Personalisation in cases of abuse and vulnerability

Personalisation in cases of abuse and vulnerability Personalisation is a new government strategy which has been set up to support service users who need support or care from adult social care. This policy is a new approach in supporting disabled people to enable them to lead more independent lives and exercise choice and control over the services they receive (Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2010). The overall aim is for service users to have control over how money is allocated to their care is spent, this includes direct payments, individual budgets, personal budgets, user led services, self directed support. As well as, support brokerage which would involve professionals from the wider fields of healthcare, including occupational therapists, and non professionals to provide advice and support for them (Mandelstam, 2010). A personal health budget will enable a service user to decide how to use the money that the National Health Service has allocated to them for their care needs. It could just be a discussion with a doctor or other health care professionals, such as a care manager about the different ways the money could be spent on a care plan, or alternatively patients will be able to receive a cash payment to allow them to buy the care which has been agreed in the plan themselves (Stobbs, 2010). The Department of Health (2007a) also state that this is a move away from the traditional welfare system to a more consumer type model of service provision which in turn will improve the quality of peoples lives. Although elements of this new policy are not legally defined, service users will be fully involved in accessing their own needs by having a personal budget by means of a direct payment, which in turn gives them control of the money. Lymbery (2010) argues that there appears to be little recognition of the complexities and contradictions which characterize some areas of the policy, as well as having in inadequate resources bases for adult social care. However, Dunning (2009) suggests that as the personalisation agenda advances the role of advocacy and support brokerage will be of increasing importance. However as Mandlestam (2010) argues that brokers need not be local authority employees or even professionals, which can place individuals at risk. If personalisation is to achieve its core aims, it will be essential that those accessing individual budgets can refer to sources of advice and support. Councils will also have to strike the right balance between giving people the freedom to choose their own care and protecting clients and their budgets from abuse. In addition, Mandelstam (2010) also believes that professionals will benefit from moving away from financial gate-keeping to that of brokerage and advocacy. Duffy Gillespie (2009) discuss in their report that there appears to be some conflict between personalisation and safeguarding. The conflict has arisen through people thinking that that the ideas linked to the term personalisation and those linked to the term safeguarding is that this conflict is more likely to be a deep misunderstanding about both ideas rather than conflict. They have identified these misunderstandings around personalisation and safeguarding as; the goal for personalisation is freedom from control, not safety; the practice of personalisation is less concerned with the reduction of risk; and the rules and systems required for personalisation will increase risk. Although Pitt (2010) states that safeguarding and personalisation are seen as two sides of the same coin. Also, they discuss the procedure with regard to the complex cases of vulnerability and abuse where careful risk management and person centred practice is required. Self-Directed Support is enshrined within the personalisation policy and states that before any individual receives any support services, six vital checks for risk are to be completed which are; First Contact, Assessment, Capacity Test, Support Planning, Plan Review and Sign-Off Outcome Review. As well as this, Self-directed support is very flexible and holds a number of tools which make it easier to solve complex cases. Resources are targeted at outcomes as this identifies the right level of funding applicable to the particular situation and needs of the individual. High quality planning; which commands that the social worker/occupational therapist identifies the best approach for the individual. Risk assessment; especially where abuse is suspected or criminal measures might become necessary, police may play an integral p art to the final decision on the balance of risk. Appropriate control,; self directed support puts control of the funding into the hands of the appropriate person, such as a carer or a professional. Appropriate support; local authorities have to ensure that individuals can receive the help to manage their support that being traditional services, new or systems of peer support. Flexible resources; should be used creatively to support individuals and finally Outcome review; is essential which plays an integral part of the risk management process for the local authority. However, as Mandelstam (2010) points out personalisation may not always work for vulnerable adults who are unable to express choices, unless they are adequately supported. Shortages of resources in some local authorities could threaten the availability of the vital support which is needed for individuals, and therefore for this system to work it is not to be seen as a cost cutting measure. Duffy Gillespie (2010) report that there is a misconceived idea that personalisation is simply about freedom and treating safeguarding as it is simply about control is wrong and to enable a person to have a good life balance you have to balance between freedom and control. Safety is one of the key goals in personalisation as control can be personalised because designing support arrangements need to be tailored to fit the person and need be justified with regard for their capacity, effectiveness and proportionality. They also state that control does not guarantee safety, for example the current community care system is poor in providing individuals to exercise freedom and control. Individuals who need support often find they have little or no choice over the support they can receive as most social care services struggle to provide personalised support due to bureaucracy that surrounds them. This in turn can create dependency or frustration which can easily place individuals at greater risk. The idea that personalisation may increase the risk of abuse in some way has been suggested by many professionals (Lymbery,2010. Duffy Gillespie (2009) argue that personalisation is committed to improving safety as integral part of promoting well-being and enhancing citizenship along with offering techniques and approaches such as self-directed support which provides the framework for minimising the risk of harm and protecting vulnerable people from abuse. Personalisation is about designing support arrangements so they are more personal to the service user. McGauran (2010) points out in her report that occupational therapists are placed well within the personalisation agenda as they are the only allied health professional who are widely employed throughout social and health care sectors. Personalisation is congruent to the philosophy of occupational therapy as the heart of its practice is to be client centred, and therefore occupational therapists need to seize these opportunities to pilot new ways of delivering this service which would be of benefit to the clients and enhance professional practice. An example of this can be seen when an individual is given choice and control of a personal budget to purchase personal or nursing care for an older adult, then it would give the individual personal control over how, when and by whom the care or equipment should be provided. This philosophy is embraced with the College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics that occupational therapists shall at all times recognise, respect and uphold the autonomy of clients, and advocate client choice. (College of Occupational Therapists 2005, p.2.1). Social Care Institute for Excellence (2010) agree that occupational therapists are skilled in finding and tailoring individual solutions for people in different care settings and aim to improve the quality of life, as well as a facilitator of learning needs and can work collaboratively with people who use services, their carers, families, friends and other social care and health professionals to co-design and co-produce care and support. Social Care Institute for Excellence (2010) believes also that by introducing this new agenda it will allow service users to become empowered and enable them to design the support packages for themselves or choose how they want to live. This in turn will enable service users to feel that are being supported in staying well and ensure that they have access to public services. This approach undoubtedly has the potential to improve the quality of peoples lives and give occupational therapists the opportunity to use their skills and expertise. Over 70 health projects have been chosen by the Department of Health across England to pilot personal health budgets and a formal evaluation has been carried out by the Department of Health (Department of Health, 2009). Evidence suggests that although it was popular with younger disabled people, many of the older age service users found they were put off by the complexities of the scheme, especially around issues of becoming an employer if they needed to appoint paying carers (McGauran, 2010). As Mandelstem (2010) points out there is some confusion in the legislation in the personalisation agenda as there is no new legislation or detailed statutory guidance to support this. The Department of Health have set up a toolkit that fits personalisation into legislation but it is inadequate and contains errors. Therefore suggesting that there could be risks involved in the transformation of social care. What is apparent from evidence on pilot studies is very early to say what the full impact of personal budgets will be on occupational therapy staff and other professionals, and that it is most likely that developments of personal health budgets need to significantly change cultural values throughout the National Health Service (Stobbs, 2010). Personalisation in social care does have potential benefits in giving service users choice and control over their care services. Although there is no doubt that it does have some potential pitfalls. What can be recognised from this new approach is that safeguarding is essential to all service users especially complex cases where careful risk management and person centred practice are essential. However, personalisation is in its infancy stage and a lot more debate is needed around this new policy for service users to feel confident in new transformation of our healthcare system. Equally, this can be seen as an excellent opportunity for occupational therapists to demonstrate that they are well equipped to take the lead in this personalised agenda as it sits well in the role of their profession.

