System In England Research Articles

Intergovernmental dynamics in responding to COVID-19 in English and Australian cities

AbstractThis comparative study, conducted at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, explores how the contrasting governance systems in Australia and England responded to complex and rapidly evolving problems presented by the crisis. Comparing how national and local governments worked together and alongside other forms of subnational governance, the findings highlight the efficacy of multi-scalar governance arrangement in Australia over the fragmented, overly-centralised and inconsistent arrangements in England. As nations plan their recovery paths from the economic and social challenges of the crisis, the findings encourage a reset of spatial policy towards one that values and resources greater decentralisation and place-based recovery.

Not “proper” foreign national prisoners: Irish ex-prisoner reflections on imprisonment in England and Wales

Irish prisoners are one of the oldest minority groups and one of the most represented foreign national groups in the prison system, yet little is known about their experiences of imprisonment in England and Wales. This article presents findings from 29 semi-structured interviews with Irish ex-prisoners who were asked to reflect on their time in prison in England and Wales. It utilises Ugelvik and Damsa’s findings on foreign national prisoner experiences in Norway as related to discrimination, long-distance relationships, and deportability as a point of analysis. This paper shows that Irish prisoners suffer the pains of discrimination through racism, bullying, and discrimination from prisoners and prison officers, and there are concerns over mistreatment by prison officers who are ex-military. There are also difficulties associated with family contact. As Irish prisoners are not subject to deportation, except in the most exceptional circumstances, and since there is no language barrier, this paper suggests that Irish prisoners might not seen as “proper” foreign nationals in the prison system. This may result in Irish prisoners being somewhat invisible in the prison system in England and Wales and in some cases having their nationality and national identity denied.

Migration Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of New England Showing Movements down the Urban Hierarchy and Ensuing Impacts on Real Estate Markets

As the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the United States, the media began reporting stories of people leaving cities for rural destinations, setting off frenzied real estate activity in receiving communities. This article builds a case study of New England using nonconventional data collected from mobile devices as a proxy for population to explore the temporal and spatial patterns of movement down the urban hierarchy since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Two research questions guide the analysis: (1) How have urban–rural migration systems in New England shifted since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) In what ways have real estate markets been affected by these apparent migration shifts? The analysis reveals shifts of population away from metropolitan core areas of the region and into micropolitan and noncore counties. These population shifts were most pronounced in late summer and fall 2020 with loosening travel restrictions. By the end of 2020, migration systems in New England once more resembled prepandemic patterns. Further, these places down the urban hierarchy consistently showed more substantial increases in real estate activity as reflected in rising prices, reduced inventories, and increased sales volume. These real estate dynamics suggest urban to rural migration during the COVID-19 pandemic might be initiating new waves of rural gentrification.

Research helps shape Care Review findings on improving outcomes

The Independent Review of Children's Social Care has set out fundamental reforms for the care system in England. Here, a research team member explains how they gathered evidence, particularly on the role of kinship care

An Ecological Analysis of Hospitalization Patterns for Diseases of the Nervous System in England and Wales over the Last 20 Years.

Objectives: This study aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the hospitalization pattern of nervous system diseases from 1999 to 2019. Methods: This is ecological research based on data from the Hospital Episode Statistics database in England and the Patient Episode Database in Wales, both of which are publicly available. Data on hospital admissions were collected between April 1999 and March 2019. Diagnostic codes (G00–G09: inflammatory diseases of the central nervous system, G10–G14: systemic atrophies primarily affecting the central nervous system, G20–G26: extrapyramidal and movement disorders, G30–G32: other degenerative diseases of the nervous system, G35–G37: demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system, G40–G47: episodic and paroxysmal disorders, G50–G59: nerve, nerve root and plexus disorders, G60–G65: polyneuropathies and other disorders of the peripheral nervous system, G70–G73: diseases of myoneural junction and muscle, G80–G83: cerebral palsy and other paralytic syndromes, and G89–G99: other disorders of the nervous system) from the tenth edition of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) were used to identify hospital admissions. A Poisson model was used to examine the trend in hospital admissions. Results: During the study period, hospital admission rate increased by 73.5% (from 474.44 (95% CI 472.58–476.31) in 1999 to 823.37 (95% CI 821.07–825.66) in 2019 per 100,000 persons, trend test, p < 0.01). The most prevalent diseases of the nervous system hospital admissions causes were episodic and paroxysmal disorders, nerve, nerve root, and plexus disorders, and demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system which accounted for 37.4%, 22.1%, and 9.3%, respectively. Hospital admission rate between females increased by 79.1% (from 495.92 (95% CI 493.25–498.58) in 1999 to 888.33 (95% CI 884.97–891.68) in 2019 per 100,000 persons). Hospital admission rate between males was increased by 67.5% (from 451.88 (95% CI 449.28–454.49) in 1999 to 756.82 (95% CI 753.69–759.96) in 2019 per 100,000 persons). Conclusion: In the United Kingdom, hospital admissions for diseases of the nervous system are on the rise. Future research is needed to identify high-risk groups and suggest effective interventions to reduce the prevalence of these disorders.

