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Purpose: Parental advocacy is an emerging area of research and policy interest in Wales and across the UK. Although there is little research in the UK context to date, international research has indicated that parental advocacy can improve the relationship between parent and professional in the field of child protection social work. This paper aims to ascertain how the implementation of a parental advocacy programme supports parents to play a meaningful role in decision-making when children's services are working with them and their families. Design/methodology/approach: This study used interviews, surveys and focus groups to obtain qualitative data from 18 parents, seven parent advocates, two advocacy managers and four social workers, to explore the potential impact of parental advocacy on decision-making. The study identified challenges in implementing parental advocacy, particularly relating to awareness of the service. Participants also discussed experiences of the child protection system and how parents are supported by advocates. Findings: Despite challenges surrounding implementation, initial findings were encouraging, and generated examples of how parental advocacy services have helped parents to understand children's services and develop relationships of trust with social care professionals. In doing so, this study identified potential mechanisms that may be useful to support future service delivery. Originality/value: This paper and research is novel as it explores parental advocacy within the Welsh context. Although there has been research conducted into parental advocacy, this has largely come from the USA. This research comes from the evaluation of an innovative and promising parental advocacy scheme in Wales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider some possible reasons for the relatively high rate in Wales of children looked after by local authorities. Design/methodology/approach: Selected potential explanations for Wales having higher rates were tested against aggregate data from published 2021 Government statistics. Wales was compared with England and English regions for area deprivation, local authority spending, placements at home and kinship foster care. Descriptive statistics were produced, and linear regression was used where appropriate. Findings: Wales has higher overall children looked-after rates and a bigger recent increase in these than any English region. Deprivation in Wales was higher than in most English regions. However, a smaller percentage of Welsh variation in local authority looked-after rates was explained by deprivation than was the case for England. Spending on preventative services has increased in recent years in Wales whilst decreasing in England, and there was not a clear relationship between spending on preventative services and the looked-after rate. Wales had a higher rate of care orders placed at home and more children per head of population in kinship foster care than any English region. Some of the explanations that have been suggested for Wales's particularly high looked-after rates seem to be supported by the evidence from aggregate data and others do not. Practice variation is likely to also be an important part of the picture. Originality/value: This is an original comparison of Wales, England and English regions using aggregate data. More fine-grained analysis is needed using individual-level data, multivariate analysis and qualitative methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to look at youth justice (YJ) personnel training and education and the recommendations about it made in Time for a Fresh start.Design/methodology/approach - The pedagogic tensions that currently shape YJ training are described - particularly those around the question of instructionalism vs education and what 'specialist' means in the context of YJ.Findings - The paper suggests that the authors of Time for a Fresh Startmissed the opportunity to better serve the public and young people's interests by neither acknowledging the pedagogic tensions nor articulating what a 'specialist' 'YJ' professional training can mean in twenty-first century England and Wales.Originality/value - The paper highlights an urgent need for an open debate between academics, practitioners and policy makers about YJ pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - In 2010, 'The Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour' published a major report. This paper critically assesses the report by placing it within a context of juvenile/youth justice policy reform extending over the last 50 years.Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based upon national and international policy analysis and comparative research.Findings - In recent years the persistent politicisation of youth crime and an obsession with 'tough' responses to child offenders in England and Wales have produced one of the most problematic youth justice regimes in the Western world. Against this backdrop the report of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour is designed to influence policy reform. By drawing on an international evidence base, this paper assesses the merits of the Commission's proposals and the extent to which they signify a 'fresh start' or a 'false dawn'.Originality/value - The paper argues that international evidence, alongside the provisions of both global and pan-European human rights standards, provides a compelling case for raising the age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales, for developing youth justice policy and practice in accordance with the principle of minimum necessary intervention and for abolishing prison service and private sector penal custody for children and young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to consider the youth justice system from a custody perspective.Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents the recent history of the secure estate and youth justice in England and Wales, arguing that the present system is far too large, complex and costly and contains perverse incentives to place vulnerable young people in low-cost but dangerously inappropriate settings.Findings - The paper argues that the present, labyrinthine arrangements, which are in large part, a product of political posturing and administrative and fiscal expediency, have produced a system that is too large and in which most institutional regimes are unresponsive to the needs of these children and, as a result, fail to achieve their rehabilitative objectives.Originality/value - It is contended that if existing child care and criminal justice legislation were fully implemented, and policy and practice were aligned with international children's rights conventions, we would see a greater emphasis on prevention and diversion at the 'front end' of the system and 'regime change' at the 'back end'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Socio-economic disadvantage is linked to poor parenting skills and subsequently poorer child development. The most deprived geographical areas in Wales have been targeted under the Welsh Government Flying Start scheme to receive additional resources. Unfortunately, many in-need families either lived outside these areas or required further intervention above what was provided. The Welsh Government decision to extend Flying Start is appropriate but the proposed targeting method may still fail to reach all high-risk families. The purpose of this paper is to explore an alternative targeting method. Design/methodology/approach – The current study examined the association between five socio-economic and demographic risk factors and parenting outcomes in a sample of Flying Start families. Findings – Quality of housing (overcrowding and housing standards) played a significant role in predicting poorer parenting outcomes in terms of language and home stimulation. Exposure to multiple risk predicted poorer outcomes regardless of which risk factors were present. Originality/value – This paper contributes to discussion about effective ways of allocating limited resources to best effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – To compare the characteristics of parents and children recruited for two randomised-controlled trials (RCTs) of parenting support in disadvantaged communities in Wales in order to explore the effects of community-based vs individual-based targeting in early prevention. Design/methodology/approach – Parents from high-risk disadvantaged communities in Wales, where additional early intervention services were targeted as part of a Welsh Government early intervention strategy, were recruited to two RCTs of parenting interventions. In the first study parents of targeted three- and four-year-old children, who were screened, and deemed at risk of long-term problems, were recruited from Sure Start (SS) areas in Wales. In the second study parents of one- and two-year-old children living in disadvantaged Flying Start (FS) areas were recruited, with residence within the FS area being the only recruitment criterion. Findings – FS areas are more strategically targeted as communities with a greater percentage of families with high levels of socio-economic disadvantage and associated risk than SS areas. Families in the toddler parenting trial based in FS areas, recruited without any additional screening, were experiencing higher levels of socio-economic deprivation, mental health problems and parenting stress as well as other known risks to child outcomes than the general population. However, when compared with the individually targeted population recruited for the SS study, they were shown to be experiencing significantly lower levels of these and other risks factors for poor child outcomes than the sample recruited for the SS trial where recruitment was based on known child risk factors. The paper discusses these findings and explores the implications of targeting by geographical area (community level targeting) alone vs targeting individual families by known risk factors. The findings suggest that screening measures would identify children at greatest risk of poor outcomes and whose families might benefit from additional targeted services. Suggestions for possible screening measures are also made.Originality/value – This paper contributes to discussion about effective ways of allocating limited resources to best effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper describes the author's work during 35 years as a clinical psychologist in the NHS in Wales working mainly with conduct disordered children and their families. It describe how from initially working within an applied behaviour analysis (ABA) framework with individual families she subsequently established and researched the group based Incredible Years (IY) parent programme in Wales and led a Wales-wide dissemination of the IY programmes. Design/methodology/approach – The paper provides a case study example of the use of the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) criteria for translational research, that is research that can be applied successfully in the real world. Findings – Many of the challenges were overcome through the inclusion of strategies to maximise effectiveness with differing populations, and by gaining the support of government and local services. Originality/value – The paper discusses the challenges of taking an evidence-based programme to scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper aims to critically examine the idea that devolution in Wales, compared with England, brings a decisive shift in the delivery of children's services and, by extension, challenges our assumption that the Children Act 1989 remains as a primary unifying force in child welfare legislation.Design/methodology/approach - The paper primarily addresses those matters pertaining to public law under parts III-V of the Act that give force to core functions within the personal social services in Wales and England. It looks at the Act from the viewpoint of devolution in Wales.Findings - The evolution of services, new policy frameworks and changes to the UK political architecture since the implementation of the Act have transformed the delivery of children's services. The 1989 Act remains prominent but such changes have brought a very different shape and purpose to the occupational world in which the Act was first launched in Wales and England.Originality/value - The paper shows that it is much less clear if the 1989 Act can be "read off" today - as perhaps it could when it was