Implementing the Caregiver Benefit Program in Nova Scotia: Supporting Unpaid Caregivers at Home

Nova Scotia is the only province in Canada to implement the Caregiver Benefit Program, an allowance of $400 a month to eligible caregivers if both the caregiver and care receiver qualify for the program. In response to Nova Scotia's aging population -- a population with increasingly complex chronic conditions -- more attention was given to home care and unpaid caregivers through the Continuing Care Strategy, which set the stage for implementation of more caregiver supports. The goals of the Caregiver Benefit are to acknowledge the contributions of eligible caregivers in providing assistance to a family member or friend, help sustain the support these caregivers provide, and keep people in their homes and out of long-term care. A policy window was created in 2009 for the New Democratic Party (NDP) to implement the Caregiver Benefit quickly after their election win by building on a previous Progressive Conservative initiative, thus fulfilling the NDP's promise to support seniors and caregivers. While no official evaluation has been conducted, it is the role of the Executive Director, Risk Mitigation of the Continuing Care Branch to provide accountability and monitoring of the policy. The Caregiver Benefit helps caregivers feel recognized and supported, however it potentially excludes a vulnerable population of caregivers and does not provide enough support to cover lost wages.

Approximation of customers’ rights institution concerning retail purchase-sale to the European Union provisions

In the article the meaning of the customer rights protection is researched regarding the minor purchase and sale, as a fundamentalfor the capitalist economy. Separately, it is noted that the adoption of the law “on consumer rights protection” was one of the first when Ukraine received the status of an independent state and fixed the basic principle of consumer rights protection in Part 2 of Article 50of the Constitution of Ukraine. The importance of the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union for updating theappropriate level of attention to consumer protection is considered. The Annex XXXIX to the 20 agreement regarding association isdefined, being fundamental for the purposes of the research, in which 15 provisions that concern the subject of the research are outlined.The special attention is devoted to the results that were already accomplished, even without the use of systematic approach by the legalauthorities. Three main spheres are found out, which will undergo swift development, as a consequence of continuation of work onapproximation of Ukrainian legislation to the European sample. Each of the streams is processed specifically and in detail. The optionsof future implementation are provided in the process of analysis. For a more complete understanding, separate statistical analysis wasmade. Special attention is paid to problematic issues that do not allow the executive authorities to approach the legislation with thehigher intensity and more effectively. The author’s vision of the Conception of the governmental policy in the sphere of customer’srights protection for the 2020 period is laid out. The critical remarks are being made regarding the inactivity of the executive authoritiesin attraction of European Committee for the official evaluation of the appropriateness of the Ukrainian legislation to the provisions ofthe European Union. Based on the analysis, the methodological concepts of transformation of the institution of the consumer rights protectionin the Ukrainian legislation are worked out.

How to best evaluate applications for junior fellowships? Remote evaluation and face-to-face panel meetings compared

ObjectivesTo test a simplified evaluation of fellowship proposals by analyzing the agreement of funding decisions with the official evaluation, and to examine the use of a lottery-based decision for proposals of similar quality.DesignThe study involved 134 junior fellowship proposals (Postdoc.Mobility). The official method used two panel reviewers who independently scored the application, followed by triage and discussion of selected applications in a panel. Very competitive/uncompetitive proposals were directly funded/rejected without discussion. The simplified procedure used the scores of the two panel members, with or without the score of an additional, third expert. Both methods could further use a lottery to decide on applications of similar quality close to the funding threshold. The same funding rate was applied, and the agreement between the two methods analyzed.SettingSwiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).ParticipantsPostdoc.Mobility panel reviewers and additional expert reviewers.Primary outcome measurePer cent agreement between the simplified and official evaluation method with 95% confidence intervals (95% CI).ResultsThe simplified procedure based on three reviews agreed in 80.6% (95% CI 73.9-87.3) with the official funding outcome. The agreement was 86.6% (95% CI 80.8-92.4) when using the two reviews of the panel members. The agreement between the two methods was lower for the group of applications discussed in the panel (64.2% and 73.1%, respectively), and higher for directly funded/rejected applications (range 96.7% to 100%). The lottery was used in eight (6.0%) of 134 applications (official method), 19 (14.2%) applications (simplified, three reviewers) and 23 (17.2%) applications (simplified, two reviewers). With the simplified procedure, evaluation costs could have been halved and 31 hours of meeting time saved for the two 2019 calls.ConclusionAgreement between the two methods was high. The simplified procedure could represent a viable evaluation method for the Postdoc.Mobility early career instrument at the SNSF.

