Somerset County Council Research Articles

The use of biodiversity data in spatial planning and impact assessment in Europe

This review identifies successful approaches to collating and using biodiversity data in spatial planning and impact assessment, the barriers to obtaining and using existing data sources, and the key data gaps that hinder effective implementation. The analysis is a contribution to the EU BON project funded by the European Commission FP7 research programme, which aimed to identify and pilot new approaches to overcome gaps in biodiversity data in conservation policy at European and national levels.The consideration of biodiversity in impact assessments and spatial planning requires spatially explicit biodiversity data of various types. Where spatial plans take account of biodiversity, there are opportunities through Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of development plans and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of individual development proposals to ensure that consented activities are consistent with no net loss of biodiversity or even a net gain, and help to maintain or develop coherent ecological networks. However, biodiversity components of SEAs and EIAs have often been found to be of insufficient quality due to the lack of data or the inadequate use of existing data.Key obstacles to providing access to biodiversity data include the need for data standardisation and data quality governance and systems, licensing approaches to increase data access, and lack of resources to target gaps in data coverage and to develop and advertise policy-relevant data products. Existing data platforms differ in the degree to which they successfully provide a service to spatial planners and impact assessment practitioners. Some local governments, for example Somerset County Council in the UK and the Bremen federal state in Germany, have invested in integrated data collection and management systems that now provide intensively used tools for spatial planning and impact assessment informed by local data collection and monitoring.The EU BON biodiversity data portal aims to provide a platform that is an access point to datasets relevant to essential biodiversity variables on species, habitats and ecosystems. The EU BON taxonomic backbone provides an integrated search function for species and taxa according to different classifications, and also provides a range of tools for data analysis and decision-support. This will increase the accessibility of the vast range of biodiversity data available in different sources and allow the targeting of future data collection to address current gaps.

The Taunton Project

This paper describes the palaeontological conservation carried out at the Natural History museum London, from 2008 until 2010, on the Taunton Museum's marine reptile collection. Taunton Museum is located in the county of Somerset and is governed by Somerset County Council. The collection of specimens encompassed ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and chelonia (turtles) all found in and around the Taunton and Somerset area. A few select specimens were conserved and prepared for wall mounting in the museum's new exhibition space. The other, smaller specimens were conserved and readied for placement into the newly built storage space back at Taunton Museum. This paper also focuses closely on the conservation and minor preparation of a large ichthyosaur, which was found in Lyme Regis (Lower Lias). This specimen was complete, though piecing it back together and stabilizing it for display proved much more challenging then one would expect.

Health and Safety, Trust and Confidence and Barber v Somerset County Council: Some Further Questions

Health and Safety, Trust and Confidence and Barber v Somerset County Council: Some Further Questions

Stress and the midwife

In 1994 the High Court held that an employer owed a duty to take reasonable care of the health and safety of the employee and this duty included mental health (Walker vs Northumberland County Council, 1994). Eighteen months ago we considered the law relating to stress and bullying in the context of staffing shortages in midwifery. Subsequently one of the cases discussed in the article, which was heard by the Court of Appeal (Hatton vs Sutherland; Barber vs Somerset County Council; Jones vs Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council; Baker vs Baker Refractories Ltd, 2002), went to the House of Lords and this article considers the implications of its decision.

Evaluation of the Integration of Health and Social Services in Somerset: Part 2 ‐ Lessons for Other Localities

In April 1999, Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council launched the first fully integrated adult mental health service in England, made up of a joint commissioning board and an integrated services provider. Between January 1999 and June 2001, the authors evaluated the implementation of the integration by investigating the impact of this initiative on service users, their carers, staff members at the new trust, and senior managers and members from health and social services. In this, the second part of the presentation of the results from the evaluation, the main themes relevant to the pursuance of integration in other localities will be drawn out and discussed in light of the literature currently available.

Evaluation of the Integration of Health and Social Services in Somerset: Part I — Final Results

In April 1999, Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council launched the first fully integrated mental health service in England. The authors have evaluated this innovation and have already reported on progress on two occasions in this journal. This article gives data and conclusions for the final stage. In the next issue of MCC themes which will be important to the pursuance of integration in other localities will be drawn from the results presented and discussed in light of the available literature.

The meanings of culture in health and social care: a case study of the combined Trust in Somerset

On the 1st of April 1999 Somerset Health Authority and Somerset County Council established a Joint Commissioning Board (JCB) to commission mental health services. Simultaneously, the Somerset Partnerships Health and Social Care NHS Trust was set-up as a combined health and social care services provider; for the first time in England, the majority of social services mental health staff transferred their employment to this Trust. The JCB commissioned an evaluation of the impact of these innovations on users and carers, staff and senior officers and members in the organisations concerned. In the course of the research, one concept frequently recurred as a source of both optimism and concern: 'culture'. However, the meanings attributed to this term varied significantly between stakeholders. After summarising the methodology and the results to date of the evaluation, this paper briefly reviews the conceptions of culture in the literature on organisations, and introduces a taxonomy for discussing culture. That taxonomy is then deployed to explore the ways in which the notion of 'culture' is being applied to and within the combined Trust in Somerset, and the implications of those applications for local practice and national policy around partnership.

