Publications
Publications from the Children and Families Policy Research Unit
2026
- Lamont A, Harron K, Barlow J, et al. How are proportionate universalist services affected by resource constraint in practice? Exploring implementation challenges using a synthesis of four health visiting studies in England. Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. July, 2026.
- Blackburn, R., Kokosi, T., Heys, M., Gilbert, G., Zylberstejn, A. Hospital admissions among adolescents with local authority care experience or special educational needs in England: a population-based cohort study using linked administrative data from health, education and social care services. BMJ Public Health, March 2026.
- Stoianov, D., Macdonald, G., Greenley, S., Laddie, J., Childs A.M., Kerr-Elliott, T., Plunkett, A., Evans-Jones, K., Woodman, J., Fraser, L. Parents’ experiences of shared decision-making in the care of critically ill children: A scoping review, CPRU, February 2026.
- Lysons, L., Mendez, R.P., Alarcon, G., Aquino, M., R., J., Cann, H., Stoianov, D., Fearon, P., Kendall, S., Kirman, J., Gladstone, M., Woodman, J. Measuring child development at the 2–2½-year health and development review in England: a rapid scoping review of available tools. BMJ Open, February 2026.
- Lysons, L., Mendez, R.P., Aquino, M., R., J., Cann, H., Fearon, P., Kendall, S., Kirman, J., Lamont, A., Woodman, J. A qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives on adopting a digital tool to measure child development at the 2–2½ year review in England, Journal of Public Health, January 2026.
2025
- Ward, I., Jay, M., Ward, J., Gilbert, R., Zylbersztejn, A. Mortality in Children and Young People Receiving Special Education or Social Care Provision: A Whole Population Cohort Study in England. The Lancet (pre-print), December 2025.
- Lewis, K., Dale, H., Lewer, D., Downs, J., Blackburn, R., Disparities in adolescent mental health-related National Health Service presentations in England: secondary school cohort study, IJPDS, November 2025
- Jay, M. et al, Chronic health conditions and school absence, exclusions, and non-enrolment: a cohort study using the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database, Journal of Public Health, September 2025.
- Pulido, G. et al, Concentration of Hospital Days Among Children with Additional Health, Social Care or Education Needs: Longitudinal Birth Cohort Analysis of All Children in England (pre-print). The Lancet, August 2025.
- Lysons, J, A qualitative study of stakeholder perspectives on adopting a digital tool to measure child development at the 2-2½ year review in England, Journal of Publish Health, July 2025
- Herlitz, L. et al, Challenging school experiences of unavoidable absence and return for young people with chronic health conditions in English secondary schools: a qualitative, multi-informant study, Frontiers in Education, June 2025
- Powell, C. et al, Child mental health practitioners’ perspectives on providing support for families where there is intimate partner violence: navigating complex family relationships and fear at home, Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, June 2025
- Jay, M. et al, Chronic health conditions and school absence, exclusions, and non-enrolment: a cohort study using the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data database. Journal of Public Health, June 2025
- Quantin, C. et al, Hospitalisations for physical abuse in infants and children less than 5 years, 2013–2021: a multinational cohort study using administrative data from five European countries, The Lancet Regional Health, May 2025
- Blackburn, R et al, Hospital admissions among adolescents with local authority care experience or special educational needs in England: a population-based cohort study using linked administrative data from health, education and social care services, BMJ Public Health, April 2025.
- Cann, H. et al., Start for Life Outcomes Framework: identifying candidate indicators. CPRU, 2025.
- Herbert, K. et al. The economic burden of child maltreatment and co-occurring parental domestic violence and abuse in the UK. Child Abuse and Neglect, 2025.