An overview of a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign at a prominent Connecticut healthcare system.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has required healthcare systems to adapt, innovate, and collaborate to protect public health through treatment, testing, and vaccination initiatives related to the virus. As the pandemic evolved, lessons learned early on through testing and treatment were applied to vaccination efforts. Hartford HealthCare (HHC) is one of the largest healthcare systems in New England and took an integral role in vaccinating patients throughout the region, thus providing one of the largest vaccination campaigns in Connecticut. Early planning for equipment and personnel, in addition to effective communication between providers and patients, was critical in accomplishing HHC's goal of rapidly providing access to COVID-19 vaccines. The efficient and effective response to the pandemic at HHC was led by the Office of Emergency Management, which worked to ensure continuity of patient care and physician excellence in the face of disaster. Initially, resources were directed to testing and treatment of the disease; as vaccine clinical trials announced successful outcomes, these efforts shifted to preparing for the storage and distribution of a mass number of vaccines. This manuscript details the factors that enabled success in HHC's vaccination campaign and serves to provide a useful template for similar healthcare systems for future pandemic response.

Using Linked Administrative Data to Explore Ethnicity, Care Experience and Justice Systems Involvement: Challenges and Possibilities.

The youth and adult criminal justice systems in England and Wales disproportionately draw in individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds (Lammy, 2017; YJB, 2021) and those who have been in care as children (HMIP, 2021; MoJ, 2012). While evidence suggests that there is likely to be considerable overlap between these two groups (Prison Reform Trust, 2016), there was previously little in the way of quantitative data to explore this. The newly linked MoJ/DfE datasets have provided a unique opportunity to investigate the intersections between ethnicity, care experience and justice systems involvement for the first time. This paper will draw on findings from an ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) Fellowship utilising the newly linked datasets. It will outline to what extent ethnic minority care-experienced people are over-represented in justice systems. It will also explore the nature of this involvement including offence type, frequency, and disposals. The findings will be contextualised within the wider literature on racialisation (Phillips, 2012) and criminalisation in care (Howard League, 2017) to enable a broader understanding of the issues. The paper will outline the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research using linked data from across government departments as well as the possibilities for future research.

Planning System of England to Respond to ‘Housing Crisis’ and Policy Implication to Korea

The purpose of this study is to explore the implications from the recent changes in the English planning system. In England, the ‘housing crisis’ led to changes in the planning system aimed at expanding the housing supply: The central government set strategic aims for housing supply which were linked to the local plan; a standard calculation method for housing needs was used; and local plans including the housing needs and supply were used to determine whether to permit planning applications. However, in Korea, the central government produces the comprehensive housing plan by itself, and the link between the plans of the central and local governments is not clear. The method of estimating housing demand and needs is not uniform, so reliability and comparability are low. And, the housing plan made by local governments is not being used to assess the adequacy of development projects. The fundamental reason for such a difference is that Korea’s housing policy is being implemented by the central government. In order to develop a new planning system suitable for decentralization, it is necessary to consider a planning system that the central government’s strategic aims are compatible with local governments’ leading role in the implementation of the plan.

