Differences Between Leadership and Management

Beckhard elaborates about what leadership is like, drawing the line between this and that of management. Leadership has to do with change, enthusiasm and encouragement for the tasks, and influence. These three vital traits, each one linked with a specific function for leaders include:1) The imagination to innovate:   To promote innovation, successful leaders assist in cultivating novel view, the ideas, paradigm, and applications of expertise that makes an organization distinct. 2) The professionalism to perform: Leaders offer personal and organizational capability, assisted by personnel preparation and education, to implement impeccably and dispense worth to ever more difficult and exacting customers. 3) The openness to work in partnership: Leaders create associations and linkages with partners who can enlarge the organization's contact, improve its contributions, or strengthen its systems. Since an organization is composed of people, this leader knows a lot about human nature so h e can appropriately anticipate and adjust to various personalities (Beckhard, R. 1969).Mulhauser, Greg. Management Skills and Leadership Skills. Accessed February 27,2008. Mulhauser argues that there is no delineation line between management and leadership and the skills pertinent to the issue. Anchored on the theoretical perspective of Carl Rogers especially on the latter’s concepts like Acceptance, Authenticity and Empathic Listening, the author explores the development of these characteristics well into the individual manager or leader’s style which springs essentially from the person’s character.The author believes that many of the theories set forth on any of these two issues are defective simply because the fact remains that there is simply no distinction as to when leadership starts and ends and where management plays its role in the picture. The author puts forth practical situations and strategies to apply the theory or concept as posited by Carl Rogers . This is an important resource because few theorists effectively can succinctly communicate what leadership and management concepts are and how they are better applied in specific settings.Sullivan, Eleanor and Phillip J. Decker. 2005. Effective Leadership and Nursing Management in Nursing, with Student Video (4th Edition). Authors Sullivan and Decker, wrote a very effective communication piece in the 2005 book Effective Leadership and Nursing Management in Nursing.   Although there is no argument whether leadership is vastly different from management, it carries with it the idea that the practical application of the skills comes in two important aspects and that they are indispensable as well as distinct and inseparable.The authors identified that organizations are designed in their specific arrangements as they function and these are pertinent in how the people working in their specific areas are handled and led. The book is a great resource when specific situations (i.e., staf fing and recruiting, coaching and disciplining as well as issues as handling conflict and the workplace stress) that are common in the field of nursing and health care especially where the unique challenges are being faced by both administration and management and frontline staff in this particular field.Jaques, E. (2002). Social Power and the CEO: Leadership and Trust in a sustainable free enterprise system. Westport, Connecticut: Quorum Books in McMorland, Judith. 2005. â€Å"Are you big enough for your jobs? Is your job big enough for you? Exploring levels of work organizations. University of Auckland Business Review. Vol. 7, No.2.According to Dr. Jacques, there is actually no difference between these two terminologies (leadership and management) in the prime values that Dr. Elliot Jacques placed on every part of the organization and as he postulated in his stratified systems theory. When he called for the individual responsibility, he meant that whether the person in the spotli ght may be the rank and file individual or he happens to be the plant manager, the type of leadership that is seen is expressive of this core value.Management then implies the adoption of accountability and this summarily implies leadership knowing as mentioned in the preceding pages on influence and exercise of power, when a person exercises accountability, he actually exerts leadership; leading by example and it is fundamentally ethical and transferable. Management and leadership are seen then, as interchangeable essentials, and according to Dr. Jacques, the existence and continuity as well as the perpetuation of a successful team depend much on the kind of leadership exemplified in the theory he posited.Bruffee, Kenneth A. Collaborative Learning: Higher Education, Interdependence,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1993.The author explains in prà ©cis the need for a more efficient, economical and equitab le management of the people in the industry or organization has never been as pronounced as it is today. This need has never been brought about by factors which inevitably affect not only the established structures and ways of doing things within the personnel area but also by the more meaningful and substantial task of managing the organization’s most important asset – the human capital. Among these factors are: stiffer competition in business; rapid changes in technological, competitive and economic environments; the explosion of technical and managerial knowledge; spiraling wage and benefits cost and so many others. These factors have no doubt been responsible for the emergence of the personnel function as a vital area in the implementation of corporate strategy.Demick, J. and Miller, P., Development in the Workplace, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Publishers, New Jersey, 1993.Demick and Miller places in context first what an organ ization is like and settles how it can affect behavior in general and when that is established, proceeded to explain leadership and management in this context. In organizational behavior which is basic to the management of human resource, it points to the inquiry and application of learning about how people, individuals, and groups perform, operate, and work in organizations. It accomplishes this by means of adopting a system approach. Explicitly, it infers people-organization affairs in terms of the entire person, group totality, complete organization, and total social structure. Its intention is to put up enhance relations by attaining human goals, organizational purposes, and social goals. In such a milieu, the goals to effect change are influenced by several significant factors which are crucial to the overall results. Hence, there are expected leadership behaviors that maintain momentum during the change process.

Grocery, Inc. Essay

Grocery, Inc. is a retail grocery store chain based in Any State; U.S.A. Grocery has stores throughout the United States. Grocery has written contracts with many different vendors to purchase the products they sell in their stores. Vendors range from individuals to international corporations. Tom works as the produce manager for the store in My Town, U.S.A. Jeff, 17 years old, is spending his summer vacation working for Tom in the produce department. A.) Does Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) apply to the contracts between Grocery and its vendors? Do common law contracts apply? Explain, in detail, why or why not. Your answer should compare and contrast common law contracts and UCC Article 2 contracts. Yes Article 2 of the UCC does apply to the contracts between Grocery and their vendors. Article 2 applies to all contracts for the sale of goods (2-102). The code contains a somewhat complicated definition of goods (2-105); the most important thing to understand is that the term goods means tangible personal property. Article 2 does not apply to contracts for the sale of real estate or stocks and bonds and other intangibles. The drafters of the code also tried to promote fair dealing and higher standards of behavior in the marketplace. They attempted to do this in several ways in Article 2. The Code imposes a duty on everyone making agreements under the Code to act in good faith (1-203). The Code also imposes certain standards of quality on sellers of goods as a matter of law. Common law contracts would also apply to the Grocery and their vendors, due to the mixture of goods and services. Common law would apply to the service element that is predominant in the contract with regards to the delivery of the goods. (Barnes, J). The difference between Article 2 and common law is that if the contract is for the sale of goods then Article 2 would apply, if it is not then the principles of common law under contracts would apply. Article 2 reflects an attitude about contracts that is fundamentally  different from that of the common law. The Code is more concerned with rewarding people’s legitimate expectations than with technical rules, so it is generally more flexible than traditional contract law. A court that applies the Code is more likely to find the parties had a contract than a court that applies contract law (2-204). In some cases, the Code gives less weight to technical requirements such as consideration than is the case in contract law. (Barnes, J). B.) Grocery contracted with Masterpiece Construction to renovate the store on Main Street in My Town. Masterpiece, unable to complete the renovation within the six month time limit due to a sudden increase in jobs, sub-contracted the entire job to build them to fall. Grocery was unaware of the sub-contract. When Grocery realized (due to poor quality of work) that Build, not Masterpiece, was handling the renovation, Grocery petitioned the court for an injunction and then sued Masterpiece for breech of contract and specific performance. Masterpiece argued that it had a right to delegate the duties of the contract, or in the alternative, to discharge the contract due to commercial impracticability. Who wins? Explain your answer. Based on the information provided by Grocery would win the case based on breech of contract and specific performance. Under breech of contract, promissory must perform their contractual duties in the manner they have promised to perform them. Since Masterpiece did not perform the duties in the manner in which they promised they are liable for breech of contract. The courts recognize that there are three basic degrees of performance: complete or satisfactory performance, substantial performance, and material breech of contract. (Barnes, J). A contract consists of both rights and duties. A contracting party has the duty to perform his or her own promise and the right to receive the other party’s promised performance. These rights and duties can usually be transferred to third persons. When rights under a contract are transferred, this is called assignment. The transfer of duties is called a delegation. Not all contracts are assignable  over the objection of the promissory. The promissory who delegates duties is still liable to the promise if the party to whom the duties were delegated fails to satisfactorily perform them. This would make Masterpiece liable for the quality of work that Build them to fall produced for Grocery. The only exception to this rule would have been if the parties had entered into a novation which is a new, separate agreement by the promisee to release the original promissory from liability in exchange for a third party’s agreement to assume the promisor’s duties. As for Masterpieces claim that they had a right to delegate the duties to Build them to Fall under commercial impracticability they would have to show that unforeseen conditions would have caused a delay or inability to make delivery of the goods (make performance impracticable), then they would have been able to claim commercial impracticability. In the absence of compelling circumstances, the courts do not readily excuse parties from their contractual obligations, particularly where it is clear that the parties anticipated a problem and sought to provide for it in the contract. Since Masterpiece had contracted to perform the work for Grocery and then had a sudden increase in jobs this would not be considered compelling circumstances for sub-contracting the job to a company that would perform a poor quality of work. C.) At the end of the summer, Jeff had earned enough money to put a down payment on a car. He decided to continue working part time during school to earn money for the car payments. Jeff purchased a car from Steve at the local used car lot. Steve did not ask Jeff how old he was; but assumed he had reached the age of majority. Jeff paid the down payment and signed the contract stating that he would make payments of $200 each month. Six months later Jeff lost his job and could no longer make the payments. Jeff took the car back to Steve and said he wanted to cancel the contract and that he wanted his money back. What are the possible outcomes? Explain your answers. Jeff was a minor at the time of the contract. Therefore, Jeff is considered not to have the capacity to enter into contracts. Steve made the deal in â€Å"good faith† that Jeff was old enough to enter into the contract.  