Report on Modernising Social Services

Report on Modernising Social Services Introduction The â€Å"Modernising Social Services† report (Secretary of State for Health 1998) concerns New Labour’s policy for improving social services that emphasises the important role this plays in helping people deal with personal crisis and life-changing events. In this report, social services were criticised for not previously meeting public expectations in key areas including: Inconsistencies in provision across the country. Inefficiencies in effective use of financial budgets. A lack of public awareness of what services should be available by whom. Insufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable children. Failures in co-ordination where, for example, local authorities disagreed on which body should be responsible for care. Inflexibility as regards individual needs and circumstances. To rectify these deficiencies, the report recommended improvements in all the areas listed. For example, with the elderly, this was to involve awarding payments directly to those aged 65 and over, thus promoting greater personal control as well as reshaping services to initiate greater independence and reduce inactivity. A long-term care charter was also to be introduced to further individual needs with assessments to gauge customer satisfaction. Children’s services were to be improved by introducing robust new inspection regimes for care with a national register to prevent undesirable individuals from working and coming into contact with children. Similar safeguards were to be introduced for the mentally ill. To achieve the required standards, new qualifications and training of staff were to be introduced and legislation enacted to improve liaison between various relevant bodies such as health and social services. An annual government report was to be established monitoring s ervice delivery by both local authorities and social services with action taken where standards failed to meet requirements. To finance these changes, annual funding was to be raised by 3.1 per cent per annum over three years and a Social Services Modernisation Fund inaugurated where funds were to be focussed on key areas. The report hoped that these initiatives would lead to real improvements in services covering all the sectors specified leading to a restoration of the public’s confidence but concluded that this modernisation would be a long term process of which the report represented just one step towards attaining significant improvements during the early part of the 21st century (section 8.1 and 8.2). Previous policy towards social care Although the health service had been comparatively successful in improving health up until the beginning of the 1980’s, it became a victim of its own success as those cured of present illnesses became ill at an older, more vulnerable, age (Glasby, 2007 p. 33) leading to greater pressure on social services in general. To offset the spiralling costs, the Thatcher government, which came to power in 1979, thus moved away from care provided by government bodies to a system based more on self reliance predicated on the notion that the demands of welfare was affecting the UK economy (Alcock 1996). This led to various market-based reforms in response two reports (Griffiths 1983, 1988) where integrated management structures were recommended at all levels of both the NHS and social services where the emphasis was to be on efficiency. In addition, the amount of funding available for the NHS reduced and ways were implemented to improve efficiency and service provision that culminated in a government White Paper (Dept. of Health 1989a) that saw the introduction of the internal market and the purchaser/provider divide. Similarly, in social care, social service departments were to both plan and organize community care with local authorities acting as purchases of the different care facilities available a scheme that has been criticised for transferring the increasing government budget onto local authorities despite the apparent aim of the Caring for People reforms (Dept. of Health 1989b) that sort to empower individuals by providing greater choice. The extent of the government’s limited response to these and other recommendations can be gauged by Griffiths (1992) the author of the two Griffiths’ reports criticism of the lack of positive action. The government’s policy was also criticised because, with a shift of responsibility to families, voluntary organizations and individuals themselves, a means was provided whereby privatisation could be pro moted and free care reduced (Baggot 2004, p.276). The result of these policies was that by 1989 the share of private and voluntary organizations had expanded to cover half the long term provision for care of the elderly. Moreover, those reforms introduces as a result of the Griffiths Report led to defensive management and reduced morale among professionals working in social care during the 1990’s (Baggot 2004 p. 279). Policy under New Labour With the election of New Labour in 1997 a â€Å"third way† was offered as a means of bridging the divide between right-wing reliance on market forces and the more socially driven attitudes of the left. This culminated in the 1998 report on social care that came out of the Labour parties wish for â€Å"joined up government† that endeavoured to link the various agencies together, especially services to do with health and social welfare – two departments that had previously operated as relatively separate entities (Glasby 2007, p. 7). Thus, interagency working became one of the main