Removing the “Reasonable Punishment” defence in Wales

In January 2020, the Welsh parliament passed the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act to repeal the “reasonable punishment” defence. The Act states that “corporal punishment of a child taking place in Wales cannot be justified in any civil or criminal proceedings on the ground that it constituted reasonable punishment.” The Act also compels the Welsh Government to promote public awareness and to monitor and report on the impacts of the ban three and five years after coming into force. The Act received Royal Assent on March 20, 2020 and came into force two years later. This article traces the history of the campaign to prohibit corporal punishment by parents and those acting in loco parentis. Factors relating to the government, the population and civil society which may contributed to success in Wales are laid out. Some factors are addressed that may explain the lack of progress so far in Wales’s nearest neighbour, England

Brain-stem serotonin transporter availability in maternal uniparental disomy and deletion Prader–Willi syndrome

Prader–Willi syndrome (PWS) is a rare condition because of the deletion of paternal chromosomal material (del PWS), or a maternal uniparental disomy (mUPD PWS), at 15q11-13. Affective psychosis is more prevalent in mUPD PWS. We investigated the relationship between the two PWS genetic variants and brain-stem serotonin transporter (5-HTT) availability in adult humans. Mean brain-stem 5-HTT availability determined by [123I]-beta-CIT single photon emission tomography was lower in eight adults with mUPD PWS compared with nine adults with del PWS (mean difference −0.93, t = −2.85, P = 0.014). Our findings confirm an association between PWS genotype and brain-stem 5-HTT availability, implicating a maternally expressed/paternally imprinted gene, that is likely to account for the difference in psychiatric phenotypes between the PWS variants

Liberty and respect in child protection

The paper begins by introducing Isaiah Berlin’s concepts of positive and negative liberty and the application of these concepts to child protection. There is discussion of some recent debates on the social and political context of state social work and child protection in particular. The authors then consider, in turn, the experience of children, parents and social workers in the child protection system. There is also a consideration of partnership and rights. The conclusion is that opportunities for statutory child protection to be liberating are limited, but that there is more potential than the most pessimistic accounts might allow. Rather than libertarian child protection, social workers can aim for child protection practice that is respectful. The paper concludes with some principles for respectful practice, based on the ideas of Richard Sennett. Most importantly, Sennett’s ideas recognise the importance of relationships in social welfare and acknowledge the context of inequality within which social work takes place

Exploring communication between social workers and children and young people

A key issue for the social work profession concerns the nature, quality and content of communicative encounters with children and families. This article introduces some findings from a project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) that took place across the UK between 2013 and 2015, which explored how social workers communicate with children in their everyday practice. The Talking and Listening to Children (TLC) project had three phases: the first was ethnographic, involving observations of social workers in their workplace and during visits; the second used video-stimulated recall with a small number of children and their social workers; and the third developed online materials to support social workers. This paper discusses findings from the first phase. It highlights a diverse picture regarding the context and content of communicative processes; it is argued that attention to contextual issues is as important as focusing on individual practitioners’ behaviours and outlines a model for so doing

Rights, 'right on' or the right thing to do? A critical exploration of young people's engagement in participative social work research

This paper provides a detailed analysis of the participative processes of a research project with young people that was overtly ‘participative’ in its aim. In doing so it attempts to contribute to debates about participative research. In this paper we join with others in critiquing the notion that research which aims to be participative is necessarily more enabling for participants, is ethically or morally superior to other types of research or produces ‘better’ research. Nonetheless, we argue that participatory research can make a central contribution, in providing an ethical, epistemological and political framework and in the potential for rich ‘findings’. We understand participative research with children and young people to mean that which involves participants in some of the process of research, such as question-setting, research design, ethical review, data generation, analysis or dissemination rather than simply providing data through more or less engaging methods. We understand participation as not being something just about children or about children in opposition to adults, but as part of a complex inter-subjective relationship between adults and children (where both adults and children are being encouraged to step outside normative generational roles). An analysis of participation can potentially examine microexchanges between adults and children, between children, and between adults, as well as a broader picture. In what follows we argue that, whilst the discipline of childhood studies has engaged critically with the notion of children’s participation in society, there has been less critical discussion, and perhaps indeed some complacency, about the claims made for participatory research with children

Immunisation status of children receiving care and support in Wales: a national data linkage study

Background: In the UK, a robust childhood immunisation programme ensures children are offered protection against serious infections; identifying inequalities in vaccination coverage is essential. This is one of the first data linkage studies to examine coverage of primary, as well as pre-school booster and second dose of MMR vaccines, in children receiving support from social care services across Wales. Methods: By accessing records held within the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank, vaccination status of children receiving social care and support between April 2016 and March 2021 (n = 24,540) was ascertained. This was achieved through linkage of the Children Receiving Care and Support (CRCS) Census and National Community Child Health Database which holds vaccination records for all children in Wales registered for NHS care. This sample was split into three groups – those children who had never been recorded on the Child Protection Register (CPR) or as ‘Looked After’ but in CRCS (n = 12,480), children ever on the CPR (n = 6,225) and those ever recorded as ‘Looked After’ but who were never on the CPR (n = 5,840). The comparison group of children and young people (CYP) never receiving welfare support consisted of 624,905 children. Results: Children receiving care or support were more likely to be up-to-date with all six vaccines (no recorded vaccines: 0.6–6.3%) compared to children in the comparison group (no recorded vaccines: 3–10.3%). However, of those who were vaccinated, they were less likely to be vaccinated in a timely manner; both early (5.2% vs. 22.2%; margin of error [ME] = 0.52, 95% CI [confidence interval] = −0.18 – −0.17, p < 0.001) and delayed vaccinations were more common (62.7% vs. 71.3%; ME = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.08–0.09, p < 0.001). Validation of the CRCS immunisation flag showed moderate levels of accuracy. Around 70% of immunisation flags were correct across all three groups. Discussion: Findings suggest a positive association between receiving services under a care and support plan and being up-to-date with immunisations; children receiving support under a care and support plan were more likely to have experienced early or late vaccinations, demonstrating that there is still more inter-disciplinary co-ordination and planning needed to improve these outcomes. Thus, identifying inequalities in vaccination coverage is essential to target interventions and to prioritise geographic areas for catch-up