What does it mean to be a volunteer in the UK today? This book adds new insights into volunteering from the perspective of the individual, the organisation and the community .

"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a series of three books on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System. These reports contained recommendations that called on the federal government and private stakeholders to initiate changes aimed at improving the emergency care system. Three years later, in May 2009, the IOM convened a workshop to examine the progress to date in achieving these objectives, and to help assess priorities for future action. The May 2009 workshop, summarized in this volume, brought stakeholders and policy makers together to discuss which among the many challenges facing emergency care are most amenable to coordinated federal action. The workshop sought to foster information exchange among federal officials involved in advancing emergency care and key stakeholder groups from around the country.

Social enterprises - real businesses that trade for a social purpose - are a growing phenomena with an increasing role to play in society, but there is widespread confusion and controversy over the definition of the term. This exciting book includes nearly forty interviews with the most influential and experienced social enterprise practitioners, supporters, thinkers and policy makers. In their own words, they discuss their organisations, values and world-changing goals, providing fresh clarity and understanding on the real value of social enterprises. Jargon-free, the book delivers a lively and clear introduction as to what social enterprises are, how they can change individual lives and, by challenging assumptions, may even offer new directions for the future of capitalism. It is a unique guide for aspiring practitioners, students, researchers and public sector staff.

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Business Process Modeling, Development and Support (BPMDS 2011) and the 16th International Conference on Exploring Modeling Methods for Systems Analysis and Design (EMMSAD 2011), held together with the 23rd International Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering (CAiSE 2011) in London, UK, in June 2011. The 22 papers accepted for BPMDS were selected from 61 submissions and cover a wide spectrum of issues related to business processes development, modeling, and support. They are grouped into sections on BPMDS in practice, business process improvement, business process flexibility, declarative process models, variety of modeling paradigms, business process modeling and support systems development, and interoperability and mobility. The 16 papers accepted for EMMSAD were chosen from 31 submissions and focus on exploring, evaluating, and enhancing current information modeling methods and methodologies. They are grouped in sections on workflow and process modeling extensions, requirements analysis and information systems development, requirements evolution and information systems evolution, data modeling languages and business rules, conceptual modeling practice, and enterprise architecture.

Social service agencies in the United Kingdom are increasingly under pressure to provide personalized care, even as the larger climate of austerity puts pressure on their resources. Increasingly, this means that community-based organizations of five or fewer staff members--known as microenterprises--are being asked to handle work that was formerly the province of much larger providers. In part, this is rooted in the assumption that small organizations can be more innovative and responsive. This book tests that assumption, analyzing the work of care organizations with a specific focus on size and how it affects personalization and the quality of care.