A paradigmatic shift has taken place in the underlying principles that have, in the past, informed the provision of careers education and guidance (CEG) in the UK. The root cause has been a policy transition to a new service model that emphasizes the importance of CEG as part of New Labour’s social inclusion agenda. This article reflects on this policy transition and, using the Connexions service as a case study, explores some aspects of its effects on professional identities of Connexions personal advisers (PAs) through a Bourdieusian framework. The article argues that a new, externally imposed context and service discourse can affect the various ‘communities of practice’ that operate under the Connexions service. The article also questions policy attempts to create generic forms of professionals for the delivery of future welfare services.

The Brighton Citizen's Health Services Survey (BCHSS) was developed to explore and potentially challenge how knowledge is used and by whom in the production of local health commissioning institutions and relations. Through the creation of an 'animating set of questions', it sought to open up spaces through which to make visible some of the ways of knowing and valuing the NHS and health services that had been minimised through the commensuration practices of post-2012 public engagement. In this way there was a clear agenda to facilitate a form of knowledge democratisation which opened up and validated different 'health publics', in order to explore and broaden participative engagement opportunities. The paper provides an account of the project. It considers the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of this example of 'evidence-based activism', reflects on the impact of the project on local commissioning and considers the range of controversies that arose as a result of the work. It explores the way that research straddling the boundary between academic inquiry and political activism speaks to the many issues that are prevalent in the changing HE sector as well as NHS privatisation, health commissioning and public sector cuts.

Recent Government agendas in England highlight a need to involve children in policy and service design, provision and evaluation of services they use or which affect them. While consultation with older children has become more common, this is not the case for younger children. This article reports on a study exploring the current practice and experiences, perceptions and views of a sample of early years professionals with regard to consultation with young children. A theoretical model is presented which suggests that the different factors that influence whether or not practitioners consult with young children are connected and interrelated. Policy implications are also discussed.

In recent decades there has been increasing interest in academic, governmental, and nongovernmental circles worldwide in developing universal definitions of well-being. Governments have progressively shifted their policies on this concept and are currently engaged in improving the well-being of their populations. Bolivia’s concept of suma qamaña (living well together) is broader than “well-being,” emphasizing the importance of harmonious relations between nature and human beings and providing an important link to sustainability that current conceptions of well-being fail to make. Exploring the concept is highly relevant at this historical moment because the Morales government is engaged in a wide-ranging process of social transformation to implement it. Its translation into public policy and the adoption of a development model consistent with it have proved problematic. While the introduction of the concept into the National Development Plan, the new constitution, and the Law of Mother Earth has addressed the need to move from individualized understandings of well-being to collective ones, the government has not overcome the conflict between growth-driven approaches and sustainability that is inherent in all its legislation. Moreover, understandings of the concept are constantly being negotiated and transformed, calling for an understanding of it that is rooted in people’s practices and beliefs rather than in theoretical constructions. En las últimas décadas ha habido un creciente interés en los círculos académicos, gubernamentales y no gubernamentales de todo el mundo en el desarrollo de las definiciones universales de bienestar. Los gobiernos han cambiado progresivamente sus políticas en este concepto y se dedican actualmente a la mejora del bienestar de sus poblaciones. Concepto de suma qamaña (vivir bien) de Bolivia es más amplio que el “bienestar,” enfatizando la importancia de las relaciones armoniosas entre la naturaleza y los seres humanos y proporcionando un vínculo importante con la sostenibilidad que las concepciones actuales de bienestar no pueden hacer. Explorar el concepto es muy relevante en este momento histórico, porque el gobierno de Morales está involucrado en un amplio proceso de transformación social para implementarla. Su traslación en las políticas públicas y la adopción de un modelo de desarrollo coherente con ella han demostrado ser problemático. Si bien la introducción de este concepto en el Plan Nacional de Desarrollo, la nueva Constitución, y la Ley de la Madre Tierra ha abordado la necesidad de pasar de entendimientos individuales de bienestar a los colectivos, el gobierno no ha superado el conflicto entre los enfoques impulsados por crecimiento y la sostenibilidad que es inherente a toda su legislación. Por otra parte, las comprensiones del concepto están siendo constantemente negociados y transformados, reclamando una comprensión que está enraizada en las prácticas y creencias de las personas y no en las construcciones teóricas.

This paper presents a model of service process for a family support service at the preventative level as part of a wider debate about child welfare systems in the UK and beyond. The paper places the debate about the shape of preventative family support services within the policy context and uses it to critique various models of service provision, principally the ‘child rescue’ paradigm. From this, the paper explores the characteristics that constitute a complex, yet preventative, family support service. This model is then illustrated using empirical evidence collected from the evaluation of a voluntary and community sector project in the North West of England that describes the service process and some of its characteristics. The paper argues that the model of family support presented has implications for the type of service process that can effectively put the theory into practice. Finally, questions for further research are defined in relation to the implications that this model poses for professional–user relationships and for the professional forms that can deliver preventative family support.