Extra Care Housing in the UK: Can it be a Home for Life?

Extra care housing is believed to constitute a home for life, precluding the need for institutional accommodations, but currently there is little substantiating evidence. Longitudinal data show that 8.2% of extra care housing residents will move to institutional accommodations after 5 years. Matching analyses suggest that extra care housing residents aged 80 years and older are approximately half as likely to enter institutional care compared with older people in the community in receipt of domiciliary care, albeit with some caveats. Extra care housing may embody a home for life for the majority of residents, although a substantial minority is likely to require institutional care.     

Sharing genetic origins information in third party assisted conception: a case for Victorian family values?

In the United Kingdom (UK) approximately 2500 children are born each year as a result of third party assisted conception. Since formal record keeping by the statutory regulatory body, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, began in 1991, the total number of children known to have been born from all forms of third party assisted conception exceeds 13 500. Although the records contain information about these children's genetic origins, including the identity of the donor, current legislation severely circumscribes their ability to access this information and, save in very exceptional circumstances, they are not permitted to learn the identity of the donor. Consequently, they are the only individuals in the UK whose inability to learn the identity of both their genetic parents is formally endorsed by statute. This paper identifies different approaches to exchanging genetic origins information in third party assisted conception. It provides a critique of the model currently in force in the UK and advocates its replacement by a system that more closely resembles that introduced in Victoria (Australia) in 1998. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

One mathematics for all: can it be realized in a multicultural,multilingual country?

In this paper, situated in the context of elementary and secondary school mathematics curriculum in India, I argue that centrally determined uniform curriculum would have very little to offer a large majority of students in a country that is diverse in many ways.     

Does childhood family structure help create stratification in adult education and labor market attainment?: An argument for the selectivity perspective

Stratification in opportunities for and attainment of educational credentials, stable and well‐paying jobs, wealth, and socioeconomic status causes problems for both individuals and the societies they live in. It is unclear, however, the extent to which important childhood experiences, such as family structure and transitions, shapes opportunity paths and eventual attainment later in adulthood. The intergenerational transmission literature suggests little if any role of family structure in later attainment, while family scholars and demographers find more compelling evidence that childhood family structures and transitions are influential in adulthood. We argue that both perspectives may be identifying selectivity processes that help explain potential links between families of origin and differences in opportunities to attain education, careers, and status. We then provide suggestions for future work in each of these scholarly traditions to help untangle both the degree to which family structure does or does not affect adult attainment and whether selectivity is the key explanation for any such relationships.