Hydrogen: The Best Alternative Energy Source Essay -- Hydrogen, An En

Since the human were created, they have always been depending on an external energy source. Before the use of fossil fuel was discovered, people used the sun as their main external energy source. The sun provides heat, light, and photosynthesis for food that the humans and animals need to make their work energy. And it also affects wind and water motion that the humans also use to make power to do heavy work. When the use of fossil fuels was discovered, it enabled the industrial revolution to begin in the early 19th century. And it also made the growth of human population, technologies, and wealth. Since then, the human use the fossil fuels as their main external energy source. That period could well be renamed as the energy revolution. But if we continuously use the fossil fuels as the energy, it will bring a big problem for the human in the future. It is because the continuously use of the fossil fuel threatens our world energy supply and also makes a lot of negative effects to our environment. The world’s demand for energy is predicted to double by 2050 in response to the population growth and the industrialization of developing countries. The supply of fossil fuels is limited by its finite amount within the earth and it will soon become expire if we continuously use it. The longevity of the fossil fuel energy supply is reduced by the energy consumed through its conversion to a suitable energy form in which human use. While global oil and gas reserves are concentrated in a few regions of the world, demand is growing everywhere. As a result of that, the supply of energy for the world in the future is difficult to assure. Beside that, the use of fossil fuels is not good and risks the human’s health. I t is because t... ...More research, attempt, time, and money are needed to actualize the use of hydrogen as the world’s future energy sources. Works Cited Braun, Harry W. The Phoenix Project: Shifting form Oil to Hydrogen. Phoenix: SPI Publications & Productions, 2000. Crabtree, George W., Mildred S. Dresselhaus, and Michelle V. Buchanan. "The Hydrogen Economy." Dec 2004. 12 Oct 2005 . Gorman, Jessica. "Hydrogen: The Next Generation." 12 Oct 2002. 12 Oct 2005 . "Hydrogen Topics." 04 Oct. 2005. U.S. Department of Energy. 12 Oct. 2005 . Weisz, Paul B. "Basic Choices and Constraints on Long−Term Energy Supplies." July 2004. 12 Oct 2005 .

