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This paper aims to present a mixed methods study of child criminal exploitation (CCE), particularly in the form of “county lines”, in three local authorities in southeast England. The data is analysed using a framework constructed from two relevant contextual and relational theories to understand experiences of CCE and the safeguarding responses undertaken to protect young people from harm.

Data were drawn from a survey (n = 118); interviews (n = 5) and focus groups (n = 15) with professionals; interviews with parents (n = 4); and from secondary analysis of eight interviews with young people affected by criminal exploitation. The analytic framework was applied to the data to answer two research questions: what is the role and significance of young people’s interactions with peers, parents and professionals in their CCE trajectories; and how do professionals understand and address risks within contexts in which young people are exposed to CCE? The mixed methods data collected by the authors were coded and analysed using this framework.

Although professionals were aware of contexts and relational power dynamics, the situated and temporal nature of CCE remained overlooked within safeguarding systems. Professionals required more space, time and support to fully and flexibly engage with young people and their families to increase safety.

There is limited research available that critically examines safeguarding responses to CCE in diverse geographic and cultural contexts. This paper contributes a critical account of how professionals might create connections and opportunities for change with young people, identifying structural constraints within practice systems alongside emerging examples of effective practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on, “Afraid to leave the house: issues leading to social exclusion and loneliness for people with a learning disability”.

This paper considers the impacts of cuts to services, support and care that people with learning disabilities experience and the effects these cuts can have on social inclusion and positive social networks. Ways in which these impacts can be overcome are considered.

Listening to the voices of people with learning disabilities can provide opportunities for positive change which meet the needs of people with learning disability and society more widely.

The commentary uses evidence to consider the effects of cuts to services on the lives of people with learning disability and to provide possible solutions.

To explore the nature and scope of good and bad practice in the relationships that UK supermarkets have with their suppliers of own‐label products in the main commodity sectors (meat, dairy, fresh produce).

The paper presents the results of a postal survey of supermarket suppliers, which formed part of a wider study of corporate social responsibility in UK supermarket supply chains.

The results demonstrate the heterogeneity in relationships between supermarkets and their suppliers of own‐label products in the main commodity sectors the extent to which retail and supply chain strategy is likely to influence the way in which supermarkets deal with suppliers. Best practice was most evident in the two supermarket supply chains where supply base rationalisation has virtually ceased and the adoption of lead suppliers and sole suppliers has been most evident in recent years.

Postal survey limited to suppliers in three commodity sectors, where buyer power is greatest. Would expect different results for relationships with branded suppliers.

With supermarkets coming under increasing scrutiny over the way they treat suppliers, the conceptual framework and survey instrument represent a mechanism for independent assessment of supply chain relationships in sensitive markets, which could be used constructively to encourage the more widespread adoption of good practice and the elimination of bad practice in supermarket relationships.

This paper presents the results of the first attempt anywhere to empirically measure fairness in relationships between supermarkets and their suppliers. Further research is necessary but the results of our early work are extremely encouraging.

This chapter provides a historical contextualisation of health tracking and public health communication from the post-World War Two development of the welfare state, through the birth of neoliberalism, until today’s individualising practices of digital health tracking and quantification of bodies. Through an examination of these three phases of public health quantification of bodies, encompassing the socio-economic, cultural and political shifts since 1948, combined with the development and wide adoption of digital health and self-quantifying technologies, this chapter traces the changing landscape and the dramatic implications this has had for shifting who is responsible for maintaining ‘good’ health. This chapter illustrates how neoliberal free market principles have reigned over UK public health discourse for many decades, seeing health as no longer binary to illness, but as a practice of individual self-quantification and self-care. In turn, the chapter explores how the quantification and health tracking of bodies has become a dominant discourse in public health promotion, as well as individual citizenship and patient practices. This discourse still exists pervasively as we move into the digital society of the 2020s, through the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond; with public health strategies internationally promoting the use of digital health tools in our everyday, further positioning citizens as entrepreneurial subjects, adopting extensive technological measures in an attempt to measure and ‘optimise’ health, normalising the everyday quantification of bodies.

Despite spirituality being a key aspect of quality of life, it appears to remain a low-priority area for social and health care government policy. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe what, if at all, UK policy says about spirituality in relation to the care of people with learning disabilities (LD).

A systematic policy review using three government databases: legislation.gov.uk; Department of Health and Directgov (now known as gov.uk) was carried out.

The review identified policy gaps and a general lack of government directives in relation to the spiritual care of people with LD. Whilst research in this area is gathering momentum, practical implementation which makes a real difference to the spiritual experiences of people with LD appears to be sparse.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic policy review on this subject area, highlighting the need for spirituality to become a more supported aspect of social care within LD services.

The editorial for this issue sets out the context of increasing awareness of the need for better services for children and adults with autism spectrum disorders, and highlights the importance of policy to maintain awareness and provide incentives while recognising that more would be needed to ensure that people with autism have a good quality of life and reach their full potential. There are two sections to this paper. The first is a case study written from a parent's perspective and highlighting the need for good joint working and supporting families, as well as the importance of understanding how autism affects a child and his/her family. The second part considers good practice in supporting children and adults with autism to increase social inclusion, independence, choice and autonomy.

The purpose of this study is to compare the UK demographics of forced marriage of people with learning disabilities and people without learning disabilities to inform effective safeguarding practice.

An analysis of all cases of forced marriage reported to the UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit (FMU) between 2009 and 2015.

People with learning disabilities are at five times greater risk of forced marriage than people without learning disabilities. Men and women with learning disabilities are equally likely to be forced to marry, whereas amongst the general population, women are more likely than men to be forced to marry. Patterns of ethnicity, geographic location within the UK and reporters are the same for people with and without learning disabilities.

The analysis is based on cases reported to the FMU, and for some cases, data held was incomplete. More importantly, many cases go unreported and so the FMU data does not necessarily reflect all cases of forced marriage in the UK.

Forced marriage of people with learning disabilities is a safeguarding issue. Practitioners across health, education, criminal justice and social care need to better understand the risk of forced marriage for people with learning disabilities. Links to practice resources developed as part of the wider project are provided.

This is the first time that researchers have been given access to FMU data and the first time that a statistical analysis of cases of forced marriage involving someone with a learning disability have been analysed.

This paper reports on the key findings of a study into the outcomes and costs of community care for a large cohort of people with learning disabilities, supported in 12 study sites across England, who left various long‐stay hospital 12 years ago as part of a centrally monitored and evaluated government policy initiative on deinstitutionalisation. It represents the last follow‐up of a raft of linked longitudinal evaluations, conducted at four time points over a twelve‐year period. The paper identifies the findings from the last follow‐up and interprets and presents them as summary observations and trends in relation to the findings in learning disability, briefly reviewing them in relation to wider evidence on deinstitutionalisation and community care in England.