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Background: Festivals play an important role in improving death and grief literacy, enabling members of the public to engage with these often-sensitive topics. Good Grief Weston festival was co-designed and delivered with the community in Weston-super-Mare, a coastal town in South-West England with high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage but rich community assets. It was held in person over 8 days in May 2023. Objectives: To evaluate the reach and impact of Good Grief Weston festival and gather data to inform future festivals. Design: Mixed methods evaluation (survey and focus groups). Methods: Online and paper surveys assessing participants' characteristics and experiences were administrated during and after the festival. Survey participants who indicated their willingness to participate were invited to attend a focus group. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Data were collected by trained community co-researchers. Results: Approximately 3000 people attended the festival. Of 204 completed surveys, 64.5% were from women, age range ⩽15 to ⩾75 years; 88.2% identified as White; 14.9% deaf, disabled/with a chronic condition; 18.9% neurodivergent; 9.0% gay, bisexual or queer. Festival participants were entertained (70.9%), inspired (68.5%), felt part of a like-minded community (54.3%), talked to someone new (49.2%), learnt about grief/bereavement (34.3%), shared or expressed experiences (30.3%) and found out about local support (19.7%). 71.3% reported that they felt more confident talking about grief after attending. Median experience rating was 5 (IQR 0; possible range 1 = poor to 5 = excellent). In free-text comments, participants expressed appreciation for the festival and described benefits in attending. Two focus groups were conducted (n = 8 participants, all women), lasting c.1.5 h. Focus groups added rich descriptions of the festival's value, and data to inform the next festival. Conclusion: Findings suggest festivals of this nature can play a central role in a public health approach. Plain language summary: What was the impact of Good Grief Weston festival? Why was the study done? Previous studies have shown that many people feel unsupported by their community after the death of a loved one. We designed a festival to improve knowledge and support for bereaved people. We did this study to assess how the festival affected the people who attended. What did the researchers do? The team included researchers and people and organisations from the local community. Together, we designed and ran a festival on the topic of death, grief and bereavement in Weston-super-Mare, a coastal town with areas of high deprivation. The festival took place over an eight-day period in May 2023 and included creative, interactive and educational events. The team collected feedback on attendees' experiences of the festival. We did this using online and paper feedback forms, postcards, and focus groups to collect as many opinions as possible. What did the researchers find? We found that a wide range of people attended the festival. Most people who took part in the research rated the festival as 'excellent'. They told us they learnt about grief and bereavement and found out about local support services. Attendees met new people, shared their experiences, and felt that the festival built community spirit. They also made suggestions to improve any future festivals. What do the findings mean? The findings show that in-person festivals can effectively engage the public on the topic of death, grief and bereavement. They can also help develop connections between people and organisations in communities. These connections and learning opportunities may help communities to support their members through bereavement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During COVID and lockdown, many prisoners have not only been affected by infection transmission in crowded and ill-equipped institutions, they have also been separated from a range of supports, including loss of family and professional supports and support for prisoners with addiction and/or mental health problems has been disrupted. This paper reports on evidence of how peer-based recovery organizations have attempted to mitigate these adverse effects, based on a case study of one prison in the North-West of England, using a range of routine reporting data and original research data. The paper shows how prison-based peer recovery support has not only continued through lockdown but grown both in the prison and in continuing care on release. The key conclusion is that Lived Experience Recovery Organizations (LEROs) have a vital role to play in offering continuing care to prison populations both to support early recovery and to sustain change around release back into the community, in COVID but also more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NHS England’s Five Year Forward View outlines new care models and the need for a workforce that has the skills, values, and competencies to deliver this vision. This is a position paper detailing the context, method, and intentions of a Health Education England funded project led by Manchester Metropolitan University in the North West of England, which the authors see as making a key contribution to addressing issues of illness, crisis, and loss in the changing landscape of health and social care provision in England. Using an action research methodology and drawing together key stakeholders from the sector, the project aims to explore the potential for creating a professional health and social care graduate workforce which meets the needs of an integrated service delivery landscape by identifying key issues to be addressed when redeveloping the undergraduate curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population Health Management – often abbreviated to PHM – is a relatively new approach for healthcare planning, requiring the application of analytical techniques to linked patient level data. Despite expectations for greater uptake of PHM, there is a deficit of available solutions to help health services embed it into routine use. This paper concerns the development, application and use of an interactive tool which can be linked to a healthcare system's data warehouse and employed to readily perform key PHM tasks such as population segmentation, risk stratification, and deriving various performance metrics and descriptive summaries. Developed through open-source code in a large healthcare system in South West England, and used by others around the country, this paper demonstrates the importance of a scalable, purpose-built solution for improving the uptake of PHM in health services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: High variation in clinical practice may indicate uncertainty and potentially low-value care. Methods to identify low value care are often not well defined or transparent and can be time intensive. In this paper we explore the usefulness of variation analysis of routinely-collected data about surgical procedures in England to identify potentially low-value surgical care. Methods: This is a national ecological study using Hospital Episode Statistics linked to mid-year population estimates and indices of multiple deprivation in England, 2014/15-2018/19. We identified the top 5% of surgical procedures in terms of growth in standardised procedure rates for 2014/15 to 2018/19 and variation in procedure rates between clinical commissioning groups as measured by the systematic component of variance (SCV). A targeted literature review was conducted to explore the evidence for each of the identified techniques. Procedures without evidence of cost-effectiveness were viewed as of potentially low value. Results: We identified six surgical procedures that had a high growth rate of 37% or more over 5 years, and four with higher geographical variation (SCV >1.6). There was evidence for two of the 10 procedures that surgery was more cost-effective than non-surgical treatment albeit with uncertainty around optimal surgical technique. The evidence base for eight procedures was less clear cut, with uncertainty around clinical- and/or cost-effectiveness. These were: deep brain stimulation; removing the prostate; surgical spine procedures; a procedure to alleviate pain in the spine; surgery for dislocated joints due to trauma and associated surgery for traumatic fractures; hip joint replacement with cemented pelvic component or cemented femoral component; and shoulder joint replacement. Conclusions: This study demonstrates that variation analysis could be regularly used to identify potentially low-value procedures. This can provide important insights into optimising services and the potential de-adoption of costly interventions and treatments that do not benefit patients and the health system more widely. Early identification of potentially low value care can inform prioritisation of clinical trials to generate evidence on effectiveness and