UK Housing Services | Case Study

UK Housing Services | Case Study Housing and Health The Housing Act 2004 introduced licensing for housing in multiple occupation, as in this example. The Act sets out the standards of management which must be met in order for licensing to be achieved, and the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) is a new tool which is used to assess the potential hazards present in any property. Licensing is mandatory for the type of occupation in question since it is occupied by more than five people forming more than two households. In the current state of the property it is possible that the council could refuse the property a license, which would of course be detrimental to the services which it currently supplies in the area (Department for Communities and Local Government, 2007). It is therefore important that inter-agency working is utilized to identify all potential risk areas and address them in a way which minimizes the harm to the current residents. Inter-agency working The following agencies should be involved in the working group to deal with the issues in this property: Local council environmental health department This organization would be able to consult with the hostel management in order to identify and correct any potential health problems in the property to ensure that they meet current standards Local fire service department The local fire service should be able to advise the management how they need to develop the property in order to meet current fire regulations Social Services The social services department of the local council should be able to work with the hostel management to solve any problems which would adversely affect the tenants. They should form part of the working group to ensure that the rights of the current tenants are preserved with regard to any changes agreed. The Housing Department These are an important member of the working group, since they make referrals to the service, and would also be able to advise on the various issues relating to building regulations and Housing Act which need to be addressed. Council, local or district Since the hostel is not a privately owned residence, but is funded partially through the council, they would be an important member of a working group since they would be able to advise as to funds available to meet the required changes. Factors to be addressed Although there were a large number of issues addressed with the property the five which are considered most important are addressed below. Lack of adequate fire safety This is currently the most pressing problem, since there are large numbers of lives at risk in the event of fire, and current safety measures are considered to be completely inadequate. There is currently a lack of escape apparent in the case of fire, which means that the outer doors are currently the only means of escape in the event of fire. The downstairs door next to the kitchen is currently obstructed, which is in contravention of The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006, which states that all means of escape from fire must be kept clear of obstruction. The rear exit door was found to be locked for security reasons; while the security of the property is important this is also in contravention of the given regulations. Disrepair of ventilation in kitchen While the report states the kitchen was found to be generally satisfactory, there are safety issues which are of importance. These are particularly important since they again affect the safety of a large number of people, and possibly ranks equally important to the issues with fire safety. It has been identified that the kitchen in the property uses a gas cooker. There is no statement made as to whether this complies with current gas testing regulations. The disrepair of the windows in the kitchen, and the nailing shut of some windows mean that there is no natural ventilation available. This means that in the event of any type of leak the gas would be unable to dissipate and would cause great risk of gas poisoning and possibly explosion. There are also issues relating to the crumbling of the chimney breast, since the manager is also required to ensure that any flues (the chimney) are kept in good repair; this is particularly important if any gas fire is installed. Presence of dampness The HHSRS would consider the various types of damp in the property to be causing unsuitable living conditions. The presence of damp contributes to several disorders and illnesses, particularly in children, and has an effect on psychological well-being caused by the effect of living in damp conditions. This has been ranked of slightly less importance than the fire and gas issues as there is no immediate risk to the life of the people living in the property. Space issues There are currently major issues with space in the property; the Housing Act 2004 states that no habitable room should be occupied by more than two people, regardless of size, discounting those under 1 year old. It also states that two individuals aged ten or over of opposite sexes should not be sharing the same room under any circumstances, unless they are co-habitees. There is high risk of psychological harm in the current situation and some potential for physical harm; however the likelihood and extent of this harm ranks below the other issues above. Provision of amenities Since there are 24 people currently living at the property, there should be at least five bathrooms and five WCs. The previous issue highlighted that there were already too many people living in the building, however even if the numbers are reduced the Housing Act 2004 still requires that there be at least one bathroom and one WC for every five people residing in the property. While this is an important