Unfortunately, the contract is voidable. Jeff was correct that he could disaffirm the contract. And upon the disaffirmance, Jeff had to return the vehicle to Steve. Even though the right to disaffirm a contract was meant to protect minors, some states have rejected that idea because that view creates a hardship on the adult involved. Under the case of Dodson v. Shrader, 824 W.2d 545 Tenn. Sup. Ct. 1992), Steve would be allowed to recover the depreciation of the vehicle from the monies that Jeff has paid. Especially considering the fact that Jeff has had the vehicle for six months or more. The states defer on the idea that the minor needs to be reimburse the â€Å"innocent adult† for dealing with the minor. However, many times minors can pass as adults at approximately 14 years of age and up. Minors also get fake IDs to get things like buying beer. Therefore, by allowing the minor to get away with not paying the debt he or she willing entered or lied to the adult to sign a contract, is not in the best interest of society to allow the minor not to suffer the consequences. Therefore, holding the minor responsible for his or her actions is one way for the minor to learn responsibility. D.) Grocery has a written contract with Cereal, Inc. to purchase 20 cases of cereal per month at $22 per case. The contract does not state the types of cereal or how the 20 cases will be divided up between Grocery’s 20 stores in Any State. After a flood, Cereal suffers severe water damage in its warehouse. With the exception of Soggy Flakes, Cereal does not have enough undamaged cereal to comply with its Grocery contract. On the day delivery was due, Grocery receives 10 cases of Soggy Flakes at the three stores located in My Town and two stores in Your Town. Twelve days before delivery was due, Grocery had requested, by facsimile, that 15 cases containing a variety of cereals be delivered to the five stores listed above with the remaining five cases going to Grocery’s warehouse in Corp Town. Grocery wants to reject the shipments of Soggy Flakes and cancel its contract with Cereal. Discuss Grocery’s rights under contract law. Cereal argues that based on the gap-filling rule, it had the right to modify the terms of the  contract. Analyze the gap filling provisions of UCC Article 2 as they pertain to the terms of this contract. What rights and/or defenses, if any, does Cereal have under contract law? Analyze the remedies available to Grocery and/or Cereal. Explain all answers in detail. Grocery has the right to reject the shipment. Grocery has to notify Cereal that the shipment was not adequate and is being rejected pursuant to Article 2-602. The notice must be accomplished â€Å"within a reasonable time† and preferably in writing [Article 2-602]. Grocery has the right to reject the shipment and cancel the contract.. However, Cereal must notify Grocery that due to unforeseeable circumstances, the shipment will consist of Soggy Flakes and only ten cases of cereal will be delivered. Cereal must notify Grocery that Cereal intends to replace the shipment within a reasonable time (gap-filling rule). However, under the circumstances, Cereal may not know how long Cereal may be without the correct product. Furthermore, Cereal needs to decide what it wants Grocery to do with the product (whether to sell the product, destroy the product, or store the product for later pick-up). Grocery does not have to pay for return shipment. If Grocery feels that Cereal cannot meet the obligations incurred, Grocery can demand an assurance that the contract will be performed. If the assurance is not forthcoming within 30 days, then Grocery can repudiate the contract [Section 2-609]. If Grocery later decides the Cereal can meet the terms of the contract, Grocery can decide to continue wit the contract if Cereal can show that Cereal intends to meet the obligations of the contract. E.) Tom spent his time away from work on his hobby, model trains. His train set was very large and consisted of rare and one-of-a-kind trains. One day, while visiting with a fellow train hobbyist Harry, Tom said, â€Å"When I retire in two years from Grocery, I’m going to sell my trains and spend the rest of my years traveling on real trains.† Tom then told Harry that he was the only person he planned to offer his trains to because he knew Harry would take good care of them. Harry said he looked forward to the day when he could buy the trains. Harry then spent the next two years and most of his savings  building a new 2,000 sq. ft. room onto his house to make room for the trains. When Harry told Tom that he was building the new room, Tom just smiled. Tom also heard that Harry had borrowed money from his aunt to buy the trains. When Tom retired, he sold his trains to David. Harry sued Tom claiming breach of contract, or in the alternative, for promissory estoppels. Who wins? Explain your answer. Although Tom and Harry did not have a written contract about the purchase of the trains, they did have a verbal contract. Breach of contract is described as any failure to perform that is not excused (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, Langvardt, 2004). When Tom told Harry that Tom would sell his trains to Harry, Harry had the reasonable expectation that Harry would receive the trains. Harry then spent a large amount of money building an addition to his house in order to have room for the trains. Harry also had borrowed the money to purchase the trains from his aunt. â€Å"Promissory estoppel is an equitable doctrine that protects those who foreseeably and reasonably rely on the promises of others by enforcing such promises when enforcement is necessary to avoid injustice, even though one or more of the elements normally required for an enforceable agreement is absent† (Mallor, et al, 2004, glossary). In this case an injustice to Harry did exist because of the money he spent in building onto his house and expectation he had of receiving the trains. Harry wins the case based on the recognition of promissory estoppels in section 90 in the first Restatement of Contracts in 1932 (Mallor, et al, 2004, 338). The court would see the injustice to Harry by Tom failing to fulfill his promise to sell his trains to Harry. F.) Jason shipped a truckload of peaches from his orchard to Grocery using an independent trucker. In route, the truck broke down and the shipment was delayed three days. The peaches were spoiled when they arrived. The terms of the contract were F.O.B. Who bears the risk? Explain your answer. F.O.B. (Free on Board) means the seller is responsible to deliver the goods  free of expense and at his own risk to the designated place of delivery. In this case Jacob was responsible for the shipment until it reached Grocery. Grocery would be able to file a suit against Jason for damages. Jason would, however, be able to file a suit against the independent trucker for the damages to the peaches. This case is similar to the case in the textbook Windows, Inc. v. Jordan Panel Systems Corp. In this case, however, the term FOB is not used. The windows were to be properly packed and shipped, but were damaged due to load shift during transport. The buyer, Jordan, expected to receive the windows in good condition, ready to install. When the windows were delivered in bad condition, Jordon filed against the trucking company and did not pay Windows for the order. Jordan then ordered a duplicate order to be shipped that Jordan received with no problem. The error in this case was that Jordan did not pay Windows for either order and Windows had to file suit against Jordan in order to be paid for the shipments. Judgment was affirmed in favor of Windows. G.) Discuss the different warranties that apply to Grocery’s business. Explain your answer in detail. Grocery’s business operates under the implied warranty of merchantability. This warranty is one that the legal community has created, not one that is operating under a written or accepted contract. The warranty operates under UCC section 2-314(l) . Section UCC 20314(l) reads: â€Å"[A] warranty that the goods shall be merchantable is implied in a contract for their sale if the seller is a merchant with respect to goods of that kind. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers and Langvardt, 2007). Under this warranty, Grocery’s implied warranty is that the products sold will be useable for the purpose intended. Grocery would be held responsible for products like canned goods, meats, bakery items, and the like because Grocery is in the business of selling these goods. Section 2-314 states the products must meet the following criteria. (1)In the trade, the product must pass inspection without objection. (2)The product must be fit for the purpose for which the product wasintended;(3)The product must be of even kind, quantity (same size unit), and kind (like boxed cereal). (4)The product must be adequately packaged and labeled (must list things like the calories per serving). (5)The product must conform to the packaging and labeling regarding any promises or statements that may be stated (the cereal must be Rice Krispies and not Cheerios if the box is marked Rice Krispies). (6)If a product is perishable, the product must be of fair quality. If goods do not conform to the above standards, a consumer may pursue legal remedies. Goods that do not function as intended are not merchandisable and would not meet the above standards. Furthermore, Grocery would be responsible for the goods sold at the store, not for computer products since the normal business of Grocery would be for canned goods, bakery items, meats, and the like. H.) Supplier Inc., a large wholesaler, had a contract with Grocery. Supplier sued Grocery for breach of contract when Grocery failed to place an order for goods by a specific date as specified in the contract. Each order was worth at least $550. Grocery contended that the contract Bill Green signed was a standard preprinted supply contract without specifics regarding time of order and quantity. Green had authority to sign a standard supply contract, but could not authorize specific terms. This was unknown to Supplier. Supplier argued that terms were â€Å"boilerplate† and therefore could be modified by acceptance. Supplier offered oral testimony at trial to prove that Green agreed to the modifications. Is there a contract? If so, what are the terms? Explain your answer. 1. Yes, there is a contract. The contract that Green claims to be a standard  preprinted supply contract and Suppliers claim can be modified by acceptance. 2. The terms are that Grocery was supposed to purchase goods by a specific date. 3. Each order is worth at least $550. a.) Also, discuss the use of Suppliers oral testimony at trial. 1. The use of Suppliers oral testimony can go either way. Oral testimony can be very effective if Supplier can prove that what Supplier is saying is true. Oral testimony can also be detrimental to Supplier’s case if it is proven that Supplier is lying. 2. Presenting to the courts and the jury that the copy of the actual contract is always a good idea. It will be up to the courts to decide if the original contract stands or if it is void. References Edition e-text] Prentice-Hall Publishing. Retrieved August 25, 2005, from University of Phoenix, Resource BUS/415-Business Law Web Site:https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary/content/eReader. Mallor, J.P., Barnes, A.J., Bowers, T., & Langvardt, A.W. (2007). Business law: The ethical, global and e-commerce environment, 13e. The McGraw-Hill CompaniesUniversity of Phoenix. (Ed) (2005). Business Law [University of Phoenix Custom]

Of Mice and Men Question “Lennie’s big fingers fell to stroking her hair” Essay

