Representatives Of Key Stakeholders Research Articles

Health visiting in the UK in light of the COVID-19 pandemic experience: (RReHOPE) findings from a realist review.

Child health programmes in the United Kingdom offer every child and their family an evidence-based programme to support child health and development. During the COVID-19 pandemic, health visiting services in many areas were reduced to a partial service, with significant variability between and within the four United Kingdom countries. This study investigated the impact of the pandemic on health visiting services and developed recommendations for policy and practice. Conduct a realist review of relevant literature. Engage with key stakeholders in policy, practice and research across the United Kingdom. Identify recommendations for improving the organisation and delivery of health visiting services, with a focus on services being equitable, effective and efficient. The realist review followed Pawson's five iterative steps and involved key stakeholder representatives at every step. We searched five electronic databases and references of included articles, as well as relevant organisational websites, to find quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods and grey literature related to health visiting services in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic. An assessment of their relevance to our initial programme theory determined inclusion in the review. Data were extracted, organised and presented as draft context, mechanism and outcome configurations. These were iteratively refined through meetings with 6 people with lived experience of caring for babies during the pandemic and 23 professional stakeholders. Context, mechanism and outcome configurations were then translated into findings and recommendations. One hundred and eighteen documents contributed to the review and collectively revealed the far-reaching, uneven and enduring impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on babies and families. Data uncovered significant concerns of families and practitioners amidst the pandemic, along with the service's corresponding actions. These concerns and responses underscored the critical importance of fostering and sustaining trusting relationships between health visitors and families, as well as conducting holistic assessments for early intervention. Although we found minimal evidence of decision-making within organisational/managerial levels, the data illustrated the diverse and complex nature of health visiting work and the need for flexibility and resourcefulness. The primary limitation of this review was a lack of specific evidence from the United Kingdom nations other than England. There was also a lack of data focusing on changes during the COVID-19 pandemic at a local management level. The needs of babies, children and families, and the delivery of services to support them, were not prioritised in the early phase of the pandemic response. Our data show that the health visiting service was concerned with maintaining visibility of all children, and especially supporting families with a new baby. Health visiting services adapted in numerous ways to respond to these concerns. Implications for policy and practice are presented, identified from our analysis and discussions with stakeholders. The RReHOPE study is part of a jigsaw of evidence, which will provide a much stronger evidence base for future policy and practice. This realist review presents several areas for future research, including how health visiting is organised at local management level; how to optimise limited resources; factors affecting differing uptake in different regions; and analysis of the effectiveness of health visiting using large cohort studies. This article presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme under award number NIHR134986.

City-regions in Central Eastern Europe: emerging metropolitan territorialities in post-socialist planning systems

ABSTRACT City-regions in Central Eastern Europe are still underrepresented in academic debate on metropolitan planning and governance. However, they may provide a valuable insight into the early stages of creating planning partnerships that struggle to cope with problems arising from uncoordinated spatial development in the period of post-socialist transformation, which was not addressed adequately by formal planning systems and regular territorial-administrative units. The paper presents a comparative analysis of six city-regions in Central Eastern Europe based on a review of strategic and planning documents, and direct interviews with representatives of key stakeholders in each area. The main findings of the paper include the significant but underestimated role of the second-tier local governments in metropolitan institutional setups and the crucial position of emerging coalitions of academics, metropolitan-oriented officials and planners for establishing a sustainable planning agenda in the city-region. City-regions in CEE do not follow the categorization of soft spaces of planning that is derived from other territorial contexts. This is because the spatial planning efforts within city-regional soft spaces in CEE are more sustainability-driven than growth-oriented. Yet, more ambitious spatial visions may be overshadowed by a strong focus of local elected politicians on infrastructure projects.