Polo Ralph Lauren Performance Measurement

Notes on the slides. Agenda – Our agenda follows exactly the guideline that was given to us in order to carry out this assignment. The Company – Short overview of the firm. The Fashion Industry – It is based mainly on intangible assets, rather than capital or knowledge-intensive assets.Moreover, nowadays fashion companies are less affected by the problem of seasonality: indeed they experience sales that are pretty much stable over the year; in spite of this, PRL experiences different levels of sales in the different quarters, due mainly to wholesales shipments and in coincidence with holiday periods. Industry Analysis – We used the Five Forces Model to assess the characteristics of the industry in which PRL competes in.The fashion industry is a very competitive one, rivalry among firms is high: some competitors are bigger than PRL, so they also have more resources, but still PRL is a pretty strong name and the company has a large customer base. The threat of new entrants is low because there are strong incumbents, brand loyalty in the high-price segment is high and access to suppliers and distributors is limited.Even though PRL has a high brand recognition which makes end customers less price sensitive, the bargaining power of the buyers is high as the direct customers of the firm are mainly large department stores (and the gist of the company’s revenues comes from the wholesale sector). The threat of substitutes is moderate as loyal customers tend to buy only from them but in general people may vary their purchases and also buy from the competitors.For what concerns the suppliers, it’s important to specify that PRL does not manufacture its products itself, but instead relies on licensees and other manufacturers to do so. Its suppliers are therefore manufacturers which supply the company with the finished goods. The bargaining power of suppliers is moderate: as the company doesn’t actually manufacture anything th at it sells under his brand, it has to rely pretty much on manufacturers and licensees; high quality suppliers are few and there’s high competition among high-quality firms to find such reliable manufacturers.On the other hand though, PRL produces in many different countries, mainly outside the US, thus working with many different suppliers, and this lowers the suppliers’ strength in bargaining. In total they have 350 manufacturers, with none of them providing more than 8% of total production. Internal and External Factors – In order to get a better understanding of the competitive environment from the firm’s perspective as well as of firm-specific resources and capabilities, we conducted a SWOT analysis.The company has successfully grown and expanded its range of product lines and brands, as well as his presence in the international market. One of its main strengths is the brand: it inspires a precise lifestyle and virtually everybody knows it: this high brand awareness and recognition, as stated above, make the end consumer less sensitive to the price. They decided to leverage on their strong brand in order to increase the profitability of the business and expand it by further diversifying the range of product offerings and apparel brands, which are divided into Polo brands and Collection brands (the most expensive).The firm manages to have high margins on its various brands, especially in the Collection brands. They also have no problem in accessing the end consumers as their presence is considerably high, thanks to what they call â€Å"multiple channel distribution†: this means that they have both their own stores and sell to third parties such as department stores, specialty stores and factory stores.Their major weakness is the high dependence on department stores: as stated above, their revenues depend highly on this form of retail store, especially in the US and Canada (their biggest market, we will see that from a pie chart later): they have little influence on what the department stores buy and offer to their customers, no influence on the way the merchandise is displayed and in general no creative control over the marketing.Department stores may exercise pressure on the firm to obtain merchandise at lower prices (in order to increase their own margin). Moreover, fashion firms compete for the floor space in the department stores, and the company stated in its Annual Report of 2009 that there may be competitors with greater resources which could therefore represent a threat to them under this point of view.Other weaknesses are that PRL depends on manufacturers for what concerns the quality of its products (they have to implement strict quality checks) and they have no direct control over the licensing partners: they don’t get the full revenues from sales, they can’t manage the retail stores directly and a consequence of this is that they cannot get direct feedback from customers an d cannot respond to market trends since they’re not the ones who actually sell the finished goods.They face many opportunities: the Asian market is growing, especially China’s; they may expand their presence in prestigious sport tournaments in order to further promote their brand; moreover, we think it’s of fundamental importance that they expand their e-commerce by selling online also in Europe and Asia, and not only in the United States as it is now: their web-site has the great potential to increase their sales. They could also expand their range of product offerings and develop private labels in collaboration with department stores, as the latter are creating private labels themselves and this threatens PRL’s shelf space.Thus this could be a good solution in order to decrease the likelihood of seeing their