Optimising acute stroke pathways through flexible use of bed capacity: a computer modelling study

BackgroundOptimising capacity along clinical pathways is essential to avoid severe hospital pressure and help ensure best patient outcomes and financial sustainability. Yet, typical approaches, using only average arrival rate and average lengths of stay, are known to underestimate the number of beds required. This study investigates the extent to which averages-based estimates can be complemented by a robust assessment of additional ‘flex capacity’ requirements, to be used at times of peak demand.MethodsThe setting was a major one million resident healthcare system in England, moving towards a centralised stroke pathway. A computer simulation was developed for modelling patient flow along the proposed stroke pathway, accounting for variability in patient arrivals, lengths of stay, and the time taken for transfer processes. The primary outcome measure was flex capacity utilisation over the simulation period.ResultsFor the hyper-acute, acute, and rehabilitation units respectively, flex capacities of 45%, 45%, and 36% above the averages-based calculation would be required to ensure that only 1% of stroke presentations find the hyper-acute unit full and have to wait. For each unit some amount of flex capacity would be required approximately 30%, 20%, and 18% of the time respectively.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the importance of appropriately capturing variability within capacity plans, and provides a practical and economical approach which can complement commonly-used averages-based methods. Results of this study have directly informed the healthcare system’s new configuration of stroke services.

Parental Partnership, Advocacy and Engagement: The Way Forward

This article, written with parents as co-authors, has two aims: (1) to provide a critical view of the English child protection system based on parents’ views and to locate these views within contemporary child protection studies and (2) to present the transformative value of co-production in the context of child protection studies both as a form of critical scholarship and as a means to influence policy and practice. The current children’s social work system in England does not achieve good outcomes for families, and many children and parents frequently experience it as stigmatizing, inhumane, and harmful. The article presents the experience and recommendations for change produced by parents with a broad range of experience with child protection services in England. The Parents, Families and Allies Network worked with five allied organizations in which parents identified the extensive range of problems that the current system presents and ways forward to achieve more supportive, humane, and inclusive practice with families. Seven main themes emerged: a better definition of need and response to need; partnership, participation, and humane practice; improving legal representation and support in legal proceedings; better support in care proceedings; permanence that maintains links; a better response to domestic violence; and the lack of support for disabled children. The article discusses five features of the project that supported meaningful co-production: taking a political stance, choosing clear and feasible aims, incorporating a range of knowledge, the participation of parents with lived experience throughout all phases of the project, and not settling with just knowledge production.

A survey of case studies on the use of forensic three-dimensional printing in England and Wales

3D printing has rapidly developed and been applied in forensic science due to its use in creating demonstrations for courts of law. Much of the literature on this specific topic has focused on the use of 3D printed models in academia, the potential influence on a jury, and its use as a long-term documentation process, but with few actual forensic case examples. This paper offers an insight into the development of 3D printing in forensic practice and how 3D printing is currently being used in the criminal justice system in England and Wales.A series of case reports were gathered from multiple police forces and forensic practitioners in the UK to identify how 3D printing was being used. These discussions established who was requesting 3D printed exhibits, what type of technologies were being utilised, what type of exhibits were being printed, and resulting feedback for the use of 3D printed material within a criminal case. As a result, this research demonstrates the current use of 3D printing in England and Wales, discussing the associated cases that have been known to incorporate 3D prints. Likewise, this work explores the limitations that have been encountered by forensic practitioners and identifies a series of research questions that should be considered in future investigations.

A Comparative Study of the Current Education Disciplinary Regulations in England Versus China

Since the Chinese Education Disciplinary Rules for Primary and Secondary Schools (Trial), i.e., The Trial Rules (TTR) was first put into practice, its implementation has been limited because of teachers’ ignorance and misconduct. A comparative study is needed to shed light on these issues and promote TTR policies. As a country based on case law and a centralised educational system, England represents an appropriate reference. The present study compares the history and latest regulations in education between two countries (England and China) in terms of the participants and processes involved in education discipline. It is important to note that TTR has a shorter history than the system in England, and therefore, it provides relatively limited guidance for classroom teachers because there has not been enough practical or theoretical feedback. However, considering the regulations about the education disciplinary process (e.g., deviance, discipline, and feedback), TTR has formed a relatively well-developed stipulations for the latter two steps, while further details must be developed to better address deviance. Overall, more referential cases are needed as guidance for teachers.