The pros and cons of reshoring to address the problems of shortages in global pharmaceutical value chains: the case of antibiotics

PurposeAntibiotics shortages have become an increasingly common problem in Europe because of several reasons, including the offshoring of the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients for many of these products to low production cost countries, such as China and India. The problem has deteriorated because of the Covid-19 crisis that has put most global value chains (GVCs) under great stress. This situation has boosted extensive discussions among academics, practitioners and policymakers on possible changes to the configuration of GVCs. This paper aims to focus specifically on antibiotics supply chains from the perspective of a small country (Sweden), and analyse the pros and cons of backshoring and nearshoring alternatives, as a means to reduce drug shortages.Design/methodology/approachThis work adopts a systemic perspective to capture the implications of reshoring for the different stakeholders involved in the antibiotics field. The present meso-analysis, focusing at the industry level, is based on multiple sources of primary data collected between 2014 and 2021, including participation in policy-related projects and interviews with over 100 representatives of key stakeholders in the antibiotics field.FindingsThis paper shows how reshoring can address the problems of drug shortages and reduce availability risk in antibiotics’ GVCs. However, the authors show that no simple and best solution exists because both alternatives of reshoring, i.e. backshoring and nearshoring, entail pros and cons for different stakeholders. The authors conclude with implications for policymakers and managers.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis of pros and cons of both backshoring and nearshoring for various stakeholders offers relevant implications for research on operations and supply management, international business and economics/political science.Originality/valueThis paper looks at reshoring as a policy-driven decision and provides an innovative systemic perspective to analyse the implications for different stakeholders of two reshoring options concerning the antibiotics supply chain.

Mapping Creative Amenities to Develop Tourism Potentials in a Post-Mining Area: A Case Study of Bantar Karet Village, Bogor Regency, Indonesia

In the past five years, hundreds of villages across Java have practiced tourism, including Bantar Karet, which projects tourism as a new economic structure. It has hosted gold mine activities for years by involving many villagers in non-formal mining activities. However, the ban on illegal mining activities by the government led to a search for new ways for the villagers to earn a living, leading to the operation of tourist attractions. This research discussed the socio-spatial aspect of organizing tourism in Bantar Karet Village using the creative class theory, arguing for its ability to explain the relationship between physical space and rural community development. This argument was tested using empirical data acquired through a mix-methods strategy. These include fieldwork to identify the location of tourism potential within the village, interviews with residents, and focus group discussions with key stakeholder representatives. Tourism potentials were analyzed using four creative measures, namely population, process, product, and environment. The findings subsequently showed several creative tourism traits being developed, as well as an unequal opportunity for the community to participate in tourism activities. Although the benefits to the village are still concentrated in the proximity of tourist attractions, this research confirmed the ability of tourism to enhance rural attractiveness to the creative class, facilitating their entry as tourists, residents, or employees.

Social Return On Investment (SROI) Program for Empowering Pepper Farmers in Petaling Banjar Village

Pepper farmers in Petaling Banjar Village, Mendo Barat District, Bangka Regency, Bangka Belitung Islands Province who are members of the Pepper Farmer Empowerment Program are a community group assisted by PT RBT's CSR. As a social investment, the implementation of CSR activities in the long term will bring business returns in the form of profits for the company. Social Return on Investment (SROI) is a method used to measure the social impact of CSR activities that does not only calculate the value of profits in the form of money, but includes a broader concept that includes social, economic, and environmental values. This study involved a number of respondents who were representatives of key stakeholders, namely: 10 pepper farmers, 6 general public, 1 community leader and 2 people from the Petaling Banjar village government. Data were collected using in-depth interview techniques, Focus Group Discussion (FGD), field observations, and the use of secondary data from PT RBT's CSR program documentation. The results showed that the overall SROI value obtained was 1.76. This means that every IDR 1 invested has a benefit of IDR 1.76 when the SROI measurement is carried out. When viewed from a social and economic perspective, the Petaling Banjar Pepper Farmers Empowerment program can be said to be feasible and successful

Stakeholder collaboration in long-term care of older people in Lithuania.

