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There’s no better time to upgrade your sleep setup than Black Friday and Cyber Monday — two of the biggest sale events of the year. As usual, there are tons of great deals on top-rated mattresses, from trusted names like Tempur-Pedic and Mattress Firm to direct-to-consumer favorites like Purple and Naturepedic. We recommend taking advantage of all these sleep brands impressive sales, especially since a majority of them have already started. Yup, weeks ahead of schedule! READ MORE...

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There’s a new episode of “Staying Home” on today (Saturday morning!) It’s the fifth kid-shot episode, and three of my kids (plus my nephew) are behind the cameras!   When I say “cameras” I mean “iPhones!” It’s amazing what they can do these days.   I remember getting a Kodak Disk camera when I was […]

I hope you’ve all been doing well, staying safe, and (hopefully) getting back to some glimpse of normal. I know normal is a relative term, and I swear, I still have moments where I am hit with this strong “What just happened?!?” feeling regarding the past couple of months. What a time. I hope things […]

This research was undertaken by Stuart Fordyce as part of an MSc in Integrated Service Improvement (Health and Social Care) at the University of Edinburgh. It considers the impact of a rapidly ageing population on a Scottish local authority and its attempt to shift the focus to a more contemporary service provision. The aim is to explore what factors are inhibiting the effectiveness of enablement. Using a case study approach the research explored whether: (i) enablement is wholly effective in addressing the increase in current service demands; (ii) the approach adopted by the local authority is undermined as services are now over extended and are attempting to address competing objectives, and; (iii) the paradigmatic change across the sector in the future will materialise if organisations cannot create the capacity and infrastructure to enable change to occur

The Advocacy Project works with older people and other groups across Glasgow and Lanarkshire to ensure their voice is heard, their needs met and their legal rights safeguarded. The organisation identified a low take up of their own service by older people from BME communities, which was generally held to reflect the wider picture in Glasgow in relation to health and social work services. This report was commissioned by them to examine barriers to access to services specifically for older people from BME communities in Glasgow South, where there is a high concentration of people from BME communities.

The Sight and Sound Project used creative sensory methods to explore how young people who are looked after feel that they belong, or do not belong, in the places that they live. In this project the concept of belonging, which is often used in relation to faith or ethnic groups is applied to home spaces. Research suggests that ‘sensory experience can provide a strong sense of belonging’ and that sounds, textures and what people see in the places they live are important in terms of making a person feel “at home’. This briefing focuses primarily on the relationship between the senses (visual, audial and touch) and participants’ feelings of belonging (or not) while looked after and leaving care. It also outlines other key issues raised by the young people, including their relationships with various agencies, notably the police as well as further detail on the creative and sensory methods employed.

While there is a growing body of research about carers’ experiences generally, the needs and experience of those who support individuals in forensic (secure) mental health services (forensic carers) have been neglected Support in Mind Scotland (SiMS) and the Forensic Network commissioned this study from the University of Central Lancashire to examine what they identified as ‘significant gaps and inconsistencies’, focusing in particular on the views and experiences of forensic carers.

Home not Housing was one of five Scottish Universities Insight Institute programmes on Wellbeing. A set of ideas workshops explored the concept of ‘home’ from the perspectives of various academic disciplines – housing, planning, social work, healthcare – in order to develop a common vocabulary that will better inform policies relating to house-building, home-working, home-care and general place liveability. This blog records the discussions and findings of the workshops.

Little is known about the effects of repeated imprisonment. Very few research studies have examined how those who are punished by the criminal justice system experience and interpret their sentences. Research that does exist, like my PhD, has largely focused on one single sentence. But people who have served many sentences (in other words, who have long punishment careers), are likely not to experience criminal punishments in isolation, but in the context of their wider lives and previous sentences. The aim of the Lives Sentenced project is to address this gap in the knowledge base by examining the life stories of 35 people with long punishment careers

This project aims to identify factors which contribute to effective, child focussed, SMART plans for children by getting the views of social workers who work in child protection and those who chair child protection case conferences. It will consider ways of working in a more inclusive, collaborative way with children and their families, as well as ways to work more effectively in partnership with other agencies. It will also consider whether the Signs of Safety approach to child protection has a role to play in making plans more effective. The project is an IRISS project in partnership with East Lothian Council and is supported by WithScotland and Social Work Scotland. It is anticipated that the final report will assist with further development of positive outcomes for children and young people across Scotland.

Home supervision requirements are a type of legal supervision order at home which is unique to the Scottish system of child legislation. Despite being the most common type of disposal used by the Children’s Hearing little is known about how HSRs work in practice or about its impact on young people and families. Using a multi-method approach that included secondary analysis of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) dataset; documentary analysis of social work case files; and in-depth interviews; this research seeks to find out more about the nature, scope and outcomes of HSRs from the perspective of those who are affected the most by this type of compulsory intervention – young people, their parents and social workers.