cost-effectiveness before treatments become established in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Engaging in 'reflexive practice' throughout the research process (Benson and O'Reilly, 2022) and a 'reflexivity of discomfort' (Hamdan, 2009) through an intersectional lens, this article presents a reflective account of accessing and conducting observations and interviews at a South Asian women's organisation, in North England, to explore Pakistani and Bangladeshi Muslim (PBM) lone motherhood. It critically explores how researchers' own subjectivities and intersecting identities – in this case, my intersecting identities and positionalities as a young British Pakistani Muslim women, researcher and volunteer – impact interactions in different circumstances with different groups of participants and the importance of having continuous critical self-awareness. Moving beyond simplistic insider–outsider debates, the paper contributes towards further developing reflexivity debates taking an 'intersectional reflexivity' approach. It argues for thinking about the research process and engagements in the field as socially constructed, changing, adapting and negotiated overtime and to utilise intersectionality to unpick broader categories. Finally, it encourages researchers to adopt reflexivity in their research practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The confluence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the murder of George Floyd in America and a global Black Lives Matter response triggered anew the global struggle for racial justice. Using cyber, remote, and in-person ethnographic methods, this paper explores racial identity, allyship and processes of becoming during the spring and summer of 2020. Building on theories of 'the struggle for recognition', I situate becoming within the interplay of what I call epistemic, affective and reciprocal authenticity. Within this project, I address identity, redistribution and the reconfiguration of conceptual distinctions between justice and dignity. The analysis reflects a time of racial tension in a provincial Northeastern town in England, UK – a predominantly white and marginalised location. I amplify the personal testimonies, conversations and written words of three quite different activists to highlight the nuanced refractions of lived experience and a developing antiracism. These collaborators reveal how their antiracist becomings, in the light of 2020 events, incorporate affective, epistemic and reciprocal authenticities that bring to the fore new potentialities for racial justice, white allyship and recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

City deals – place-based agreements between central and local state actors – are an increasingly common intervention for supporting economic performance in urban areas. This paper presents empirical evidence on the effectiveness of city deals by estimating the impact of the UK's City Deals scheme on rates of economic growth, productivity and job creation across England between 2010 and 2019. Because the City Deals were introduced in two waves, we estimate its effects using a differences-in-differences (DiD) with multiple time periods (MTPs) approach. Our DiD estimates indicate that, overall, the City Deals were associated with improvements in local economic performance, but that the first wave of city deals resulted in gains of around 2.5% to 3% that were not observed in the second wave. These results suggest that city deals are most effective when appropriate institutional structures are in place and highlight the value of MTP approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article draws on Incident Reporting System data from the National Offender Management Service over a ten-year period (2004–2014) and limited, small-scale interviews with four custodial managers. Pat Carlen's work (2008) on imaginary penalities provides the theoretical framework for an assessment of the reporting, recording and initial response to sexual assaults in prisons in England and Wales. The article argues that the recording of sexual assaults became part of a response to new management systems that emphasised compliance, process and audit rather than realising safety in custody. Although the data shows substantial levels of initial activity among staff it is, in essence, practice without prospect. The article suggests that outcomes generally for sexual assaults in prisons in England and Wales are uncertain. Incident reporting has become a bureaucratic process 'or paper shadow', which Goffman described as showing 'what has been done by whom, what is to be done, and who last had responsibility for it' (Goffman 1961: 73). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The project on which this paper is grounded is the first in-depth empirical study of the impacts of COVID-19 on each stage of the English and Welsh Youth Justice System. We take the notion of a child's right to a fair trial as the lens by which we detail the findings from our research. The paper documents the experiences of professionals working in the courts and children who had contact with the courts during the pandemic. While we concentrate on processes in England and Wales as an exemplar of the impact of COVID-19, recognising that globally, courts were experiencing similar challenges, initiates a discourse about how to re-envision their role in wider criminal justice systems in a COVID-19 world. Our research demonstrates an urgent need for renewed consideration of what support children need to effectively participate in court, and where and how children's cases should be heard. The pandemic demonstrated that creativity is possible and creates a timely opportunity to review the evidence and think more radically about a welfare-based, trauma-informed court process for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 21st century has seen the rise of a new phenomenon – the creation of statues and monuments celebrating the lives of entertainers. Drawing on debates about popular culture, placemaking and heritage, and in the context of recent controversies about the politics of statues and memorials, this paper examines a manifestation of this phenomenon as represented by statues of comedians erected in the towns of Northern England. The paper begins by sketching the characteristics of the statues and their subjects. It proceeds by reflecting on their emergence in the context of debates about the contested place of nostalgia in social and cultural theory. The paper uses a strategically selected sub-set of the statues to reflect on the emerging cultural and political imaginary of towns as sites of contemporary political struggles. It concludes by asserting that the significant affective investment into statues projects and the progressive potential of popular cultural nostalgia offer an important corrective to crude assumptions about the cultural lives of towns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Scottish Law Commission has recently confirmed in its Eleventh Programme of Reform, published in May 2023, the continuation of its medium-term project to examine the law of homicide. This includes a review of sexual infidelity killings and provocation as a partial defence to murder, or otherwise. It embraces a critique of whether and, if so, how any necessary proposals for modernising the law in this sensitive and important area should be made. A Discussion Paper has previously been published for examination. Against this backdrop, we analyse whether sexual infidelity ought to be retained in extant Scots law, as one of only two relationally relevant qualifying triggers. In November 2023, the Law Commission in England and Wales announced its forthcoming review of domestic homicide given contemporary understandings of the impact of domestic abuse. We provide novel insights into Anglo-Scottish law to seek to recalibrate the understanding of coercive/controlling behaviour in the contextualisation of sexual infidelity killings. Our review highlights the ways in which allegations of (actual or perceived) sexual infidelity may be symptomatic of coercive control through consideration of recent case law, and via the lens of Monckton-Smith's eight stages to femicide. A risk assessment is utilised to demonstrate the extent to which victims of coercive controlling behaviour have their capacity for action delimited, and how this should inform deliberations in cases where the coercively controlled individual kills in response. A novel and original new template is promulgated for provocation reform predicated de novo on qualifying triggers of domestic abuse and gross breach of trust and with a part-justificatory – part excusatory standardisation. It is suggested that a new nomenclature and typology is required as extant Scottish law on provocation is out of step with contemporary social mores, and the law in England and Wales does not adequately address contextual factors, such as, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexuality, disability, and migrant status, which impact on a domestic abuse victim's capacity for action. It is further propounded that a social entrapment lens, drawing on initiatives crystallised from New Zealand and Australian academician perspectives, ought to be enacted as part of urgently needed effective remedial legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on a women's synod at Liverpool Hope University College in Liverpool, California from July 24 to 28, 1999. Characteristics of the synod; Description of the synod's format; Text of letters to church leaders in Great Britain, women's organizations and synod participants.