first enacted - as an inclusive encoding of what local authorities and their partners should and must do for children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - This paper seeks to argue that there are many failings in current responses to youth crime and antisocial behaviour in England and Wales, which means that the time is ripe for reform.Design/methodology/approach - This paper summarises the analysis and recommendations of the Independent Commission on Youth Crime and Antisocial Behaviour, which in July 2010 published its report, Time for a Fresh start, and a book, A New Response to Youth Crime, setting out the evidence on which the report was based. These are considered against a backdrop of failings of the current system and in the context of current cuts in public services.Findings - The present system in England and Wales fails to resolve the tension between punishment and welfare in a coherent way. It is ineffective in preventing crime and reoffending, it targets the disadvantaged and it is incomprehensible to most young offenders. The Commission proposes that in future restorative justice should be the core of the youth justice system.Originality/value - The paper argues that a reformed system would exert a stronger influence on young offenders, would be more satisfying to victims and would inspire greater confidence in the general public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- Behavioural parent training (PT) interventions partially mediate risk factors for the development of child behavioural problems. Mindfulness skills could have benefit in alleviating the impact of these risk factors for parents who are socio-economically disadvantaged. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach -- A pre-post single group comparison of disadvantaged mothers attending the Mindfulness-Based Wellbeing for Parents (MBW-P) programme. Findings -- Changes were observed in facets of parental stress (Parenting Stress Index-Short Form; Abidin, 1995), depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II; Beck et al., 1996) and brooding (Ruminative Responses Scale; Nolen-Hoeksema and Morrow, 1991), with moderate to large effect sizes and incidences of clinical change. Research limitations/implications -- The research design, although pragmatic, includes a small sample and no control or long-term comparison group. Social implications -- Mothers considered as the "hardest to reach" group in terms of vulnerability, risk factors and being likely to gain from intervention demonstrated positive shifts post-intervention. A targeted mindfulness-based intervention, delivered pragmatically within a health service context, may have benefit in reducing the impact of risk factors on parental wellbeing. Originality/value -- To the authors' knowledge, this is the first evaluation of a targeted mindfulness group delivered within routine health care settings, in identified "high risk" areas, by routine staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Widespread criticism of the youth justice system in England and Wales has resulted in calls for it to adopt a restorative paradigm. This paper seeks to review the historical development of youth justice in neighbouring Scotland and Northern Ireland.Design/methodology/approach - The historical development of youth justice in Scotland and Northern Ireland is reviewed with a view to learning lessons from these two very different models, compared to the current model in England and Wales.Findings - It is argued that those tasked with reforming the system in England and Wales must understand the underlying political, cultural and social contexts in which alternative models have developed and satisfactorily resolve the conflicting needs and rights of the offender versus those of the victim, community and wider public.Originality/value - Transfer of policy and practice from other jurisdictions requires careful consideration of their political, cultural and social contexts but England and Wales may benefit greatly from adopting restorative practices similar to those in Northern Ireland. However, successful implementation will depend on political will and institutional infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the results from part of a formative evaluation in England and Wales of the Integrated Children's System, the authors aim to illustrate the diverse ways in which policy, technology and practice interests challenge conventional assumptions regarding the construction and use of evidence in children's services. We identify four connected consequences of the ICS for practice. The ICS actively shapes practice, brings issues into focus, renders social work visible and distances the services user. We interpret the findings in terms of the persistence and diversification of professional discretion and the interplay of standardisation and case-based practice. We challenge some accepted academic understandings of the relationship between technology and professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's social services in England and Wales deal with a wide range of referrals of children who are or may be 'in need'. Finding ways of describing the issues that present in such referrals is important if we wish to understand the nature of the work of children's services and explore different interventions and outcomes. Yet there have been few attempts to describe the full range of needs presenting to social services, and no studies of the reliability or validity of attempts to define the types of need. In this article the legal definitions of need, a typology developed by Sinclair et al, a related one used by the Department of Health and one developed within the current study were compared for reliability and construct validity. There were two main findings. First, it was found that while the presence of needs could generally be agreed on in all the schemes, ascriptions of a 'main' need were not made reliably. This is important because a 'main' need has been used in both research and statistical returns to government. Second, while existing schemes appeared well suited to describing allocated cases, they were less able to describe the range of needs presenting in all referrals to social services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]