issue it ranks lower than the other issues as there is a lower risk to the well being of the occupants caused by the issue. Action Plan Lack of adequate fire safety All furniture and fittings should be assessed as to meet the requirements of the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988. Any that do not meet the requirements need to be assessed as to whether they are necessary, and replaced if this is the case; otherwise they just need to be removed from the property. The local fire department should be able to advise as to the requirements which the furniture and fittings must meet. Although this does not directly correlate to the issue of the fire escape, it is still an important factor in reducing the risk from fire. The fire department should also be consulted as to the best means of installing a fire escape route in the property. This consultation should occur in consultation with the councils and other funding bodies in order to reach an affordable compromise for the property. This is one of the most important action points and should take precedence in proceedings. Disrepair of ventilation in the kitchen The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 state that all gas equipment must be maintained in good order and inspected annually by a CORGI registered engineer. The current status of the equipment needs to be checked and a schedule drawn up for planned inspections of the current equipment. With regard to the windows there are two main options available to the hostel. The first is to simply repair the windows which are in place. This would involve extensive refitting of the wood to ensure that they are fully functioning. If security is considered an option, metal fittings could be installed on the outside of the windows. This would likely be the cheaper option initially, however the option of double glazing installation should also be considered. This would ensure that the windows would last longer than wooden framed windows, especially if there are problems with damp. It would also help with safety issues, and would make the property more energy efficient; there may also b e grants available in the area which could aid in the costs. This would likely be the best option to choose when considering the long term costs and benefits. Once the issues of damp are resolved in the property, an inspection should be organized by a building professional to advise on the best course of action with regard to the chimney breast. Presence of damp The local Environmental Health department should be invited to study the property to ascertain the extent of the problem and the best course of action. There is likely to be little choice as to a course of action since the damp appears to have reached a point at which major action is needed to correct the problem. If there are options presented which revolve around controlling the problem without extensive building work, these may be acceptable since there are other causative factors which are already being addressed. One such causative factor is the current problem with ventilation, which has been addressed above. Once this ventilation is in place it will likely help to prevent further formation of damp. There may be options presented which would need large scale building work. This may not be in the interests of the hostel both in terms of money and disruption to the people living in the house, who have nowhere else to go while the building work takes place. Space Issues There are a number of solutions to this problem. The first is to simply take fewer families, although in the current state of the accommodation this may mean that if the families taken had several children, it may only be able to accommodate one family at a time. There may be an option for the hostel to create an extension, creating extra rooms and amenities. This may be extremely costly, however it is an option if there are deemed to be funds available from the current funders. The best available option in the short term would be to look at converting the available spaces into rooms and bathrooms. There are spaces available such as the office and the cellar, and this may be less costly than building an extension. There is also a possibility that some of the present rooms may be able to be split into half, giving two smaller rooms. This will still leave limited space, and so social services will need to work with the hostel to move the present families into independent accommodation as quickly as possible. An extension could be considered as a long term plan for the future, after projects to raise the required funding. It is not an offence for more people to be living in the property than it is suitable for, as long as the management can prove that they are in the process of resolving the issue. This means that the current occupants could continue to live in the property, but that the numbers of new occupants would need to be limited as they leave, until the suitable number is reached. Social services should work in conjunction with the hostel in order to assure that the situation is resolved as quickly as possible, in the interests of all parties. Provision of amenities This issue could be resolved along with the space issue as described above, through either conversion of existing space or purpose built extension. References Department for Communities and Local Government (2007) Licensing of Houses in Multiple Occupation in England. Available [online] at http:// http://193.36.20.125/EnvironmentalServices/housingconditions/hmo_licensing_intro.asp. [Accessed 17th May 2007]. The Furniture and Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988 (United Kingdom). The Housing Act 2004 (England). The Management of Houses in Multiple Occupation (England) Regulations 2006, No. 372 (England).

