Increasingly, mental health social workers in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world are employing coercive interventions with clients. This paper explores this trend in the context of community-based settings, using national and international research literature on this subject. It begins with a discussion about the complex, contested nature of ideas on coercion. The authors then explore debates about how coercion is perceived and applied in practice. They choose two forms of coercion?informal types of leverage, and the legally mandated (...) use of Community Treatment Orders?to highlight the range of ethical problems and dilemmas that confront practitioners in this field. The authors conclude by developing a tentative, explanatory model to explain how and why mental health social workers should consider a more holistic, situated approach to help deal with ethical concerns about the use of coercion. (shrink)

Significant differences in perceptions between teachers in primary and secondary grant-maintained schools are reported and analysed. Parents were more frequently involved in promoting opting-out in primary schools, primary teachers had more favourable attitudes to the grant-maintained school policy and, in primary schools, grant-maintained status delivered improvements in classroom conditions, most notably reduced class size and increased para-professional support in classrooms. The findings are discussed in terms of the management of primary schools, of theorising about reputation management in grant-maintained schools, and (...) of the explicit objectives of the grant-maintained policy. It is further suggested that the evidence provided about grant-maintained primary schools could be used to inject new life into a policy faltering in secondary schools. (shrink)

Significant differences in perceptions between teachers in primary and secondary grant-maintained schools are reported and analysed. Parents were more frequently involved in promoting opting-out in primary schools, primary teachers had more favourable attitudes to the grant-maintained school policy and, in primary schools, grant-maintained status delivered improvements in classroom conditions, most notably reduced class size and increased para-professional support in classrooms. The findings are discussed in terms of the management of primary schools, of theorising about reputation management in grant-maintained schools, and (...) of the explicit objectives of the grant-maintained policy. It is further suggested that the evidence provided about grant-maintained primary schools could be used to inject new life into a policy faltering in secondary schools. (shrink)

Spring 2010Colleagues-As I hope you are aware, two major changes have occurred with the beginning of the 2010 SAAP membership cycle.First, the Society has ended its formal relationship with the Journal of Speculative Philosophy. This has been a good relationship for SAAP, resulting in the publication of the highlights of our annual meeting since 2003 and increasing the profile of the Society. I know that we are all grateful to the editors of JSP for these years of cooperative interaction, and (...) wish the journal well in the future. It is my personal hope that the members of SAAP will continue to support JSP with their contributions and subscriptions, so that it will remain an important journal for all of us working .. (shrink)