areas of concern after 1998. The reality, however, seems to indicate that there were important changes as well as continuities with previous policies (ibid p. 36). Thus, there was an undertaking to stay within previous spending limits but the internal market was abolished. Later, however, spending limits were broken with large increases in expenditure and the internal market was replaced with a similarly functioning primary care commissioning system. In this respect, the government expressed the wish to build only on that which had previously proved effective (Dept. of Health 1997). One policy that continued accordingly involved the closing of large institutions that helped to deinstitutionalise the attitudes of inmates and staff (Baggot 2004). The policy of community care was hence strengthened whereby individuals from groups such as the mentally ill, the elderly, those with learning difficulties, etc., were given more say in decisions about care and the various options for living in the community or at home. Glasby (ibid), however, has criticised the concept of community care because, although facilities became more human in scale and community oriented, they still tended to be institutional in outlook with the previous ethos in relation to providers and users continuing to prevail well into the 21st century. In addition, up to 2001, there were still obvious disp arities in delivery of policies across local authorities. Despite this negativity, government publications such as â€Å"Valuing People† (Dept. of Health 2001) had, at least, shifted emphasis by highlighting the main issues. The trend whereby the independent sector took charge of residential and nursing homes continued, however, to the extent that nearly all commercial and voluntary organizations now came under independent control a trend also reflected in home care where independent involvement had increased to about fifty per cent by 2002 (Baggot 2004, p.282). The tendency towards more central government control in monitoring social care and the integration of services also continued but there were strong criticisms as regards the regulation of care homes (Fahey et al 2003). A series of regulatory acts during from 2000 onwards, however, attempted to remedy this situation (Baggot 2004, p. 292) and a performance framework was introduced with a â€Å"Best Value† system to gauge efficiency that was later censured for emphasising cost over quality. Conclusion Although there have been many recommendations for change to social services since the 1980’s, the application of these to the real world has been piecemeal and often influenced by political expediency. The move towards independent provision during the Conservative period, although well intentioned, led to a cutback in funding with problems concerning standards and monitoring with the move towards care in the community leading to difficulties of integration of services across providers and communication between professional groups. With the arrival of New Labour, the policy of care in the community continued with attempts at greater integration, improvement of standards, and increased monitoring leading to different levels of success. Regional variations in provision continued and the rhetoric was not always met with real change that may be a consequence of the fact that long-standing attitudes continued to influence actual policy. Moreover, the move towards care in the communi ty has still not been matched by corresponding high quality services or adequate liaison between professional groups and providers to the extent that the aims of the â€Å"Modernising Social Services† report still remain to be achieved. Ultimately, it seems a paradox continues to exist between an approach where people are regarded as citizens having equal rights to service that is opposed to the alternative whereby individuals are viewed as customers with the right to choose a â€Å"product†. Continuing tensions relating to this dichotomy may be the source of ongoing shortfalls in provision that have led to ongoing problems with regard to local health and social service integration. Nevertheless, as the report on â€Å"Modernising Social Services† has emphasised, improvements to the system were expected to be a gradual stepwise process which seems to be confirmed by the various measured enhancements in services to date. Bibliography Alcock, P. Social Policy: Themes and issues. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Baggot, R. 2004. Health and Health Care in Britain. Palgrave: Houndmills. Dept. of Health. 1989a Working for patients. HMSO: London. Dept. of Health. 1989b Caring for people. HMSO: London. Dept. of Health. 1997. The new NHS: Modern, dependable. The Stationary Office: London. Dept. of Health. 2001. Valuing People: A new strategy for learning disability for the 21st century. The Stationary Office: London. Fahey, T., Montgomery, A., Barnes, J. and Protheroe, J. 2003. Quality of Care for Elderly Residents. in Nursing Homes and Elderly People Living at Home: Controlled Observational Study. British Medical Journal. 326. pp. 580-583, Glasby, J. 2007. Understanding Health and Social Care. The Policy Press: Bristol. Griffiths R. 1983. NHS management inquiry (The Griffiths Report). DHSS: London. Griffiths, R. 1988. Community care: Agenda for action (The Griffiths Report). HMSO: London. Griffiths, R. 1993 Seven years of progress – general management in the NHS. Health Economics. 1 (1): pp. 67-70. Secretary of State. 1998 Modernising Social Services – Promoting independence. Improving protection. Raising standards. The Stationary Office: London.