The pathetic figure of Lennie seems to symbolise mankind in its search for love. Do you agree? How does Steinbeck treat this theme in Of Mice and Men? In the book, Of Mice and Men, Lennie an opposite extreme to George; George is quite smart but not very tall or exceptionally strong, Lennie on the other hand is extremely stupid and very tall with exceptional strength. The way Steinbeck writes about Lennie, the audience feels great pity for him; the dialogue is very basic and he has trouble remembering simple tasks like keeping silent. The way he speaks can be related to the same way a three year old speaks; Lennie has the same sort of mind as a three year and is pleased by the same things. He has an affinity to touch everything and that is how he came to be stroking the lady’s hair. The way Lennie acts, speaks and looks creates a strong sympathy for him in the readers mind and Steinbeck plays on this to give the overall plot of the story. The idea that Lennie symbolises mankind in its search for love is what I believe is not a very good theory. The main basis for this is because Lennie does not understand what love is and the idea that man’s job in life is to look for love does not appeal to me. I do not think that a man goes around looking for love but love finds him, George did not ask to be loved by Lennie or to even take him on, he was offered and he made a promise. The only way which I believe that a man looks for love is through what he enjoys doing. If you love playing football then you are in search of your chance to be a footballer, you are in search of your love. This is the only in which I think this theme works in Of Mice and Men. Lennie loves George in a way which he does not understand, but George has grown to love him through their escapades together. In Of Mice and Men, Steinbeck uses love in a lot of ways; one way is George’s love of his dream. George fantasizes about owning his own little cottage with land he can farm on, he loves his dream and wishes it to come true. Lennie loves all creatures be it mice or puppies, he adores them and just loves to pet them and stroke them like a toddler loves to touch anything it can lay it’s hands on. Candy loved his dog and spent all his time with it, Curley loves boxing and spends most of his time practicing with his fists, Curley’s wife loves acting and deeply regrets missing her chance. Love plays a great part in Of Mice and Men, but nothing is as strong as the love between Lenny and George, George only realises how much he loves Lennie when Lennie is under the death sentence. George risks his own life to save Lennie and he realises that he will thoroughly miss Lennie. The theme that man is in search of love is also incorporated into Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck’s pen. George is in search of his dream cottage and every possible way to get it, the cottage is his love and he would go to no extreme to reach it. Lennie’s love is of keeping a heard of rabbits, he is constantly referring to them in the book and would love to have them. However he is letting George pursue the search to get them for him because he is completely incapable of getting them himself. Crooks is in search of finding friends to sit and talk with or being accepted by the other men on the ranch. His love is gain friends and become one of the â€Å"gang† and be allowed to play cards with them in the bunkhouse. Curley is in search of becoming a boxer, he loves using his fists and he is searching for his chance to become a boxer again. Curley’s Wife is constantly searching for her chance to escape from Curley and become and actress, she loves acting so she is in search for a career in acting. The idea of searching for love is incorporated a lot into Of Mice and Men; every main character is in search of his or her love whether it be human, animal or even a career.

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Individual - Essay Example companies have been effectively developing talent management strategies and through rewarding candidates and providing them nurturing climate, they are nourishing talent. Another process that is considered central to employee motivation and workplace productivity is High Performance Workforce Practice (HPWP). HPWP is recognised as a bundle of practices that are very essential for holistic workplace environment, and for increasing effectiveness of employees. In the report of India government studies, the identified HPWP Practices include cross training and job rotation, multi-skilling, job enrichment, job enlargement, mentoring, systems of communication, performance rewards, flexible working, growth in discretion, peer review and 360 degree evaluation, knowledge management and sharing of learning resources, career coaching, self directed production and services teams and flexible job descriptions (India Gov). On the other hand, International Labour Organisation (ILO) has defined four main areas of HPWP including job design and employee involvement, communication and information sharing, support for learning skills and rewarding and acknowledging perfo rmance through rewarding and recognition (India gov, n.d.). Hiring the right people is very important for the organization and there is a strong relationship between HR involvements in internal branding. Moreover, human resources also play a significant role in incorporating brand into work activities. For creating strong organizational branding, companies are putting great focus towards talent management and HPWP. It means, talent management and HPWP are very significant, thereby, making human resources planning an important part of strategic planning. Human resources planning can be defined as â€Å"the process of anticipating and providing for the movement of people into, within, and out of an organization (Bohalnder and Snell, 2007). There are various techniques of human resources planning and many of them are very

Describe what set the Young, Middle and Old Guards apart from each Essay

Describe what set the Young, Middle and Old Guards apart from each other and from the Grand'Armee in general - Essay Example The Old Guards were the most prominent and were the creme de la creme of Napoleon’s infantry. In order to be admitted to this group, the aspirant should have at least 10 years of service, not exceeding 35 years of age, can read and write, with exemplary conduct, recognized for a brave act, and must at least have a height of 5’10 and 5’8 for grenadier and chasseur, respectively. Men who have received the Legion of Honor Award are admitted even without reaching the height marks. With this set of requirements, it is not surprising to learn that they were the battle-hardened veterans, the most bold, and the strongest amongst the guards. In fact, they were labeled as â€Å"The Grumblers,† â€Å"The Eagles,† â€Å"The Gaiter Straps,† or â€Å"The Supporters of the Usurper† (Yudice et al., French Guard n. pag). Another group is that of the Middle Guards, which was formed between 1806 and 1809. This group includes veterans with at least 6 years of service – the 3rd Grenadiers, the Amsterdam Veteran Company, corporals and privates of the 2nd Grenadiers, 2nd Chasseurs and Fusiliers, and the Velites of Florence and Turin (â€Å"The Young Guard in Action† 4). In 1811, after the disbandment of 1806 regiment units, this division was restored by admitting 500 men with 5 years of service along with 1,000 men coming from the battalions. The most notable account for Middle Guards was concerning their exceptional skills in artillery (Macready, qtd in Yudice et al., Napoleon’s Guard n. pag). Last of all three groups was the Young Guard, formed around 1809. This group was composed of â€Å"newly raised regiments† (Haythornthwaite 7), rigorously trained by Cadres who came from the Old Guards, as well as by the strongest and best educated Privates. The first trained regiments came out as strong and healthy men, as they flushed their martial air with their great stamina. Moreover, the Young Guards consisted of the best

Overview of Accounting Essay Example for Free

Overview of Accounting Essay The audiences of financial statements and managerial reports include the shareholders, employees, prospective employees, customers, suppliers, the government, the stock exchanges, investors, lenders and the public at large. What is important is that each audience has a different perspective in reading the financial statements and managerial reports. For example, a lender would like to know the leverage of the company, if it has the capacity to service debt and if the loans to the company would be well secured. There are several purposes served in preparing financial statements and managerial reports. The financial statements are designed to show its audience, the companies finances, that is how the company got its finances, what it was used for and where is it being currently used (Luecke, R. 2002). For this purpose there are four main financial statements that is the income statement, the cash flow statement, the balance sheet and the statement of shareholders equity. In general an income statement has the purpose of showing how much revenue a company earned in a period of time, the balance sheet shows the company’s assets, liabilities and shareholders equity, the cash flow statement shows the inflow and outflow of cash and the purpose of the statement of shareholders equity is to show changes in the ownership of company’s shareholders over a period of time. The nature of the income statement is in the form of a report that shows the costs and expenses that the businesses incurs in order to earn its revenue. It gives the net earnings of the company. The nature of balance is such that it provides point wise information about the assets, liabilities and shareholders equity. The nature of a businesses balance sheet is such that it is set up like the basic accounting equation. Usually on the left hand side the companies list the assets and on the right hand side they list their liabilities with the shareholders’ interest at the bottom. This arrangement differs from country to country. For instance, in some countries the assets are listed on the right hand side. However, the basic nature of the balance sheet remains the same. The nature of the cash flow statement is such that it can inform its audience if the business generated cash or not. The cash flow statement is a report that shows cash changes over time instead of exact currency amounts at a point in time. It simply uses and rearranges information from the balance sheet and income statement of the business. The most important report that is issued by the management of a company is the annual report (Stittle, J. 2003). The nature of this report is such that it has detailed financial and business information required by law of the country in which the company is registered, modern annual reports have impressive pictures and stories that eulogize the company’s performance in the past year. The information contained in this report can help the audience make informed and ethical decisions. In the USA the SEC requires that the audited annual report be sent to every shareholder at the end of the year. In this the management comments about the future. Form 10-K required to be filled in the USA ha more detailed financial information. The company’s financial performance is described in a section of the quarterly or annual report that is called â€Å"Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operation,† In this section of the Annual Report the management describes its own understanding of the financial condition of the company. The management in this section of the annual or quarterly report describes what it understands of the current financial condition of the business. It also gives its view of the relevant trends and challenges that the business faces. This allows the audience to see the financial condition of the business from the perspective of management and allows the audience to make informed and ethical decisions. In other words it provides the audiences the background that is required to study and understand the financial statements. Financial accounting information can be used in making informed and ethical business decisions. How? The income statement shows the earning per share, a calculation that tells you how much you as a shareholder would receive if the company distributed all its earnings. This allows you to make an invest/ non invest decision. Giving more information about the financial health of the company is the cash flow statement. It divides cash flow into flows from operating activities, investing activities and financing activities. This informs not only the investors but also the management, employees, suppliers and customers about the source of cash for the company and allows them to make better decisions. The footnotes of the reports give important information that helps make efficient and ethical decisions. The footnotes refer to stock options, pension plans, income taxes and important accounting policies and practices. For example, a company may be showing an inflated profit figure because its accounting practices have changed but reading the footnotes helps the audiences make better decisions and ethical decisions with regards to the company. To make ethical and informed decisions it is important to read between the lines of these reports. How is this accomplished? By doing ratio analysis! Commonly the ratios that are examined are debt-to-equity ratio, inventory turnover ratio, operating margin ratio, P/E ratio and working capital. Consider this, well before the Enron scam exploded; several investors were able to smell by examining the ratios that something was wrong with the company. They decided to sell off their stocks and avoided losses. To sum, the intention of the financial statements and management report is to inform the different stakeholders of a business. If these statements are carefully analyzed and understood they help these stakeholders make an informed and ethical decisions.

Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families

Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families The whole issue of parents and children in need is a vast, complex and ethically challenging one. This review is specifically charged with an examination of those issues which impinge upon the stresses and strains that are experienced by parents of children in need. A superficial examination of these issues that are involved in this particular area would suggest that there are a number of â€Å"sub-texts â€Å"which can all give rise to this particular situation. Firstly, to have child in need is clearly a stressful situation for any parent.(Meltzer H et al. 1999) This can clearly be purely a financial concern and a reflection of the fact that the whole family is in financial hardship, perhaps due to the economic situation or perhaps due to the actions of the parents themselves. Equally the need of the child can be a result of anon-financial need, so we should also consider the child who is in some way handicapped, ill, emotionally disturbed or perhaps in need in some other way. This produces another type of stress on the parent, and these stresses are typically longer lasting and, in general, less easily rectified than a purely financial consideration of need. (Hall D1996). It is part of the basic ethos of the welfare state that it should look after its less able and disadvantaged members. (Welsh Office 1997).Parents of children in need will often qualify in this definition. We shall therefore examine the various aspects of this problem. Literature Review Effectiveness of family support for children in homeless families We will make a start by considering one type of child in need. The first paper that we will consider is that of Prof. Vostanis (Vostanis2002), which looks at the mental health problems that are faced by deprived children and their families together with the effectiveness of the resources that are available to them. It is a well written and well researched paper, if rather complex and confusing in places. We will consider this paper in some detail as it provides an excellent overview of the whole area. The paper starts with a rather useful definition for our purposes. It qualifies the deprived child, initially in terms of a homeless family, that being : A family of any number of adults with dependent children who are statutorily accepted by local authorities (housing departments) in teak, and are usually accommodated for a brief period in voluntary agency, local authority or housing association hostels. This period of temporary accommodation can vary enormously depending on the time of year and the area considered, and can range from a few days to perhaps several months. The target in Greater London is currently storehouse homeless families within 4-6 weeks. In London particularly, the homeless families can be placed in Bed Breakfast accommodation.(D of H 1998) In this respect, the immediate family support mechanisms do appear tube in place. Vostranis however, goes on to make the observation that despite the fact that the definition of the homeless family is rather broad, it does not cover all of the potential children in need, as those children and their carers who have lost their homes but have managed to live with relatives, on the streets or perhaps live as travellers, are not covered by the statutory obligation to provide housing. The official figures therefore, he observes, are generally an underestimate of the true situation. The official figures for the homeless families are put (in this paper) at 140,000. (Vostanis Cumella, 1999) The authors give us further information in that many families will become homeless again within one year of rehousing and the typical family seen is the single mother and at least two children who are generally under the age of 11 yrs. They also observe that the typical father and adolescent child tend to be placed in homeless centres. (Doff H 1995) In exploration of the particular topic that we are considering, the authors give us the situations that typically have given rise to the degree of parental stress that may have led to the homelessness. They point to the fact that a homeless family is usually homeless for different reasons to the single homeless adult. Vostanis (et al 1997)is quoted as showing that 50% of the cases studied were homeless as direct result of domestic violence and 25% as a result of harassment from neighbours. The authors observe that the numbers in this category(and therefore the problems), are rising. (Welsh Office 1999). There are a number of section to this paper which are not directly referable to our considerations. We shall therefore direct our attention purely to those parts that have a direct bearing on the subject. One particularly useful and analytical part of the paper is the section that details the characteristics and needs of the target group. This is a very detailed section, but it makes the point that the children in need in this group are particularly heterogeneous, generally all with multiple and inter-related needs. Homelessness is seldom a one off event. This particular observation, (say the authors),is crucially important for the development and provision of services. Most families have histories of previous chronic adversities that constitute risk factors for both children and parents (Bassuk et al,1997). Such events include family conflict, violence and breakdown; limited or absent networks for family and social support; recurring moves; poverty; and unemployment. Mothers are more likely to have suffered abuse in their own childhood and adult life and children have increased rates of placement on the at-risk child protection register, because of neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse. If we specifically consider the health needs of this population, the authors categorise them thus: The children are more likely to have a history of low birthweight, anaemia, dental decay and delayed immunisations, to be of lower stature and have a greater degree of nutritional stress. They are also more likely to suffer accidents, injuries and burns. (BPA 1999) Some studies have found that child health problems increase with the duration of homelessness, although this finding is not consistent. Substantial proportion of homeless children have delayed development compared with the general population of children of a similar chronological age. This includes both specific developmental delays, such as in receptive and expressive language and visual, motor and reading skills, as well as general skills and educational status (Webbet al. 2001). It is for this reason specifically, that it has proved extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of the family support services because of the multivariate nature of the problems that are presented. The authors point to the fact that one of the prime determinants of the degree of support available, is the actual access that the families have to these services. Many sources (viz. Wilkinson R 1996), equate the poor health of the disadvantaged primarily with the lack of access to services. One immediate difficulty is the current registration system in the UK. In order to be seen in the primary healthcare team setting, one must be registered with a named doctor. In the majority of cases that we are dealing with here, they have moved area and registration is probably not high on their list of priorities. One can argue that there is the access to the A E departments of the local hospitals but there is virtually no continuity here and they arena geared up to provide anything other than immediate treatment. (HallD 1996). This fact restricts their access to primary healthcare team procedures such as immunisations and other preventative medicine health clinics.(Lissauer et al, 1993) . By the same token these groups also have restricted access to the social services, whether they be the access teams, the family teams or the family support units and other agencies. The authors also point to other more disruptive trends in this group such as an inability to attend a particular school for fear of being tracked by an abusive partner. It follows that these children do not have a stable social support of a school. They are denied such factors as peer groups, routines and challenges which are both important protective and developmental factors. (Shankleman J et al2000). The summation of all of these factors, and others, is that the effectiveness of the family support services is greatly reduced by the mobility and the transient nature of the family unit. Quite apart from the difficulties outlined above relating to the problems of access to avenues of help open to the child in need and their families there are the problems engendered by the fact that social service departments indifferent areas of the country may not have immediate access to the previous records giving rise to many potential, and real, problems with continuity of care. This problem is brought into more immediate focus when one considers the increased frequency of child protection registrations in this particular group. (Hall D et al 1998). One specific analysis of the family support services of this particular group comes in the form of the psychiatric services. In the context of the title of this piece, it demonstrates how these particular services,(but not these alone), are failing to deal with the totality of the problem. All of the aspects that we have outlined so far are conspiring to dilute the effectiveness of the services provided. The fact that they are a mobile population with no fixed address means that some of the services may choose to invoke this as a reason for not making provision for them, particularly if resources are stretched. If more resources are given, then they are typically preferentially targeted at the single adult homeless population where the need is arguably greater. The authors of this paper point to the fact that this may not actually be true as some studies have shown that homeless single mothers and their children have a 49% psychopathy rate and only an 11% contact with the support services. (Cumella et al, 1998). The impact of this fact on the children can only be imagined. To an extent however, it can be quantified as the authors cite other studies which show a 30% need rating for children, (they do not actually define exactly what their perceived level of need was), contrasted with a 3% contact rate for children and adolescents in this area. (viz. Power S et al. 1995). Suggestions for improvement Putting these considerations together, the authors outline a set of proposals which are designed to help improve the access to some of the essential services. The model that they propose could, if successful and with a degree of modification, prove suitable for adaptation to other areas of the family support services. It is not appropriate to discuss this model in detail, but suffice it to say that it has tiered structure so that the degree of distress and need is titrated against the degree of input generated. One of the reasons that we have selected this particular paper to present in this context is for its last section. It proposes a â€Å"family support services model† which has been developed and pioneered in the Leicester area. In the context of our review, it is worth considering in some detail. A service provided through a family support team (four family support assistants).This is designed to detect a range of problems at the time of crisis; manage a degree of mental health problems (behavioural and emotional); provide parenting-training; support and train housing(hostel) staff; co-ordinate the work of different agencies; and provide some continuity after rehousing by ensuring intake by appropriate local services. The family workers are based at the main hostel for homeless children and families. Other, predominantly voluntary, services have established alternative posts, such as advocates and key workers. Whatever the title of the post, it is essential that the post-holder has some experience and on-going training in mental health and child protection, so that he or she can hold a substantial case-load, rather than merely mediate between already limited services. The family support workers have direct access to the local child and adult mental health services, whose staff provide weekly outreach clinics. Their role is to work with the family support workers another agencies, assess selected children and families, and provide treatment for more severe problems or disorders such as depression, self-harm and PTSD. A weekly inter-agency liaison meeting at the main hostel is attended by a health visitor, representatives of the local domestic violence service and Sure Start, There are also close, regular links with education welfare and social services. The aim is to effectively utilise specialist skills by discussing family situations from all perspectives at the liaison meeting. A bimonthly steering group, led by the housing department, involves senior managers representing these agencies, as well as the education and social services departments and the voluntary sector, and they oversee and co-ordinate the service. This appears to be something of an exemplar in relation to services provided elsewhere. The paper does not provide any element of costing sin this area neither does it provide any figures in relation to its success rates, contact rates or overall effectiveness. In conclusion this paper is an extremely well written and authoritative overview of the situation relating to the stresses of the homeless parent with children and the effectiveness (or lack of it) in its ability to reduce the stresses experienced by the homeless children in need and their parents. It proposes remedies but sadly it does not evaluate the effectiveness of those remedies. The effectiveness of the support services on families of children with psychiatric morbidity In order to address these shortcomings we can consider another paper by Tickler (et al 2000). This looks at a similar outreach set up which has been designed to capture the families of children in need who might otherwise slip through the net. This paper is written from different perspective and specifically analyses the effectiveness of these services as they pertain to an entry cohort of 40 families. This particular study was set up after preliminary work was done in the Birmingham area with 114 homeless families and this study defined the needs of the families but did not quantify their support systems.