The rise and rise of academy trusts: continuing changes to the state-funded school system in England

ABSTRACT This paper delineates the growth of academy trusts in England before exploring government intentions to base the future state-funded school system on ‘strong’ multi-academy trusts. Academies, directly funded by the central government, first appeared in 2002 as an alternative to local authority-managed provision, with the initial intention of addressing continued underperformance of schools in urban areas. It was not until 2010, however, with an incoming Coalition government that the academisation process was widened, a policy seemingly driven by a desire to limit the influence of local authorities in line with principles of new public management (NPM). The number of academies increased dramatically (for a variety of reasons) to the point where now over half the school population are within them. Individual academies have, since the appointment of Regional School Commissioners in 2014, been encouraged to join formally with other academies as multi-academy trusts (MATs). Whilst by 2022 there were nearly 10,000 academies, most were in MATs with the government signalling its intention through a White Paper to base the future on them. The academisation process has featured several areas of concern, however, not all of which will be resolved by the policy statements contained in this proposal for new legislation.

Formation of the continental system of European law by the example of the Old Athens and the Sparta

The creation and development of modern law is a long historical process spanning several centuries and began with the writing of barbaric Truths (Salichna Pravda, Ripuarska Pravda, Primorsky Salic Franks, etc.). This process was more smooth and evolutionary than the corresponding processes in the field of state formation, where they were often established in a revolutionary way.&#x0D; The origin of modern law begins with the reception of Roman law and the law of ancient Greece .. Thus was born city law, international trade law, whose roots are quite deep and strong. But at the same time the legal systems of the Middle Ages were very imperfect, and many of their provisions hampered the development of political democracy and capitalist entrepreneurship in the era of feudalism. These features of medieval legal systems, characterized by the lack of internal unity, prevented progressive changes, both in the state and in law.&#x0D; The reform of the old feudal law on a new bourgeois basis was carried out by revolutionary coups - the English Revolution of the 17th century and the French Revolution of the 18th century. These revolutions have largely led to the unjustified destruction of the legal structure created over the centuries, to the breakdown of traditional legal culture, to legal nihilism and voluntarism. Ultimately, they led to significant changes in the field of law, to the formation of a new legal order, which led to the formation and rapid development of capitalism.&#x0D; Modern law in the West (primarily Anglo-Saxon and European continental law of France) was formed and developed as a logical continuation of the previously formed systems of medieval (eg, "common law") and even ancient Roman law. The new law could not be something significantly different from the previous law, because in its self-development it absorbed, preserved and used many of its constructive, socially useful elements.&#x0D; Modern law of the 20th and 21st centuries is largely based on previous law, the same laws of France (customary law), Roman law; moreover, the pre-revolutionary systems of England and France and Germany did not disappear without a trace. Much of it has been updated in modern law, as medieval law functioned in a society that already knew both private property and market relations and a fairly high level of legal technique.&#x0D; The formation of new law meant the formation of bourgeois capitalist law, broke guild corporations and feudal monopolies, creating the necessary space for the growth of production and trade, for personal initiative, for the full use of needs is developing rapidly. (1, 48-51)&#x0D; Modern law, in contrast to pre-revolutionary law, which was characterized by disunity and particularism, was born everywhere in the form of integrated national legal systems. It was capitalism, breaking all kinds of castes, regional, customs and other barriers, led to the emergence of not only nation-states but also national legal systems. The legal system acquires a new way of its existence - the system of legislation and the system of law, which was practically present only in its infancy in ancient and medieval societies. The dominant principle in the legal systems of modern times is constitutional (state, public) law, on the basis of which the legal structure of any society was built.&#x0D; Legislation had a special system-forming significance in the formation of the new law.

It's Not Over, Not Over, Not Over, Not Over Yet Resistance to Academisation from the Inside

Since 2002, the number of academy schools in England has increased – first gradually and then, since the 2010 Academies Act, rapidly. For some, a full academisation of the school system in England appears inevitable. In this paper, however, I explore how new teachers and senior leaders within academy primary schools quietly resist identifying as academy teachers, and in doing so resist the wider process of academisation. This resistance gives those who are opposed to academisation hope that another future is possible, one in which academisation is stalled and perhaps reversed.