Life of William Wordsworth Essay

William Wordsworth is considered one of the greatest poets during the English Romantic Period. He is also considered, only next to Shakespeare, one of the greatest sonneteers. There are some historians that even believe that William Wordsworth, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped launch the Romantic Period. This statement has been debated between historians, but one thing that they do agree on is, William Wordsworth shaped the literary era. The Romantic Period was a time that allowed artistic freedom. The early 60’s is the closest period of time that can be related to this time in history. The creativity and experimentation of artists, poets, and ordinary people was beginning to bloom. That was a period of great change. The Classical Period was more controlling. There were strict laws of the Classical Period slowly began to change as Romanticism moved away from such control. The Romantic Period was also a movement of literary and intellectual thinking. Romanticism emphasized on imagination, freedom of feelings, and was mostly connected within the visual arts, music, and literature. Imagination was more important than logic. This period is mostly associated with the arts and poets like William Wordsworth. William Wordsworth, the most significant poet of the English Romantic Period, was greatly influenced as a writer by his childhood, love of nature, and his many relationships. According to Judith W. Page, William Wordsworth was the † central poet of his age† (Gale 1). William Wordsworth’s poetry was drawn from his amazing memory, and was mostly based on Nature, people he watched, and personal experiences. Leslie Brisman said of Wordsworth, â€Å"To call William Wordsworth a â€Å"Memory Poet† is to note how he substitutes personal memories for other assurances of continuity, natural or divine. (276-277). Because each encounter partly transmits and partly reformulates a myth of origins, William Wordsworth’s work seems easy to read, when in fact, he may be the most difficult of the English Poets (278). Many of his poems were based on his own life and his interpretation of it. The memories and encounters that William Wordsworth drew from, started when he was just a small boy. William Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth, Cumberland on April 7, 1770. He was the second of five children. His father was an attorney which allowed them to live a generous life style. At home is where he learned to appreciate poetry. It was his father that gave him the gift of memory, by requiring Wordsworth to memorize poems or parts of poems, it help developed his powerful memory. Relying on his memory became the very basis of his art (Anderson 9). Growing up in the Lake District is where Wordsworth gained his early appreciation for the beauty of nature. The river that he would play in at the age of five, also had influenced his writing (Gale 2). He loved the countryside and the freedom he had to roam for long periods of time. During this time, his imagination began to bloom. Although he enjoyed periods of solitude, he was adventurous, imaginative, and strong-minded (Aubrey 2). To all accounts, he had the perfect childhood till his mother passed away in March of 1778. He and his brothers were sent to a school at Hawkshead and his sister, Dorothy, was sent to live at Halifax. During his time at school, he only returned home for the holidays. He was well educated and prospered. When his father passed away he and his brothers spent the holidays with family who would patronized them and made them feel dependent (Watson 1577-1578). It was back at school at Hawkshead where he was cared for and his direction for poetry is nurtured by William Taylor, the Headmaster at Hawkshead Grammar School. The classes at Hawkshead were well ahead of other school and were unusual for that time (Purkis 22). According to F. R. Watson, â€Å"The Prelude† early years is about his childhood at Hawkshead and not Penrith (1577). Geoffrey Hartman writes that nature for William Wordsworth was not an â€Å"object† but a presence and a power; a motion and a spirit; not something to be worshiped and consumed, but always a guide leading beyond itself. Till 1804 Wordsworth thought that nature was guiding him. It was in 1804, that he discovers it was his imagination guiding him through nature. His imagination was his guide. This realization shakes him, but does not change his point of view (85-90). William Wordsworth love for nature started at an early age. Thomas Gale writes about Russell Noyes, who in his book William Wordsworth, recounted how Wordsworth credited the river with having influenced his poetic writing: â€Å"The sound of running water, he often felt, was almost part of his own being†¦ † (Gale 2). During his college years, he disliked his classes and felt he did not fit in. He wrote in the â€Å"The Prelude† that he believed that he was â€Å"not for that hour,/nor for that place. † (Aubrey 2). Although he did write the poem several poems while at school, one of the more famous one is â€Å"An Evening Walk†, which was meant for his sister, Dorothy. The year before graduation he went for a yearlong walking tour of France, the Alps, and Italy. Several of Wordsworth’s poems were created from this year long walk. His love of nature was magnified as he viewed glorious mountains, valleys, and other various landscapes. The walk through the Alps inspired â€Å"Descriptive Sketches†. Wordsworth stated â€Å"†¦. Nothing that I ever saw in nature left a more delightful impression on my mind than that which I have attempted, alas! how feebly, to convey to others in these lines†¦ † (George 10). The walking tour also gave way to the sixth book of â€Å"The Prelude†. The tour gave him some of his greater