- Powell, C. et al. Domestic abuse, primary care and child mental health services: A systems analysis of service coordination from professionals’ perspectives. Children and Youth Services Review, 2025
- Jung, J. et al. Early child development in England: Cross-sectional analysis of ASQ®-3 records from the 2-2½-year universal health visiting review using national administrative data (Community Service Dataset, CSDS). International Journal of Population Data Science, 2025
- Herlitz, L. et al. Negotiating Access to Health and Wellbeing Support in Schools for Young People with Chronic Health Conditions in English Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Multi-Informant Study. Continuity in Education, 2025
- Syed, S. et al. Adverse childhood experiences in firstborns and mental health risk and health-care use in siblings: a population-based birth cohort study of half a million children in England. Lancet Public Health, 2025
- Powell et al. Adapting a consensus process for survivors of domestic abuse and child maltreatment: a brief report about adopting a trauma-informed approach in multistakeholder workshops. BMJ Open, 2025
2024
- Lysons JL et al. What do parents, professionals and policy colleagues want from a universal assessment of child development in the early years? A qualitative study in England. BMJ Open 2024;14:e091080.
- Jay, M., Herlitz, L., Deighton, J., Gilbert, R., Blackburn, R. Cumulative incidence of chronic health conditions recorded in hospital inpatient admissions from birth to age 16 in England. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2024
Powell, C. & Jay, M.
. CPRU 2024
- Herlitz, L., Ashford, E., Baldwin, J., Powell, C., Woodman, J. Care-experienced young people’s views and experiences of accessing general practice and dental services and attending health reviews in England: a qualitative study. BMC Primary Care, 2024
- Barrett, S., Barlow, J., Cann, H., Pease, A., Shiells, K., Woodman, J., McGovern, R. Parental decision making about safer sleep practices: A qualitative study of the perspectives of families with additional health and social care needs. PLOS One, 2024
- Howarth, E., Feder, G., Barter, C., Powell, C., Harmonising outcome measurement for child focused domestic abuse interventions. Reflections on the development and implementation of a core outcome set. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 2024
- Herlitz, L., Ashford, E., Powell, C., Herbert, K., Morris, S., Woodman, J., Access to primary care for children and young people (CYP) in the UK: a scoping review of CYP’s, caregivers’ and healthcare professionals’ views and experiences of facilitators and barriers, BMJ Open, 2024
- Clery, A., Bunting, C., Liu, M., Harron, K., Woodman, J., Mc Grath-Lone, L. How complete is the Community Services Dataset for understanding health visiting service delivery? CPRU 2024
- Lysons, J., Mendez Pineda, R., Alarcon G., Aquino, MRJ., Cann, H., Fearon, P., Kendall, S., Kirman, J., Woodman, J. Measuring child development at the 2-2½ year health and development review. CPRU 2024
2023
- Nicolas Libuy, Ruth Gilbert, Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Ruth Blackburn, David Etoori, Katie Harron. Gestational age at birth, chronic conditions and school outcomes: a population-based data linkage study of children born in England. International Journal of Epidemiology.
- Herbert, K., Xi, Q., Feder, G., Gilbert, R., Powell, C., Howarth, E., Morris, M. Child maltreatment and parental domestic violence and abuse, co-occurrence and the effect on lifetime outcomes in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Social Science & Medicine - Population Health 2023
- Powell, C., Peeren, S., Ostrowska, A., Adil, S., Botevyle, J., Chesters, H., Wolstencroft, J., Yapp, E., Feder, G., Gilbert, R., & Howarth, E. The Importance of Grey and Qualitative Literature in Developing Domestic Violence and Abuse and Child Maltreatment Core Outcome Sets: A Brief Report. Journal of Family Violence 2023
- Cattan, S., Lereya, S. T., Yoon, Y., Gilbert, R., & Deighton, J. The impact of area level mental health interventions on outcomes for secondary school pupils: Evidence from the HeadStart programme in England. Economics of Education Review 2023.
- Shabeer Syed, Ruth Gilbert, Gene Feder, Laura D. Howe, Claire Powell, Emma Howarth, Jessica Deighton, Rebecca E. Lacey. Family adversity and health characteristics associated with intimate partner violence in children and parents presenting to health care: a population-based birth cohort study in England. The Lancet Public Health 2023.
- Kate Lewis and Ruth Gilbert. Using the ECHILD database to explore variation in recorded special educational needs for children with major congenital anomalies. Matchnet Series 3: Spring/Summer 2023 Webinar 9.
- Jenny Woodman and Katie Harron. Challenges in evaluating health visiting for under 5s in England. Matchnet Series 3: Spring/Summer 2023 Webinar 8.