Background: In recent years, a significant proportion of inpatient facilities for people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism has been de-commissioned in England, This has resulted in individuals with intellectual disabilities being sent to distant hospitals far away from their families and carers leading to challenges in follow-up, community care and interventions. The impact of de-institutionalisation, has often caused patient trauma, family distress and subsequent discharge difficulties. Not every individual with intellectual disabilities and/or autism requires inpatient care but inpatient care when needed has to be local, adequate and appropriate. Aims: To evaluate current evidence of utility of inpatient models for people with intellectual disabilities and outline best clinical practice. Method: PubMed, CINAHL, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Scopus, Web of Science were searched with key search terms. The search was conducted by the information specialist and identified abstracts screened further for inclusion criteria, methodological issues, and other appropriate characteristics. Twenty-three papers were included in the rapid review. Papers shortlisted had the inclusion criteria applied against the full text version independently by two reviewers. Disagreements regarding eligibility of studies was resolved by discussion and consensus within the project team. Key data related to in-patient models of care was extracted from the included papers, which included year of study, design, study objectives, target population, method/s tested, outcomes reported, country of study/studies, and results. Data extraction was performed by two reviewers and reviewed by the project team. Results: From the review of services for people with intellectual disabilities, we came across four broad models/frameworks/approaches. Evidence on what worked for inpatient service provision tended to be based on models developed and implemented locally. Conclusions: We make recommendations for the best clinical practice and standards. Both clinical service providers and policymakers need to be aware of specific needs of individuals with intellectual disability and/or autism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite extensive research looking at the phenomenon of burnout, little is known about how individuals working in traditionally high-burnout occupations understand the term. Interviews were conducted with six teachers working in state schools in England centring on how the term burnout was understood and how it was used or encountered. Reflexive thematic analysis was employed from a critical realist perspective to analyse the data generated. All participants described burnout as a stress-related condition, yet for some participants the point at which stress became burnout was unclear leading to an understanding that burnout was the point at which one was unable to work. Many participants highlighted an individualistic understanding of burnout, perceiving it as representing an individual deficit rather than an organisational failing. This was often reinforced by where the term was encountered (at work or in the media) and was linked to the stigma many participants associated with burnout. This paper concludes that individualistic framings of burnout obscure its organisational determinants while reinforcing notions that mental well-being is something which should be personally – and privately – managed by individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concerns parenting assessments which are integral to child-safeguarding professional processes in England, and which involve Deaf parents whose primary language is British Sign Language (BSL). In an under-researched area of social work, the research aim was to contribute to the existing literature by eliciting the practice wisdom of specialist professionals. Specifically, it draws upon their linguistic and cultural knowledge of the Deaf community when they are involved in parenting assessments with Deaf parents who are subject to safeguarding concerns. Data about these professionals' actual experiences of navigating Deaf cultural-competency in contemporary child protection practices were collected through seven video-recorded, semi-structured interviews conducted in BSL. Using interpretive phenomenological analysis, data were analysed in their source language (BSL). This article focusses on one key theme, termed 'Professional Recognition', which incorporates a) the identification of specialist roles and b) the impact of referral processes and protocols on assessment outcomes. The findings highlight participants' perspectives on the benefits and disadvantages of their specialist role in this context. Although their brokerage skills, cultural competence, linguistic fluency and specialist knowledge of the Deaf community are highly regarded and valued by some colleagues, there is insufficient recognition of their existence by the majority. Secondly, participants are concerned by the inefficiency and inconsistency of the referral processes and protocols which they consider have adverse effects on assessment outcomes, and consequently the parents involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Hospice-at-home aims to enable patients approaching end-of-life to die at home and support their carers. A wide range of different service models exists but synthesised evidence on how best to support family carers to provide sustainable end-of-life care at home is limited. Aim: To explore what works best to promote family carers' experiences of hospice-at-home. Design: Realist evaluation with mixed methods. This paper focuses on qualitative interviews with carers (to gain their perspective and as proxy for patients) and service providers from 12 case study sites in England. Interviews were coded and programme theories were refined by the research team including two public members. Setting/participants: Interviews with carers (involved daily) of patients admitted to hospice-at-home services (n = 58) and hospice-at-home staff (n = 78). Results: Post bereavement, 76.4% of carers thought that they had received as much help and support as they needed and most carers (75.8%) rated the help and support as excellent or outstanding. Of six final programme theories capturing key factors relevant to providing optimum services, those directly relevant to carer experiences were: integration and co-ordination of services; knowledge, skills and ethos of hospice staff; volunteer roles; support directed at the patient–carer dyad. Conclusions: Carers in hospice-at-home services identified care to be of a higher quality than generic community services. Hospice staff were perceived as having 'time to care', communicated well and were comfortable with dying and death. Hands-on care was particularly valued in the period close to death. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The Health of the Nation Outcomes Scales for people with Learning Disabilities (HoNOS-LD) is an 18-item measure which provides a structured and standardized approach to rating various clinical and psychosocial outcomes and has been in use nationally since 2002. Aims: To revise and improve the HoNOS-LD's utility in contemporary intellectual disability (ID) services whilst retaining its original objectives and five-point severity ratings. Method: ID clinicians were invited to complete an online survey, rating each item on the existing measure for being fit for purpose, identifying issues and suggesting improvements based on their experience of using the HoNOS-LD in practice. Scales were then assessed and revised sequentially; survey responses were used to inform discussion and revisions to the HoNOS-LD by the Advisory Board. Results: A total of 75 individuals replied. Respondents had used HoNOS-LD for an average of 8.0 years (S.D. 5.28 years) and 88% found the scale to be useful in their practice. On average, respondents used HoNOS-LD ratings to inform care 42.4% of the time (S.D. 33.5%). For each scale there was a significant negative correlation between the percentage of positive/very positive respondent ratings and the number of changes proposed. Common changes included simplifying terms, reducing ambiguity and replacing anachronistic language. Conclusion: The changes outlined in this paper are based on the advisory group's expert consensus. These changes are intended