Defining and Evaluation of Competencies of an Officer of the Czech Armed Forces

The article deals with the issue of identification and evaluation of the competencies of senior officers of the Czech Armed Forces. Paper investigates the role of the authorities responsible for military branches and military occupation specialties in the system of defining officer´s competencies. It was also examined the scope of possible application of the competency model of a professional soldier defined by the National System of Occupations in the process of career management. As a comprehensive and optimal solution, a full application of competency model is proposed. The partial application of the competency model is based only on the use of the soft competencies component. Both of these proposals are formulated primarily for the purpose of describing the job position and official evaluation. The paper also brings a number of proposals in the conceptual and normative area circumscribing and strengthening the role of the responsible authorities in the process of defining the officer´s competencies.

Funny Numbers

The difficulties associated with evaluating the efficiency of treatment in mental hospitals in the 19th century provide a vivid example of how numbers become a stumbling block when used for official evaluation of institutions. The evasion of assessment due to private interests or because of corruption tends to make these numbers “funny” in the sense of becoming dishonest, while the mismatch between boring, technical appearances and cunning backstage manipulations supplies dark humor. The article focuses on the various ways in which medical clinics and government agencies as well as large companies manipulate numbers for the sake of improving performance and finding objective facts. The author examines and analyzes the practices of classification, standardization and ordering of the parameters by which the performance of a particular structure is assessed, while also questioning the relevance of these number-based practices as an assessment tool. The article cites as an example the various tricks resorted to by directors of treatment centers for the mentally ill in order to improve performance and claim that most of their patients are healthy when discharged. The hidden ambivalence of numbers, their deceptiveness and their unsuitability for resolving contradictions and unifying experience based on statistical data are demonstrated. The concept of a thin description is also introduced, which implies an unambiguous interpretation of funny numbers and using them as an argument for evaluating efficiency. The dangers are evident in recent efforts to decentralize the functions of governments and corporations by using incentives based on quantified targets.

Research: ‘help or hindrance’?

This chapter analyses the engagement of researchers with previous debates about ‘the underclass’ and notes that a recurring feature of such debates is the involvement of researchers. It examines the research approach within the Troubled Families Programme (TFP), highlighting the use, misuse, and abuse of research in a number of key areas. The chapter looks at a number of issues including the misrepresentation of data behind the Understanding Troubled Families report which helped support the case for the expansion of the TFP; the invention of a survey that allegedly proved the need for radical reform of services to help troubled families; the use of case studies in the troubled families narrative; and the criticism of researchers involved with the official evaluation of the first phase of the TFP.

Whodunnit? Memory and Politics before the 50th Anniversary of the Cultural Revolution

Song Binbin, the daughter of prominent CCP politician Song Renqiong, has long been accused of having played a role in the death of Bian Zhongyun which took place at the Girls' Middle School in Beijing Normal University on 5 August 1966. In January 2014, she publicly apologized for the violence that occurred at her school during the summer of 1966. However, instead of applauding her act of contrition, rebel participants of the Cultural Revolution used the opportunity to criticize the sons and daughters of high-ranking cadres and to try to overturn the 1981 official evaluation of the Cultural Revolution by promoting a positive view of that period in Chinese history. This paper analyses the background, consequences and implications of Song Binbin's apology from a political science cum memory studies perspective. It argues, against the background of a changing political landscape in the People's Republic of China, that the memory of the Cultural Revolution remains a battlefield of divergent memory groups and multiple narratives. In the memory of today, the struggles of the Cultural Revolution have still not come to an end.