Children and Young People Now report on statistics released in parliament which show that more than 1800 extra days in custody have been handed out at Ashfield Young Offenders Institution in Bristol over a period of two years, with young people from black minority groups more likely to be reprimanded. They also report that the Howard League for Penal Reform has subsequently launched emergency judicial review proceedings to challenge this.
Children and Young People Now report a YouGov poll, commissioned by the NSPCC, of women with babies aged under one. Findings include: 57 per cent of new mums felt isolated with no-one to turn to; and 39 per cent admitted
Community Care report on adoption scorecards, published for the first time on 11 May 2012. The scorecards show that nearly half of local authorities failed to meet government targets, but have been criticised for not providing a sound basis for comparison by the Local Government Association, Association of Directors of Children’s Services and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.
The Scottish Government has announced a new Children and Young People Bill which will be introduced next year. It will bring together and enhance earlier plans for separate legislation on children’s services and rights to support children and families in Scotland. Includes: increasing free early learning and childcare from 475 hours a year to 600.
The government has set out how it plans provide better support for families in England in the planned Children and Families Bill. Proposals include: imposing a six month time limit on care cases; reducing adoption delays; flexible parental leave for new parents; reform of support for children with special educational needs; and strengthening the law to ensure children have a relationship with both parents following separation.
The Government has set out measures to protect children from commercialisation and sexualisation in society. Measures announced include: consultation on age ratings of music DVDs; clear warnings on explicit videos shown online; and new system of age classification and labelling for videogames to start in July.
Summary: Longitudinal study looking at abuse history as a risk factor in predicting intimate partner violence. Explores whether a sample of young adults (23 to 31 years) who were physically abused as adolescents, were more likely to be physically and verbally aggressive against their partners compared to non-abused young adults. Results showed that as adults, participants with abuse histories had significantly higher rates of intimate partner physical violence and verbal aggression compared to participants without a history of abuse. Adults with histories of physical abuse were twice as likely to be physically violent and almost six times more likely to be verbally aggressive to their partners.
Summary: Reports on an evaluation of the Graded Care Profile (GCP) tool for assessment of child neglect, in the Blackburn with Darwen local authority. Training was carried out using a ‘quality of care’ toolkit and the evaluation (using the Appreciative Inquiry approach) ran alongside the delivery of the toolkit training sessions, to explore existing practice and changes which occurred during practice. The research found that appreciative practice and the GCP both shifted focus from a review of neglect to a consideration of care, and that families found the tool helpful in understanding professional concerns and monitoring their own progress.
Summary: Examines the findings of a US survey into the recognition of empirically-supported treatments (ESTs) for abused children and their use by those working with them in clinical settings. Barriers to the spread of ESTs were identified as lack of time and financial resources, which limit training in evidence-based practice. Clinicians were not generally able to identify interventions supported by research and the development of cost-effective training and support (including web-based options) and the modification of training courses may improve awareness of ESTs.
Summary: Reports on a study of female prisoners in the American Midwest, which looked at the link between all types of abuse in childhood and sexual victimisation in prison. Although few associations between child abuse and forced sexual experiences in prison were found, emotional dysregulation was found to mediate links between childhood abuse and coerced sexual experiences in prison.