Demographic situation, changes in the role of women in society and growing demand for long-term care (LTC) of older people have challenged the ability to meet the growing LTC needs in most developed countries. In countries where responsibility for LTC is still largely laid on families, it is, however, even more critical and calls for improvements in formal LTC systems. More intensive stakeholder collaboration in LTC policy development, organising and delivery are of primary importance in improving LTC systems. Such collaboration, however, is not always successful; thus, it is critical to understand what makes it effective and efficient. In this paper, we specifically look into multistakeholder collaboration in LTC in Lithuania, one of the fastest ageing countries in the EU, with the demand for LTC services growing fast and exceeding the supply despite rising business and NGO engagement. To determine facilitators of such collaboration, we build on the data obtained through eight focus group discussions with all key stakeholder representatives (LTC policymakers, organisers and service providers [public, private and NGOs], 54 participants in total). Our findings indicate that in addition to national and organisational level facilitators studied in prior research, there are important individual level factors, such as meaningfulness at work, concern and care for others, possibility for personal growth and development, satisfaction with supervision, a sense of belonging and role clarity. On the other hand, our results show that collaboration is constrained by a shortage of human resources, increased workload caused by growing LTC demand, bureaucratic requirements, legal restrictions, lack of awareness of LTC service availability among elder persons, and prevailing social norms and attitudes to institutionalised care. Interestingly, a lack of financial resources is not perceived as a major constraint.

Dairy crossbreeding challenges the French dairy cattle sociotechnical regime

Rotational crossbreeding can be faster and more effective than pure breeding in improving the functional traits of cows and developing robust dairy cattle systems. However, this practice remains uncommon worldwide. This is largely assumed to be due to a scarcity of knowledge on dairy crossbreeding schemes and their benefits for cows and herd performance. However, crucial questions remain: Why do so few technical references exist? Why and how do some farmers embrace this practice despite the lack of guidance? To answer these questions, we adopted a sociotechnical view of dairy crossbreeding to characterize the factors that drive, support, and impede its development in France. We qualitatively analyzed 73 articles from two French technical journals on dairy cattle and semi-structured interviews of 17 dairy cattle farmers who practice crossbreeding and 15 representatives of key stakeholders in the sector. Using all these data, we identified three drivers of using dairy crossbreeding: technical problems related to breeding highly specialized purebred cows, the shift towards more sustainable and resilient dairy cattle systems, and a desire to regain decision-making autonomy in farm management. Based on farmers’ interviews, it became evident that they developed know-how “on the job” and created new support networks to overcome impediments that were primarily cognitive/cultural but also technological and market-driven; with these resources, they progressively turned away from the mainstream sociotechnical regime. Based on stakeholders’ interviews, we characterized four groups that limited the development of dairy crossbreeding and one that supported it, and we identified organizational, cognitive/cultural, technological, and economic barriers—many of which were interrelated and self-reinforcing—to its use. These findings demonstrate that dairy crossbreeding is widely recognized as beneficial for the sustainability of dairy cattle farms but remains uncommon in France due to the sociotechnical lock-in of the dairy sector around both pure-breeding and high-specialization paradigms of herd management.

Review article: Developing the Australian and New Zealand Guideline for Mild to Moderate Head Injuries in Children: An adoption/adaption approach.

The Paediatric Research in Emergency Departments International Collaborative (PREDICT) released the Australian and New Zealand Guideline for Mild to Moderate Head Injuries in Children in 2021. We describe innovative and practical methods used to develop this guideline. Informed by GRADE-ADOLOPMENT and ADAPTE frameworks, we adopted or adapted recommendations from multiple high-quality guidelines or developed de novo recommendations. A Guideline Steering Committee and a multidisciplinary Guideline Working Group of 25 key stakeholder representatives formulated the guideline scope and developed 33 clinical questions. We identified four relevant high-quality source guidelines; their recommendations were mapped to clinical questions. The choice of guideline recommendation, if more than one guideline addressed a question, was based on its appropriateness, currency of the literature, access to evidence, and relevance. Updated literature searches identified 440 new studies and key new evidence identified. The decision to develop adopted, adapted or de novo recommendations was based on the supporting evidence-base and its transferability to the local setting. The guideline underwent a 12-week consultation period. The final guideline consisted of 35 evidence-informed and 17 consensus-based recommendations and 19 practice points. An algorithm to inform imaging and observation decision-making was also developed. The resulting process was an efficient and rigorous way to develop a guideline based on existing high-quality guidelines from different settings.

