‘I’m not really sure but I hope it’s better’: early thoughts of parents and carers in a regional trial site for the Australian National Disability Insurance Scheme

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is one of the most significant initiatives in Australian social policy history. Its complexity has been compounded by a fast-paced introduction and ongoing refinement throughout the initial trial phase. Parents and carers of very young disabled children face particular challenges accessing and navigating NDIS systems. This article presents findings from a mixed-method pilot study examining the perspectives of parents and carers of disabled children in one NDIS trial site – the Hunter Region of New South Wales. The research highlights a number of policy assumptions potentially impacting on NDIS take up for young disabled children and their families in regional contexts. Based on research findings a number of policy suggestions and improvements for disabled children and their families entering the NDIS and other individualised funding schemes are outlined.     

Working with legal pluralism: widowhood,property inheritance,and poverty alleviation in urban Senegal

This article explores the role of women's inheritance and ownership of property in urban Senegal. It shows how being able to inherit and own property promotes the economic and emotional security of widows and their children in urban areas, and discusses the challenges posed by legal pluralism in working on poverty alleviation and social protection in the city.     

Explaining ethnic polarization over attitudes towards minority rights in Eastern Europe: A multilevel analysis

This paper examines divisions between majority and minority ethnic groups over attitudes towards minority rights in 13 East European societies. Using national sample surveys and multilevel models, we test the effectiveness of competing explanations of ethnic polarization in attitudes towards minority rights, as well as regional and cross-national differences in levels of polarization. We find that, at the individual level, indicators of ‘social distance’ (inter-marriage and social interaction) account most effectively for the extent of ethnic polarization. However, regional and cross-national variations in polarization between majority and minority groups are explained most effectively by cultural (linguistic and religious) differences. These findings accord with research in the West, indicating the importance of cultural differences as a source of ethnic polarization, while offering little support for theories focusing on economic and structural factors or the size of minority groups. They also suggest the likely sources of difficulties for democratic consolidation in ethnically divided post-communist societies.     

Grading Gems: Appraising the Quality of Research for Social Work and Social Care

The impetus towards basing practice and policy decisions moreexplicitly on sound research requires tools to facilitate thesystematic appraisal of the quality of research encompassinga diverse range of methods and designs. Five exemplar toolswere developed and assessed in terms of their usefulness inselecting studies for inclusion in a systematic review. Thewidely used ‘hierarchy of evidence’ was adaptedand used to appraise internal validity. Four tools were thendeveloped to appraise the external validity dimensions of generalizability(two scales) and methods of data collection (two scales). Methodsof combining the scores generated by each tool were explored.Qualitative and quantitative studies were appraised, not separatedinto two spheres but by using complementary tools developedto appraise different aspects of rigour. There was a high levelof agreement between researchers in applying the tools to twenty-twostudies on decision making by professionals about the long-termcare of older people. The scales for internal validity and generalizabilitydiscriminated between the qualities of studies appropriately.The two tools to appraise data collection gave diverse results.Excluding studies that scored in the lowest category on anyscale appeared to be the scoring system that was most justifiable.This approach is presented to stimulate debate about the practicalapplication of the evidence-based initiative to social workand social care. This study may assist in developing clearerdefinitions and common language about appraising rigour thatshould further the process of selecting robust research forsynthesis to inform practice and policy decisions.     

(Not) Taking Account of Precarious Employment: Workfare Policies and Lone Mothers in Ontario and the UK

Workfare is, at least in part, a policy response to changing labour markets and the expansion taking place in jobs that are low‐paid, irregular and insecure. For lone mothers, increasingly the focus of workfare policies, precarious employment creates special challenges. However, the nature of the jobs that are available to women on social assistance has received relatively little attention in the workfare literature, which focuses more on individual characteristics, supports to employment, and programme impacts. Drawing upon both primary and secondary sources and using Ontario, the province with the most developed workfare programme in Canada, this article examines the ways in which policies support and enforce precarious employment. The article also considers the implications of precarious employment for UK policy, which has not (yet) adopted workfare for lone mothers, although incremental steps in that direction are taking place as employment is increasingly viewed as the appropriate objective of income support programmes for lone mothers.     

Facilitating Difficult Discussions: Processing the September 11 Attacks in Undergraduate Classrooms

College and university educators have a unique and appropriate forum in which to address social issues, the classroom environment. On September 11, 2001, this opportunity became very real. With it came the challenge of facilitating classroom discussions that include myriad views and feelings. Instruction on conducting difficult discussions in a productive, versus destructive, manner is not commonly included in graduate training, leaving many educators without the tools of effective facilitation. An overview of some of the literature on conducting difficult discussions is presented and applied to classroom discussions of the September 11 events. Recommendations on the process component of facilitating are provided, as well as a rationale for why faculty may want to accept this educational challenge.     

Risk reduction or risk compensation? The case of mandatory safety-belt use laws

The technological approach to risk regulation seeks to lessen the incidence of mortality and morbidity by modifying environmental conditions. Insofar as risk-taking behavior is purposive, social scientists have predicted that technological progress may be negated by various forms of risk compensation. The validity of this hypothesis is tested in the transportation sector with data from the U.S. on the effects of new mandatory safety-belt-use laws. A fixed-effects model of traffic fatality counts is estimated using pooled data from 50 states during the 1975–1987 period. Results suggest that such laws have reduced mortality among car occupants to a degree that is compatible with the predictions of technologists. However, there is weak evidence of increased mortality among some nonoccupants, a pattern predicted by risk-compensation theorists. The lifesaving effects of belt-use laws are largest in states that permit primary police enforcement and appear to be somewhat larger for front-seat occupants age 21 and under. Although offsetting behavior appears to be small relative to lifesaving effects, it may take several more years for any compensatory behavior to achieve a new equilibrium.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control to the New England Injury Prevention Research Center.     

WORK INCENTIVES AND SOLE MOTHERS: COMPARING AUSTRALIAN POLICY

This article adopts a comparative perspective on policies to increase labour force participation of single mothers. Australia's orientation is briefly explored within the context of other major English-speaking countries (the United States, Britain and Canada), and the common emphasis in the policies on providing employment services and reducing poverty traps for Australia and Canada's largest province (Ontario) is then examined. While the potential of these approaches to increase labour force participation is found to be limited, the comparison suggests that Canada would do well to follow some of the recent anti-poverty measures Australia has adopted. Australia, however, appears to offer a less favourable employment climate for women. The article concludes that both jurisdictions will need to pursue a broader set of policies to respond to the root causes of poverty among women heading families on their own.