This article explores the impact of abandonment abuse and neglect, not only on children but, centrally, on the foster carers, adopters and kinship carers who parent children where it has been deemed that a return home to birth parents is not in their interests. (For purposes of simplicity we will refer to these carers as ‘parenting figures’.) In doing this we aim to provide parenting figures with support and understanding as well as reducing the feelings of isolation that is often integral to parenting ‘looked after’ children.

The topic of domestic violence is an emotive one conjuring visions of child abuse by parents or carers, or marital violence, in general abuse by men of their wives or partners. According to published police statistics in Scotland for the years of 2012 – 13 male violence of women accounted for 80% of all domestic abuse, and in 2014 over 2,600 children in Scotland were identified as needing protection from abuse. This is particularly concerning since the NSPCC suggests that, for every child who has been identified, there are 8 other children who are at risk but who are ‘under the radar’. These statistics, highlighting the underlying nature of inter-family abuse relationships, i.e. the abuse of less powerful and more vulnerable family members by more powerful adults, undoubtedly account for the majority of the abuse situations within family homes. However this is, sadly, not the whole story. Understanding abuse within a family means recognising the impact of sibling aggression on every family member. It also needs to encompass the growing recognition of child to parent aggression and it is this latter aspect of inter-family relationships with which this article is primarily concerned.

Meaningful and Measurable was a Collaborative Action Research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The project brought together three academic organisations, eight practice partners and four national stakeholder organisations with a shared interest: adopting a focus on personal outcomes in health, social care and other human services. The project aims included: 1.To develop and test out in practice approaches to the qualitative and quantitative analysis of personal outcomes data and use of this information for decision making within organisations. 2.To capture emergent good practice in the analysis and use of personal outcomes information and disseminate this widely to practice, policy and academic audiences. 3.To explore the practical, epistemological and political tensions inherent in this work and capture evidence as to the benefits and limitations of different approaches

This report describes the rationale, process and learning from a project led by IRISS which explored the topic of supervision with a group of six partners from across the social services sector. The purpose of this report is to share the learning gathered through the project to provide some evidence, inspiration, and pointers for those interested in improving supervision. Key points from the report can be used to prompt reflection and discussion with teams, to review current supervision practice and to help plan improvements.

In 2013-15, the Scottish Government funded 16 projects proposed by criminal justice partners across Scotland to develop community services for women who offend. Developments were based on existing service provision and to ensure changes could be sustained locally at the end of the funding. Funding varied in amount and timeframes. Most of the projects were undertaken by local authority criminal justice social work1 (CJSW) departments with partner providers, including public and third sector agencies. The national evaluation examined how the 16 women’s community justice services (WCJSs) were implemented and to what extent they contributed towards positive outcomes for women. A further aim was to build local capacity for self-evaluation in WCJSs. Findings were drawn from two phases of interviews with practitioners and women, secondary documents, and quantitative data for 1,778 women who were in the WCJSs between April and December 2014. This included outcomes data for 406 women.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and IRISS that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Elaine Monteith from ENABLE Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. What this research paper explores: All women are asked to go to the doctor every few years to get a check for cancer but women who have a learning disability don’t go for these checks as often as other women. The paper explore what barriers there are for women attending for checks and also looks at what could be done to encourage women them to attend.

Explores how the Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) promotes the delivery of cost effective social services in Scotland that will support the achievement of positive outcomes for people accessing support. It identifies a number of principles that underpin the work of IRISS and suggests how these facilitate innovative evidence-informed practice. The approach to evidence-informed practice comprises four pillars of activity. The first pillar focuses on improving awareness and access to evidence and is exemplified by the Learning Exchange, the IRISS Insights series, and audio and video recording. The second pillar refers to strengthening the evidence base and is discussed in the context of work on self-directed support. Improving skills and confidence to use evidence forms the third pillar and is represented by work on data visualisation and peer support for self-evaluation. The final pillar is embedding evidence in organisations, through co-production, creating spaces to test and challenge evidence, and through the development of evidence-based products. Supporting people to share knowledge, learn from each other and to collectively produce new knowledge and solutions is an innovative approach but also one which should be cost-effective. Pre-print. Published in Evidence and Policy, 2014 (10)4 as Embedding research into practice through innovation and creativity: a case study from social services

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and IRISS that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Raymond Brennan from ENABLE Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. This research is an attempt to understand the difficulties people with learning disabilities face around friendships and relationships. Recent evidence produced in the ‘Keys to Life’ highlights the impact social isolation has on people with learning disabilities. This research is concerned with the experiences parents and children have when choosing their options of schooling, and if the ‘Circle of Friends’ approach would make the option of mainstream school less daunting.

