Policy transfer,social pedagogy and children's residential care in England

Much concern has been expressed about the quality of care and poor outcomes for looked‐after children (‘children in care’) in England, especially regarding residential homes. This paper builds on a recent evaluation of the piloting of the continental European model of social pedagogy (SP) in English residential care. It does three things: it considers the theoretical social policy literature on policy transfer and its implications; discusses European residential care for children and the discipline of SP; and reflects on these debates and the situation of children's residential care in England. The paper concludes that there are some major hurdles to a widespread implementation of SP in England. This particularly concerns the differing social, professional and political context of children's residential services across neighbouring countries.     

Managing behaviour in child residential group care: unique tensions

Residential group care workers are frequently required to support children with extremely challenging and aggressive behaviour. Our knowledge about the tensions that may exist for workers that manage difficult behaviour is theoretically and empirically underdeveloped. The aim of this exploratory study was to contribute to our understanding of the dynamics of behaviour management in the residential environment by identifying the worker‐reported tensions involved in the management of challenging and disruptive behaviour. Seventeen South Australian residential group care workers participated in semi‐structured interviews in which they were asked to describe their management of behaviour. These interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The analysis revealed several dynamics that influence workers' management of challenging behaviour: the sense of parenting at a distance, the pressure for consistency, the desire for balance between control and connection, the desire for normality and the inconsistent nature of relationships. These findings contribute to our knowledge about the interpersonal context in which behaviour is addressed in the residential group home and enhance our understanding of the unique tensions that workers' experience in managing behaviour in the residential environment. The findings have implications for the development of staff training and the support of residential care workers managing challenging behaviour.     

Brief Communications: Treating Problem Gamblers: A Residential Therapy Approach

The Gordon House Association (GHA) is the UK's only specialist and dedicated residential facility for problem gamblers. This paper describes the GHA therapeutic programme which is centred round a nine-month period of residency. Progression through the programme is described by overviewing each of the phases. These are initial assessment and five distinct phases comprising coping with today (Phase One), coping with yesterday (Phase Two), coping with change (Phase Three), coping with tomorrow (Phase Four), and coping on my own (Phase Five). These phases are themselves underpinned within the GHA core therapeutic approach which is also described.     

"以人为本”的环境设计初探

环境设计是一个很复杂的过程,与其直接有关系的包括施工业主、出资者、设计者等等.一般的模式是以设计者的意识为主导,有时也会出现出资者的决策成为主导的情况.但这些都不完全是人们真正需要的设计.实际上最有发言权的是那些将要使用这个地方的使用者.因为设计的最终目的是为这些使用者服务的.本文主要通过分析商业步行街、广场和居住区的环境规划设计,反映出"以人为本”的环境设计理念在现代环境规划中的运用,及其改善环境质量的作用.     

大学生生活园区德育环境建设初探

高校后勤社会化改革形成的大学生生活园区,为高校开展德育工作提供了新的阵地,也为高校新时期育人工作提出了新的挑战。本文分析了大学生园区德育环境的构成要素,并提出了大学生生活园区德育环境体系构建对策。     

Effect of an Accessibility Measure in a Model for Choice of Residential Location,Workplace, and Type of Employment

A three-level nested logit model for the choice of residential location, workplace, and type of employment is used to assess the effect of an individual-specific measure of accessibility to employments that takes into account the attractiveness of different occupations when the choice of workplace is anticipated in the decision of residential location. The model allows for variation in the preferences for types of employment across individuals and accounts for individual heterogeneity of preferences at each choice level in education, age, gender, and children. Using data from the Île-de-France region, the model shows that the individual-specific accessibility measure is an important determinant of the choice of residential location and its effect differs along the life cycle. The attractiveness of the types of employment is a better predictor of the workplace location than the usual total number of employments.     

城市老旧小区综合治理问题与对策的实证研究

为解决城市老旧小区在提升改造、居民自治、网格化管理、卫生环境治理和项目化服务运作等方面存在的问题,以西安市碑林区为案例,通过问卷调查、实地走访及对比国内外同类城市老旧小区治理等方法,对老旧小区综合治理问题进行了系统研究。研究认为,老旧小区房屋建筑与基础设施老化现象严重,乱搭乱建、脏乱差现象不同程度地存在;社会组织、市场力量、小区居民和社会志愿者等主体参与不足,现代物业管理服务严重缺乏,多元主体参与老旧小区工作的治理格局尚未形成;社会各界对老旧小区治理的民生意义与公益性定位还不明确,导致政府政策指导相对滞后,硬件提升改造与软环境治理方面的财政资金投入不足,人文关怀相对缺乏等。研究认为,老旧小区的综合治理应以公共服务理论和以人为本理论为支撑,以居民需求为出发点,以多元主体参与共治为着力点,以提高认识站位、完善支持性政策、加大资金投入、健全管理体系与工作机制为重要抓手,提升老旧小区的综合治理水平。     

The neglected priority: sexual abuse in the context of residential child care

In 1995, a questionnaire was sent to Scotland's residential child care services. Of 89 questions, five concerned sexual abuse. Responses were analysed along several variables—service type, gender and age of residents. A detailed report was compiled (Lindsay, 1997). The response rate was 94% of all Scottish services. The largest group of services were children's homes (112–49%), then residential schools (43–19%), residential respite care (28–12%), care leavers services (16–7%), services for young homeless people (15–7%) and secure units (5–3%), with other service types seven (3%). Two‐thirds of services believed they were caring for children who had been abused and one third for children who had abused others. Where children who had abused others were present, in 91% there were also abused children in the same service. The results were consistent across the variables. In a few cases, allegations of abuse had been made against staff. This was commoner in services for males than females. Staff requested more training and support in their stressful role. These findings have implications for the practice and training of residential staff, management policies and procedure and the design of new services. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mix and match: planning to keep looked after children safe

The risks which children run from other children in substitute care have received little attention. However, if children's safety in care is to be maximized, then placement planning will need to focus on the risks and vulnerability of both the child to be placed and others already in the setting. It should also ensure that full information is given to the caregivers. In an interview sample of 40 looked after sexually abused and/or abusing young people aged 10 or over, most of the young abusers were placed in foster care and the majority of the sexually abused young people went into children's homes. However, in fewer than a third of these placements was consideration given to how the young person would fit in with others in that setting. This meant that the potential risks which that child posed to others or vice versa were not addressed. More worrying still, in just under half of the sample, no information about the young person's history of sexual abuse or abusing behaviour was given to the caregivers. This meant that caregivers were unable to plan to provide the level of supervision which might have averted a number of instances of abuse. When the whole histories of the sexually abused young people in the study were examined, it was found that half of them had abused another child at some stage, generally another child in care. This evidence suggests that the experience of sexual abuse should be regarded as an important risk factor in the later development of sexually abusing behavior and that local authorities need to fashion policies which emphasize the prime importance of social workers providing full information about children's backgrounds when placements are made. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

西部小城镇生活垃圾处理模式研究

西部小城镇的生活垃圾污染问题突出,为了确保小城镇经济的可持续发展和区域生态环境保护,对小城镇的生活垃圾处理已经迫在眉睫。本文在对西部小城镇生活垃圾处理污染及处理系统现状调查的基础上,通过分析西部小城镇垃圾处理的基础条件、经济条件和技术条件等各种约束条件,提出适合西部小城镇实际情况的垃圾处理模式,认为区域性综合处理的垃圾处理模式能够更有效解决西部小城镇的生活垃圾处理问题。