space reduced. As this document is supposed to be just an explanation of some points that might not be clearly explained in the slides, we won†™t go through all of the weaknesses, but we cite the worrying fact that the major department stores in US are undergoing a wave of M&A, and the consequence of this will be a higher â€Å"customer† power (because the number of customers will be lower). We will add more to this subject when we will talk about one of the main organizational tensions: Reliance on department stores.The 4 Ps of Strategy – Strategy as a Plan: unfortunately the company doesn’t provide any quantitative indicator of success or specific time frames for their main objectives. They only talk more specifically about their plan to transform their wholesale and retail businesses in Southeast Asia from a licensed to a wholly owned operation in January 1, 2010. Balancing Tensions – This slide describes the five major tensions every company needs to balance in order to implement a performance measurement and control system effectively.Revenue Sources – Assessing their revenue distr ibution among segments and geographical regions, we see that two tensions already emerge: their dependence on the wholesale segment (as mentioned before) and the fact that revenues are not evenly distributed among countries. Specifically, we see that Japan only makes up 8% of total revenues. Financial Data – This slide shows a comparison between PRL’s and PVH’s most important financial indicators of performance.We chose PVH because some of PVH’s fashion companies compete directly with PRL (like Calvin Klein) and also because it’s one of the few peers of PRL that has public financial statements. Besides the fact that revenues are distributed unevenly among segments and regions, the financial data does not show any other indicators of tensions. Main Organizational Tensions – We have identified four tensions, which should be taken into consideration when implementing a performance measurement system.The first tension is Revenue goals for the As ia- Pacific region: when comparing PRL’s market share in Asia to the market share of its main competitors, we see that it has just 3% of the market share compared, for example, to the 60% market share of LVMH, a group that owns fashion brands such as Luis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs. The second chart shows that PRL generates small amount of its total revenue from Asia, while for example Hermes, which is a lot smaller than PRL comparing total revenues, manages to generate over 40% of their revenues in Asia.The high reliance on department store (second tension) is also negative because, as the chart shows, such retail stores are doing pretty badly, with their net income decreasing at a fast rate. If they have financial problems they would probably reduce their purchases and the likelihood of bad debt for PRL increases. The other two tensions are exhaustively addressed in the slides. How PRL Should Address These Problems – PRL should create its own Balanced Scorecard, and her e we explain why we think it’s the right performance measurement tool to use.The Balanced Scorecard – The Balanced Scorecard’s objectives address the main tensions that we identified in the company as well as provide guidance for future success. This strategic management tool anyways should be in line with the other performance measurement and control systems that the company implements. Control System – It is worth mentioning that we didn’t find any precise information about the performance measurement and control systems currently employed at PRL. Reading the Annual Report of 2009 we only found out that the company focuses on quality processes as well as licensee supervision.In addition, we believe that they should implement a control system for the wholesale segment (monitoring trends in consolidation and reacting to them, supervision of the department store’s financial situation etc. ) and for the Asia – Pacific market (benchmarki ng: how do competitors perform, adoption of best practice processes and strategies). Conclusion – With our Balanced Scorecard and the new control systems in place, we believe that PRL will be able to achieve its main goals and operate successfully in the next years.

Legalizing Marijuan A Land Of Equality, Liberty And...

Legalizing Marijuana The perception of America is a land of equality, liberty and freedom. As the Declaration of Independence stated, â€Å" [We hold these truths to be self-evident, that] all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.† The assurance of Americans’ freedom and civil rights is an essential reason why the United States can thrive over the centuries. However, the government tries to take freedom away from people by eliminating their ability to execute their free will. Some government officials in the United States started waging a war against drugs to attain their political goals and banning marijuana was an initial step that they took leading to the extermination of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Not only will individual free will get eradicated, but also the privilege of self-determination will be extinguished. The interference from government becomes yokes on people s necks and the chains on their feet. Legalizing marijuana is not only an essential practice of political and social freedom and equality, but also the expression of individuals’ pursuit of happiness. The legalization of marijuana will boost tax revenue, reduce organized crimes and minor offenses, brings more effective criminal justice. America has a love and hate story with marijuana throughout the history. It was a major commercial corp back to the 1600s and the government