Short breaks are among the most fundamental services for supporting families with disabled children. By providing breaks from caring and positive experiences for children and young people, they allow parent carers to focus on relationships with other children, or to have time to themselves or with their partner, leading to lower levels of psychological distress, higher levels of life satisfaction and better health. As a result, fewer parent carers reach ‘breaking point’ and fewer children require access to emergency provision or enter the looked after system. This report, commissioned by Every Disabled Child Matters, looks at the current provision of short breaks to families of disabled children in England.

This evaluation report is based on feedback from people living with dementia and carers who received an Individual Award from the Life Changes Trust. The Individual Awards Pilot Scheme was run in Argyll & Bute and Edinburgh in 2014-15 and aimed to provide a small amount of additional financial empowerment to a number of individuals whose lives have been affected by dementia, to help improve their well-being and quality of life. A secondary aim of the pilot scheme was to find out what people would spend the Award on when given relatively broad choice, and what benefit that might bring in the short and medium terms.

The Better Breaks funding programme is focused on improving the range and availability of short break opportunities for disabled children and young people, particularly those with multiple support needs, including short break opportunities that families can enjoy together, or which allow parents and siblings to have time away from their caring responsibilities. This is the summary report.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and IRISS that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by iain Houston from Alzeimer Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. What this research paper explores: An explorative case study investigating how completing a life story project affected a person with dementia.

Systematic review produced by the EPPI-Centre in 2015.This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of HAART and ARV monotherapy on liver disease progression and liver-related mortality in individuals co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C, including in patients with haemophilia.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and Iriss that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Alan Gilmour from Glasgow City Community Health Partnership who participated in the PROP2 programme. This research aimed to gain an understanding of how training and information support contributes to positive outcomes for carers. It provided a range of information to answer specific questions such as: • Do carers feel that their needs are identified appropriately at different stages of their journey? • Does training contribute to the carer’s outcomes? • What are the barriers to carers engaging in training?

Report 68 published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in November 2014. This report will help readers to understand the Learning Together methodology.

Report 69 published by the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) in November 2014. This research, commissioned by the Department of Health (DH), set out to identify what could be learned about current policy and practice in self-neglect, experienced as a highly challenging aspect of contemporary adult social care.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and Iriss that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Geraldine Ditta from Alzheimer Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme. People living with dementia are at risk of becoming socially isolated and disconnected from their local communities. Reactions from others on being told someone has dementia can have a significant impact on the person with dementia’s sense of self. This study sought to explore the perceptions of people with dementia in relation to attitudes within their communities and how they subsequently respond. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to examine how they feel about their lives with dementia.

This report shows commissioners and providers of care how to embed the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) into care and support planning across the board.

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) Report 71 from SCIE Roundtable held on 12 February 2015. The aim of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) roundtable discussion was to identify, celebrate, support and learn from community-led activity.

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) Report 72 from SCIE Roundtable held on 5 March 2015. This roundtable session explored the kind of leadership required to make the Care Act a success.

This is a paper produced as part of the PROP2 (Practitioner Research: Outcomes and Partnership) programme, a partnership between the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) at the University of Edinburgh and Iriss that was about health and social care in Scotland. This paper was written by Sarah Duff from Alzheimer Scotland who participated in the PROP2 programme and is a research study exploring the experience of group yoga classes and music with those affected by dementia

Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) Report 73 from SCIE roundtable discussion held on 26 March 2015. This report considers the potential of technology to transform how health and social care services are delivered.

CCPS is the Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland. Their mission is to identify, represent, promote and safeguard the interests of third sector and not-for-profit social care and support providers in Scotland, so that they can maximise the impact they have on meeting social need.

The Dementia Services Development Centre (DSDC) draws on research and practice, from across the world, to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date resource on all aspects of dementia.

The core purpose of the Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) is to carry out high quality, internationally recognised research in relation to crime and criminal justice.

SCLD brings together some of the most respected practitioners and thinkers from across the learning disability sector who work alongside people who have learning disabilities and their families and carers.The team at SCLD is focused on delivering real change through influencing policy, identifying and sharing evidence and good practice and challenging public attitudes. SCLD aims to be a knowledge hub – offering support, information and new ideas about learning disability in Scotland.

BASW is the largest professional association for social work in the UK, with offices in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. BASW promote the best possible social work services for all people who may need them, while also securing the well being of social workers.

British Institute of Learning Disabilities services help develop the organisations who provide services, and the people who give support.

Capability Scotland campaigns with, and provides education, employment and care services for disabled children and adults across Scotland.

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is the membership organisation for Scotland's charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.