Physical education and health as a child’s right: Reflections on the Soweto Active Schools programme

Background: In view of global health concerns about high levels of inactivity and related disease patterns of citizens, Physical Education and Health (PEH) has become an educational priority in many countries, including South Africa. Aim: The research aimed to explore and capture the effects of a multistakeholder physical education (PE) initiative that focuses on in-service teacher training and implementation of the Soweto Active Schools programme. Setting: The study was conducted in five pilot schools in Soweto, located in close proximity to the Nike Centre, where the schools take part in organised sport events as part of the programme. Methods: This pre–post (2016 and 2018) multisite case study utilised mixed methods. Qualitative data were collected through observation of PE lessons, interviews with key stakeholder representatives ( n = 6), five school principals ( n = 10) and focus group discussions with life skill/life orientation heads of department and teachers ( n = 59) and Grade 6 learners ( n = 63). Results: The main findings indicated the emergence of a new educational paradigm informed by value-based PE. Teachers reported positive behaviours by learners, whereas they applied the same values in the teaching of other classes. Learners reported the learning of new motor skills, improved social relations and improved confidence. Principals and teachers appreciated the scaled model of contextually relevant professional learning. Conclusion: The model disputes the mere outsourcing of PE that elicits the participation of teachers will not adequately equip them for teaching PE. The model can be refined and taken to scale with meaningful information for curriculum design, resource provision and effective implementation of quality PEH.

Resource Management in BOP contexts: Toward a Social Resource Orchestration Theory (SROT)

Research in global supply chains increasingly covers the highly resource constrained, poverty-stricken, bottom of the pyramid (BOP) context as a potential market for revenue growth opportunities. Still, how firms can design and manage material and support flows across the global supply chain to overcome the constrained resources and enable social, environmental and economic value creation for stakeholders, remains a challenge. Qualitative data was collected via expert interviews and field visits with representatives of key stakeholders serving the BOP. Preliminary findings imply that companies need to dynamically engage and manage capabilities both internally and externally in order to be successful in BOP contexts. This research identifies intermediaries as a key stakeholder group who either engage in physical material flows or support flows. These intermediaries show specific stakeholder management and context shaping capabilities that focal firms can leverage in the BOP context. The emergent integrated framework suggests a move toward a social resource orchestration theory (SROT).

Integrating traditional Chinese medicines into professional community pharmacy practice in China – Key stakeholder perspectives

IntroductionIn China, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is an integral part of the health system in parallel with Western medicine (WM). However, pharmacists’ duty of care at this interface has not been fully explored. This qualitative study aimed to explore key stakeholders’ perceptions about the challenges and enablers to pharmacists’ adopting a professional role in patient care associated with the concurrent use of herbal medicines (HMs). MethodsParticipants were recruited from the expert pool of the National Research Center for Licensed Pharmacist Development using purposive sampling and snowballing. Participants targeted included government, academics and practicing pharmacists. An interview guide was developed following a literature review and face-to-face, audiotaped interviews conducted with key stakeholders. ResultsFourteen semi-structured interviews with both practicing pharmacists and key stakeholder representatives were conducted in China in 2017. Thematic analysis identified 6 main themes which focused on how TCM was integrated with WM in China. Participants agreed that pharmacists should at least assume a role in drug safety associated with concurrent use of TCM and WM. However, barriers were identified within the government, education, pharmacy, pharmacist and research sectors, indicating a lack of coordinated strategies to improve this area of healthcare. A lack of clarity in defining the pharmacists’ role in this area and a disconnect between current regulatory standards and education/training system were the prominent themes. Participants looked towards the government to facilitate actions in the development of policies that support pharmacy practice and practice guidelines, and the review of competency standards, and registration criteria as being the most important enablers. ConclusionGuiding principles that outline standards for pharmacy practice regarding HMs in an integrated healthcare system are considered a priority, requiring a joint effort from the government, professional organizations and universities.

What are the most important unanswered research questions in trial retention? A James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership: the PRioRiTy II (Prioritising Retention in Randomised Trials) study

