C.E. Jottings

A Paces' MindMap

The opportunities for third sector organisations presented by Web2.0 eCommunications tools increasingly interest me. As well as exploring, here, how I might use a blog, I have also been looking into MindMaps. I first began trying to capture some key aspects of the Paces' project, "from where I sit": the Strategic Plan; Paces' activities; and my Web2.0 investigations. Following the adoption by Trustees on Monday of our Strategic Plan 2007-12, (which we drafted collaboratively using a private wiki), I have... Read more →

What is the difference between therapy and teaching?

On the PMLD Network Forum, Peter Limbrick from Interconnections posted a most interesting question. He wrote: "A young child with visual disability will be helped by a visual impairment teacher. If there are hearing problems, there will be a hearing impairment teacher. For a child who needs help with movement and posture there will be a physiotherapist. For speech, language and communication support there will be a speech and language therapist. Some children require all of these as early intervention.... Read more →

A victory for red tape?

"The proliferation of more and more stringent and prescriptive monitoring requirements is choking the voluntary sector, and forcing its beneficiaries into second place in the pecking order." So says Ben Wittenberg, Director of Policy and Research at the Directory of Social Change in a recent Guardian Online article. He argues that a trend towards "funding structures more commonly associated with statutory grants and contracts" is a trend towards "bureaucracy and accountability, rather than flexibility and common sense". He locates the... Read more →

Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship Report (1)

As a condition of the Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship, I have to produce a report of up to 20 pages. I have decided to draft it here, in public as it were, so that the process of its writing as much as the final report itself will be open. If I were to identify one symbol to stand for the whole endeavour, it would be the Question Mark. After living with cerebral palsy for the best part of 25 years,... Read more →