(Vostanis et al 1998). This paper set out to identify and measure the support systems available and their effectiveness as far as the families were concerned. The stresses encountered were partly reflected by the incidence of psychiatric morbidity. The mothers in the group were found to have over 50% more morbidity than a matched control group. The children in the group were found to have â€Å"histories of abuse, living in care, being on the at-risk protection register, delayed communication and higher reported mental health problems.† Allot which adds to the general background stress levels. (Kerouac S etal. 1996). This particular study found that despite the psychiatric morbidity in the children, (estimated to be about 30%), and the psychiatric morbidity in the parents, (estimated at about 50%), only 3%of the children and 10% of the parents had had any significant contactor support from the social services. In this respect, this paper is very useful to our purpose as it quantifies the levels of intervention and access to healthcare resources that this particular group has. By any appreciation, it would be considered woefully inadequate in any society that calls itself civilised. In the terms of the title of this piece, the effectiveness of the family support services is minimal. Suggestions for improvement Like the last paper discussed, this one also considered how best to tackle the problem, and this one is of much greater value to us, as it specifies a response, or intervention, to the problem in much the same way as the Vostranis 2002 paper did, but it makes the same measurements as it did prior to the intervention, and therefore allows us an insight into the actual effectiveness of the intervention. The way this particular study worked was to assess the problem (as it has been presented above), devise an intervention strategy and then to measure its effect. This particular study goes to great lengths to actively involve all the appropriate agencies that could help the situation by having a central assessment station that acted as liaison between all of the other resources. In brief, it actively involved liaison with the following: Education, social services, child protection, local mental health services, voluntary and community organisations to facilitate there-integration of the family into the community, and particularly their engagement with local services following rehousing; and training of staff of homeless centres in the understanding, recognition and management of mental illness in children and parents. This is essential, as hostel staff often work in isolation and have little knowledge of the potential severity and consequences of mental health problems in children. It was hoped that, by doing this, it would maximise the impact that the limited resources had on reducing the levels of morbidity and stress in the families of the children in need. Results The post intervention results were, by any estimate, impressive considering the historical difficulty of working with this particular group (OHara M 1995). 40 families (including 122 children) were studied in detail. The paper gives a detailed breakdown of the ethnic and demographic breakdown of the group. By far the biggest group were single mothers and children (72%) The results showed that the majority of referrals were seen between1-3 times (55%), with a further 22% being seen 4-6 times. It is reflection of the difficulty in engaging this type of family in need that over 25% did not actually keep their appointments despite the obvious potential benefits that could have been utilised. The authors investigated this group further and ascertained that a common reason for nonattendance was the perception that the psychological welfare of the children was not actually the main concern. The families perceived that their primary needs were rehousing and financial stability. Other priorities identified were that physical health was a greater priority than mental health. The authors also identify another common failing in the social services provision, and that is the general lack of regular contact. They cite the situation where some families cope well initially, apparently glad to have escaped an abusive or violent home situation, but a prolonged stay in a hostel or temporary accommodation may soon precipitate a bout of depression in the parents and behavioural problems in the children of such parents. (Brooks RM et al 1998). They suggest that regular re-visiting of families who have been in temporary accommodation for any significant length of time should be mandatory. This paper takes a very practical overview by pointing out that workability of the system is, to a large extent, dependent on the goodwill of a number of committed professionals. The authors state that this has to be nurtured and they call for sufficient funding must be given to enable this particular model to be extended to a National level. Thus far in the review we have considered the effectiveness of the service provision in the support of the families of the children in need in one specific target grouping, those who are stressed by virtue of the fact that they are homeless. We will now consider the literature on a different kind of family stress, and that is when a parent dies. This leaves the children with a considerable amount of potential emotional â€Å"baggage† and the surviving parent with an enormous amount of stress. (Webb E 1998). Effectiveness of support services in the case of parental bereavement An excellent paper by Downey (et al 1999) tackles this particular problem with both sensitivity and also considerable rigour. It is a long and complex paper, but the overall aims and objectives are clear from the outset. The structure of the paper is a prospective case study which aims to assess whether the degree of distress suffered by a family during a time of bereavement is in any way linked to the degree of service provision that is utilised. The base line for this study is set out in its first two paragraphs. Parentally bereaved children and surviving parents showed a greater than predicted level of psychiatric morbidity. Boys had greater levels of demonstrable morbidity than did girls, but bereaved mothers showed more morbidity than did bereaved fathers. Children were more likely to show signs of behavioural disturbance when the surviving parent manifested some kind of psychiatric disorder. (Kranzler EM et al 1990). The authors point to the fact that their study shows that the service provision is statistically related to a number of (arguably unexpected[Fristad MA et al 1993]) factors namely: The age of the children and the manner of parental death. Children under 5 years of age were less likely to be offered services than older children even though their parents desired it. Children were significantly more likely to be offered services when the parent had committed suicide or when the death was expected. Children least likely to receive service support were those who were not in touch with services before parental death. Paradoxically the level of service provision was not found to be statistically significantly related to either the parental wishes or the degree of the psychiatric disturbance in either the parent orchid. (Sanchez L et al 1994) The service provision did have some statistical relationships but that was only found to be the manner of the parental death and the actual age of the child at the time. The authors therefore are able to identify a mismatch between the perceived need for support and the actual service provision made. Part of that mismatch is found to be due to the inability of the social services and other related agencies to take a dispassionate overview. Elsewhere in the paper the authors suggest that there are other factors that add to this inequality and they include lack of resources and a lack of specificity in identifying children at greatest risk.(Harrington R 1996) The authors examine other literature to back up their initial precept that bereaved children have greater levels of morbidity. They cite many other papers who have found distress manifesting in the form of â€Å"anxiety, depression, withdrawal, sleep disturbance, and aggression.†(Worden JW et al. 1996) and also psychological problems in later life(Harris T et al. 1996). In terms of study structure, the authors point to methodological problems with other papers in the area including a common failing of either having a standardised measure or no matched control group(Mohammed D et al 2003). They also point to the fact that this is probably the first UK study to investigate the subject using a properly representative sample and certainly the first to investigate whether service provision is actually related to the degree of the problems experienced. The entry cohort involved nearly 550 families with 94 having children in the target range (2-18). With certain exclusions (such as two families where one parent had murdered the other etc.) and no respondents, the final cohort was reduced to 45 families and one target child was randomly selected from each family. It has to be noted that the comparatively large number of on-respondents may have introduced a large element of bias, insofar as it is possible that the families most in need of support were those who were most distressed by the death of a family member and these could have been the very ones who chose not to participate. (Morton V et al2003) The authors make no comment on this particular fact. The authors should be commended for a particularly ingenious control measure for the children. They were matched by asking their schoolteacher to complete an inventory of disturbed behaviour on the next child in the school register after the target child. A large part of the paper is taken up with methodological issues which ( apart from the comments above) cannot be faulted. Results In terms of being children in need, 60% of children were found to have â€Å"significant behavioural abnormalities† with 28% having scores above the 95th centile. In terms of specific service support provision, 82% of parents identified a perceived need for support by virtue of the behaviour of their children. Only 49% of these actually received it in any degree. Perhaps the most surprising statistic to come out of this study waste fact that of the parents who were offered support 44% were in the group who asked for it and 56% were in the group who didn’t want it. The levels of support offered were independent of the degree of behavioural disturbance in the child. Suggestions for improvement As with the majority of papers that we have either presented here or read in preparation for this review, the authors call for a more rationally targeted approach to the utilisation of limited resources. The study also provides