BackgroundOne of the top three research priorities for the UK clinical trial community is to address the gap in evidence-based approaches to improving participant retention in randomised trials. Despite this, there is little evidence supporting methods to improve retention. This paper reports the PRioRiTy II project, a Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) that identified and prioritised unanswered questions and uncertainties around trial retention in collaboration with key stakeholders.MethodsThis PSP was conducted in collaboration with the James Lind Alliance, a non-profit making initiative, to support key stakeholders (researchers, patients, and the public) in jointly identifying and agreeing on priority research questions.There were three stages. (1) First an initial online survey was conducted consisting of six open-ended questions about retention in randomised trials. Responses were coded into thematic groups to create a longlist of questions. The longlist of questions was checked against existing evidence to ensure that they had not been answered by existing research. (2) An interim stage involved a further online survey where stakeholders were asked to select questions of key importance from the longlist. (3) A face-to-face consensus meeting was held, where key stakeholder representatives agreed on an ordered list of 21 unanswered research questions for methods of improving retention in randomised trials.ResultsA total of 456 respondents yielded 2431 answers to six open-ended questions, from which 372 questions specifically about retention were identified. Further analysis included thematically grouping all data items within answers and merging questions in consultation with the Steering Group. This produced 27 questions for further rating during the interim survey. The top 21 questions from the interim online survey were brought to a face-to-face consensus meeting in which key stakeholder representatives prioritised the order. The ‘Top 10’ of these are reported in this paper. The number one ranked question was ’What motivates a participant’s decision to complete a clinical trial?’ The entire list will be available at www.priorityresearch.ie.ConclusionThe Top 10 list can inform the direction of future research on trial methods and be used by funders to guide projects aiming to address and improve retention in randomised trials.

Applying a mixed methods design for needs assessment of an international fellowship training program for Mongolian health professions.

PurposeContinuing professional development is essential for improving health care services, especially in developing countries. Most of the training programs in Mongolia were not based on a targeted needs assessment. Therefore, we aimed to apply a mixed methods design to assess the training needs of Mongolian health professions.MethodsWe conducted a needs assessment using a convergent parallel mixed methods design in two steps. The survey and interview questions were developed to identify priority areas, targeted trainees, and effective training methods. A survey on 60 respondents, 15 individual interviews, and a focus group interview with 14 participants were conducted in the first step. In the second step, 12 representatives of key stakeholders were invited to a second focus group interview.ResultsCurrent health policy areas, areas related to future national plans, and areas not currently receiving governmental or international support were suggested as the main priorities. The stakeholder suggested that trainees should be selected based on their professional experience and language level, as well as each hospital’s needs. Building teams including various professions, such as nurses, technicians, and biomedical engineers, was recommended as a way to exchange ideas with each other and to build teamwork for future collaboration.ConclusionMedical training needs are dynamic and complex; therefore, a deep understanding of the context and setting is necessary. In this study, we assessed the targeted training needs of Mongolian health professions through a mixed methods design, which could be an effective way to conduct needs assessments for training programs.

The absence of institutional entrepreneurship in climate adaptation policy – in search of local adaptation strategies for Rotterdam’s unembanked areas

Innovative policy measures often imply institutional adjustments. Whether such adjustments are accomplished often depends upon the presence of institutional entrepreneurship: actors who take responsibility to initiate the necessary actions to redesign existing institutional practices. The question arises under which conditions can institutional entrepreneurship be developed? And, what might be the cause of lacking institutional entrepreneurship?In this article, the latter question is examined through in-depth collaborative research project for exploring alternative, adaptive flood risk strategies for flood proofing the unembanked area of the north-end of the city district Feijenoord in Rotterdam. Due to climate change, these areas are increasingly vulnerable to flooding. The traditional, institutionalized solution of raising the ground level before initiating new spatial developments does not suffice in the long term. Therefore, the city government explored alternative strategies for more adaptive ways of dealing with flood risks. Together with representatives of key stakeholders in the area, two key strategies for the unembanked areas were elaborated. These strategies have significant implications for the distribution of costs, risks and responsibilities and necessitate alternative governance architectures that exceed the current institutional structures.During the research project, it became clear that the developed alternative strategies fundamentally differed from the current institutional system. Thus, institutional redesign was necessary. This proved to be virtually impossible, especially because none of the involved actors was willing nor capable of undertaking entrepreneurial activities to start such redesign. This observation led us to further investigate into the causes and the consequences of the absent entrepreneurship.

