Follow By Email Gadget

I've added a new gadget to this blog to allow you to follow it via email. Simply enter your email address in the Follow by email box & click the submit button. You'll be sent a confirmation email with a link which you must click on to activiate your subscription. Then you'll receive an email each time I add a new post to the blog.

New Report on Children Living in Kinship Care in the UK

A major study 'Spotlight on Kinship Care' (16 June 2011), has been published by Dr Shailen Nandy and Dr Julie Selwyn, and the children's charity Buttle UK. It reveals for the first time the number of children being brought up by a relative instead of their mother or father. The study was funded by the BIG Lottery.

Dr Julie Selwyn, said, "This study shows the level of poverty and disadvantage in kinship families. This information will provide a much better basis for planning policy and services than anything previously. If the government is going to meet its targets to reduce child poverty, children in kinship care need to be recognised as a group with specific and considerable needs."

Sir Mark Potter, former Head of Family Justice and Chair of the Research Steering Group said, "This is a very important piece of groundbreaking research. It identities and provides basic and essential information in relation to a large group of children of whom far too little is known within the field of child care and who generally do not receive the support which they need and deserve. I hope it will provide much needed impetus for action to improve their circumstances and their chances in adult life."

The executive summary of the report may be read here: Executive Summary
The full version of the report may be read here: Full Report

Crimesolutions.gov website launched

The U.S. Justice Department, Office of Justice Programs has just launched a new website: www.crimesolutions.gov - it aims to be a central, credible resource to inform practitioners and policymakers in the U.S. about what works in criminal justice, juvenile justice, and crime victim services. The site includes information on more than 150 justice-related programs and assigns "evidence ratings" – effective, promising, or no effects -- to indicate whether there is evidence from research that a program achieves its goals. Areas covered include: corrections; courts; crime prevention; substance abuse; juveniles; law enforcement; technology and forensics; and victims.

Reconviction & Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangements

New research by the Ministry of Justice shows that reconviction patterns by offenders subject to Multi-agency Public Protection Arrangments (MAPPA) had a lower rate of reconviction than those released prior to MAPPA implementation.

The full report can be downloaded here: Patterns of reconviction among offenders eligible for Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (PDF 0.11 mb)

Subscribing to this blog

If you subscribe to this blog you can automatically receive my new posts - without having to come directly to this webpage.

You can do this by signing up for any of the free news feed services on the web. Google Reader is my personal favourite. Simply sign up, create an account & you can begin adding your favourite blogs and websites. You can then view all new posts & updates in one place.

Alternatively, if you are using your own PC click on the Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) link at the bottom of this blog. This will add a bookmarklet to your toolbar.

Catalogue Plug-in for Firefox & Internet Explorer

By installing the Library Catlogue plug-in (available here: http://libx.org/editions/A4/AC/A4ACB454/libx.html) you can access the Library's resources directly - as long as you are using either Firefox OR Internet Explorer as your browser.

• Directly link to any electronic journal articles subscribed to by your library when using Google Scholar.



• Cues to resources related to the pages you visit owned by your library wherever you see the UoB symbol.



• Search the Library Catalogue directly from your toolbar.

Google Chrome & Ebscohost

Ebscohost databases DO NOT work properly if you use the Google Chrome browser. At first the page looks fine but various buttons do not do what they should. Use one of the following browsers to get full functionality from Ebscohost:

• Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
• Mozilla Firefox 3.0 or later
• Safari 3.0 or later

Social Work Dissertation Workshops At Bedford, Polhill

Need some help with your Social Work dissertation? Why not come along to one of our optional dissertation workshops aimed especially at undergraduates. All workshops will take place at Bedford, Polhill Library in IT Training Suite 1 (top floor) & last one hour. Just turn up; there's no need to book.

• Monday June 13th, 10.00-11.00 am - Researching Your Dissertation
• Monday June 20th, 10.00-11.00 am - RefWorks
• Monday June 27th, 10.00-11.00 am - Word processing Your Dissertation With Microsoft Word
• Monday July 4th, 10.00-11.00 am - Researching Your Dissertation
• Monday July 11th, 10.00-11.00 am - RefWorks