us with a very pertinent comment which many experienced healthcare professionals will empathise with, (Black D1996), and that is: Practitioners should also be aware that child disturbance may reflect undetected psychological distress in the surviving parent. While not suggesting that this is a reflection of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, the comment is a valid reflection of the fact that parental distress may be well hidden from people outside of the family and may only present as a manifestation of the child’s behaviour. (Feldman Met al. 1994) The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that there is considerable gap in the support offered ( quite apart form the effectiveness of that support) in this area of obvious stress for both parents and children. (Black D 1998). This study goes some way to quantifying the level of support actually given in these circumstances. Effectiveness of support in families where there is domestic violence We have considered the role of the effectiveness and indeed, even the existence, of adequate support services for the children in need and their parents in a number of different social circumstances. The next paper that we wish to present is an excellent review of the support that is given to another specific sub-group and that is women and children who suffer from domestic violence. Webb and her group (etal 2001) considered the problem in considerable (and commendable) depth The study itself had an entry cohort of nearly 150 children and their mothers who were resident in a number of hostels and women’s refuges that had been the victims of family violence at some stage in the recent past. The study subjected the cohort to a battery of tests designed to assess their physical, emotional and psychological health, and then quantified their access to, and support gained from, the primary healthcare teams and other social service-based support agencies. This study is presented in a long and sometimes difficult tread format. Much of the presentation is (understandably) taken up with statistical, ethical and methodological matters – all of which appear to be largely of excellent quality and the result of careful consideration. Results The results make for interesting and, (in the context of this review), very relevant reading. Perhaps one of the more original findings was that nearly 60% of the child health data held by the various refuges was factually incorrect. This clearly has grave implications for studies that base their evidence base on that data set(Berwick D 2005). Of great implication for the social services support mechanisms was the finding that 76% of the mothers in the study expressed concerns about the health of their children. Once they had left the refuge there was significant loss to the follow up systems as 15% were untraceable and25% returned to the home of the original perpetrator. The study documents the fact that this particular group had both high level of need for support and also a poor level of access to appropriate services. In the study conclusions, the authors make the pertinent comment that the time spent in the refuge offers a â€Å"window of opportunity† for the family support services to make contact and to review health and child developmental status. This is not a demographically small group. In the UK, over 35,000children and a parent, are recorded as passing through the refuges each year, with at least a similar number also being referred to other types of safe accommodation. Such measures are clearly not undertaken lightly with the average woman only entering a refuge after an average of 28separate assaults. One can only speculate at the long term effects that this can have on both the mother and the children. Suggestions for improvement In common with the other papers reviewed, this paper also calls for greater levels of support for the families concerned as, by inference, the current levels of effectiveness of the family support services is clearly inadequate. Conclusions This review has specifically presented a number of papers which have been chosen from a much larger number that have been accessed and assessed, because of the fact that each has a particularly important issue or factor in its construction or results. The issue that we have set out to evaluate is the effectiveness of the family support services which are specifically aimed at reducing the stress levels for the parents of children in need. Almost without exception, all of the papers that have been accessed (quite apart from those presented) have demonstrated the fact that the levels of support from the statutory bodies is â€Å"less than optimum† and in some cases it can only be described as â€Å"dire†. Another factor that is a common finding, is that, given the fact that any welfare system is, by its very nature, a rationed system, the provision of the services that are provided is seldom targeted at the groups that need it the most. One can cite the Tickler (et al 2000)and Downey (et al 1999) papers in particular as demonstrating that substantial proportion of the resources mobilised are actually being directed to groups that are either not requesting support or who demonstrably need it less than other sectors of the community. Some of the papers (actually a small proportion) make positive suggestions about the models for redirecting and targeting support. Sadly, the majority do little more than call for â€Å"more research to be done on the issue†. In overview, we would have to conclude that the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the family support services in reducing stress and poverty for the parents of children in need is poor at best and certainly capable of considerable improvement. References Bassuk, E., Buckner, J., Weiner, L., et al (1997) Homelessness in female-headed families: childhood and adult risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 241–248 1997 Berwick D 2005 Broadening the view of evidence-based medicine Qual. Saf. Health Care, Oct 2005; 14: 315 316. Black D. 1996 Childhood bereavement: distress and long term sequelae can be lessened by early intervention. BMJ 1996; 312: 1496 Black D. 1998 Coping with loss: bereavement in childhood. BMJ 1998; 316: 931-933 BPA 1999 British Paediatric Association. Outcome measures for child health. London: Royal College of Paediatric Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families Effectiveness of Support for Children in Homeless Families The whole issue of parents and children in need is a vast, complex and ethically challenging one. This review is specifically charged with an examination of those issues which impinge upon the stresses and strains that are experienced by parents of children in need. A superficial examination of these issues that are involved in this particular area would suggest that there are a number of â€Å"sub-texts â€Å"which can all give rise to this particular situation. Firstly, to have child in need is clearly a stressful situation for any parent.(Meltzer H et al. 1999) This can clearly be purely a financial concern and a reflection of the fact that the whole family is in financial hardship, perhaps due to the economic situation or perhaps due to the actions of the parents themselves. Equally the need of the child can be a result of anon-financial need, so we should also consider the child who is in some way handicapped, ill, emotionally disturbed or perhaps in need in some other way. This produces another type of stress on the parent, and these stresses are typically longer lasting and, in general, less easily rectified than a purely financial consideration of need. (Hall D1996). It is part of the basic ethos of the welfare state that it should look after its less able and disadvantaged members. (Welsh Office 1997).Parents of children in need will often qualify in this definition. We shall therefore examine the various aspects of this problem. Literature Review Effectiveness of family support for children in homeless families We will make a start by considering one type of child in need. The first paper that we will consider is that of Prof. Vostanis (Vostanis2002), which looks at the mental health problems that are faced by deprived children and their families together with the effectiveness of the resources that are available to them. It is a well written and well researched paper, if rather complex and confusing in places. We will consider this paper in some detail as it provides an excellent overview of the whole area. The paper starts with a rather useful definition for our purposes. It qualifies the deprived child, initially in terms of a homeless family, that being : A family of any number of adults with dependent children who are statutorily accepted by local authorities (housing departments) in teak, and are usually accommodated for a brief period in voluntary agency, local authority or housing association hostels. This period of temporary accommodation can vary enormously depending on the time of year and the area considered, and can range from a few days to perhaps several months. The target in Greater London is currently storehouse homeless families within 4-6 weeks. In London particularly, the homeless families can be placed in Bed Breakfast accommodation.(D of H 1998) In this respect, the immediate family support mechanisms do appear tube in place. Vostranis however, goes on to make the observation that despite the fact that the definition of the homeless family is rather broad, it does not cover all of the potential children in need, as those children and their carers who have lost their homes but have managed to live with relatives, on the streets or perhaps live as travellers, are not covered by the statutory obligation to provide housing. The official figures therefore, he observes, are generally an underestimate of the true situation. The official figures for the homeless families are put (in this paper) at 140,000. (Vostanis Cumella, 1999) The authors give us further information in that many families will become homeless again within one year of rehousing and the typical family seen is the single mother and at least two children who are generally under the age of 11 yrs. They also observe that the typical father and adolescent child tend to be placed in homeless centres. (Doff H 1995) In exploration of the particular topic that we are considering, the authors give us the situations that typically have given rise to the degree of parental stress that may have led to the homelessness. They point to the fact that a homeless family is usually homeless for different reasons to the single homeless adult. Vostanis (et al 1997)is quoted as showing that 50% of the cases studied were homeless as direct result of domestic violence and 25% as a result of harassment from neighbours. The authors observe that the numbers in this category(and therefore the problems), are rising. (Welsh Office 1999). There are a number of section to this paper which are not directly referable to our considerations. We shall therefore direct our attention purely to those parts that have a direct bearing on the subject. One particularly useful and analytical part of the paper is the section that details the characteristics and needs of the target group. This is a very detailed section, but it makes the point that the children in need in this group are particularly heterogeneous, generally all with multiple and inter-related needs. Homelessness is seldom a one off event. This particular observation, (say the authors),is crucially important for the development and provision of services. Most families have histories of previous chronic adversities that constitute risk factors for both children and parents (Bassuk et al,1997). Such events include family conflict, violence and breakdown; limited or absent networks for family and social support; recurring moves; poverty; and unemployment. Mothers are more likely to have suffered abuse in their own childhood and adult life and children have increased rates of placement on the at-risk child protection register, because of neglect, physical and/or sexual abuse. If we specifically consider the health needs of this population, the authors categorise them thus: The children are more likely to have a history of low birthweight, anaemia, dental decay and delayed immunisations, to be of lower stature and have a greater degree of nutritional stress. They are also more likely to suffer accidents, injuries and burns. (BPA 1999) Some studies have found that child health problems increase with the duration of homelessness, although this finding is not consistent. Substantial proportion of homeless children have delayed development compared with the general population of children of a similar chronological age. This includes both specific developmental delays, such as in receptive and expressive language and visual, motor and reading skills, as well as general skills and educational status (Webbet al. 2001). It is for this reason specifically, that it has proved extremely difficult to assess the effectiveness of the family support services because of the multivariate nature of the problems that are presented. The authors point to the fact that one of the prime determinants of the degree of support available, is the actual access that the families have to these services. Many sources (viz. Wilkinson R 1996), equate the poor health of the disadvantaged primarily with the lack of access to services. One immediate difficulty is the current registration system in the UK. In order to be seen in the primary healthcare team setting, one must be registered with a named doctor. In the majority of cases that we are dealing with here, they have moved area and registration is probably not high on their list of priorities. One can argue that there is the access to the A E departments of the local hospitals but there is virtually no continuity here and they arena geared up to provide anything other than immediate treatment. (HallD 1996). This fact restricts their access to primary healthcare team procedures such as immunisations and other preventative medicine health clinics.