Comparative effectiveness of ChAdOx1 versus BNT162b2 covid-19 vaccines in health and social care workers in England: cohort study using OpenSAFELY

ObjectiveTo compare the effectiveness of the BNT162b2 mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech) and the ChAdOx1 (Oxford-AstraZeneca) covid-19 vaccines against infection and covid-19 disease in health and social care workers.DesignCohort study, emulating a comparative...

Socioeconomic inequality of long-term care for older people with and without dementia in England

Abstract Ensuring distributive fairness in the long-term care sector is vitally important in the context of global population ageing and rising care needs. This study, part of the DETERMIND (DETERMinants of quality of life, care and costs, and consequences of INequalities in people with Dementia and their carers) programme, investigates socioeconomic inequality and inequity in the utilisation of long-term care for older people with and without dementia in England. The data come from three waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA, Waves 6–8, N = 16,458). We find that older people with dementia have higher levels of care needs and a lower socioeconomic status than those without dementia. The distribution of formal and informal care is strongly pro-poor. When care needs are controlled for, there is no significant inequality of formal or informal care among people with dementia, nor of informal care among people without dementia, but there is a significant pro-rich distribution of formal care among people without dementia. Unmet care needs are significantly concentrated among poorer people, both with and without dementia. We argue that the long-term care system in England plays a constructive role in promoting socioeconomic equality of long-term care for people with dementia, but support for older people with lower financial means and substantial care needs remains insufficient. Increased government support for older people is needed to break the circle between care inequality and health inequality.

Enhancing resilience of integrated electricity-gas systems: A skeleton-network based strategy

The increasing frequency of major energy outages in recent years has significantly affected millions of people around the world, raising extensive concerns about enhancing infrastructure resilience to withstand and quickly recover from disasters. However, the post-disaster recovery of infrastructure functionality has been hindered by the lack of interdependency modeling of energy networks and priority identification of components, resulting in long-duration energy supply scarcity, wide-ranging service disruption, and huge social losses. Here, a skeleton-network based strategy for enhancing the resilience of integrated electricity-gas systems (IEGSs) is proposed, which can provide a clear representation of which network components should be protected and how to determine the component recovery priority considering interdependencies of power and gas systems. Using the modified energy systems in New England and Northwest China, the skeleton-network is uncovered to quickly recover more than 90% of system functionality using less than 44.3% of total resources, and consumer-affected time by energy outages decreases by more than 53%. The analysis also indicates that compared to conventional methods, the skeleton-network based strategy performs best in improving infrastructure resilience. These results elucidate the implications of skeleton-networks on quick recovery of infrastructure functionality and demonstrate resilience enhancement methods that are applicable to a wider class of coupled infrastructure networks in hazard-prone areas.

CHILD PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY AND CHILD PROTECTION MATTERS IN ENGLAND &amp; WALES

The paper is part of a collaborative research organized by the International Association of Youth and Family Judges and Magistrates (AIMJF/IAYFJM) on child participation in family and protection matters. The article explains the legal, institutional and procedural aspects of child participation in the Justice System in England and Wales.

Disabling and criminalising systems? Understanding the experiences and challenges facing incarcerated, neurodivergent children in the education and youth justice systems in England

Children defined as ‘neurodivergent’ are over-represented in the English and Welsh criminal justice system, and face a number of challenges as they navigate their way through the education and youth justice systems. This paper will empirically examine this neglected area of criminal justice involvement in young lives, and involves an interpretivist investigation of neurodivergent children's experiences of the education and youth justice systems, involving semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 19 children in England who were either in custody or had recently been released from custody. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.The research findings suggest that both the education and youth justice systems in England and Wales are disabling and criminalising through processes that, often unintentionally; label, stigmatise, isolate, neglect and harm neurodivergent children. Consideration will turn, in the concluding section of the paper, to what a ‘child first’ education and youth justice system would look like for neurodivergent children.