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The information on which this article is based comes from a major piece of research on the changing nature of personnel management, which is being conducted by the authors and Lesley Mackay at UMIST. The work is being funded by the Leverhulme Trust in collaboration with the IPM. The first phase of the research was the completion of extensive and detailed questionnaires about personnel practice in 350 different establishments during the Spring and early Summer of 1984. That data are still being analysed, but the second stage of the research began at the end of 1984. This is a series of interviews with questionnaire respondents. Conclusions from the research will be published progressively until the end of 1986.

The use of management consultants is an accepted fact in management practice — in all management functions and in all sectors of the economy. Indeed, a great deal of money is spent in the UK on management consultancy each year. Wood estimates that, in 1982, around £170 million was spent on management consultancy. Assignments carried out within the area of personnel management alone accounted for some 15–20 per cent of this total. Yet, the presence of management consultants within organisations is often overlooked. There is scant mention of consultants in the huge array of prescriptive and descriptive literature on management. (One exception within the realms of personnel management is Purcell.) This absence is both interesting and curious. It is curious because so many organisations — both public and private, large and small — use consultants in some form or another. The use of consultants ought, therefore, to be an accepted fact of life in the management of organisations and by those writing about management.

To make any sound recovery from the present economic recession, Britain will need a skilled and well‐qualified work force. This is the gospel preached by the Government, trade unions, the CBI, IPM, BIM, economic analysts and commentators There is no such unanimity on the question of who should provide the training that is required, but a variety of reports have commented on the poor practices of many employers in the training and education of their work forces.

The trend is towards a gradual increase in emphasis on manpower control, and a high commitment to employee relations. The ideal of the 1970s, that of developing and maintaining agreeable working relationships, is still professed by many personnel managers. Research arising from detailed questionnaires distributed to 350 establishments as part of a Leverhulme Trust/IPM‐funded project has identified six broad tendencies in personnel departments. These cover the enabling function (action as a service to managers and department); the “odds and ends” function (being given “bits” of responsibility); the attenuated function (having rank and responsibility but little professional support); the symbolic function (developing a symbiosis between personnel departments and consultants); the futuristic function (moving towards adopting information technology); and the professional function (being technically skilful, using consultants sparingly but effectively).

Although in most organisations the personnel function is now an accepted part of the management team, that acceptance may have been achieved at a substantial cost. It will be argued here that in moving towards an unequivocally managerial position, much of the distinctive contribution of the personnel function has been lost. This move can be interpreted as a natural and realistic appreciation of the position of personnel practitioners. Yet, at the same time, it may have undermined the value and potential contribution that personnel specialists have to offer organisations.

Only recently has a professional personnel function become established within UK universities. Based on interviews with heads of the personnel function in both “old” and “new” universities in northern England, discusses the approach being taken to personnel management in higher education. Presents evidence of changes in style and direction of the personnel function and considers the possibility of convergence between the two types of university.

Considers the problems of a multi‐disciplinary team working together to understand and evaluate a healthcare information system, which itself is situated in a complex organisational and political environment. Provides general discussion of problems faced by evaluators of such systems. Describes this specific evaluation project (Electronic Patient Records in the UK National Health Service), gives an account of the evaluation process as it occurred, highlights some of the problems encountered, and discusses attempts to overcome these. Suggests that social, organisational and political factors are inherent in all such research enterprises, and that in order to facilitate a rich understanding of complex systems, these factors must also be considered as part of the research data.

There is not much evidence of a computer‐led revolution in personnel management. An ongoing survey of the uses to which computers are put in 350 establishments suggests a generally superficial take‐up of computer applications, with more being done to take over previous clerical operations than to sharpen the personnel contribution to management decision making and action. It appears that computer scope is not being utilised in the personnel function because many people are fearful of what computerisation could do to the essence of the personnel role; the recession has diverted energies into the problems created by redundancies and training needs; and because in many organisations there appears to be a pecking order for computerisation, with financial and stock control and invoice processing taking precedence. A final point established is that only 70 per cent of establishments using computers in the personnel area allow employees to see their own records, despite the provisions of the 1984 Act.

It is widely accepted that rigorous rehabilitation exercises after a stroke can help restore some functionality. However for many patients, this means exercises at home with minimal, if any, clinician support. Technologies that help motivate and promote good exercises offer significant potential but need to be designed to realistically take account of real homes and real lives of the people who have had a stroke. As part of the Motivating Mobility project, we carried out a series of visits to homes of people living with stroke and photographed their homes. In contrast to many utopian smart home scenarios, the elderly of today live in homes that were built as homes fit for heroes' but have been evolved and adapted over time and present significant challenges for the design of in‐home rehabilitation technologies. These challenges include the uses and repurposing of use of rooms, attitudes to and uses of existing technologies, space available in the home, feelings about different spaces within homes and individual preferences and interests. The findings provide a set of sensitivities that will help shape and frame ongoing design work for the successful deployment of rehabilitation technologies in real homes.

Collaborative inter-agency working is of paramount importance for the public protection agenda worldwide. The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the findings from a research study on the inter-agency working within adult support and protection (ASP) roles in the police, health and social care.

This realistic evaluation study with two inter-related phases was funded by the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. This paper reports on Phase 1 which identified existing gaps in the implementation of effective inter-agency practice by reviewing the “state of play” in inter-agency collaboration between the police and health and social care professionals. In total, 13 focus groups comprising representatives from Police Scotland (n=52), Social Care (n=31) and Health (n=18), engaged in single profession and mixed profession groups addressing issues including referral and information exchange.

On analysing context-mechanism-outcome (CMO), gaps in joint working were identified and attributed to the professionals’ own understanding of inter-agency working and the expectations of partner agencies. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection.

This unique Scottish study successfully identified the inter-agency practices of health, social services and police. By means of a modified realistic evaluation approach, it provides an in-depth understanding of the challenges that professionals face on a day-to-day basis when safeguarding adults and informed strategic recommendations to overcome the barriers to good practices in organisational working. The methods used to determine CMO could benefit other researchers to develop studies exploring the complexities of multi-causal effects of cross-boundary working. The use of the same case study in each focus group helped to neutralise bias. However, the voluntary nature of participation could have resulted in biased perceptions. The limited numbers of health professionals may have resulted in less representation of health sector views.

This paper reports on a Scottish study that focused on the coordinated and integrated practices amongst the police, health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm and has implications for their practice.

Whilst the focus of this study has been on ASP, the conclusions and recommendations are transferable to public protection issues in many other contexts.

Studies on the joint-working practices amongst police and health and social services’ professionals who support and protect adult members of society at risk of harm are uncommon. This study investigated professionals’ perceptions of gaps and concerns pertaining to integrated working by means of a realistic evaluation approach. It recommended the need for further research and inter-agency training on public protection.