to improve reliability and validity but now need empirical testing as well as review by service users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fieldwork encounters are not only contingent to biographical subjectivities, but are mediated by a confluence of identity, place and embodiment. This paper offers reflexive accounts of researchers with various socio-cultural and disciplinary backgrounds, who collaborated as a team to examine the varied funerary experiences and needs of established minorities and recent migrants in England and Wales. Focusing on the researchers' varied personal experiences with death and bereavement and on their performances of minority and majority ethnic and migrant identities, the paper highlights the mediated and embodied nature of fieldwork. It argues that reflection on the various aspects of intersectional researcher identity is necessary for a rigorous fieldwork practice that takes transparency and politics into account. This facilitates a deeper understanding of the positionality of both researchers and interlocutors, and the situated co-production of knowledge. In doing so, the paper illustrates that conducting research with a diverse team of researchers contributes to better understanding the complexity and multifacetedness of social phenomena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, there has been a growing trend towards the use of 'big qualitative data' in applied health research, particularly when used as part of mixed methods evaluations of health policy in England. These 'big qualitative' studies tend to be longitudinal, complex (multi-site and multi-stakeholder) and involve the use of multiple methods (interviews, observations, documents) and large numbers of participants (n = 100+). Despite their growing popularity, there is no methodological guidance or methodological reflection on how to undertake such studies. Qualitative researchers are therefore faced with a series of unknowns when designing large qualitative studies, particularly in terms of knowing whether existing qualitative sampling and analysis methods are appropriate in this context. In this paper, we use our experience of undertaking a big qualitative study, as part of a national mixed methods evaluation of a health policy in England to reflect on some of the key challenges that we faced in our qualitative study, which broadly related to: sample size, data analysis and the role of patient and public engagement. Underpinning these difficulties was the challenge of being flexible and innovative within the largely positivist research climate of applied health research and being comfortable with uncertainty relating to the three issues outlined. The reflections we present are not to be viewed as a method 'how to' guide, but rather as a platform to raise key issues relating to the qualitative methods that we found challenging, in order to stimulate discussion and debate amongst the qualitative community. Through this paper, we therefore hope to demystify what it is like to undertake such a study and hope to spark much needed discussion and innovation to support the future design and conduct of qualitative research at scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A greater understanding of Over the Counter (OTC) and Prescription Only Medication (POM) misuse amongst adults accessing substance misuse services (SMS) during COVID-19 is required to identify how SMS can better meet the needs of the people who require treatment. Aim: To use a questionnaire to explore OTC/POM misuse during COVID-19 in adults accessing community SMS in England. Methods: In 2020 to 2021 anonymous self-administered online/paper questionnaires which collated quantitative and qualitative data were completed. They were piloted for suitability and ethical approval was obtained. Thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data and chi-square tests used to assess the relationship between quantitative variables. Results: Participants were Caucasian (94.6% British), majority male (58.9%), aged 18 to 61 years. Most were prescribed medication for problematic substance use, with a 92.5% self-reported adherence rate. The misuse of benzodiazepines (22.2%) codeine products (30.8%) and pregabalin (14.5%) predominated and 37.5% misused 2 or more medicines. Administration was usually oral and concomitant use of other substances was common: alcohol 44.6% (52% daily), tobacco/vaping 73.2% and illicit substances 58.9%. There were statistically significant associations identified, including between changes during COVID-19 to OTC/POM misuse and illicit use. Only 56 questionnaires were included in the analysis: we believe this low number was because of infection control measures, limited footfall in services, pressures on staff limiting their capacity to distribute the paper questionnaires and reliance upon telephone consultations limiting online distribution. Increasing OTC/POM misuse and obtaining illicit supplies were reported when access to usual supplies were restricted; however, changes to doses/dispensing arrangement liberalisation in response to COVID-19 were positively viewed. Conclusion: OTC/POM misuse, including polypharmacy and concomitant use of other substances occurred during COVID-19: SMS need to be vigilant for these issues and mitigate the associated risks for example with harm reduction interventions. Further qualitative research is required to explore the issues identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social work case files hold rich detail about the lives and needs of vulnerable groups. Traditional case-reading studies to gain generalisable knowledge are resource-intensive, however, and sample sizes thereby limited. The advent of 'big data' technology, and vast repositories of centrally stored electronic records offer social work researchers novel alternatives, including data linkage and predictive risk modelling using administrative data. Free-text documents, however – including assessments, reports, and case chronologies – remain a largely untapped resource. This paper describes how 5000 social work court statements held by the Child and Family Court Advisory Support Service in England (Cafcass) were analysed using natural language processing (NLP) based on simple rules and mathematical principles. Thirteen factors relating to harm and risk to children involved in care proceedings in England were identified by automated computer techniques, and almost 90% agreement with professional readers achieved when the factors were clear-cut. The study represents an innovative approach for social work research on complex social problems. In conclusion, the paper discusses learning points; practical implications; future research avenues; and the technical and ethical challenges of NLP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents one aspect of a sociocultural micro-ethnographic study examining how 11- and 12-year-old children formulate meanings when working with an artist in a contemporary art gallery. My primary focus is an examination of methodological contributions emerging from an imaginative coding and analysis of children's art. Ninety-nine artworks were created in collaboration with the artist and were organised and interpreted using a constructionist interviewing coding scheme. This unorthodox approach to visual analysis unearthed information that oral accounts cannot provide alone revealing meanings which would otherwise remain dormant. By intuitively applying the coding framework I expose how participants' meanings are negotiated by appropriating and re-organising cultural concepts into personalised narratives. As such, artworks reveal participants' desires, interpretations and intentions, operating as agentic cultural producers as well as unconsciously reproducing visual epistemologies ubiquitous in Western cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, mixed martial arts has seen a staggering level of growth in participation and fandom over the past 20 years. This paper presents the results from an immersive participant ethnography of an urban mixed martial arts gym in England's North West and the experience of some of its members. Emergent is that the practices of mixed martial arts can be viewed as acts of resistance against neoliberal norms and expectations that permeate the diverse yet everyday lives of participants outside the gym's walls. This paper applies the sociological imagination of and through the body and draws from the Foucauldian notion of biopower to discuss how, in the search for athletic solidarity, an authentic community is built and maintained around this transgressive pursuit. It is evident that a diverse range of individuals are making and remaking a space in which neoliberal norms, labels and expectations are rejected in favour of a renewed connection with the body and each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reflects on the value of diary methods in the context of a qualitative, longitudinal narrative inquiry exploring the higher education