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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.

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.

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.

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.

Ambulance services staff worldwide have long been at risk of encountering violence and aggression directed towards them during their work. Verbal forms of violence and aggression are the most prevalent form, but sometimes incidents involve physical injury, and on rare occasions homicides do occur. Exposure to such violence and aggression can have a lasting negative impact upon ambulance staff and has been associated with increased levels of stress, fear, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and burnout syndrome. Despite the significance of this issue, little progress has been made to tackle it. The purpose of this paper is to describe this multi-agency approach being taken in Wales (UK) to reduce such harms from violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff.

An interpretative post-positivist narrative methodology and policy analysis approach was followed. Snowball methods of gathering data were used to construct this narrative involving meetings, telephone calls, review of policy documents, legislation and academic literature.

The authors report how tackling violence and aggression directed towards emergency workers has become a priority within Wales (UK), resulting in policy developments and initiatives from groups such as the UK and Welsh Government, the Welsh Ambulance Services National Health Services (NHS) Trust, Health Boards, the NHS Wales Anti-Violence Collaborative and the Joint Emergency Services Group (JESG) in Wales. This has included changes in legislation such as the Assaults on Emergency Workers (Offences) Act 2018 that came into force on 13th November 2018 and policy changes such as the obligatory responses to violence in health care and the JESG #WithUsNotAgainst Us campaign. Our study however reflects the complexity of this issue and the need for further high-quality research.

The experiences and activities of Wales (UK) reported in this paper adds to the international body of knowledge and literature on violence and aggression directed towards ambulance services staff.

An overview of the mechanisms for policy implementation in Wales to better meet the mental health needs of people with learning disabilities is given. Commissioning of health services within Wales is at two levels. The complex relationships between commissioners, planners and service providers are described. Reviews of mental health services and secure services are due in 2007. Both include services for people with learning disabilities. The input of the Learning Disability Implementation Advisory Group into initiatives is outlined.

This paper aims to describe the strategies being put in place to develop blood borne virus (BBV) services across prisons in Wales, UK, in response to the recommendations for prisons within the Welsh Government's Blood Borne Viral Hepatitis Action Plan for Wales.

A task and finish group was established to ensure multidisciplinary engagement between healthcare and custody staff. A service improvement package was developed focusing on awareness raising and/or development of clinical services for prisoners, prison officers and prison healthcare staff.

Prison healthcare staff have undergone training in BBVs and are being supported to deliver clinical services to prisoners. Training has been delivered in pre/post test discussion and dried blood spot testing; care pathways have been established between prison and community specialists for treatment referrals. An e‐learning module is being rolled out to raise awareness amongst custody staff and encourage occupational hepatitis B vaccination. Literature on “liver health” has been produced to be given to every prisoner across Wales.

It is envisaged that BBV services will become a routine part of prison care in Wales. Data on activity are being collected for evaluation and it is hoped that tackling BBVs in prisons will help reduce rates of infection both within prisons and in the wider community.

This paper describes new initiatives that have been established to tackle BBVs across Welsh prisons and will be relevant to any prison healthcare staff looking to develop similar services.

To stay at the forefront of new technology, small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) can be assisted through Internet and Web sites providing innovation and technology support services. The cost of the latest technology, including hardware, training and personnel, however, can be insurmountable for SMEs with limited financial and technological resources. The business support community in Wales is continually evolving its own Internet and Web site offerings to make sure that businesses, especially SMEs, are kept abreast of the latest innovations, most productive methods and provision of support services. Considers the provision of Web‐based innovation and technology support in Wales and examines its coverage in relation to Welsh SMEs. Utilises a range of data collection techniques including interviews with policy makers and the analysis of reports and Internet sites.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper aims to outline the developments and strategies employed to supply online library services in Wales through a national platform: library.wales.org These services include: the “Cat Cymru” cross‐catalogue search, centrally procured subscription resources and local library microsites.

The paper reviews the key areas of development against the backdrop of current library policy in Wales.

By reviewing the strategic and policy background, outlining the key elements of the projects, and reviewing the future directions for this work, the paper shows how a national approach is leading to an improved cohesive delivery of services to Welsh citizens.

The work outlined in this paper represents the significant and valuable progress made in Wales in regard to the provision of centrally funded online services to all libraries and library users.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of a comprehensive and independent study of 1,029 older people who receive home care in Wales. The study aims to expand knowledge on the views of older people, a group who traditionally have struggled to make their voices heard. It asked older people about six specific components of home care: being listened to; having trained, knowledgeable and skilled care workers; having enough time to be cared for; receiving care from as few different workers as possible; receiving quality care; and being signposted to other sources of information.

After an initial literature review and period of analysis, a thematic framework for home care was developed which contained the six components described above. A questionnaire was subsequently designed and distributed via the post to all home care services over 65 years old in four local authorities across Wales. A sample response rate of 26.7 per cent was achieved.

The paper provides evidence on the levels of satisfaction (or otherwise) with the home care received by older people in Wales. Overall, nearly 85 per cent of older people are either “satisfied” or “very satisfied”, and given the sample size these data are significant (within appropriate confidence intervals) for the whole of the 25,000 people who receive home care in Wales. However, it is difficult to contextualise these findings given that there are no effective comparator data.

Given the chosen research approach, the results may lack a certain depth of understanding. That said, the size of the sample does provide commissioners and providers of services with certainty about the general population view.

This paper offers a unique independent analysis of home care in Wales, and provides the reader with detailed insights into the views of older people who rarely get a chance to be heard.

Wales Applied Risk Research Network (WARRN) is a formulation-based technique for the assessment and management of serious risk (e.g. violence to others, suicide, etc.) for users of mental health services which has been adopted across most Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) across Wales. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

An online survey was disseminated to National Health Service clinicians in CAMHS to evaluate their perceptions of the use and effectiveness of WARRN. Data from 88 clinicians were analysed with both quantitative and qualitative methods.

Clinicians reported increased clinical skills, increased confidence in their assessment and management of risk and in safety planning, the increased safety of service users and the general public, and a belief that WARRN had saved lives. The qualitative data showed that clinicians thought a common risk evaluation instrument across Wales and different agencies had created a common language and understanding that improved communication.

WARRN appears well accepted in CAMHS services with the view that it is having a very positive effect on service user well-being and safety and could be implemented in other services.

This is the first report of a formulation-based approach to the management of serious problem behaviours in CAMHS services.

Older people are reported to be the largest group to suffer from mobility deprivation. This paper reviews the literature relating to the mobility of older people in the context of transport opportunities and provision. The findings show that older people regard car ownership as an aid to independence and mobility. Car ownership is considered the norm and a necessity in rural areas. However within Wales, older people are more likely to be on a low income and live in a rural area, and are less likely to have a car than the rest of the population. Mobility, hearing and visual problems have a higher prevalence in the older population, rendering the use of public transport problematic. Difficulties include problems with getting on and off buses, difficulties with reading passenger information, missing information and communicating with service personnel. Improved access to public transport for older and disabled people can make a major contribution to the financial and social independence of this large and growing sector of the population (TRL Project Report, 1994) and will further promote the social inclusion of older people into society.