The poem Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes

The poem Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes is a descriptive poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Night of the Scorpion & Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes The poem Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes is a descriptive poem where the poet (Lawrence Ferlinghetti) observes two garbage men in San Francisco and two well-paid people in a Mercedes. The poet's observation is really about the way the garbage men look at the well-paid people and the way the rich people look at the garbage men when waiting at the traffic lights. This poem is about two garbage men and two posh office people in the Mercedes who stop at the same traffic light at the same time on the same day. The main reason I enjoyed this poem was because of the description of each person in the poem. One description I really liked was the description of the two people in the Mercedes, '' The man in the hip three-piece linen suit with shoulder-length blond hair & sunglasses The young blond women so casually coifed with a short skirt...

Make Better Decision Essay

That the current era of economic uncertainty may have been ushered in through a series of poor government and corporate decisions is implied through the rear view mirror. Could some of the events that shaped todays crises have been avoided through better decision making processes? Thomas Davenport (2009, p. 117) presents examples of â€Å"decision making disorder† evident in both the public and private sectors and offers a framework to guide managers in making better decisions in the future. His premise lies in the ineffectiveness of the individual decision-making process resulting in dire consequences for the organization. Davenport provides a framework to guide managers in adopting a more analytical and systematic approach, resulting in greater effectiveness. He posits that the use of data, especially analytics embedded in automated systems can be powerful tools when balanced with informed human judgment. Davenport presents no new information entailing the decision making process. He does, however, raise the question of why the majority of organizations continue to rely on intuition and ignore proven tools and methods without regard for the evidence pointing to their effectiveness. The author warns that without proper prioritization and systematic review of the decision making process, success remains a gamble. Article Highlights According to Davenport (2009), allowing individual managers to make decisions without a systematic analysis has severe consequences that result in languishing profit margins. In spite of the resources available, most organizations fail to implement the recommendations that would help managers employ better decision making processes. The author notes that while these processes do not guarantee better outcomes, they certainly increase the potential (p. 118). Davenport (2009) outlines a four-step process to improve managerial decisions, the components of which are identification, inventory, intervention and institutionalization. He suggests mangers begin by prioritizing the top decisions required to achieve a goal. He states: â€Å"without some prioritization all decisions are treated as equal, which probably means that the important ones won’t be analyzed with sufficient care† (p. 118). He goes on to stress the importance of identifying key decisions in in order to examine all variables through an inventory process to determine effectiveness and lay the groundwork for organizational communication. Subsequent to identification and taking inventory, considering all parameters of the decision, the appropriate intervention should rise to the surface. The final step is the institutionalization of the decision making process, for which Davenport (2009, p. 119) recommends hiring â€Å"decision experts† in guiding managers through the process. Davenport (2009, p. 119-122) cites two examples of organizations who improved the decision making process: Educational Testing Service (ETS) and The Stanley Works. Meeting with great success, ETS has expanded the new processes to evaluate and prioritize all product changes as well as apply the methodology to handle new prospects. A center of excellence was developed at The Stanley Works that created an analytical tool for sales data and new potential sales opportunities. According to the author, due to automated decision processes created by the center of excellence, the company realized a 6% growth in gross margin. Although highly in favor of analytical tools, Davenport (2009) warns of reliance solely on automation, and cautions managers to use their expert human insight to monitor how well analytical tools are working. The decision making process should always be a human endeavor with analytics only a part of the overall toolbox. Significance of the article Davenport (2009) raises a universal concern encompassing the impact of poorly thought out organizational as well as individual decisions. The decisions of today are the realities of tomorrow, and in spite of the myriad of excellent resources available, â€Å"few organizations have reengineered their decisions† (p. 117). The author presents an excellent argument for the necessity of a systematic decision making process as well as the use of analytical tools to provide reliable information in order to make sound decisions. Corporate CEO’s exist that agree with the concepts and actively ngage in systematic decision-making processes. Donna Thompson, CEO of Access Community Health Network in the Chicago area is one example. She shares her ritual of going through the same decision-making process before taking any action, and offers â€Å"good decision making isn’t as much about having all the right answers as is using a process to ask all the right questions† (Reed-Woodard, M. A. 2006p. 164). Gully, Stainer and Stainer (2006), in their study on moral decisions within organizations, have also found a systematic process to yield the best decisions. The authors describe an organized â€Å"balance sheet† designed to prevent disordered thinking as a model of cooperative business behavior. Their findings include the need for systematic decision-making and state â€Å"the moral decision making maze needs ordered steps of asking questions and providing answers that can readily be applied to solving problems and dilemmas in business† (p. 194). Davenport’s (2009) article continues with accolades for analytical tools within automated systems as long as managers thoroughly understand the models. Jim Ciampaglio CEO of NeoSpire exuberantly claims the success of an analytical sales tool used to manage leads and store sales information and states this tool â€Å"helped us change who we are as a sales organization† (McKay, L. 2010). Executive decisions lay the foundation for business strategy: poorly thought out decisions lead to less than optimal results and systematic decision making takes the emotionality out and puts the issue in an objective framework, leading to better outcomes. Organizations integrating this type of framework reduce the risk of moving ahead with a faulty plan. Davenport (2009) states while managers are buying and most likely reading resource material providing the basis for better decision making, few actually adopt the recommendations (p. 118). Conjecture rather than interviews with key decision makers is offered to support this particular viewpoint with the implication that this may be due to the failure to connect bad outcomes to faulty decision making Conclusion Davenport (2009) does an excellent job of tying the process of decision-making to an organization’s ultimate failure or success. His thought provoking discussion as to what exactly transpires during the individual decision making process and why organizations need to gain some control over this process makes intuitive sense. The success of the author’s suggested framework for making decisions is well supported by the organizations cited in his work, with confirmations easily found in other studies such as Gully et al (2006). Further research is recommended examining the decision making processes generally employed by organizations before conclusions that support Davenport’s (2009) negative assumptions can be drawn. The author does not support his claim that only a few companies employ a systematic process and is biased in his perception of the† poor calls made in both the public and private sectors† in recent years. Overall, Making Better Decisions provides food for thought and raises the question that if Davenport’s (2009) assumptions are in fact correct, why is it that corporations continue to allow managers to use more intuition than systematic processes to arrive at decisions that impact the organization’s bottom line?