decision-making of further education students in England. Event-based diaries were used alongside interviews and focus groups over a 14-month period to gain in-depth insights into the reasons and influences informing their decision-making trajectories. I explore the challenges, successful approaches and advantages of employing diary methods with young people in this context. Challenges consisted of maintaining participant engagement, which was overcome by combining methods and incorporating a reactive co-participatory element. Yet, a number of advantages emerged from participants' engagement with diary keeping which enhanced the richness of the data; this inspired deeper reflections on decision-making and influences and provided a private space for participants to disclose personal difficulties that could not be obtained via interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper demonstrates for the first time that prisons with a higher proportion of natural vegetation within their perimeter have lower levels of staff sickness absence. It makes three significant contributions. First, it extends studies of workplace nature contact into the un-researched carceral context. Second, whereas previous workplace nature contact studies have largely utilized single-site surveys, it presents national-level, statistically robust analysis. Third, it brings a novel new perspective to studies of sickness absence within correctional workforces, by considering the effect of the physical environment. Econometric estimations presented in the paper confirm lower levels of staff sick-leave in prisons with more greenspace. This relationship persists when we control for prison size, security level, age, level of crowding, levels of self-harm and violence among prisoners, and assaults against staff. The findings are significant in demonstrating the benefits of nature contact in workplaces in general, and carceral environments in particular. Importantly, this has the potential to influence future prison design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As markets for kosher food have expanded globally in recent decades, multiple rabbinical authorities and kosher certification bodies have emerged to protect – and project – the boundaries of what is permissible for Jewish consumers. In this paper, we explore how, as kosher food has become more widely available in supermarkets and global food businesses, there has been a concurrent growth in demand within some Jewish communities for kosher goods produced in line with ever more strictly observed Jewish dietary laws (kashrus). Drawing on research on kosher markets and consumption practice in Manchester in the North of England, UK, we interrogate the multiple kosher ontologies enacted in markets, and the wider effects of this multiplicity on consumption practice(s). We conclude with some theoretical reflections on the ontological politics of qualification in markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thirty-one participants engaged in this oral history research study aimed at exploring the lived experience of intellectual disability nurses and healthcare assistants' knowledge of the trajectory of intellectual disability nursing over the last 30 years in the Republic of Ireland and England. This paper documents some of these experiences offering perspectives on intellectual disability nursing and what is important for the future. Findings from Ireland consider the nature of intellectual disability services and the registered nurse in intellectual disability. Findings from England focus on opportunities and restrictions in intellectual disability nursing, shared visions, the changing context within which work took place and also the internal and external supports that impacted their roles. It is evident that intellectual disability nurses must be responsive to the changing landscape of service provision and also the requirements for contemporary new roles to meet the changing needs of people with intellectual disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the methodological challenge of capturing and comparing children's experiences of everyday life by using a novel rhythmanalysis approach to explore the experiences of a small sample (N = 16) of home based children aged 7–10 in England and Greece during the 2020 global lockdown. The children kept a 1 day diary in which they recorded their activities and feelings at regular intervals during their waking hours. The data collected indicates that the children's lives were both disrupted and synchronised during this period, and highlights how their individual experiences were interconnected in time and space by shared rhythms which underpinned the patterns of their day. The paper highlights the utility of the specially designed rhythmanalysis data collection tool and analytical approach for future comparative international studies of children's everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Association football has been viewed as an industry with considerable lucrative career prospects; however, this has not prevented the use of unpaid staff throughout football in the UK. There has been increasing academic research regarding the professionalisation and commercialisation of football, yet there has been little acknowledgement of the role of those working in football in an unpaid capacity. Therefore, this paper examines the culture of unpaid work in football scouting, by exploring the motivations of 12 unpaid scouts at professional clubs, from a figurational perspective. Our findings suggest that scouts want to work in the industry because of their 'love of the game', in a 'quest for excitement' in their career. Unpaid work was in the pursuit of experience and contacts, the latter of which was highly valued in the industry. Football clubs are enclosed figurations and the scouts placed importance on developing interdependent social relations to gain entry to the industry, demonstrating how football may be perceived nepotistic. The likelihood of gaining a paid role directly from an unpaid position was low and therefore the decisions to continually accept unpaid work represented the notion of fantasy-laden thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: A greater understanding of Over the Counter (OTC) and Prescription Only Medication (POM) misuse amongst adults accessing substance misuse services (SMS) during COVID-19 is required to identify how SMS can better meet the needs of the people who require treatment. AIM: To use a questionnaire to explore OTC/POM misuse during COVID-19 in adults accessing community SMS in England. METHODS: In 2020 to 2021 anonymous self-administered online/paper questionnaires which collated quantitative and qualitative data were completed. They were piloted for suitability and ethical approval was obtained. Thematic analysis was conducted for qualitative data and chi-square tests used to assess the relationship between quantitative variables. RESULTS: Participants were Caucasian (94.6% British), majority male (58.9%), aged 18 to 61 years. Most were prescribed medication for problematic substance use, with a 92.5% self-reported adherence rate. The misuse of benzodiazepines (22.2%) codeine products (30.8%) and pregabalin (14.5%) predominated and 37.5% misused 2 or more medicines. Administration was usually oral and concomitant use of other substances was common: alcohol 44.6% (52% daily), tobacco/vaping 73.2% and illicit substances 58.9%. There were statistically significant associations identified, including between changes during COVID-19 to OTC/POM misuse and illicit use. Only 56 questionnaires were included in the analysis: we believe this low number was because of infection control measures, limited footfall in services, pressures on staff limiting their capacity to distribute the paper questionnaires and reliance upon telephone consultations limiting online distribution. Increasing OTC/POM misuse and obtaining illicit supplies were reported when access to usual supplies were restricted; however, changes to doses/dispensing arrangement liberalisation in response to COVID-19 were positively viewed. CONCLUSION: OTC/POM misuse, including polypharmacy and concomitant use of other substances occurred during COVID-19: SMS need to be vigilant for these issues and mitigate the associated risks for example with harm reduction interventions. Further qualitative research is required to explore the issues identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite years of calls for adoption of a Just Culture, it is evident that taking this concept from paper to practice has been slower than expected. Many have cited the subpar application of the Just Culture framework and, recently, questions have been raised regarding how the Just Culture framework is perceived by those impacted by harm, including patients, family members, and staff. Though this framework is one tool that can be used to guide inquiry after harm events, its use, independent of active efforts toward restoration of