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The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of consumer and community engagement in health service planning, quality improvement and programme evaluation in Australia, and key components and importance of a strong suite of tools for achieving effective outcomes.

This paper is a non-systematic review of Australian national, state and territory websites in relation to policy commitment to consumer engagement, best practice framework for consumer engagement and recent project example.

Consumer engagement is a recognised component of the Australian health system. It is reflected in the national and state health policy and is a mandatory requirement of hospital accreditation. The application of co-design principles is gaining increasing popularity in health service planning and programme evaluation. Co-design is an important enabler of patient/community-centred service planning and evaluation; however, on its own it may lead to poorer outcomes. Co-design must occur within a broader systemic framework.

The research identifies a conceptual framework, approaches and tools of value to health service management and planners.

Consumer and community engagements are critical to the development of consumer-centric services. However, this should complement and add value to, not divert attention away from established principles of service planning, continuous quality improvement and programme evaluation. To do so may result in poorer quality health and well-being outcomes, reduced efficiency and ultimately reduced consumer and community satisfaction with services. This paper examines consumer and community engagement within the broader planning and quality improvement framework and practical implications for keeping planning, research and evaluation on track.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the context for strategies to overcome antimicrobial resistance in Australia, which may provide valuable learnings for other jurisdictions.

Non-systematic review of literature from websites of national, state and territory health departments and interviews with key stakeholders for Australian strategies to reduce antimicrobial resistance.

In July 2015 all states and territories in Australia adopted the National Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy 2015-2019, which is built on the World Health Organization policy package to combat antimicrobial resistance. This strategy represents “the collective, expert views of stakeholders on how best to combat antimicrobial resistance in Australia. It will also support global and regional efforts, recognising that no single country can manage the threat of antimicrobial resistance alone”. It combines quantitative and qualitative monitoring strategies with frameworks and guidelines to improve management of the use of antimicrobial resistant drugs. Prior to this, health services and states developed and implemented initiatives aimed at monitoring and improving prescribing practices. Development of the national strategy has encouraged and fostered debate within the Australian health system and a raft of new policy initiatives.

Surveillance strategies are in place to monitor impact and trends at jurisdictional and sector levels. However, actual impact on antimicrobial resistance and prescribing practices remains to be seen as existing initiatives are expanded and new initiatives implemented.

This overview of key Australian initiatives balancing quantitative and qualitative surveillance, accreditation, research, education, community awareness and price signals on antibiotic prescribing practices may be valuable to health systems in developing local strategies.

The authors provide an up to date overview of the context, strategies and aims of antimicrobial stewardship in Australia.

The purpose of this paper is to overview, background and context to clinical governance in Australia, areas for further development and potential learnings for other jurisdictions.

Commentary; non-systematic review of clinical governance literature; review of web sites for national, state and territory health departments, quality and safety organisations, and clinical colleges in Australia.

Clinical governance in Australia shows variation across jurisdictions, reflective of a fragmented health system with responsibility for funding, policy and service provision being divided between levels of government and across service streams. The mechanisms in place to protect and engage with consumers thus varies according to where one lives. Information on quality and safety outcomes also varies; is difficult to find and often does not drill down to a service level useful for informing consumer treatment decisions. Organisational stability was identified as a key success factor in realising and maintaining the cultural shift to deliver ongoing quality.

Comparison of quality indicators with clinical governance systems and processes at a hospital level will provide a more detailed understanding of components most influencing quality outcomes.

The information reported will assist health service providers to improve information and processes to engage with consumers and build further transparency and accountability.

In this paper the authors have included an in depth profile of the background and context for the current state of clinical governance in Australia. The authors expect the detail provided will be of use to the international reader unfamiliar with the nuances of the Australian Healthcare System. Other studies (e.g. Russell and Dawda, 2013; Phillips et al., n.d.) have been based on deep professional understanding of clinical governance in appraising and reporting on initaitives and structures. This review has utilised resources available to an informed consumer seeking to understand the quality and safety of health services.

The gender gaps found in research in the growth of businesses headed by men or women may be the consequence of their different change‐oriented strategies. The purpose of this paper is to explore the premise that each genders' use of strategies associated with leading change in their businesses determines those businesses' growth. Findings based on the responses of 260 Israeli entrepreneurs revealed that men and women lead change in their businesses differently, and that the use of these strategies by each gender group is indeed echoed in their businesses' growth. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Questionnaires were delivered by e‐mail to 190 entrepreneurs participating in non‐academic programs at five centers for entrepreneurial support in Israel (three university‐based centers and two government‐based centers). The respondents were asked to suggest other entrepreneurs for this study; this procedure produced 100 contact details of entrepreneurs which the author approached by snowball sampling procedure. The 260 completed questionnaires were from 171 (66 percent) entrepreneurs participating in the non‐academic programs and 89 (34 percent) of their suggested colleagues. T‐tests showed no significant differences between these groups in gender, age, educational level or years of experience as entrepreneurs.

Strategies that emerge as most relevant to business growth are associated with empowering the staff to use more creative and innovative practices and embracing change on a routine basis. While it is common knowledge that “change” should be exhibited by the entrepreneur, the findings suggest that providing the platform or delegating the power to the staff to initiate changes in the business, as well as supporting the staff, are useful to business growth, and therefore in line with the DC framework.

These findings promote knowledge in this area by showing that empowerment is actually a way of implementing change in the business and that the action of change exhibited by the entrepreneur is not the only way to accomplish change and consequently, growth. Such findings are most important for research that is lacking in empirical studies in this respect, as well as being of vast significance for women entrepreneurs who may lack confidence when applying empowerment to achieve change and business growth. These findings clearly demonstrate the relevance of empowerment to the business's growth.

One main implication of this study is in the area of training and higher education in entrepreneurship: developing programs that advance strategies aimed at leading change in the business can assist entrepreneurs and affect their businesses' growth. It is important that local governments and private agencies serving entrepreneurs are aware of these findings and build on them to develop appropriate programs, assess the programs' outcomes and initiate policy measures.

AFTER more than thirty‐three years THE LIBRARY WORLD appears in a new and, we hope our readers will agree, more attractive form. In making such a change the oldest of the independent British library journals is only following the precedent of practically all its contemporaries. The new age is impatient with long‐standing patterns in typography and in page sizes, and all crafts progress by such experiments as we are making. Our new form lends itself better than the old to illustration; we have selected a paper designed for that purpose, and illustrated articles will therefore be a feature of our issues. We shall continue as in the past to urge progress in every department of the library field by the admission of any matter which seems to have living interest for the body of librarians.