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Objective: Mental health problems are a leading and increasing cause of health-related burden in children across the world. Peer support interventions are increasingly used to meet this need using the lived experience of people with a history of mental health problems. However, much of the research underpinning this work has focused on adults, leaving a gap in knowledge about how these complex interventions may work for different children in different circumstances. Realist research may help us to understand how such complex interventions may trigger different mechanisms to produce different outcomes in children. This paper reports on an important first step in realist research, namely the construction of an embryonic initial programme theory to help 'focus' realist evaluation exploring how children's peer support services work in different contexts to produce different outcomes in the West Midlands (UK). Methods: A survey and preliminary semi-structured realist interviews were conducted with 10 people involved in the delivery of peer support services. Realist analysis was carried out to produce context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOC). Results: Analysis produced an initial programme theory of peer support for children's mental health. This included 12 CMOCs. Important outcomes identified by peer support staff included hope, service engagement, wellbeing, resilience, and confidence; each generated by different mechanisms including contextualisation of psychoeducation, navigating barriers to accessing services, validation, skill development, therapeutic relationship, empowerment, and reducing stigma. Conclusion: These data lay the groundwork for designing youth mental health realist research to evaluate with nuance the complexities of what components of peer support work for whom in varying circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a new approach for understanding urban mobility called geospatial and temporal (GeoST) mapping, which translates telematics (location) data into travel characteristics. The approach provides the speed-acceleration profile of transport flow at high spatial and temporal resolution. The speed-acceleration profiles can be converted to vehicle-specific power (VSP), which can be used to estimate vehicle emissions. The underlying data used in the model is retrieved from a large telematics dataset, which was collected from GPS-connected vehicles during their journeys over the UK's West Midlands region road network for the years 2016 and 2018. Single journey telematics data were geospatially aggregated and then distributed over GeoST-segments. In total, approximately 354,000 GeoST-segments, covering over 17,700 km of roads over 35 timeslots are parameterized. GeoST mapping of the average vehicle speed (traffic flow), and VSP over different road types are analysed. The role of road slope upon VSP is estimated for every GeoST-segment through knowledge of the elevation of the start and end points of the segments. Previously, road slope and its effect upon VSP have been typically ignored in transport and urban planning studies. A series of case studies are presented that highlight the power of the new approach over differing spatial and temporal scales. For example, results show that the total vehicle fleet moved faster by an average of 3% in 2016 compared to 2018. The studied roads at weekends are shown to be less safe, compared to weekdays, because of lower adherence to speed limits. By including road slope in VSP calculations, the annually averaged VSP results differ by +12.6%, +14.3%, and + 12.7% for motorways, primary roads, and secondary roads, respectively, when compared to calculations that ignore road slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 2012 the UK government announced that powers would be sought for a London-to-West Midlands high-speed rail line based on a refined version of a 220 km route that was consulted upon in 2011. At the same time, High Speed Two (HS2) Ltd, the agency responsible for implementing the project, appointed a development partner for the London-to-West Midlands phase (phase 1) to assist HS2 and to manage and supervise the HS2 consultants. Later, 16 professional service companies were appointed to undertake the design, engineering, environmental and land referencing work necessary for the hybrid bill. Together, this joint team prepared the High Speed Rail (London–West Midlands) Bill, including an environmental statement, and deposited it into parliament in November 2013, only 22 months after route announcement. This paper describes the collaborative working practices that were employed to achieve this successful outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Childhood obesity is a serious public health challenge and schools have been identified as an ideal place to implement prevention interventions. The aim of this study was to measure the cost-effectiveness of a multi-faceted school-based obesity prevention intervention targeting children aged 6–7 years when compared to ‘usual activities’. Methods: A cluster randomised controlled trial in 54 schools across the West Midlands (UK) was conducted. The 12-month intervention aimed to increase physical activity by 30 minutes per day and encourage healthy eating. Costs were captured from a public sector perspective and utility-based health related outcomes measured using the CHU-9D. Multiple imputation using chained equations was used to address missing data. The cost effectiveness was measured at 30 months from baseline using a hierarchical net-benefit regression framework, that controlled for clustering and prespecified covariates. Any uncertainty in the results was characterised using cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. Results: At 30 months, the total adjusted incremental mean cost of the intervention was £155 (95% confidence interval [CI]: £139, £171), and the incremental mean QALYs gained was 0.006 (95% CI: -0.024, 0.036), per child. The incremental cost-effectiveness at 30 months was £26,815 per QALY and using a standard willingness to pay threshold of £30,000 per QALY, there was a 52% chance that the intervention was cost-effective. Conclusions: The cost-effectiveness of the school-based WAVES intervention was subject to substantial uncertainty. We therefore recommend more research to explore obesity prevention within schools as part of a wider systems approach to obesity prevention. Trial registration: This paper uses data collected by the WAVES trial: Controlled trials (registered May 2010). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mounting tide of foreign fighters leaving Britain for the Middle East to fight, sacrifice or find new lives has blighted European governments and led to the further tightening up of counter-terrorism measures. Since the first British arrest of a Syrian returnee (Choudhury) in 2014, the latest figures of foreign fighter returnees have surged to approximately 800. A number of strategies aimed at thwarting these trends have surfaced including a call upon Muslim parents to scrutinise their children’s attitudes and behaviour and to be watchful of their radicalization. Based on a study in the West Midlands (in the UK), the paper provides a snapshot of how Muslim parents have received calls upon them to report their actual or potentially radicalized children to the police. We argue that current practices are likely to be ineffective unless more democratic spaces are provided for free political expression. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The population complexity associated with superdiversity brings a wide range of challenges for social welfare providers. Commentators have outlined concerns about the ability of service providers to meet the welfare needs of ever diversifying populations and point to potential problems in identifying the nature of need in rapidly changing superdiverse neighbourhoods as conventional approaches to consultation based around ethnicity become practically impossible. Using data collected in the West Midlands, which explored maternity service needs from the perspectives of new migrants and maternity professionals, some key barriers to effective welfare delivery in superdiverse areas are explored. The paper outlines the emergence of two challenges important in shaping new migrant access to maternity care in an era of superdiversity – novelty and newness – and proposes further research to examine the extent to which these challenges are faced in other social welfare services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Midland Metro light rail system began running between Wolverhampton and Birmingham in 1999. Despite initial problems of reliability, it now has a stable patronage of around 5 million passenger journeys per year and is one of the most reliable transport services in the West Midlands. Centro, as owner of Midland Metro, has long been keen to expand the system and has battled to obtain funding. Over the last 3 years, the company has made significant progress towards delivery of the line's expansion, including a major structure required to put trams back onto the streets of Birmingham, finalising a funding package and placing the order for a new tram fleet. This paper examines Centro's successful approach to obtaining the necessary funding for the Metro expansion and the benefits it will deliver for the West Midlands; how the company is ensuring - through its procurement strategy, programme management approach and risk management - that the scheme is cost effective; and the longer term strategy for growth of the system that will result from delivery of this first phase of expansion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• BP-ANN was applied to model the factors of older female and male driver accidents. • Models have greater accuracy and define the proportional contribution of errors. • 95,092 accident records in West Midlands during 2006-2016 were analysed. • Vital causes are journey purpose, lighting, pedestrian crossing & extreme weather. • Decline in abilities & cut-off of public transport make older people reliant on car. Older people are vulnerable road users with higher rate of casualties in traffic accidents. The commonly cited causes of accidents for older people are poor attention and decision making at critical locations of road, poor visibility in extreme weather, poor road surface condition and unpredictability of other road users, particularly young drivers. Female drivers are often labelled as being precarious drivers and having higher accident risk comparing to male drivers. This paper applies Backpropagation - Artificial Neural Network (BP-ANN) with a Generalized Delta Rule (GDR) learning algorithm to model the factors affecting traffic accidents of both older female and male drivers. The BP-ANN can construct the causation model of traffic accidents with greater accuracy and define the proportion of errors contributed by each factor to traffic accidents. This paper studies a total of 95,092 accident records in West Midlands of the United Kingdom during the period of 2006 to 2016. This paper determines journey purpose, lighting condition, pedestrian crossing with physical interventions, complex roadway geometry, extreme weather and time severity as the most significant factors of older driver accidents. The accident risk of older drivers can be improved by providing accessible routes, affordable, reliable and convenient public transport, timely warning of unexpected situations and changes in roadway geometry; increasing use of assistive technology in cars, driverless cars and encouraging active transports into sociable activities. The findings help the transport authorities and city councils to develop strategies and measures promoting public and active transports to ensuring the safety of older drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK there has been a government drive towards the involvement of lay people in health service decision-making processes. In the West Midlands, lay assessors are present on interview panels for applicants to general practice (GP) training. The impact of their involvement was explored through analysis of scores (207 candidates in March 2002), and a postal survey of lay assessors (response rate 84%, n=47). This paper draws on this study to consider the definition of lay people, and their role on assessment panels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors suggest that a more interpretist analysis of policy design, development, and implementation that takes into account antecedent factors, context, reflective change, and user and advisor perception and expectations would make a significant contribution to the field of policy evaluation. This concept is considered further using a qualitative assessment of the West Midlands response, Mustard.UK.Com (Mustard), to the government's High Growth Start-Up scheme set out in the Department of Trade and Industry's Competitiveness White Paper in 1998. The assessment has three elements: first, an exploration of the extant literature to identify any relevant antecedent factors that may have informed or influenced the decisionmaking process when the West Midlands response was being developed; second, a review of the procedure by which the various parties involved in the implementation of Mustard created a framework within which a workable support programme could be delivered; third, the extent to which Mustard has been successful in meeting the objectives of those stakeholders involved in the programme is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]