relationships with patients, families, and staff, could compromise engagement and therefore learning. A lack of focus on restoring the trust of those affected by harm in parallel with the event investigation introduces a risk of further compounding the harm for all involved. Those involved in safety work at NHS England have recognized the need to apply a systems mindset within a concerted effort toward more compassionate engagement for optimal learning and improvement. In response, they have included compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents as a foundational pillar in the NHS England Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to the literature on ethics in Participatory Research by looking at the Researcher-in-Residence model and its application within health services research in three East London boroughs. The Researcher-in-Residence is embedded in the organisation to enable knowledge mobilisation and knowledge coproduction. Whereas negotiation of different types of expertise to coproduce evidence might raise issues of power differentials, the embedded nature of the role also requires careful negotiating of relationships. As the researcher is immersed in the context under evaluation, the boundaries between the researcher and the participants' everyday working life can become blurred. The paper explores these ethical issues and suggests that, whereas the requirements of ethics committees, based on an ethics of principle, at times fail to offer appropriate guidelines for this methodological approach, an ethics of care based on relationships can offer a complementary framework to address some of the thorny challenges that emerge from everyday practice in participatory research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Davies Thomas (1844-1893) described a two-ounce drop-bottle for chloroform in 1872 while he was a resident medical officer at University College Hospital, London. After working as a ship's surgeon, he settled in Australia. In May 1875, Thomas presented a paper on the mortality from ether and chloroform at a meeting of the Medical Society of Victoria in Melbourne, Victoria. Surveys conducted in Europe and North America had established that the mortality from chloroform was eight to ten times higher than that from ether. At that time, chloroform was the most widely administered anaesthetic in Australia. Thomas' paper was published in The Australian Medical Journal and reprinted by the Medical Society of Victoria for distribution to hospitals in the Colony of Victoria. Later that year, Thomas moved to Adelaide, South Australia, where he may have been influential at the Adelaide Hospital in ensuring that ether was administered more often than chloroform. It does not appear that Thomas' papers on anaesthesia had a significant effect on the conduct of anaesthesia in Victoria or New South Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Chronic Pain is increasingly affecting young people, their quality of life and wellbeing including education, social life and mental health. Current Western approaches to psychological support for Chronic Pain often focus on 'pain management' and learning skills and strategies from professionals, making use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and psychoeducation approaches in individual and group interventions. As a Paediatric Psychology service, we have trialled groups running over multiple weeks informed by these approaches and experienced low attendance rates. Method: This paper describes a feasibility study of an alternative group intervention; the 'Living with Pain group', which combines the 'Journey of Life' (Denborough, 2014) with collective narrative and liberation psychology approaches. Results: Thirty three young people and eight parents / carers attended the intervention. Attendance rates, quantitative and qualitative feedback from one face-to-face group for young people and parents and two online groups for young people showed increased access and acceptability of the group. Conclusion: The findings from this study have shown that a 1-day collective narrative group intervention is feasible, suitable and acceptable and has increased access to our group intervention. Future directions include co-creation with young people and families, community engagement to increase accessibility of our groups and developing partnerships to respond to young people's hopes to raise awareness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this commentary, I examine the role of institutional investors in affordable housing production in England, reflecting and expanding on the papers in this special issue on the governance of residential investment. Drawing on my research on the politics of municipal debt and local authority housebuilding in London, I provide a snapshot of the key regulatory changes that have enabled insurance companies, pension funds, and other institutional investors to extract profits from social and affordable housing. I also explore the politics and relations of power that underpin this transformed environment through a discussion of investors' lobbying activities, and through an analysis of 'income strip deals', long-term leasing agreements between investors and local authorities that have gained popularity in recent years. In line with the authors in this issue, I argue that to grasp the recent wave of institutional investment in public housing, we need to pay attention to the narrative framings through which the promise of patient capital is enacted and legitimised, and to the range of regulatory actions mobilised to support and maintain the flow of value to rentiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates intonation in the urban dialect of Liverpool, Scouse. Scouse is reported to be part of a group of dialects in the north of the UK where rising contours in declaratives are a traditional aspect of the dialect. This intonation is typologically unusual and has not been the subject of detailed previous research. Here, we present such an analysis in comparison with Manchester, a city less than 40 miles from Liverpool but with a noticeably different prosody. Our analysis confirms reports that rising contours are the most common realization for declaratives in Liverpool, specifically a low rise where final high pitch is not reached until the end of the phrase. Secondly, we consider the origin of declarative rises in Scouse with reference to the literature on new dialect formation. Our demographic analysis and review of previous work on relevant dialects suggests that declarative rises were not the majority variant when Scouse was formed but may have been adopted for facilitating communication in a diverse new community. We highlight this contribution of intonational data to research on phonological aspects of new dialect formation, which have largely considered segmental phonology or timing previously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the primary ingredient in gunpowder, saltpeter was an extraordinarily important commodity in the early modern world. Historians of science and technology have long studied its military applications but have rarely focused on its uses outside of warfare. Due to its potential effectiveness as a fertilizer, saltpeter was also an integral component of experimental agricultural reform movements in the early modern period and particularly in seventeenth-century England. This became possible for several reasons: the creation of a thriving domestic saltpeter production industry in the second half of the sixteenth century; the development of vitalist alchemical theories that sought a unified explanation for the "growth" of minerals, metals, and plants; the rise of experimental natural philosophy; and the mid-seventeenth-century dominance of the English East India Company in the saltpeter trade, which allowed agricultural reformers to repurpose domestically produced saltpeter in agriculturally productive ways. This paper argues that the Hartlib Circle – a loose network of natural philosophers and social reformers – adopted vitalist matter theories and the practical, experimental techniques of alchemists to transform agriculture into a more productive enterprise. Though their grandiose plans never came to fruition, their experimental trials to develop artificial fertilizers played an early role in the origins and development of saline chemistry, agronomy, and the British Agricultural Revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Supervision is widely recognised as a core activity for social work. In this paper, we explore the nature of decision-making in supervision, using a collection of twelve audio-recordings from one child protection team in England. We apply Conversation Analysis to see how potential actions are put 'on the table', by whom, and the interactional work that occurs before any final decision is made. Within these data we find that supervision may not be an especially key site for decision-making. When actions are proposed, we identify three