Navigating Parenthood as Two Women; The Positive Aspects and Strengths of Female Same-sex Parenting

This study investigated the positive aspects of female same-sex parenting, and the strengths that these couples may exhibit. We recruited 13 female same-sex couples (n = 26) who participated in in-depth interviews, framed by a hermeneutic approach. Participants described a number of positive factors, which included negotiating a coparenting relationship in the absence of socially prescribed roles, characterized by shared, collaborative parenting. They also described their varying reactions to a heteronormative context, at times advocating for social change in their communities and at other times accepting the social difficulties they face while managing the emotional impact of these for themselves and their children. Their resilience was promoted by the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgender and queer (GLBTQ) community and by the efforts of organizations such as schools and hospitals to promote inclusion. The findings are helpful for clinicians working to facilitate positive coping in same-sex parents as well as institutions looking to provide sensitive, relevant and inclusive practice to same-sex parents and their children.     

Making a target work: Messages from a pilot of the 6‐month time limit on care proceedings in England

Since 2014, it has been a legal requirement in England and Wales for child care proceedings to be concluded, apart from “exceptional cases,” within 26 weeks. When this was first proposed, there were concerns that it might lead to poorer decision‐making or to delay being squeezed to either side of the court proceedings, before or afterwards. This paper reports on the messages from a pilot programme to hit the 26‐week target that took place in London in 2012–2013. The study compared the progress of the cases from the pilot year with those the year before, 180 cases in total, involving 256 children. The local authorities involved were able to achieve considerable improvements in timeliness, not just in the proceedings, but for the pre‐ and post‐court processes too; and the quality and fairness of decisions did not seem to be impaired, in terms of the plans for the children and subsequent outcomes over a period of 2 years. “Targets” do not generally find a warm welcome in the social work literature, but this paper shows that when collaboratively implemented, with a measure of flexibility and adequate resources, they can be an effective way of helping to achieve positive change.     

Assessing the Need for a New Medical School: A Case Study in Applied Demography

This case study illustrates how applied demographers operate in a politically charged context of competing interests—here, justifying the decision to locate a new public medical school in one medically underserved region rather than another. We show how to use demographic and other data to gauge the magnitude of future demand for physicians; formulate demographic assumptions about the future to serve decisionmakers’ needs; and frame information to help improve decision making through objective analysis. We detail the steps in projecting future physicians per capita using a method based on the economic concept of physician demand rather than the social concept of need. Our method is computationally simple, intuitive, and easily understood by policymakers. Our case study offers applied demographers a practical approach to physician workforce planning and can be used as an instructional exercise for students, assigned to replicate these projections elsewhere and distill their implications.     

Analysis of multiple sets of incomplete rankings

The L statistic is extended to allow incomplete or partial rankings within groups. As a special case of these extensions, tests for ofered alternatives analogous to the page test are provided for other than complete rankings. A two group illustration is provided by an alternative analysis of the Bradley and Terry taste-testing experiment on pork-roasts.     

‘Away with the fairies?’ Disability within primary‐age children's literature

This article outlines the findings of a new study that explores the portrayal of disability within a sample of the primary‐age children's literature most readily available to UK schools. The kind of literature to which children are exposed is likely to influence their general perceptions of social life. How disability is handled by authors is therefore important from the standpoint of disability equality. Findings suggest that whilst there are some good examples of inclusive literature ‘out there’, discriminatory language and/or negative stereotypes about disability continue to be present in a range of more contemporary children's books. Clearly, more still needs to be done to ensure that schools and teachers are provided with information relating to the best examples of inclusion literature and efforts must continue to be made to inform authors, publishers and illustrators about how to approach the issue of disability.     

Understanding Social Movements: theorising the disability movement in conditions of late modernity

This article draws upon qualitative research carried out by the author and funded by the ESRC. One of the central aims of this research was to investigate the nature of the UK disability movement's ‘struggle’ and to evaluate critically the idea that it is a ‘new’ social movement. Consideration of the disability movement in relation to both ‘new’ social movements and to wider social movement theorising has suggested that it may not be possible to understand this movement, entirely, by using any of the existing models. This article concludes by outlining the possible starting point for a new approach to understanding the disability movement based upon forging a closer link between citizenship and social movement theory and upon a focus on the nature of engagement. Empirical evidence from the research is included in this article in the form of quotations from respondents, all of whom are/were members of organisations that are run by disabled people. All respondents' names have been removed to maintain their anonymity.     

Converging health inequalities in later life--an artifact of mortality selection

An emergent issue in the health inequalities debate is how socioeconomic status (SES) and physical health relate over the life course. Many studies indicate that the SES-health relationship diminishes in later life. The present research tests the hypothesis that this convergence in health inequalities is an artifact of mortality selection, which biases downwards the "true" association between SES and health in later life. By including respondents who had subsequently died or were loss-to-followup into the analysis, I assess the sensitivity of the age-specific association between education and health to sample selection processes. I study U.S. adults followed for approximately ten years using the NHANES I Epidemiologic Followup Study. Results based on the surviving sample are robust to the inclusion of people selected out of the sample due to mortality or attrition. Sample selection biases do not appear to explain the convergence in health inequalities in late life.     

Carrots or Sticks? Improving Social and Environmental Compliance at Suppliers Through Incentives and Penalties

Firms are increasingly looking to eradicate social and environmental non‐compliances at their suppliers in response to increasing regulations, consumer demand, potential for supply chain disruptions, and to improve their social, environmental, and economic supply chain performance. This study develops a model of the relationship between the buyer's supplier incentives and penalties for the supplier's social and environmental compliance, and the outcomes in terms of reduction in supplier social and environmental violations as well as the buyer's own operating costs. This model is tested empirically through analysis of a dataset of opinion‐based survey responses from practitioners at 334 companies across 17 industries. The analysis finds specific penalties and incentives that are positively associated with reduced supplier violations and reduced buyer operating costs. In particular, offering suppliers incentives of increased business and training for improving social and environmental performance is strongly associated with a reduction in both violations and operating costs.