Contextualising Youth Justice Interventions: Making the Case for Realist Synthesis

This article examines the problematic reductionism and decontextualising nature of hegemonic youth justice intervention evaluation and offers a way ahead for a realistic, context-sensitive approach to intervention evaluation in the youth justice field. It opens by considering how the development of risk-based youth justice interventions in England and Wales flowed from and fed into the modernisation and resultant partiality of the ‘evidence-base’, which shaped youth justice practice. It then moves to a critical review of the emergence and continued influence of risk-based interventions and the ‘What Works’ intervention evaluation framework in youth justice. In the closing discussion, this article envisages the potential of taking a realist approach to the evaluation of youth justice interventions to mitigate the limitations of current approaches to intervention selection and the evaluation of their ‘effectiveness’.

Transformational Change in maternity services in England: a longitudinal qualitative study of a national transformation programme ‘Early Adopter’

Background Large system transformation in health systems is designed to improve quality, outcomes and efficiency. Using empirical data from a longitudinal study of national policy-driven transformation of maternity services in England, we explore the utility of theory-based rules regarding ‘what works’ in large system transformation. Methods A longitudinal, qualitative case study was undertaken in a large diverse urban setting involving multiple hospital trusts, local authorities and other key stakeholders. Data was gathered using interviews, focus groups, non-participant observation, and a review of key documents in three phases between 2017 and 2019. The transcripts of the individual and focus group interviews were analysed thematically, using a combined inductive and deductive approach drawing on simple rules for large system transformation derived from evidence synthesis and the findings are reported in this paper. Results Alignment of transformation work with Best et al’s rules for ‘what works’ in large system transformation varied. Interactions between the rules were identified, indicating that the drivers of large system transformation are interdependent. Key challenges included the pace and scale of change that national policy required, complexity of the existing context, a lack of statutory status for the new ‘system’ limiting system leaders’ power and authority, and concurrent implementation of a new overarching system alongside multifaceted service change. Conclusions Objectives and timescales of transformation policy and plans should be realistic, flexible, responsive to feedback, and account for context. Drivers of large system transformation appear to be interdependent and synergistic. Transformation is likely to be more challenging in recently established systems where the basis of authority is not yet clearly established.

What Determines Vaccine Hesitancy: Recommendations from Childhood Vaccine Hesitancy to Address COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy

Vaccine hesitancy is a prevalent and ongoing issue. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, additional attention has been brought to the topic of vaccine hesitancy. Vaccine hesitancy is a threat to the population’s health globally. This article aims to acquire insights from previous literature to determine what works to increase vaccine uptake and how we can apply this knowledge to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Research has focused chiefly on childhood vaccination and the hesitancy of caregivers. After conducting an extensive literature review, we have created a conceptual model of indicators that influence vaccine uptake for health providers and caregivers, which can also be used for vaccine recipients. Overall, the reasons for vaccine hesitancy are complex; therefore, a multifaceted approach is needed to address it. Understanding the factors that affect vaccine hesitancy will aid in addressing hesitancy and, in turn, lead to an increase in vaccine uptake.

Addressing vaccine hesitancy: the LEARN approach

Immunization programs today stand at crossroads. Even as COVID vaccine campaigns continue, inequity, concerns and confusion around them seems ever expanding. While vaccine hesitancy in some form or the other has existed since the inception of vaccination, the complex and dynamic world that we live in now has resulted in hesitancy to vaccines become an outcome of myriad interactions that we encounter in our day to day lives. Factors extraneous to health systems are major determinants and it is essentially the culmination of economics, politics, science, and technology impacting human behaviors and emotions which result in a parent, family or a community arrive at the decision of whether to or not to vaccinate. Vaccine hesitancy is on the rise, it is becoming more organized and now is not just a problem of high- income countries. It is imperative that as public health advocates, academicians, policy makers, managers and implementers we recognize it and adopt a non-judgmental and non-partisan approach built on empathy, respect and trust and not just scientific knowledge and theorems to address it. The current paper puts forward a novel approach to address hesitancy, the LEARN approach: and advocates that we need to ‘Listen’ to the voices of concern, ‘Engage’ with all stakeholders, ‘Articulate’ and communicate better in a language which is simple and comprehensible, ‘Reflect’ on what works and what does not and at the same time ‘Negate’ events and episodes which dent confidence in science and promote complacency.

Agility in Software Development and Project Value

Agile Development Methods, considered as an alternative to the traditional plan-based methods, have received much attention since their inception. These practices have evolved and developed over time, culminating in 2001 with the Agile Manifesto. Since that time, preferred methodologies, implementations, and best practices have continued to evolve with a focus on doing what works best for the individual company or project. However, the concept of agility in software development has remained quite nebulous, lacking in clarity particularly about its underlying dimensions. In this research the authors conceive agility in terms of four distinct dimensions. Drawing from the theoretical perspective of holographic organization, they develop a model explaining how each of these underlying dimensions of agility contributes to project value in software teams. The authors test the model using survey data collected from industry practitioners and discuss findings.

Engaging Employees With Positivity

This chapter attempts to find the role of appreciative inquiry in employee engagement and organizational transformation. An attempt has been made to explain the impact of appreciative inquiry on employee engagement, which eventually helps in organizational transformation with minimal hindrances. Employee engagement has turned into an undeniably conspicuous issue in the region of organizational development (OD) likely because of the developing collection of research encompassing the positive connection between employee engagement and organizational development, which also comprises profit margin. Appreciative inquiry is a vision-based approach of open dialogue that is designed to help organizations and their partners create a shared vision for the future and a mission to operate in the present. The main thrust area of appreciative inquiry is to find out what works best for the organization. Instead of focusing on negativity, appreciative inquiry focuses on the positive aspect of the organization.