The eNotes Blog Selling Your Students On YourLesson

Selling Your Students On YourLesson A lot of teachers struggle with getting their students interested and engaged in lessons. Here are some practical  tips to encourage more participation, interest, and knowledge retention. Teach as Though You Were Writing a Catchy Essay In teaching students to write good essays, we often use this geometric diagram: We ask students to write essays that are interesting and that connect a specific idea to the bigger picture. It’s why the introduction starts out broad, and why the conclusion ends the same way. Outside of the specific focus of the essay is a larger framework that makes the essay meaningful. In other words, we want student writing to convince us that the essay is worth our time. However, many teachers forget this in their lesson planning. Pressured by time constraints and Common Core standards, they dive into textual analysis without convincing students that what they are teaching actually matters. Students Need to Buy into the Lesson No student is eager to diagram the narrative structure of a novel. That is a technical skill that you want the students to learn, but in order to get them to do it, you need to sell them on why this matters. Think broadly about how this technical skill connects to the bigger picture. Why do we care about the narrative structure of a novel? How does this tie into a more interesting, broader question like â€Å"How do we tell good stories?† Teach as though you were writing a great essay- how can you get students hooked on the lesson? How does the technical skill tie into something that they care about? Let’s assume that you are teaching the rhetorical strategies in Jonathan Edwards’ Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. You want students to do a textual analysis to understand the images and figurative language used in the speech. But remember- students need to first buy into what you are going to teach. One strategy might be to connect the textual analysis to students’ own lives. Start by asking the broad question: â€Å"How would you convince someone to radically change what they believe?† Brainstorm strategies on the board and debate their effectiveness. Maybe bring in examples of rhetorical strategies used in advertising to connect this idea to contemporary times. You’ve created a context around the skill you are trying to teach, and thereby made the lesson meaningful for your students. Now that you’ve piqued the students’ interest, dive into the text to see what Edwards does in his speech. Outline the strategies and focus closely on the text. Students have bought into what you want them to do, and they have a motivation for focusing on the specific task at hand. Conclude by Broadening Your Focus The conclusion of a lesson creates an opportunity to broaden again and connect the specific task to the bigger picture. If your lesson was a compelling essay, how would you conclude it? If you started out your lesson by asking a broad question, circle back to that question and show how you’ve answered it through the activities that students completed. You can also think of how the skill might be used in another context that is meaningful and engaging for students. Having students write letters  is a great wrap up activity idea for your lesson. Let’s go back to the example of the lesson on Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Once your textual analysis is complete, bring the focus back to the larger question: How can we apply what we’ve learned from Edwards to our own lives? This could lead to a wrap-up activity that shows mastery of the skill you’ve practiced. Have students create their own brief speeches using the strategies studied in Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. They could make infomercials for a particular lifestyle product or write a letter to a criminal convincing him or her to reform. You’ve achieved your pedagogical goal and helped your students to see the value of the specific task they’ve learned.

Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Essay

Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Essay Fundamentals of Macroeconomics Essay When talking about macroeconomics, there are a few terms that one must first understand. Those terms are gross domestic product, real gross domestic product, nominal gross domestic product, nominal gross domestic product, unemployment rate, inflation rate, and interest rate. Gross domestic product (GDP) is what products and services produced in a one-year span of time are valued at. Real GDP is adjusted by the inflation rate, to create the market value of goods and services, in a one-year span of time. Nominal GDP is the value of products and services as compared to current prices. Unemployment rate is the number of individuals in an economy who are not presently working, but are willing and able to work. Inflation rate is the rate at which the price level of a product or service raises within a month or a one-year span of time. Interest rate is a percentage of the total amount of money being borrowed. These terms affect consumers in ways such as purchasing groceries, massive layoff of employees and decreases in taxes. When purchasing groceries, consumers nowadays tend to compare prices between stores, as well as compare â€Å"name brands† versus â€Å"store brands†. The inflation rate affects the price at which goods are sold (real GDP), and consumers very often will choose the lesser priced product. Consumers are looking to get the most products while spending the least amount of money, as households consume a vast amount or products and most consumers do not have an adequate supply of resources to purchase the essentials. Consumer spending helps business retain employees and create jobs, to help prevent massive layoff of employees. When consumers can be tempted to spend more money on groceries by using coupons or store specials such as 10 items for $10 where they are required to purchase 10 of the items to get the deals, stores and employees benefit. Promoting more deals brings in more customers, which is a win-win for the business and employees. When consumers spend money, the inflation rate goes down and real GDP goes down creating lower product prices for consumers. When employees are laid off, there is less money being put into the economy which can lead to a higher rate of inflation. When inflation continues to increase, consumers are spending less money because they cannot buy as much as they could before. Less spending means that business will have to lay off employees, leading into a downward spiral of the economy. If taxes are decreased by the government, consumers have more money to spend. Spending more money helps businesses earn more money, which means that can keep more employees or hire on more employees. An increasing number of working individuals leads to a lower rate of unemployment, and a higher rate of taxes being paid to the government. A lower unemployment rate means that the economy is

Systems Analysis & Design Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Systems Analysis & Design - Essay Example This paper will give details of Use Case Diagrams, Use Cases, Activity Diagram, Class Diagram, Sequence diagram and State Diagram of Caledonian Hotel System information system. Traditional information system projects were developed using the Systems Development Life Cycle (SLDC) or ‘Waterfall Model’ to manage and implement the system. Designed in the 1960s this methodology sees the process split into a series of distinct steps: Using the above ‘top-down’ process each step cannot commence until the preceding step has been completed and the findings passed down the chain, at each stage a review can take place to ensure that the requirements identified in the previous stage have been met. In recent years, this development process has come to be seen as too rigid, one of the major problems with this process is that the timescale involved from the project inception to the stage of implementation is far too long. Problems and delays at each stage of the process often result in late delivery of a system. However, a more serious problem is that because the development process is so long the final system produced can be out of date by the time it is released for use. As time passes, user requirements for a system may evolve as a company embraces new working process or technology, it is easy for these changes not to be incorporated into the system being developed and as a result, the completed system ma y not be fit for its intended purpose. To try and combat these problems new Iterative development processes have been adopted. This new iterative approach involves breaking the entire project into small ‘chunks’ based on functionality, rather than looking to deliver a complete solution one year after the project starts as the traditional waterfall process does, this iterative style will look to produce a working solution in a few months. This initial solution

Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 6

Economics - Essay Example b. The Fed fund rate averages at 7.10% during the 1970s, 9.97% during the 1980s, 5.15% during the 1990s, and 3.25% during the 2000-2007. The huge differences in the means of Fed fund rates can be explained by the differences in economic and monetary policies adhered by the different chairmen of the Federal Reserve. c. The Fed fund rate reached its maximum during January 1981 at 19.08% which is during the administration of Paul Volcker. Compared to the other Federal Reserve chairman, Volcker has been reputed as an inflation hawk who is more concerned on fighting inflation compared to a dove whose main concern is unemployment. This perception requires him to set the Fed fund rate at higher levels to fight stagflation. d. Fed fund rate is lowest during December 2003 at 0.98% due to the strong performance of the US economy. In fact this period saw the strongest economic development in the economy in nearly two decades. It can be recalled that during this period, the inflation targeting monetary policy has been adopted by the US. f. The Federal fund rate and ten-year Treasury bill rates tend to move apart as shown in the graph above. It should be noted that increases in Fed fund rates is simultaneous with declines in ten-year Treasury bill rates. g. The Federal Reserve solely influences the level of Fed fund rate. It should be noted that this is set during Federal Open Market Committee meetings depending on the agenda and economic situation of the United States. h. The ten-year Treasury bill rate is set by different variables in the economy like the real interest rates and inflation. The Fed can indirectly influence T-bill rates by affecting the monetary variables mentioned