- Emily Stapley, Mia Eisenstadt, Ola Demkowicz, Sarah Stock, Alisha O’Neill, Jessica Deighton & Michael Ungar. Early adolescents’ experiences of a school- and community-based prevention program: perceived ‘bridges’ and ‘walls’ to promoting mental health and wellbeing. Advances in Mental Health 2023.
- Dawid Gondek, Laura D. Howe, Ruth Gilbert, Gene Feder, Emma Howarth, Jessica Deighton, Rebecca E. Lacey. Association of Interparental Violence and Maternal Depression With Depression Among Adolescents at the Population and Individual Level. JAMA Network Open 2023.
- S. Clark, M. Kimber, L. Downes, G. Feder, E. Howarth, K. Johns, U. Lindenberg, A. d’Oliveira, A. Shaheen, C. Vindrola-Padros, and C. Powell, Engaging domestic abuse practitioners and survivors in a review of outcome tools – reflections on differing priorities, Research for All 7(1), 2023
- Claire Powell, Sigrún Eyrúnardóttir Clark, Lucy Downes, Gene Feder, Elaine Fulton, Emma Howarth, Amelia Karia, Melissa Kimber, Ana Flávia d’Oliveira , Amira Shaheen & Cecilia Vindrola-Padros. A rapid review of outcome measurement tools related to the DVA Core Outcome Set. CPRU 2023
- Kate Shiells; Simon Barrett; Hannah Cann; Ruth McGovern; Anna Pease; Jenny Woodman; Jane Barlow. Promoting safer sleeping for babies in high-risk groups in England. CPRU 2023
- Ania Zylbersztejn, Philippa Anna Stilwell, Hannah Zhu, Viki Ainsworth, Janice Allister, Karen Horridge, Terence Stephenson, Linda Wijlaars, Ruth Gilbert, Michelle Heys, and Pia Hardelid. Trends in hospital admissions during transition from paediatric to adult services for young people with learning disabilities or autism: population-based cohort study. The Lancet Regional Health - Europe 2023
- Matthew A. Jay, David Sanders-Ellis, Ruth Blackburn, Jessica Deighton and Ruth Gilbert. Umbrella systematic review finds limited evidence that school absence explains the association between chronic health conditions and lower academic attainment. Frontiers in Public Health 2023
- Dawid Gondek, Gene Feder, Laura D. Howe, Ruth Gilbert, Emma Howarth, Jessica Deighton, Rebecca E. Lacey. Factors mitigating the harmful effects of intimate partner violence on adolescents’ depressive symptoms—A longitudinal birth cohort study. JCPP Advances 2023
2022
- Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Matthew A. Jay, Ruth Blackburn, Emma Gordon, Ania Zylbersztejn, Linda Wijlaars, Ruth Gilbert. What makes administrative data “research-ready”? A systematic review andthematic analysis of published literature. International Journal of Population Data Science.
- Ruth Blackburn, Jacquie Phillips Owen, Johnny Downs, Ruth Gilbert. COVID-19-related school closures and patterns of hospital admissions with stress-related presentations in secondary school-aged adolescents: weekly time series. The British Journal of Pschiatry.
- Shabeer Syed, Arturo Gonzalez-Izquierdo, Janice Allister, Gene Feder, Leah Li, Ruth Gilbert. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) in English electronic health records of linked mothers and children: validation study using a multistage risk-prediction model. The Lancet 2022.
- Claire Powell, Gene Feder, Ruth Gilbert, Laura Paulauskaite, Eszter Szilassy, Jenny Woodman, Emma Howarth, Child and family-focused interventions for child maltreatment and domestic abuse: development of core outcome sets, BMJ Open 2022
Steve Morris and Kevin Herbert.
. CPRU 2022
Ania Zylbersztejn.
. CPRU 2022
- Suzet Tanya Lereya, Sarah Cattan, Yeosun Yoon, Ruth Gilbert, Jessica Deighton. How does the association between special education need and absence vary overtime and across special education need types? European Journal of Special Needs Education 2022
- Emily Stapley, Sarah Stock, Jessica Deighton, Ola Demkowicz. A qualitative study of how adolescents’ use of coping strategies and support varies in line with their experiences of adversity Child and Youth Care Forum 2022.
