Unification Of Services Research Articles

Legacies of Change: Probation Staff Experiences of the Unification of Services in England and Wales

Legacies of Change: Probation Staff Experiences of the Unification of Services in England and Wales

Gender in a ‘caring’ profession: The demographic and cultural dynamics of the feminisation of the probation service in England and Wales

The number of women working in occupations that lay claim to professional status has increased markedly in recent decades, but the speed and extent of the ‘feminisation’ of the probation service in England and Wales render it unique. Such change has occurred against the backdrop of attempts to present the service in more ‘masculine’ terms, to increase punitiveness while maximising its efficiency. This article seeks to move explanations for feminisation beyond gender stereotypes about care work. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 38 members of staff from across the probation estate, and with particular regard to the unification of services, it explores the demographic and cultural dynamics of feminisation. The article argues that the sustained (and ongoing) devaluation of probation's professional project, pay and working conditions have impacted retention and recruitment in such a way that has filtered into the gender composition of the service.

Probation staff experiences of the unification of services in England and Wales

Probation staff experiences of the unification of services in England and Wales

Legacies of Change: Probation Staff Experiences of the Unification of Services in England and Wales

Abstract A discourse of professionalism has proved crucial to driving recent organizational restructurings of the probation service in England and Wales. The Coalition Government argued that bureaucratic, state provision of services had stifled probation practice—for which the introduction of market logic, via the 2014 Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms, would restore professional discretion. And yet, the detrimental impact of TR on practice meant that re-professionalization was an important objective of yet more restructuring. This paper explores probation staff experiences of organizational change, particularly since services were returned to the public sector, in June 2021, through three dominant modes of workplace organization around which change has been articulated: professionalism, the market and bureaucracy. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 38 members of staff, it argues that the exercise of professionalism in probation has been, and continues to be, shaped by a legacy of organizational change that is both bureaucratic and dependent upon market(-like) mechanisms. It contends that the ongoing impact of a ‘discursive battle’ between market and bureaucratic forces has further eroded professionalism in probation.

Why Research Should Pay Attention to Effects of Marketization of Addiction Treatment Systems.

Researchers generally assume that addiction treatment systems can be viewed as entities and planned with the citizens' best interests in mind. We argue that another steering principle, the market logic, has permeated many Western World treatment systems but is neglected in research. We demonstrate how it may affect system-level planning, service provision, and the service users. We draw on an ongoing Swedish study, with some Nordic references, using several data sources: (1) public statistics on treatment expenditures and purchases; (2) interviews with service users (n = 36) and their service providers (n = 23) on different market features; (3) an observation of a large public procurement process concluding framework agreements based on competitive tendering; (4) interviews with officials involved with steering of the system and procurement (n = 16); (5) a workshop on procurement in the Nordic countries (n = 11 participants); and (6) 77 interviews with professionals, managers, and elected representatives. We outline seven propositions that call for further research attention: public procurement, as regulated in the European Union, is not suitable for addiction treatment; marketization challenges democracy, equity, needs assessment, and treatment planning; marketization causes new accountability problems and idle monitoring; marketization causes fragmentation and obstructs coordination and continuity of care; marketization causes unification of services and favors big bureaucratically sophisticated providers; treatment professionals' values are downplayed when a mistrust-based market logic replaces a trust- and needs-based logic; and marketization marginalizes treatment professionals and service users by limiting discretion. Findings point toward the importance of acknowledging and mitigating market principles in treatment systems to safeguard needs assessments and planning that serve the interests of the service users and the public.

FEATURES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN THE CONTEXT OF ACCOUNTING STANDARDIZATION AND UNIVERSALIZATION OF THE REGULATORY MECHANISM FOR INTERNATIONAL TOURIST ACTIVITIES

Theoretical and applied principles of implementation of uniform requirements on all stages of the creation and implementation of tourist services, as guaranteed by international regulation and development of universal mechanisms to guarantee appropriate standards are considered in the article. A special attention is focused on the analysis of different approaches defining the quality of tourist services, information saturation and support. It is determined that an important aspect of institutional change is the improvement of the base, the supporting organization of the tourism market development, maintaining market equilibrium, the penetration of the national market to the international market of tourist services, the distribution of income between sectors of the economy, the mechanism of prevention of crisis phenomena. The result of these transformations will be the creation of a legal framework to increase the dynamics of tourism development, organization of cooperation strategies between consumers of tourism services, travel companies and agencies, balanced utilization of tourism services and tourism products, regulation of development and differentiation of income to balance the economic potential, given the internal and external risks in the formation and implementation of tourism services. The aim of this work is the study of institutional transformations in the sphere of international tourism activity based on the use of approaches for standardization and universalization of the tourist services, the use of information support of the tourism industry. Diversification of tourism services requires from international institutions development, implementation and maintenance of a safety management system. Methodology. The study is based on the assessment of international practice, which showed the development of various approaches to the standardization of tourist services, reference tools online that provide information about the property, infrastructure, scores of consumers. The key objectives of the institutional changes lie in the interaction between the various subject-object items, as consumers, tour operators and an outlined range of institutions are subjects of the international tourist market. A dualistic approach to their cooperation can be based on the transformation of institutions and the unity and integrity of the system are based on the differentiation of tools and tasks of market development of tourist services. Another vector of the transformation of the global crises and threats and internal risks, as the presence of certain institutions to monitor these crises and accounting indicators when coordinating the development of a strategy for the balanced development of the national market of tourist services is an important element of transformational change. The results have identified that a high level of standardization and unification of services in the field of international tourism and ensure consumers a unified approach to the formation of the qualitative characteristics of the services, regardless of the country of consumption is the basis of modern globalization processes of institutionalization of this sphere.