Cooperation with Competitors? Exploring Managers’ Interpretations of Coopetitive Practices

A growing body of research has recognized the importance of coopetitive interorganizational relationships, i.e., relationships among firms that simultaneously involve competition and cooperation. However, little is known about how managers interpret these coopetitive relations in their day-to-day experiences. To shed light on this phenomenon, in this study we adopted a grounded theory approach and interviewed managers of firms and representatives of key stakeholders in the seafood processing industry of a Southern US state. Our findings shed light on what managers interpret to be the key factors shaping their firms’ practices of coopetitive relations as well as how they experience and cope with the tensions between competition and cooperation implicit in these relations. We conclude by discussing our study’s contributions to the literature and its implications for future research.

BUSINESS TRANSFER ECOSYSTEM IN CROATIA - MISSING COMPONENTS AND INTERACTIONS

Business transfer is an important issue that the European Commission has been actualizing since the early 1990s, when the first recommendations for the improvement of national business transfer ecosystems of the EU countries were created. Neglecting business transfer as a critical phase in the development of a company can have significant negative implications for companies, their owners and wide network of stakeholders. Business transfer is a particularly important topic for the Croatian economy where more than 5, 300 businesses with around 57, 000 employees represent a risk group whose owners underestimate the complexity and longevity of the business transfer process. The aim of this paper is to analyse the structure and quality of the business transfer ecosystem in Croatia. For this purpose, secondary research and a qualitative study in the form of interviews with representatives of key stakeholders were conducted. The Croatian business transfer ecosystem is benchmarked to the national business transfer ecosystems of Spain, Finland, Sweden and France, based on the data collected through the EU project BTAR. The research results indicate low level of development, interconnection and complementarity of individual components of the business transfer ecosystem in Croatia. Policy recommendations for improving the quality of the business transfer ecosystem in Croatia were identified.

An examination of the views of key stakeholders on the development of learning spaces at a regional university

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the degree of alignment between the views of key stakeholders on the development of learning spaces in a new teaching and learning building at a satellite campus of a regional university. Design/methodology/approach – Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with six stakeholders including senior executives, technical staff, academic staff and students. The interviews were transcribed and the data analysed to identify common and differing themes on the part of the respective interviewees in relation to learning spaces in general, and in relation to the new teaching and learning building in particular. Findings – A comprehensive framework should be articulated by the university for its theme of personalised learning so that decisions can be made at lower levels of the university to operationalise the theme across academic and administrative functions. A clear definition of the blended learning pedagogy, which is proposed to be implemented as part of the personalised learning theme, should be articulated. The implications of the blended learning pedagogy for the design of learning spaces should be identified and clear design guidelines for learning spaces should be articulated. Learning spaces in the new building should be reviewed to achieve alignment with the personalised learning framework and the guidelines for learning spaces. Research limitations/implications – As this is a preliminary study with a small number of participants, a qualitative approach was taken to identify the indicative views of representatives of key stakeholders. The findings relate specifically to the context of this study at a regional Australian university. Originality/value – This paper provides valuable insights into how a university’s philosophy on learning spaces manifests itself through creation and implementation of high-level policy and how that is interpreted and actioned by a range of stakeholders across campuses, including staff and students.

Principles to guide sustainable implementation of extended-scope-of-practice physiotherapy workforce redesign initiatives in Australia: stakeholder perspectives, barriers, supports, and incentives.

Sustainable implementation of new workforce redesign initiatives requires strategies that minimize barriers and optimize supports. Such strategies could be provided by a set of guiding principles. A broad understanding of the concerns of all the key stakeholder groups is required before effective strategies and initiatives are developed. Many new workforce redesign initiatives are not underpinned by prior planning, and this threatens their uptake and sustainability. This study reports on a cross-sectional qualitative study that sought the perspectives of representatives of key stakeholders in a new workforce redesign initiative (extended-scope-of-practice physiotherapy) in one Australian tertiary hospital. The key stakeholder groups were those that had been involved in some way in the development, management, training, funding, and/or delivery of the initiative. Data were collected using semistructured questions, answered individually by interview or in writing. Responses were themed collaboratively, using descriptive analysis. Key identified themes comprised: the importance of service marketing; proactively addressing barriers; using readily understood nomenclature; demonstrating service quality and safety, monitoring adverse events, measuring health and cost outcomes; legislative issues; registration; promoting viable career pathways; developing, accrediting, and delivering a curriculum supporting physiotherapists to work outside of the usual scope; and progression from “a good idea” to established service. Health care facilities planning to implement new workforce initiatives that extend scope of usual practice should consider these issues before instigating workforce/model of care changes.