(Lissauer et al, 1993) . By the same token these groups also have restricted access to the social services, whether they be the access teams, the family teams or the family support units and other agencies. The authors also point to other more disruptive trends in this group such as an inability to attend a particular school for fear of being tracked by an abusive partner. It follows that these children do not have a stable social support of a school. They are denied such factors as peer groups, routines and challenges which are both important protective and developmental factors. (Shankleman J et al2000). The summation of all of these factors, and others, is that the effectiveness of the family support services is greatly reduced by the mobility and the transient nature of the family unit. Quite apart from the difficulties outlined above relating to the problems of access to avenues of help open to the child in need and their families there are the problems engendered by the fact that social service departments indifferent areas of the country may not have immediate access to the previous records giving rise to many potential, and real, problems with continuity of care. This problem is brought into more immediate focus when one considers the increased frequency of child protection registrations in this particular group. (Hall D et al 1998). One specific analysis of the family support services of this particular group comes in the form of the psychiatric services. In the context of the title of this piece, it demonstrates how these particular services,(but not these alone), are failing to deal with the totality of the problem. All of the aspects that we have outlined so far are conspiring to dilute the effectiveness of the services provided. The fact that they are a mobile population with no fixed address means that some of the services may choose to invoke this as a reason for not making provision for them, particularly if resources are stretched. If more resources are given, then they are typically preferentially targeted at the single adult homeless population where the need is arguably greater. The authors of this paper point to the fact that this may not actually be true as some studies have shown that homeless single mothers and their children have a 49% psychopathy rate and only an 11% contact with the support services. (Cumella et al, 1998). The impact of this fact on the children can only be imagined. To an extent however, it can be quantified as the authors cite other studies which show a 30% need rating for children, (they do not actually define exactly what their perceived level of need was), contrasted with a 3% contact rate for children and adolescents in this area. (viz. Power S et al. 1995). Suggestions for improvement Putting these considerations together, the authors outline a set of proposals which are designed to help improve the access to some of the essential services. The model that they propose could, if successful and with a degree of modification, prove suitable for adaptation to other areas of the family support services. It is not appropriate to discuss this model in detail, but suffice it to say that it has tiered structure so that the degree of distress and need is titrated against the degree of input generated. One of the reasons that we have selected this particular paper to present in this context is for its last section. It proposes a â€Å"family support services model† which has been developed and pioneered in the Leicester area. In the context of our review, it is worth considering in some detail. A service provided through a family support team (four family support assistants).This is designed to detect a range of problems at the time of crisis; manage a degree of mental health problems (behavioural and emotional); provide parenting-training; support and train housing(hostel) staff; co-ordinate the work of different agencies; and provide some continuity after rehousing by ensuring intake by appropriate local services. The family workers are based at the main hostel for homeless children and families. Other, predominantly voluntary, services have established alternative posts, such as advocates and key workers. Whatever the title of the post, it is essential that the post-holder has some experience and on-going training in mental health and child protection, so that he or she can hold a substantial case-load, rather than merely mediate between already limited services. The family support workers have direct access to the local child and adult mental health services, whose staff provide weekly outreach clinics. Their role is to work with the family support workers another agencies, assess selected children and families, and provide treatment for more severe problems or disorders such as depression, self-harm and PTSD. A weekly inter-agency liaison meeting at the main hostel is attended by a health visitor, representatives of the local domestic violence service and Sure Start, There are also close, regular links with education welfare and social services. The aim is to effectively utilise specialist skills by discussing family situations from all perspectives at the liaison meeting. A bimonthly steering group, led by the housing department, involves senior managers representing these agencies, as well as the education and social services departments and the voluntary sector, and they oversee and co-ordinate the service. This appears to be something of an exemplar in relation to services provided elsewhere. The paper does not provide any element of costing sin this area neither does it provide any figures in relation to its success rates, contact rates or overall effectiveness. In conclusion this paper is an extremely well written and authoritative overview of the situation relating to the stresses of the homeless parent with children and the effectiveness (or lack of it) in its ability to reduce the stresses experienced by the homeless children in need and their parents. It proposes remedies but sadly it does not evaluate the effectiveness of those remedies. The effectiveness of the support services on families of children with psychiatric morbidity In order to address these shortcomings we can consider another paper by Tickler (et al 2000). This looks at a similar outreach set up which has been designed to capture the families of children in need who might otherwise slip through the net. This paper is written from different perspective and specifically analyses the effectiveness of these services as they pertain to an entry cohort of 40 families. This particular study was set up after preliminary work was done in the Birmingham area with 114 homeless families and this study defined the needs of the families but did not quantify their support systems.(Vostanis et al 1998). This paper set out to identify and measure the support systems available and their effectiveness as far as the families were concerned. The stresses encountered were partly reflected by the incidence of psychiatric morbidity. The mothers in the group were found to have over 50% more morbidity than a matched control group. The children in the group were found to have â€Å"histories of abuse, living in care, being on the at-risk protection register, delayed communication and higher reported mental health problems.† Allot which adds to the general background stress levels. (Kerouac S etal. 1996). This particular study found that despite the psychiatric morbidity in the children, (estimated to be about 30%), and the psychiatric morbidity in the parents, (estimated at about 50%), only 3%of the children and 10% of the parents had had any significant contactor support from the social services. In this respect, this paper is very useful to our purpose as it quantifies the levels of intervention and access to healthcare resources that this particular group has. By any appreciation, it would be considered woefully inadequate in any society that calls itself civilised. In the terms of the title of this piece, the effectiveness of the family support services is minimal. Suggestions for improvement Like the last paper discussed, this one also considered how best to tackle the problem, and this one is of much greater value to us, as it specifies a response, or intervention, to the problem in much the same way as the Vostranis 2002 paper did, but it makes the same measurements as it did prior to the intervention, and therefore allows us an insight into the actual effectiveness of the intervention. The way this particular study worked was to assess the problem (as it has been presented above), devise an intervention strategy and then to measure its effect. This particular study goes to great lengths to actively involve all the appropriate agencies that could help the situation by having a central assessment station that acted as liaison between all of the other resources. In brief, it actively involved liaison with the following: Education, social services, child protection, local mental health services, voluntary and community organisations to facilitate there-integration of the family into the community, and particularly their engagement with local services following rehousing; and training of staff of homeless centres in the understanding, recognition and management of mental illness in children and parents. This is essential, as hostel staff often work in isolation and have little knowledge of the potential severity and consequences of mental health problems in children. It was hoped that, by doing this, it would maximise the impact that the limited resources had on reducing the levels of morbidity and stress in the families of the children in need. Results The post intervention results were, by any estimate, impressive considering the historical difficulty of working with this particular group (OHara M 1995). 