Voices From the Front Line: State Social Workers and New Labour

Summary The article explores the condition of state social work in Englandtoday. It is based on interviews with experienced social workersemployed by local authority social services departments acrossthe north of England. These front line state social workersprovide a penetrating insight into the diverse ways in whichtheir work has been transformed and degraded and the mannerin which the needs of clients have been largely ignored. Fromtheir perspective, the election of a Labour government in 1997proved to be a massive disappointment and many social workersreported that it has further undermined state social work practice,workers and clients. The paper seeks to offer an explanationby noting the neo-liberalism of Labour's social policy and thedire consequences which flow from New Labour's fixation withwaged work as the principal solution to social exclusion andpoverty. Above all, it seeks to provide an opportunity for theviews of front-line state social workers to be heard.     

What does client satisfaction tell us about effectiveness?

It is common in child protection research to undertake studies of client satisfaction with services. Although these studies have their own intrinsic value, it has been argued that they tell us little if anything about effectiveness—high levels of client satisfaction mean little if child abuse continues to occur. This study, undertaken in a statutory child protection service in Australia, considers the relationship between client satisfaction and other outcome measures, including worker estimates of client progress, further notifications of abuse and whether or not children have been removed. The results show strong correlations between different measures of client satisfaction and strong correlations between different measures of worker estimates of client progress. They show weaker but statistically significant correlations between client satisfaction and worker estimates of client progress, and between client satisfaction and further notifications. There is also a significant relationship between client satisfaction and children remaining at home. However, this applies only to parents, relatives and carers, not to the primary clients themselves. It is concluded that client satisfaction studies may have value beyond simply measuring client satisfaction. However, the study also supports an argument for using more than one outcome measure if the aim is to measure effectiveness. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Privatizing Australian Airports: Ownership, Divestment and Financial Performance

This article addresses the performance of the three largest Australian airports following their privatization. The airports represent cases of divestment of government business enterprises into privately-owned businesses each with differing ownership arrangements. The performances of the privatized airports are considered using financial data obtained from general purpose financial reports of the entities. There are significant implications for future divestment policies, including the value of divestment as a policy response in uncompetitive environments, the use of particular infrastructure investment models, and the nature of the linkage between ownership structure and financial performance.     

Layered supervisory control architecture for reconfigurable automation

The development of control systems and supporting software remains one of the greatest obstacles to the widespread implementation of highly adaptive reconfigurable automation technology. This paper will present the structure of a modular automation control system designed to support rapid reconfiguration and redeployment of automation components. The paper will first present the concept of a layered system architecture and the use of modular automation components to support the construction of a wide variety of automated systems. This layered system architecture is then applied to the proposed modular supervisory control system responsible for configuring and driving automated production resources. Each of the control components comprising this modular control system will be presented.     

Global standards for social work education and training

This paper explores the ways in which social workers can be helped to acquire the wider understanding of relevant legal frameworks which is currently necessary for child-centred practice, given the influence of an ecological perspective on such practice. It arises from the development of a module on child care social work and the community for the Post Qualifying Child Care Award by members of the Law and Social Work Departments at Brunel University. The authors believe that to reach beyond a tokenistic acknowledgement of the ecological perspective requires an understanding and experience of the complex layers which make up the widening and complex social worlds of the child. The paper explains how social workers were encouraged to appreciate both the ever-widening circles of potentially relevant law and the different roles through which law operates. It concludes that a deeper engagement with the legal implications of an ecological dimension to practice would make such practice more effective and would also help combat social exclusion and discrimination.     

Compulsive buying: Does it matter how it’s measured?

The primary purpose of the present study is to compare and contrast the validity and reliability of the Faber and O’Guinn [Faber, R. J., & O’Guinn, T. C. (1992). A clinical screener for compulsive buying. Journal of Consumer Research, 19, 459–469] and Edwards [Edwards, E. A. (1993). Development of a new scale for measuring compulsive buying behavior. Financial Counseling and Planning, 4, 67–84] compulsive buying scales within a nomological network. Although both psychometric scales were designed to measure compulsive buying, the two instruments appear to be distinct in how they conceptualize the compulsive buying phenomenon. The seven-item compulsive buying scale developed by Faber and O’Guinn (1992) is the most commonly used scale for measuring compulsive buying. The Edwards scale in contrast is not as well-known. Empirical results of the present study suggest that the two compulsive buying scales may be capturing either separate constructs, or different dimensions of the same compulsive buying construct. Edwards (1993) compulsive buying scale, for instance, is correlated with materialism but not with attitudes toward money while the Faber and O’Guinn scale is not correlated with materialism but is correlated with attitudes toward money. The present study’s results suggest, among other things, that it does in fact appear to matter how compulsive buying is measured.     

Head over heels in debt?

The average household in the UK is in debt to the tune of nearly £9000—and that is not including the mortgage. Consumer borrowing, on credit cards, car and retail finance deals, overdrafts and unsecured personal loans was £4525 per average UK adult at the end of February 2007. Are we drowning in debt? Chris Tapp , Associate Director of Credit Action, reports.     

German welfare organizations and the process of European integration

The process of European integration affects an increasing number of areas of life. The influence of the European single market on the social sector, including organizations providing human services, can no longer be denied. This article looks at the activities of the European Commission toward these organizations and argues that European regulations are relevant to the German system of social service delivery due to the introduction of market‐like features in the national context. Within this context, German welfare organizations have discovered an important field of interest representation and lobbying.