Collaborative Approach to Calibration of a Riverine Water Quality Model

AbstractStakeholder involvement in watershed management decisions remains challenging, particularly when one is relying upon modeling efforts as one of the primary means to understand and communicate the complicated processes controlling a natural riverine system. To determine how to meet the instream water quality standards as required by the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program, a QUAL2Kw water quality model was developed and calibrated for the Jordan River, Utah. To improve transparency, increase stakeholder engagement, and reach agreement more effectively, a collaborative approach was taken to calibrate the model that included Utah Division of Water Quality (UDWQ) staff, consultants, key stakeholder representatives, and independent experts. The study reach of the Jordan River flows 83 km from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake through the urbanized Salt Lake Valley in Utah. Several segments of the river have been listed by UDWQ as impaired for a number of constituents, but the present effort focuses ...

Standard Business Reporting: Short Term Pain for Long Term Gain?

This research project, funded by CPA Australia under the Global Research Perspectives Program, evaluates Standard Business Reporting (SBR) as a measure designed to reduce the tax compliance burden of Australian businesses resulting from reporting obligations imposed by the government. In evaluating the effectiveness of SBR in reducing the tax compliance costs of businesses, the research project examines: - the business to government tax reporting burden as part of business tax compliance costs and the extent of that burden addressed by SBR; - the drivers of high tax compliance costs and the adequacy of SBR in addressing these drivers; - the reporting solution offered by SBR from the perspective of benefits and savings offered to businesses that adopt SBR; - the level of understanding of the SBR solution among businesses and reporting practitioners and their readiness to adopt it as part of their reporting practices; - the experience of businesses and reporting practitioners in using SBR as a channel to lodge reports to the government, realised costs and benefits, challenges and future expectations; and - the extent to which SBR has reduced or can reduce the tax reporting burden of businesses. This Report examines the above issues and presents findings from empirical work conducted by the researchers that used a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches involving a series of in-depth interviews with representatives of key stakeholders in the SBR initiative: government agencies, software developers and reporting practitioners, together with a cross sectional survey of businesses. While the evidence of the research does not rule out that SBR may have some potential to reduce some of the tax compliance burden of businesses in the longer term, it shows that the government’s initial business case that predicted savings of $800 million in 2013/14 was overstated. The take up of SBR to date has been significantly lower than expected, mostly due to the very low level of awareness of SBR among its potential users, namely businesses and reporting practitioners. The Report shows that the main reason for this poor awareness of SBR among its potential users is the lack of clear ownership of the task of driving the demand for SBR, as well as differences in opinions as to who would benefit from SBR. The findings indicate that there is a gap in expectations as to who should drive the demand for SBR. While the software developer community, reporting practitioners and businesses expect the government to actively drive the demand for SBR through targeted promotion, marketing and educational campaigns, the participating government agencies perceive themselves as responsible only for delivering the required IT solution. The Report also indicates a lack of conviction and consensus about the expected benefits and beneficiaries of SBR that, in turn, hinders the take-up of SBR among its potential users. The findings show that neither the reporting practitioners nor businesses are entirely convinced about SBR’s ability to reduce their reporting burdens. About 50 per cent of businesses who used SBR to lodge their reports to the government have not observed any reduction in their reporting costs and only 10 per cent of respondents who used SBR to lodge their reports observed some reduction of their reporting costs. This reduction was estimated to be about 15 per cent of their reporting costs. At the same time 80 per cent of the respondents who had not observed any reduction in their reporting costs as a result of using SBR thus far were of the opinion that in the future, when the number of forms included in SBR increases, SBR will help them to reduce their reporting costs. The research project also explored the perceptions of businesses about their current levels of regulatory, tax compliance and reporting burdens. The Report shows that businesses are frequently required to deal with many government regulations (and tax regulations in particular), and in the year ended 30 June 2011 spent $131,700 on average to comply with their tax regulations. While businesses perceive their current levels of tax compliance costs as average when compared with costs of complying with other non-tax regulations (on average about 23 per cent of their total costs of complying with government regulations), most businesses consider tax reporting obligations imposed on them by the government as either significant or very significant (on average about 31 per cent of their total costs of complying with government regulations).