Limiting Part-Timers' Rights:Biggs v Somerset County Council [1996] IRLR 203

<b>Limiting Part-Timers' Rights:</b><i>Biggs v Somerset County Council</i> [1996] IRLR 203

Thermoplastic pipework for gas and leachate extraction at landfill site

Somerset County Council's landfill site at Wellington, near Taunton, is making extensive use of thermoplastic pipework from Durapipe for extraction of methane landfill gas and leachate.

Michael Aston &amp; Ian Burrow (eds): The archaeology of Someset:a review to 1500 AD. Taunton: Somerset County Council, 1982. (Copies available from County Planning Dept., County Hall, Taunton). 154 pp., many illus. £5.25 + £1 postage.

Michael Aston &amp; Ian Burrow (eds): The archaeology of Someset:a review to 1500 AD. Taunton: Somerset County Council, 1982. (Copies available from County Planning Dept., County Hall, Taunton). 154 pp., many illus. £5.25 + £1 postage.

Social Work Teachers and Social Work Practice

Allan G. Brown took the Applied Social Studies Course at LSE and was a Probation Officer in Leeds from 1962 to 1967. Since then he has been a tutor in social work in the Extra-Mural Department at Bristol University. Christine Webb took a Social Science degree at Birmingham University followed by the Certificate in Applied Social Studies at Bristol University. She was a Child Care Officer and Family Caseworker with Somerset County Council from 1964 to 1969. Since 1969 she has been a tutor in social work at Bristol University.

BOOK REVIEWS

Abstract Book reviewed in this article: ‘Notulen Gehouden ter Vergadering der Staten van Holland in 1670 door Hans Bonte-mantel.’ Bewerkt en uitgegeven door Dr. C. G. Smit ‘Somerset County Council, County Records Committee. Book I. 1938. Inventory of Parochial Documents in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and the County of Somerset.’ Ed. J. E. King ‘Somerset County Council, County Records Committee. Pamphlet I, 1936. The Care and Preservation of County Records.’ ‘Work in progress 1938 in the modern humanities.’ Ed. James M. Osborn ‘We have also received’ Doctoral dissertations accepted by American Universities

BOOK REVIEWS

Journal Article BOOK REVIEWS Get access ‘Notulen Gehouden ter Vergadering der Staten van Holland in 1670 door Hans Bonte-mantel.’ Bewerkt en uitgegeven door Dr. Smit C. G.‘Somerset County Council, County Records Committee. Book I. 1938. Inventory of Parochial Documents in the Diocese of Bath and Wells and the County of Somerset.’ Ed. King J. E.‘Somerset County Council, County Records Committee. Pamphlet I, 1936. The Care and Preservation of County Records.’‘Work in progress 1938 in the modern humanities.’ Ed. Osborn James M.‘We have also received’ Doctoral dissertations accepted by American Universities Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, Volume 16, Issue 48, February 1939, Pages 188–190, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.1939.tb01527.x Published: 12 October 2007

Rural Education

THE Countess of Warwick and Prof. Meldola are entitled to all praise for their zeal in establishing the School of Science at Bigods, to which reference was made in your issue of October 5. There should, however, be some recognition of the similar work done by others in purely rural districts. At Bruton, a village in Somersetshire, the success of such a school has been quite phenomenal. Sexey's Trade School, as it is called, owes its inception to Mr. Henry Hobhouse, M.P., and was founded a few years ago out of the old endowments of Sexey's Hospital under a scheme of the Charity Commissioners, with aid from the Somerset County Council. Recently I had an opportunity of seeing the school, and could not sufficiently admire the excellence of what is done there. The buildings consist of a master's house, large schoolroom and lecture-rooms, well-equipped physics and chemical laboratories, wood and metal workshops, gymnasium, &c., with about two and a half acres of garden and playground attached. Besides instruction in the ordinary subjects of a higher primary or secondary school, the boys in the upper division (Classes II. to V.) are taught magnetism, electricity, chemistry, mechanics, manual work in cardboard, wood and metal, mensuration, French, botany and bookkeeping, and the instruction in technical subjects is throughout of a practical nature, being given in the garden, field, and workshops, as well as in the class-room. Outdoor lessons are given in land measuring. Visits are occasionally paid to farms in the neighbourhood to inspect the stock, implements, buildings and crops. Botanical walks are taken at intervals in order to study plants in their natural habits, and the boys are encouraged to make collections of botanical and other specimens.