40 families (including 122 children) were studied in detail. The paper gives a detailed breakdown of the ethnic and demographic breakdown of the group. By far the biggest group were single mothers and children (72%) The results showed that the majority of referrals were seen between1-3 times (55%), with a further 22% being seen 4-6 times. It is reflection of the difficulty in engaging this type of family in need that over 25% did not actually keep their appointments despite the obvious potential benefits that could have been utilised. The authors investigated this group further and ascertained that a common reason for nonattendance was the perception that the psychological welfare of the children was not actually the main concern. The families perceived that their primary needs were rehousing and financial stability. Other priorities identified were that physical health was a greater priority than mental health. The authors also identify another common failing in the social services provision, and that is the general lack of regular contact. They cite the situation where some families cope well initially, apparently glad to have escaped an abusive or violent home situation, but a prolonged stay in a hostel or temporary accommodation may soon precipitate a bout of depression in the parents and behavioural problems in the children of such parents. (Brooks RM et al 1998). They suggest that regular re-visiting of families who have been in temporary accommodation for any significant length of time should be mandatory. This paper takes a very practical overview by pointing out that workability of the system is, to a large extent, dependent on the goodwill of a number of committed professionals. The authors state that this has to be nurtured and they call for sufficient funding must be given to enable this particular model to be extended to a National level. Thus far in the review we have considered the effectiveness of the service provision in the support of the families of the children in need in one specific target grouping, those who are stressed by virtue of the fact that they are homeless. We will now consider the literature on a different kind of family stress, and that is when a parent dies. This leaves the children with a considerable amount of potential emotional â€Å"baggage† and the surviving parent with an enormous amount of stress. (Webb E 1998). Effectiveness of support services in the case of parental bereavement An excellent paper by Downey (et al 1999) tackles this particular problem with both sensitivity and also considerable rigour. It is a long and complex paper, but the overall aims and objectives are clear from the outset. The structure of the paper is a prospective case study which aims to assess whether the degree of distress suffered by a family during a time of bereavement is in any way linked to the degree of service provision that is utilised. The base line for this study is set out in its first two paragraphs. Parentally bereaved children and surviving parents showed a greater than predicted level of psychiatric morbidity. Boys had greater levels of demonstrable morbidity than did girls, but bereaved mothers showed more morbidity than did bereaved fathers. Children were more likely to show signs of behavioural disturbance when the surviving parent manifested some kind of psychiatric disorder. (Kranzler EM et al 1990). The authors point to the fact that their study shows that the service provision is statistically related to a number of (arguably unexpected[Fristad MA et al 1993]) factors namely: The age of the children and the manner of parental death. Children under 5 years of age were less likely to be offered services than older children even though their parents desired it. Children were significantly more likely to be offered services when the parent had committed suicide or when the death was expected. Children least likely to receive service support were those who were not in touch with services before parental death. Paradoxically the level of service provision was not found to be statistically significantly related to either the parental wishes or the degree of the psychiatric disturbance in either the parent orchid. (Sanchez L et al 1994) The service provision did have some statistical relationships but that was only found to be the manner of the parental death and the actual age of the child at the time. The authors therefore are able to identify a mismatch between the perceived need for support and the actual service provision made. Part of that mismatch is found to be due to the inability of the social services and other related agencies to take a dispassionate overview. Elsewhere in the paper the authors suggest that there are other factors that add to this inequality and they include lack of resources and a lack of specificity in identifying children at greatest risk.(Harrington R 1996) The authors examine other literature to back up their initial precept that bereaved children have greater levels of morbidity. They cite many other papers who have found distress manifesting in the form of â€Å"anxiety, depression, withdrawal, sleep disturbance, and aggression.†(Worden JW et al. 1996) and also psychological problems in later life(Harris T et al. 1996). In terms of study structure, the authors point to methodological problems with other papers in the area including a common failing of either having a standardised measure or no matched control group(Mohammed D et al 2003). They also point to the fact that this is probably the first UK study to investigate the subject using a properly representative sample and certainly the first to investigate whether service provision is actually related to the degree of the problems experienced. The entry cohort involved nearly 550 families with 94 having children in the target range (2-18). With certain exclusions (such as two families where one parent had murdered the other etc.) and no respondents, the final cohort was reduced to 45 families and one target child was randomly selected from each family. It has to be noted that the comparatively large number of on-respondents may have introduced a large element of bias, insofar as it is possible that the families most in need of support were those who were most distressed by the death of a family member and these could have been the very ones who chose not to participate. (Morton V et al2003) The authors make no comment on this particular fact. The authors should be commended for a particularly ingenious control measure for the children. They were matched by asking their schoolteacher to complete an inventory of disturbed behaviour on the next child in the school register after the target child. A large part of the paper is taken up with methodological issues which ( apart from the comments above) cannot be faulted. Results In terms of being children in need, 60% of children were found to have â€Å"significant behavioural abnormalities† with 28% having scores above the 95th centile. In terms of specific service support provision, 82% of parents identified a perceived need for support by virtue of the behaviour of their children. Only 49% of these actually received it in any degree. Perhaps the most surprising statistic to come out of this study waste fact that of the parents who were offered support 44% were in the group who asked for it and 56% were in the group who didn’t want it. The levels of support offered were independent of the degree of behavioural disturbance in the child. Suggestions for improvement As with the majority of papers that we have either presented here or read in preparation for this review, the authors call for a more rationally targeted approach to the utilisation of limited resources. The study also provides us with a very pertinent comment which many experienced healthcare professionals will empathise with, (Black D1996), and that is: Practitioners should also be aware that child disturbance may reflect undetected psychological distress in the surviving parent. While not suggesting that this is a reflection of Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, the comment is a valid reflection of the fact that parental distress may be well hidden from people outside of the family and may only present as a manifestation of the child’s behaviour. (Feldman Met al. 1994) The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that there is considerable gap in the support offered ( quite apart form the effectiveness of that support) in this area of obvious stress for both parents and children. (Black D 1998). This study goes some way to quantifying the level of support actually given in these circumstances. Effectiveness of support in families where there is domestic violence We have considered the role of the effectiveness and indeed, even the existence, of adequate support services for the children in need and their parents in a number of different social circumstances. The next paper that we wish to present is an excellent review of the support that is given to another specific sub-group and that is women and children who suffer from domestic violence. Webb and her group (etal 2001) considered the problem in considerable (and commendable) depth The study itself had an entry cohort of nearly 150 children and their mothers who were resident in a number of hostels and women’s refuges that had been the victims of family violence at some stage in the recent past. The study subjected the cohort to a battery of tests designed to assess their physical, emotional and psychological health, and then quantified their access to, and support gained from, the primary healthcare teams and other social service-based support agencies. This study is presented in a long and sometimes difficult tread format. Much of the presentation is (understandably) taken up with statistical, ethical and methodological matters – all of which appear to be largely of excellent quality and the result of careful consideration. Results The results make for interesting and, (in the context of this review), very relevant reading. Perhaps one of the more original findings was that nearly 60% of the child health data held by the various refuges was factually incorrect. This clearly has grave implications for studies that base their evidence base on that data set(Berwick D 2005). Of great implication for the social services support mechanisms was the finding that 76% of the mothers in the study expressed concerns about the health of their children. Once they had left the refuge there was significant loss to the follow up systems as 15% were untraceable and25% returned to the home of the original perpetrator. The study documents the fact that this particular group had both high level of need for support and also a poor level of access to appropriate services. In the study conclusions, the authors make the pertinent comment that the time spent in the refuge offers a â€Å"window of opportunity† for the family support services to make contact and to review health and child developmental status. This is not a demographically small group. In the UK, over 35,000children and a parent, are recorded as passing through the refuges each year, with at least a similar number also being referred to other types of safe accommodation. Such measures are clearly not undertaken lightly with the average woman only entering a refuge after an average of 28separate assaults. One can only speculate at the long term effects that this can have on both the mother and the children. Suggestions for improvement In common with the other papers reviewed, this paper also calls for greater levels of support for the families concerned as, by inference, the current levels of effectiveness of the family support services is clearly inadequate. Conclusions This review has specifically presented a number of papers which have been chosen from a much larger number that have been accessed and assessed, because of the fact that each has a particularly important issue or factor in its construction or results. The issue that we have set out to evaluate is the effectiveness of the family support services which are specifically aimed at reducing the stress levels for the parents of children in need. Almost without exception, all of the papers that have been accessed (quite apart from those presented) have demonstrated the fact that the levels of support from the statutory bodies is â€Å"less than optimum† and in some cases it can only be described as â€Å"dire†. Another factor that is a common finding, is that, given the fact that any welfare system is, by its very nature, a rationed system, the provision of the services that are provided is seldom targeted at the groups that need it the most. One can cite the Tickler (et al 2000)and Downey (et al 1999) papers in particular as demonstrating that substantial proportion of the resources mobilised are actually being directed to groups that are either not requesting support or who demonstrably need it less than other sectors of the community. Some of the papers (actually a small proportion) make positive suggestions about the models for redirecting and targeting support. Sadly, the majority do little more than call for â€Å"more research to be done on the issue†. In overview, we would have to conclude that the evidence suggests that the effectiveness of the family support services in reducing stress and poverty for the parents of children in need is poor at best and certainly capable of considerable improvement. References Bassuk, E., Buckner, J., Weiner, L., et al (1997) Homelessness in female-headed families: childhood and adult risk and protective factors. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 241–248 1997 Berwick D 2005 Broadening the view of evidence-based medicine Qual. Saf. Health Care, Oct 2005; 14: 315 316. Black D. 1996 Childhood bereavement: distress and long term sequelae can be lessened by early intervention. BMJ 1996; 312: 1496 Black D. 1998 Coping with loss: bereavement in childhood. BMJ 1998; 316: 931-933 BPA 1999 British Paediatric Association. Outcome measures for child health. London: Royal College of Paediatric