular focus on identifying contextual factors contributing to fall events.

This paper presents the results of a qualitative observational analysis of video-captured data collected through a network of high-quality video systems in two LTC facilities. The research comprised workshops involving experienced researchers who reviewed six video sequences of fall events. The outcome of the workshops was a written narrative summarizing the discussion and researchers’ interpretation of fall sequences.

The analysis indicates that there are a broad range of environmental, behavioral and situational factors that contribute to falls in LTC. This suggests that a limited conceptualization of a fall as an outcome of the person's impairment and environmental hazards fails to convey the complexity of potential contributory factors typical of most fall incidents.

Broadening our understanding of falls provides the potential to make recommendations for falls prevention practice across multiple levels, including the individual, social and organizational context.

The paper evaluates the potential of video-based data in fall analysis and points to the development of a case study approach to analyzing fall incidents to capture the complex nature of contributory factors beyond research that focuses solely on intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors.

The provision of home and community supports can enable people to successfully age-in-place by improving physical and mental health, supporting social participation and enhancing independence, autonomy and choice. One challenge concerns the integration of place-based supports available as older people transition into affordable housing. Sustainable solutions need to be developed and implemented with the full involvement of communities, service organizations and older people themselves. Partnership building is an important component of this process. The purpose of this paper is to detail the intricacies of developing partnerships with low-income older people, local service providers and nonprofit housing associations in the context of a Canadian housing development.

A community-based participatory approach was used to inform the data collection and partnership building process. The partnership building process progressed through a series of democratized committee meetings based on the principles of appreciative inquiry, four collaboration cafés with nonprofit housing providers and four community mapping workshops with low-income older people. Data collection also involved 25 interviews and 15 photovoice sessions with the housing tenants. The common aims of partnership and data collection were to understand the challenges and opportunities experienced by older people, service providers and nonprofit housing providers; identify the perspectives of service providers and nonprofit housing providers for the provision and delivery of senior-friendly services and resources; and determine actions that can be undertaken to better meet the needs of service providers and nonprofit housing providers in order to help them serve older people better.

The partnership prioritized the generation of a shared vision together with shared values, interests and the goal of co-creating meaningful housing solutions for older people transitioning into affordable housing. Input from interviews and photovoice sessions with older people provided material to inform decision making in support of ageing well in the right place. Attention to issues of power dynamics and knowledge generation and feedback mechanisms enable all fields of expertise to be taken into account, including the experiential expertise of older residents. This resulted in functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of ageing in place to inform the new build housing complex.

The time and effort required to conduct democratized partnerships slowed the decision-making process.

The findings confirm that the drive toward community partnerships is a necessary process in supporting older people to age well in the right place. This requires sound mechanisms to include the voice of older people themselves alongside other relevant stakeholders. Ageing well in a housing complex requires meaningful placemaking to include the functional, physical, psychological and social aspects of older people’s everyday life in respect to both home and community.