primary patterns: unilateral decision making, bilateral decision making and polar questions which instigate decision making sequences. In each, it is almost always the supervisor who proposes a possible future action, and the social worker who responds. If the social worker is agreeable, there is often little further discussion. When the social worker resists the proposal or there is further talk around the future action, the subsequent conversation was likely to focus on how it reflects on the worker's professional competence, rather than the merits of the action and implications for the family. These findings raise the question of how (and where) casework decisions are made in this social work team, if not in supervision. They also suggest we need to pay more attention to issues of professional standing and creating opportunities for shared decision making when thinking about supervision. Our analysis furthers current knowledge of what happens in social work supervision by demonstrating how epistemic and deontic domains, as well professional competency, are interactionally relevant forces shaping the decision-making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the potential for the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) of England and Wales to incentivise the exclusion of people with dementia from research. The MCA is intended to standardise and safeguard the inclusion of people with cognitive impairments in research. This entails various procedural requirements, which in pressurised research contexts can lead researchers to exclude people with dementia as a means of simplifying bureaucratic constraints. I consider the risks of an 'unethical ethics', wherein procedural ethics indirectly causes the exclusion of people with dementia from research, undermining historic successes toward increased inclusivity. I suggest several solutions, including enhanced sensitivity to impairments and shifting the burden of proof from justifying inclusion to justifying exclusion. The paper responds to the 'ethics creep' tradition in procedural ethics, and critical appraisals of capacity legislation in dementia research. This approach recognises that institutional research ethics is itself a major ethical concern and can unwittingly beget unethical practices. Dementia researchers must be alert to such unethical ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents findings from a photovoice project that was aimed at engaging with a diverse range of black men in a London Borough. The key objectives were to find a different way to get men to talk about their concerns and to raise awareness about mental health. Photovoice is a participatory research action technique that was developed to enable communities to document their concerns and experiences of community life that is meaningful to them. Nineteen men participated in the project. It has been suggested that men, in particular, black men do not find it easy to talk about mental health issues. This study found that through the use of photovoice methods, black men were able to talk about a range of emotions when they were offered the right medium and safe spaces to share their experiences. It found that they can and want to take control of their lives, but at times may require life skills training. Another finding was that black men have to balance expectations about being strong whilst 'containing' vulnerabilities in racialised contexts – being hard on the outside and human on the inside, and that their experiences are characterised by journeys of significant struggle and resilience in the face of adversity. The paper concludes that mental health services should find ways of engaging with black men differently, i.e. reaching out rather than the traditional mantra of 'outreach'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excess mortality is an important measure of the scale of the coronavirus-2019 pandemic. It includes both deaths caused directly by the pandemic, and deaths caused by the unintended consequences of containment such as delays to accessing care or postponements of healthcare provision in the population. In 2020 and 2021, in England, multiple groups have produced measures of excess mortality during the pandemic. This paper describes the data and methods used in five different approaches to estimating excess mortality and compares their estimates. The fundamental principles of estimating excess mortality are described, as well as the key commonalities and differences between five approaches. Two of these are based on the date of registration: a quasi-Poisson model with offset and a 5-year average; and three are based on date of occurrence: a Poisson model without offset, the European monitoring of excess mortality model and a synthetic controls model. Comparisons between estimates of excess mortality are made for the period March 2020 through March 2021 and for the two waves of the pandemic that occur within that time-period. Model estimates are strikingly similar during the first wave of the pandemic though larger differences are observed during the second wave. Models that adjusted for reduced circulation of winter infection produced higher estimates of excess compared with those that did not. Models that do not adjust for reduced circulation of winter infection captured the effect of reduced winter illness as a result of mobility restrictions during the period. None of the estimates captured mortality displacement and therefore may underestimate excess at the current time, though the extent to which this has occurred is not yet identified. Models use different approaches to address variation in data availability and stakeholder requirements of the measure. Variation between estimates reflects differences in the date of interest, population denominators and parameters in the model relating to seasonality and trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between religious diversity, religious and national identity, and neighbourhood trust. Using data from 6,089 individuals in England matched to census-based statistical estimates for 300 local areas, we find that religious diversity is negatively associated with neighbourhood trust. Further analyses tested indirect relationships between religious diversity and neighbourhood trust to examine whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a stronger sense of religious identity, and whether a stronger sense of religious identity is associated with lower levels of neighbourhood trust. We simultaneously tested whether higher levels of religious diversity are associated with a weaker sense of national identity, and whether a weaker sense of national identity is associated with lower neighbourhood trust. Multigroup analyses were conducted to assess patterns across religious groups. Results indicate that, for Christians, religious diversity is associated with a stronger subordinate religious identification, which is in turn associated with lower neighbourhood trust. There were no associations between religious diversity, national identification, and neighbourhood trust. For the other religious groups, no significant associations were found between our variables of interest. We discuss the relevance and implication of increasing religious diversity in societies for the multiple groups involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

E. P. Thompson's classic article "Time and Work-Discipline in Industrial Capitalism," gives an incomplete picture of the transition to the time consciousness in industrial capitalism. This is for two reasons. First, by not understanding time logics of pre-industrial societies and viewing such logics as "irregular," Thompson was unable to understand how wages were paid, and workers disciplined in a culture that used seasonally variable temporal hours in pre-industrial England. Second, with regard to industrialism, Thompson did not recognize the effects on labor of credit and a huge capital influx from the sugar trade on the emergence of manufacturing in England in the 18th century. By documenting the issues of changing ways of relating time to wage, seasonality, place, and finance, this paper argues that the increased year-round availability of capital combined with the alienation of workers from the seasonality of time in specific locations drove the shift from daywork to clock-measured wages during the Industrial Revolution, and that the adoption of clock time was a response to confusion over how day wages could be made uniform over different latitudes and during different times of year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses oral history to consider the relative merits of symbolic interactionism in revealing new insights regarding the Irish immigration experience in England during the 1950s and 1960s. Using a variety of rubrics attributed to Canadian sociologist Erving Goffman, I critically examine the nature of identity work performed by Irish men and women when in their new host country. The paper highlights the interface between citizenship and sociocultural identity epitomised by both the use props (corporeal modifications) and the power of sign vehicles, notably Irish accents in shaping the nature of social interactions. The extent to which Goffman neglects sensory driven constructs of identity is highlighted. The way in Irish immigrants negotiated two simultaneous worlds front and back stage in response to the anticipated reaction of the given audience evokes the metaphor of a revolving door of identity fluid and chameleon like in nature. Actions were at times driven the anticipated reactions of others following presentation but then reclaimed elsewhere manifested by front and back stage behaviours. The Irish men and women worked inside and alongside systems of control where their identities were contested, ambiguous, or problematised to create a fluid sense of self (selves). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, jurists have distinguished between voluntary/involuntary behaviour via the theory of volition. Though perceived as the conventional approach, this paper argues that the volitional understanding of voluntariness is an inadequate instrument for assessing complex behaviours which seemingly portray a striking level of intelligence and purposiveness on the part of the accused. In particular, the phenomenon known as hypnotically-induced behaviour, which forms the focus of this paper, is one such troublesome case. To this end, the version of the volitional theory most staunchly advocated by Professor Michael Moore is singled out for scrutiny, due to his strong sentiments supporting the application of his philosophy to these aforementioned behaviours. In contrast to Moore, this paper suggests that the position most recently proposed by the Law Commission of England and Wales within their discussion paper on the defences of insanity and automatism is to be preferred. Specifically, the Commission recommend substituting the theory of volition for that of 'control' as a means for assessing the voluntariness of any given behaviour. This paper submits that a theory of control has two major advantages over the traditional theory of volitionalism. First, the possession/absence of control more accurately reflects the contemporary system of criminal law in England and Wales. Second, a theory of control is more conceptually defensible as an explanation for why behaviours performed under hypnosis are typically perceived as involuntary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The career progression of teachers of black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage is a matter of much debate and research. Over the past decade, a body of research has confirmed that race discrimination/race inequality is a factor in the progression of teachers of black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage in England. Although it has been argued that 'Britain is not a racist nation', it nonetheless has, as described by Phillips in 2016, a '...deep sensitivity to...ethnic and cultural difference'. According to Miller, this sensitivity remains at the heart of a 'deep-rooted and continuing struggle among black, Asian and minority ethnic teachers and academics for equality and mutual recognition'. Drawing on Miller's 2016 typology of educational institutions: engaged, experimenting, initiated and uninitiated, this paper presents evidence from three English headteachers of Multi-Academy Trusts who devise, implement and embed positive actions in the recruitment, development, retention and progression of staff of black, Asian and minority ethnic heritage. The objective of this study was to examine the work of school leaders/institutions in taking steps to improve black, Asian and minority ethnic teacher progression in England, by identifying and highlighting 'what works', and how. Furthermore, by treating each school/leader as a unique 'case', this paper shows their motivation (personal and professional), experiences of 'race', school contexts and the type/s of leadership required and used in these institutional contexts to change attitudes, cultures and behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the complex issue of the embodiment of grief. It explores how a theoretical shift to the body has influenced scholarly literature about grief and bereavement. Despite this shift, we argue that bodily interpretations and experiences are undertheorised in western psychological literature on bereavement. Specifically, we argue that linear stage models of grief have encouraged the view that grief needs 'working through' in the mind, and not necessarily the body. We draw on empirical data from interviews with bereaved people undertaken in England to illustrate aspects of the embodied experience of grief that differ from how psychological grief theories conceive of the bereaved person's body. Findings highlight the role of the bereaved person's body in managing grief and how the absence and continuing presence of the deceased person is managed through embodied practices. We conclude that understanding grief as an embodied experience can enable the development of grief theories that better capture the complex negotiation between the psychological processes of grief and the materiality of bodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Occupation orders are the dedicated legal remedy through which victims of domestic abuse can be supported to remain in the family home following a relationship breakdown. Case law indicates, however, that victims experience barriers to securing orders due to the high threshold criteria and because concerns about protecting the rights of perpetrators has led to judicial reluctance to grant extensive protection to victims. The options for providing protection to victims of abuse in respect of the family home are shortly set to be reformed by the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, which creates a new Domestic Abuse Protection Order (DAPO). It is anticipated that DAPOs will be easier to secure because they will have a lower threshold criteria, they will be available in family, civil and criminal proceedings, and both victims and third parties will be able to make an application thereby alleviating the burden on victims who feel unable to take any action. Whilst there is no intention at this point to repeal occupation orders, the Home Office has acknowledged that 'DAPOs will become the 'go to' protective order in cases of domestic abuse' suggesting that occupation orders will be replaced by DAPOs in most cases. By drawing on data obtained from an analysis of court statistics, a questionnaire of legal practitioners and domestic abuse specialists, and in-depth interviews with victims of domestic abuse, this paper offers original empirical insights into where the current law fails victims of domestic abuse. The analysis reveals three key barriers to securing occupation orders. Firstly, despite the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 making efforts to preserve legal aid for victims of domestic abuse, the means test is difficult for victims to satisfy, resulting in increases both to the number of victims taking no action to pursue protection and who act as litigants in person in occupation order proceedings. Secondly, the prospects of a victim securing protection can be adversely affected by their unrepresented status. Thirdly, despite case law indicating a less restrictive approach to granting occupation orders, many victims continue to struggle to satisfy the strict threshold criteria. Some judges are seemingly willing to bypass this by granting alternative remedies which may offer victims a weaker form of protection in respect of the family home. Where orders are granted, the data suggest this is on restricted terms and for limited durations which reduce their effectiveness at preventing post-separation abuse and supporting victims to regulate their short and longer-term housing situation. These empirical findings are then situated within a discussion of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021. The authors analyse whether forthcoming DAPOs are likely to offer a more accessible and effective form of protection than occupation orders. The analysis suggests that by increasing the scope of applicants, the breadth and flexibility of available protection and the sanctions for breach, DAPOs have the potential to remedy many of the existing barriers to securing protection over the family home. As is always the case with new legislation however, the key will be in its implementation, to ensure that existing issues are not simply transferred across to the new regime. The findings are novel because academic commentaries on protective injunctions typically focus on 'personal protection' offered by non-molestation orders, domestic violence protection orders, and restraining orders, meaning that both occupation orders and protection for victims in respect of the family home are under-researched areas of domestic abuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]