imaginative experiences of his life. Michelle Lee writes how â€Å"Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,† were composed on a walking tour of the Wye River. He advocates the power of Nature. † (245) He returned to college and graduated in 1791, without honors. After graduation, he climbed Mount Snowdon, the highest peak in Great Britain. This was an important event that he later incorporates in the final book of â€Å"The Prelude†, giving it a great symbolic importance (Aubrey 2). After climbing Mt. Snowdon, William Wordsworth returned to France i n November of 1792. During this time, the French Revolution was at its peak. This was also the time when he met and befriended Republican soldier, Michael Beaupuy. With the growing friendship between the two men, Wordsworth enthusiastically embraced the revolutionary cause. This was also the time when he had an affair with Annette Vallon, who later gave birth to his daughter. These were times that began to change and shape Wordsworth and his poetry. In 1795 he meets William Godwin and is influenced by his ideas. This is also the year that he is reunited with his sister Dorothy, with whom he is very close to. The relationship between brother and sister is also cause for several of his poems. Two years later the encounter that changes the Romantic Period, according to some historians, occurs when Wordsworth meets Coleridge for the first time. William and his sister, settled at Al Foxden in Somerset to be near Coleridge. Margaret Drabble writes that this was a period of intense creativity for both poets. This period produced the Lyrical Ballads, which was a landmark in the history of English Romanticism. The three friends, William, Dorothy, and Coleridge traveled and explored. They made new friendships notably with Sir W. Scott, Sir G Beaumont, and De Quincey (1085). These were happy times and times when he was taken mental notes that would soon turn into poetry. It was the death of his brother in 1805 that changed his joy to sadness. The death of his brother inspired several poems including Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle. With the passing of his brother, William suddenly becomes opposed to Romance and Realism (Hartman 91). His brother’s death was not the only death to inspire some of his greater works. The death of two of his children inspired his sonnet Surprised by Joy (Drabble 1085). William Wordsworth died in April 23, 1850. It was after his death, his sister published â€Å"The Prelude†, his greatest work. His life, from start to finish, is expressed in this great piece of literature. Throughout William Wordsworth life, he went through many changes. He married his long time family friend, Marry Hutchinson and had a family. His view on religion changed, along with his thoughts on the political society. William Wordsworth’s poems are all created from the memories of his life experiences and the visions of his travels. Through many friendships and emotional relationships, Wordsworth created some of the greatest poems of the Romantic Period. He was an influence on great poets such as; Samuel Coleridge, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, and John Keats. There is still a question of whether or not William Wordsworth launched the Romantic Period, but there is no doubt that he shaped the literary work of that time. William Wordsworth, who was greatly influenced as a writer by his childhood, love of nature, and his many relationships, is by far the most significant poet of the English Romantic Period.

Disagreement case study Essay

Disagreement between practitioner, child and a young person Sometimes children can be rebellious if there passing thru difficult time in their life or some stage, however we must not go into any argument with any child. Some times it’s good to give child and ourselves a little extra time alone to think again. Settings behaviour policy must be followed so the child or a young person will not be confused and they will know every consequence of their actions. We could call a another person to be with us at the time of talk to prevent any accusations, we must inform the manager just in case parent needs to be involved and also to allow communication between colleagues in setting to be up to date. Being informative and reasoning may allow child to understand further our point of view and in some case that may help issue to resolve. We must be sensitive, show them with our body language, that we are listening their point of view without interrupting their talk. Show child a respect and treat them like the adults, ask for mediator if you thin k that will be better for both side. Disagreement between Practitioner and adults In any work we all will have disagreement some point in our work life. Most of these disagreements are results of miss communication. To resolve this disagreement and prevent it to escalate we need to talk about them as soon as possible, the longer we leave the problem lye, becomes more difficult to get it resolve. It’s important to follow settings policies to make sure everyone behaves in an appropriate manner. Sometimes clash personalities, or our other qualities can make other side hard to cooperate with, in that case it’s good to arrange a mediator who can be voice of the both side and can mediate to resolve the issue. It will beneficial to be informative all the time, so other side can understand fully about the issue and the outcome of any actions. Other person can have their own personal problems so it’s good to show some sensitivity to their needs and questions may prevent lot of disagreements. Always we need to report our manager what happened and we nee d to keep manager up to date, so we will have the support we need if the thinks gets out of hand or escalates.

