The findings discussed here are based on five case studies and a small survey (n = 46) of how secondary schools are responding to demands that they collaborate with other services to intervene to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. The case studies revealed a new space of action opening up around schools where practices were being shaped by 'welfare managers' who were employed by schools and were undertaking responsive work with vulnerable children and young people and the other services who were also supporting them. At the same time heads of year and/or heads of school and form tutors were increasingly focusing on children's achievement in school. The changes in roles and responsibilities were encouraged by workforce remodelling and changes in criteria for teachers' salaries. However, focusing primarily on the work undertaken by the welfare managers, the article draws on cultural-historical activity theory analyses of relational agency and distributed expertise to question whether welfare managers can undertake the work required in the new space of action without attention to the development of their core expertise.

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The findings discussed here are based on five case studies and a small survey (n = 46) of how secondary schools are responding to demands that they collaborate with other services to intervene to prevent the social exclusion of children and young people. The case studies revealed a new space of action opening up around schools where practices were being shaped by ‘welfare managers’ who were employed by schools and were undertaking responsive work with vulnerable children and young people and the other services who were also supporting them. At the same time heads of year and/or heads of school and form tutors were increasingly focusing on children's achievement in school. The changes in roles and responsibilities were encouraged by workforce remodelling and changes in criteria for teachers’ salaries. However, focusing primarily on the work undertaken by the welfare managers, the article draws on cultural‐historical activity theory analyses of relational agency and distributed expertise to question whether welfare managers can undertake the work required in the new space of action without attention to the development of their core expertise.

Summary.A recently developed immunocytochemical technique in HbF-cell counting was assessed by an objective evaluation method. The basic principle of this method is the preparation of aliquots with predetermined HbF-cell (target) values. These aliquots serve as control samples to standardize the HbF-cell measurements by the new immunocytochemical technique, which uses the StreptABComplex/ AP staining procedure (SAP) and visualization under white light. Immunofluorescence optical counts (IF) were performed in parallel with the new technique. A trend of inaccuracy was observed in low target values for both methods. As the level of target values increased, deviations became insignificant (relative accuracy < 8%) with SAP having slightly better results. Linear regression data of the estimated %HbF-cell rates by the two methods versus the target values were very satisfactory for both methods with SAP being slightly better. SAP seems to provide an accurate and reliable alternative for HbF-cell estimation comparable with the classical IF optical count.