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The growth of telecare is providing an infrastructure that will underpin services at home for an increasing number of people with support needs in the UK. The growth is prompted, in part, by grant funding from central government and the devolved administrations. It also relates to imperatives that (a) respond to people's choices; (b) promote better health and well‐being; and (c) seek savings in public money. Increasing proportions of telecare service users have critical or substantial needs (according to the Fair Access to Care Services criteria operated by social services authorities). There is the concomitant requirement that such services must be provided in accordance with good practice. This paper explores some of the issues around that good practice and the way that the Telecare Services Association Code of Practice is changing to ensure that progress is made towards good practice goals.

Accessing and interviewing older people in residential and nursing homes (care homes) presents a number of methodological challenges. Such challenges were encountered and, in many respects, overcome in a recent survey of more than 900 residents undertaken for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). This survey helped underpin a broader review of care homes that reflected the OFT's concerns about the ‘potential for detriment’ in the position of residents as consumers of services.Notable are the ways in which an attempt was made to maximise the inclusion of people with cognitive impairments through the devising of what was regarded as an appropriate screening test that reflected the demands of the planned interviews. A discussion of the potential for using proxies (for those failing the screening test) points to their inability to fairly represent the views of cognitively impaired residents. Also explored is the way in which access was obtained to residents and issues concerning the gate‐keeping role of home owners and managers. Questions relating to the associated rights of residents and third party interests are touched upon.

This paper examines, by reference to a telecare service evaluation in the Republic of Ireland, the role and potential of bed epilepsy sensors. It points to benefits for both users and carers that arise from the sensors both enabling speedy responses in the event of a seizure, and in their providing reassurance and a better quality of life for both parties.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the use of surveillance technologies in care homes and the way in which they can help protect older people. It signals an ethical way forward for their use that de-fuses the heightened rhetoric associated with concerns about the abuse. Totally, seven principles are put forward by which the use of surveillance technologies can be supported.

The paper recognises the significance of technological developments and the key part that they now play in helping people live more independently. Surveillance technologies have a part in this within care homes, but there are important ethical considerations – notably around the way in which concerns for privacy are balanced with those about people’s safety and autonomy.

The paper points to an approach that can guide the use of surveillance technologies within care homes. The seven principles put forward will be built on through further work in 2015 including care home residents, family carers, formal care providers and others. In setting out these principles the paper mediates between the positions of those who argue the merits of such technologies and those who point to some of them, notably cameras, as undermining people’s privacy and the nature of the “care relationship”.

The subject matter of the paper is important because of the attention being given to problems of abuse in care settings; and the freedom by which anyone can access technologies that can be used for surveillance. The paper is timely and carries substantial originality.

This chapter reports on findings from a study that explored the experiences of African American young men who graduated from Du Bois Academy, an all-boys public charter secondary school in the Midwestern region of the United States. The chapter considers issues of African American male persistence and achievement and how they are impacted by school culture. Specifically, the author discusses how school culture can help shape these students’ educational experiences and aspirations. Using student narratives as the guide, a description of how Du Bois Academy successfully engaged these African American male students is provided. The students articulated three critical components of school culture that positively shaped their high achievement and engagement: (a) sense of self, (b) promotion of excellence, and (c) community building. The student narratives provided a frame for promoting positive school culture that enhances the educational experiences and academic aspirations of African American male students.

The rapid evolution of the social alarm network in the UK during the 1980s is one of the greatest success stories of the local authority housing departments which championed their growth. Yet, during the past decade, when ‘care in the community’ became a reality and the number of older people living alone in society increased significantly, the number of connections has often grown slowly and investment in new technology has been relatively low. This article describes the features of new generations of ‘telecare’ using systems with increasing potential.