Ginecología: Aporte de 70 años de vida institucional de la Sociedad Peruana de Obstetricia y Ginecología

La Sociedad Peruana de Obstetricia y Ginecología (SPOG) ha desempeñado un importante papel en el desarrollo de la ginecología en el Perú, y ha contribuido de manera significativa en la unificación de la obstetricia y ginecología en los diferentes hospitales públicos del país, ya que antes los hospitales y servicios públicos brindaban atención o bien solo obstétrica o solo ginecológica. La SPOG, a través de la revista, congresos, cursos, simposios y mesas redondas, siempre ha dedicado sus mejores esfuerzos por poner los últimos avances de la ginecología al alcance de los médicos peruanos.

Stochastic MCDM Framework Over Converged Infrastructure

Service unification and application integration have brought about vendors, network operators, service providers, car- riers, businesses and infrastructures over a platform while offering the business plans, presenting solution packages, proposing virtualization strategies and outsourcing the resources whereas promising an all Internet Protocol (IP) setup. Diverse business goals from distinctive providers alongside the technology merger and service unification in addition to dynamic border traffic management issues introduce more complexity over such platforms. A decision-making frame- work for handling the border traffic management issues at private public network with multi homing support is presented. Augmented Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) theory addresses the qualitative entities while constructing the structural hierarchy of goals, criteria, sub criteria and alternatives. Inter/Intra-domain knowledge over different planes (service, control and transport) is modeled by using ontology. Blending ontology with Bayesian captures uncertainty over the planes. A simple use-case is presented over the test-bed to validate the proposed solution. The system offers higher throughput with lower call/session/request drop at the cost of an add-on delay.

Importance of Expert Central Review in the Diagnosis of Lymphoid Malignancies in a Regional Cancer Network

The accurate diagnosis of hematologic malignancies remains a challenging area for histopathologists. In 2003, the North Central London Lymphoma network was established to provide a centralized expert review service for general histopathologists based in peripheral nonspecialist hospitals. By studying samples sent for review, we sought to assess the diagnostic and clinical impact of centralized expert review in lymphoma diagnosis. A total of 1,949 patient samples were subject to expert review between 2003 and 2008. Diagnostic discordance rates were identified after expert review, and the impact on patient management was assessed by a hematologic oncology specialist. An overall discordance rate of 27.3% was identified. Among the 10 most commonly referred lymphoid malignancies, the discordance rate varied between 3.6% and 34.1%. A small but significant number of reactive (n = 17) and malignant (n = 5) discordant diagnoses were also identified. Expert central review resulted in a major change to patient management in 2.1% of patients and prevented delays in treatment in 9.3% of patients. During the 6-year study, the discordance rate improved significantly, decreasing from 32% to 13%. Although centralized review incurred additional costs, these were relatively small compared with the costs associated with treatment. This retrospective study demonstrates the importance of expert central review in the accurate diagnosis and timely management of lymphoid malignancies. Furthermore, it shows that where full centralization of services is not viable, a network comprising nonspecialist hospitals linked to a center providing expert review is a practical alternative to full unification of services at a single location and can help prevent local deskilling.

DGPS and RTK Positioning Using the Internet

The Internet as a basis for Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) and differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) service provides many advantages for worldwide GPS users. Among these advantages are service unification, open architecture, bidirectional communication, and scalability. The current development of this service allows users to use RTK and DGPS through the Internet with conventional accuracy over the short and medium baselines. The perspective for this service lies in the field of wide-area augmentation systems (WASS). At this stage of the Internet-based RTK and DGPS service project, the general concept, system components, draft standards, and software are developed. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Interdepartmental management in External Affairs

Abstract. This paper examines the interdepartmental role of the Department of External Affairs in the structures and processes of foreign policy planning and management. Possible use of American or British models by Canadian policymakers is considered. The functioning of the cabinet committee system has not been entirely predictable. Indicative planning does not appear to have been conspicuously less successful than in the United States or the United Kingdom. The interdepartmental committee on external relations has evolved from experimental innovation to low‐level routine. Support staff integration was originally intended to lead on to comprehensive foreign service unification, but resistance has caused indefinite postponement. Personnel exchanges between departments have not proceeded entirely reciprocally. The country program system has been reduced to a simpler, less ambitious format. Interdepartmental coordination requires some further clarification of responsibilities and greater conformity with existing directives. The perception that External Affairs is really a central agency is assessed. The paper concludes that, while many minor interdepartmental differences may be caused by inadequate coordination, cabinet does not always take clear decisions on conflicting departmental options.

To Fathom the Future

focal point for teaching, research, con tinuing education, setting of standards, and intellectual stimulation for personnel at every level and at every subdivision of occupations concerned with social service. He sees all professional schools as the bridge between university and rest of community, between basic and ap plied knowledge, between idea and its uses, and school of social work in particular as the catalyst in fusing worlds of research, teaching, and commu nity service [exerting] a powerful influence for unification of services to people.1 With this vision of a great, gleaming complex of Social Work Education Center of 1990's hanging like a mirage over horizon, let us talk now of present and future that lies just around corner. Later we will reach 1990. Certain decisions made in 1965 and 1966 by Board of Directors of Council on Social Work Education strongly support Dr. Gardner's predictions. The Council has arrived at a clear determination to extend