Lester Allan Pelton - Hydroelectric Power

Lester Pelton invented a type of free-jet water turbine called the Pelton Wheel or Pelton turbine. This turbine is used for hydroelectric power generation. It is one of the original green technologies, replacing coal or wood with the power of falling water. Lester Pelton and the Pelton Water Wheel Turbine Lester Pelton was born in 1829 in Vermillion, Ohio. In 1850, he immigrated to California during the time of the gold rush. Pelton made his living as a carpenter and a millwright. At that time there was a great demand for new power sources to run the machinery and mills necessary for the expanding gold mines. Many mines depended on steam engines, but  those required exhaustible supplies of wood or coal. What was abundant was water power from the fast-running mountain creeks and waterfalls. Waterwheels that had been used to power flour mills worked best on larger rivers and did not work well in the faster moving and less voluminous mountain creeks and waterfalls. What worked  were  the newer water turbines that used wheels with cups rather than flat panels.  Ã‚  A landmark design in water turbines was the highly efficient Pelton Wheel. W. F. Durand of Stanford University wrote in 1939 that Pelton made his discovery when he observed a misaligned water turbine where the jet of water hit the cups near the edge rather than the middle of the cup. The turbine moved faster. Pelton incorporated this into his design, with a wedge-shaped divider in the middle of a  double cup, splitting the jet. Now the water being ejected from both halves of the split cups act to propel the wheel faster. He tested his designs in 1877 and 1878, getting a patent in 1880. In 1883, the Pelton turbine won a competition for the most efficient water wheel turbine held by the Idaho Mining Company of Grass Valley, California. Pelton ´s turbine proved to be 90.2% efficient, and the turbine of his closest competitor was only 76.5% efficient. In 1888, Lester Pelton formed the Pelton Water Wheel Company in San Francisco and began to mass manufacture his new water turbine. The Pelton water wheel turbine set the standard until the Turgo impulse wheel was invented by Eric Crewdson in 1920. However, the Turgo impulse wheel was an improved design based on the Pelton turbine. The Turgo was smaller than the Pelton and cheaper to manufacture. Two other important hydropower systems include the Tyson turbine, and the Banki turbine (also called the Michell turbine). Pelton wheels were used to provide electrical power at hydroelectric facilities around the world. One in Nevada City had an output of 18000 horsepowers of electricity for 60 years. The largest units can produce over 400 megawatts. Hydroelectricity Hydropower converts the energy of flowing water into electricity or hydroelectricity. The amount of electricity generated is determined by the volume of water and the amount of head (the height from the turbines in the powerplant to the water surface) created by the dam. The greater the flow and head, the more electricity is produced. The mechanical power of falling water is an age-old tool. Of all the renewable energy sources that generate electricity, hydropower is the most often used. It is one of the oldest sources of energy and was used thousands of years ago to turn a paddle wheel for purposes such as grinding grain. In the 1700s, mechanical hydropower was used extensively for milling and pumping.   The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 30, 1882. Until that time, coal was the only fuel used to produce electricity. The early hydroelectric plants were direct current stations built to power arc and incandescent lighting during the period from about 1880 to 1895. Because the source of hydropower is water, hydroelectric power plants must be located on a water source. Therefore, it wasn’t until the technology to transmit electricity over long distances was developed that hydropower became widely used. By the early 1900s, hydroelectric power accounted for more than 40 percent of the United States supply of electricity. The years 1895 through 1915 saw rapid changes occur in hydroelectric design and a wide variety of plant styles built. Hydroelectric plant design became fairly well standardized after World War I with most development in the 1920s and 1930s being related to thermal plants and transmission and distribution.