Gloucestershire County Council

Hannah Ellis, Emily Ellis and Peter Ellis discuss the ethics of safeguarding arising from the principles of healthcare ethics and consequentialism.

ABSTRACTBackgroundLocal authorities have a crucial role in preparing for the impacts of climate change. However, the extent to which health impacts are being prioritized and acted on is not well understood.MethodsWe investigated the role of public health in adapting to climate change through: (i) a content analysis of local authority climate change adaptation strategies in South West England and (ii) semi-structured telephone interviews with local authority public health consultants and sustainability officers and a regional Public Health England representative (n = 11).ResultsAdaptation strategies/plans varied in existence and scope. Public health consultants did not have an explicit remit for climate change adaptation, although related action often aligned with public health’s emergency planning functions. Key barriers to health-related adaptation were financial constraints, lack of leadership and limited public and professional awareness about health impacts.ConclusionsLocal authorities in South West England have differing approaches to tackling health impacts of climate change, and the prominence of public health arguments for adaptation varies. Improved public health intelligence, concise communications, targeted support, visible local and national leadership and clarity on economic costs and benefits of adaptation would be useful for local authorities in preparing for the health impacts of climate change.

Mobile technology is offering opportunities and challenges in the way library services are delivered, from changing customer behaviour to the new methods of service provision and content accessibility.Handheld devices now offer location features that fit well with mapping and location of stock.In its simplest form a mobile optimised website can put the power of the library catalogue or SMS alert directly into the customer's pocket.

Sounding rather more akin to a promotional release for the Tony Curtis/Kirk Douglas film The Vikings, Viking Quest is another BBC undertaking. From Julian Richards' latest offering, The Blood of the Vikings, this game centres on putting together a crew to undertake a raid on the monastery at Lindisfarne.

Breheny M. J., Green J. and Roberts A. J. (1981) A practical approach to the assessment of hypermarket impact, Reg. Studies 15, 459–474. Given the number of hypermarket and superstore inquiries that have taken place in Britain, it is surprising that no consistent method for assessing the impact of new stores has emerged. This paper puts forward a practical yet rigorous method which may be of interest to local authorities and retailers. The use of the approach in preparing evidence for a hypermarket inquiry in Gloucestershire, England, in 1979 is explained. A review of previous work on impact assessment is followed by a detailed step-by-step description of the Gloucestershire work. Conclusions are drawn concerning both the method and the decisions made in hypermarket inquiries.

An experimental training scheme, based on methods derived from the CRAMP system, was introduced for London Transport Underground guards. The existing training period and content were not altered. The objectives were to increase the pass rate and reduce the resignation rate of trainees during training, especially of both older men and those born overseas who are less likely to leave their jobs once they have passed the training period. Comparison of conventionally trained groups with experimental groups showed encouraging trends and the experimental scheme has now been adopted as the standard training programme by London Transport.