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There has been considerable discussion about the benefits of health and social care integration over the last decade but less research on the purpose and effectiveness of carer and user involvement in service changes and service evaluation. The paper aims to report the findings of a study of two learning disabilities services in Wales that undertook co-location in a children development centre.

The study investigated whether carers of children with learning disabilities had any knowledge of organisational changes that occurred as a result of co-locating services. The study used a mixed method approach. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews with all parental representatives on the service planning groups and then asked local staff to facilitate a survey to parents of children with learning disabilities in their area.

Carers in both locations were mainly unaware of any changes, unless they were personally involved in service changes through advocacy or parental support groups. Carer responses mainly reflected national debates, such as service cuts, rather than the local context. Whilst there was significant support for co-location in general, parental views differed considerably on the merits of service changes depending on the needs of their own child.

These results caution against assuming a simple pathway from parental views of local services to defining service needs to plan new services. The authors argue that parents lack sufficient knowledge of organisational changes to make an informed decision on whether these changes would bring about service improvements. Implications for research and professional practice are spelled out.

Online teaching particularly through Open Distance and e-Learning (ODeL) has become a phenomenon in the twenty-first century. ODeL and blended approaches inevitably lead to increasing dependence on electronic communication systems. The University of South Africa (Unisa), where the author teaches, enables students through its Learner Management System to interact with lecturers and e-tutors online. The responsibilities of e-tutors are of an educative and technical nature. Their roles include guiding and assisting students, encouraging active participation, responding to their queries and grading their assignments. In addition, e-tutors provide notifications and assign tasks or activities that students are expected to complete and submit. In several cases, these forms of assistance are absent, when there is a lack of follow-up within the response period which is 24 hours – missing notifications and lack of guidance – rendering these e-tutors ineffective. The chapter provides strategies that were analyzed and implemented to motivate effective tutoring and enhance student participation learning. The author draws on her analysis as a virtual ethnographer and long-term participant observer as an e-tutor and lecturer who supervised e-tutors and taught a large number of students – 2,500. The objective of the chapter is to encourage effective tutoring that can enhance students’ success.

IN the Coventry tragedy, the central (Gulson) library was destroyed. Although not a library of the largest size, it was a considerable one, built up with the greatest skill, foresight and devotion by at least four of the best librarians of modern times, backed by a good committee for a generation. Three of these librarians have since commanded the largest municipal libraries of Great Britain.