Emily Stapley, Kevin Herbert, Sarah Cattan, Jessica Deighton.
CPRU 2022.
- Caroline Fraser, Katie Harron, Jane Barlow, Samantha Bennett, Geoffrey Woods, Jenny Shand, Sally Kendall, Jenny Woodman. Variation in health visiting contacts for children in England: cross-sectional analysis of the 2–2½ year review using administrative data (Community Services Dataset, CSDS) BMJ Open 2022.
2021
- Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Nicolas Libuy, Katie Harron, Matthew A Jay, Linda Wijlaars, David Etoori, Matthew Lilliman, Ruth Gilbert, Ruth Blackburn. Data Resource Profile: The Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD) Database. International Journal of Epidemiology.
- Louise Mc Grath-Lone, David Etoori, Ruth Gilbert, Katie Harron, Jenny Woodman, Ruth Blackburn. Changes in adolescents’ planned hospital care during the COVID-19 pandemic: analysis of linked administrative data. Archives of Disease in Childhood 2022
- David Etoori, Katie Harron, Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Maximiliane Verfuerden, Ruth Gilbert, Ruth Blackburn. Deficits in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0 to 4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic. MedRxiV preprint 2021
- Ruth Gilbert, Gene Feder, Emma Howarth, Claire Powell. Development of core outcome sets for family and child-focused interventions for child maltreatment and domestic violence. CPRU 2021
- Ruth Blackburn, Omotomilola Ajetunmobi, Louise Mc Grath-Lone, Pia Hardelid, Roz Shafran, Ruth Gilbert, Linda Wijlaars. Hospital admissions for stress-related presentations among school-aged adolescents during term time
versus holidays in England: weekly time series and retrospective cross-sectional analysis (2014-2018). British Journal of Psychiatry Open (2021) Louise Mc Grath-Lone, David Etoori, Ruth Gilbert, Katie Harron, Jenny Woodman, Ruth Blackburn.
CPRU 2021
- Emma Howarth, Claire Powell, Jenny Woodman, Erin Walker, Ruth Gilbert, Gene Feder. Protocol for developing Core Outcome Sets for evaluation of psychosocial interventions for children and families with experience or at risk of child maltreatment or domestic abuse BMJ Open 2021
- Nicolas Libuy, Katie Harron, Ruth Gilbert, Richard Caulton, Ellen Cameron and Ruth Blackburn. Linking education and hospital data in England: linkage process and quality International Journal of Population Data Science 2021
- Steven Hope, Anna Pearce, Mario Cortina-Borja, Catherine Chitleborough, Jane Barlow, Catherine Law. Modelling the potential for parenting skills interventions to reduce inequalities and population prevalence of children’s mental health problems: Evidence from the Millennium Cohort Study SSM - Population Health 2021
2020
Jane Barlow, Anders Bach-Mortensen, Olha Homonchuk and Jenny Woodman.
CPRU 2020
Caroline Fraser, Katie Harron, Jane Barlow, Samantha Bennett, Geofrrey Woods, Jenny Shand and Jenny Woodman.
CPRU 2020
- Kate Lewis, Sanjay Parekh, Padmanabhan Ramnarayan, Ruth Gilbert, Pia Hardelid and Linda Wijlaars. Emergency paediatric critical care in England: describing trends using routine hospital data Archives of Disease in Childhood 2020
- Matthew Jay, Ruth Gilbert et al. Timing of paediatric orchidopexy in universal healthcare systems: international administrative data cohort study BJS Open 2020
Jess Deighton, Anna Gilleard, Melissa Cortina and Jenny Woodman.
CPRU 2020
- Selina Nath, Pia Hardelid and Ania Zylbersztejn. Are infant mortality rates increasing in England? The effect of extreme prematurity and early neonatal deaths Journal of Public Health 2020
- Sungano Chigogora, Anna Pearc, Catherine Law, Russell Viner, C. Chittleborough, Lucy Griffiths and Steven Hope. Could greater physical activity reduce population prevalence and socio-economic inequalities in children’s mental health problems? A policy simulation Epidemiology 2020
- Ania Zylbersztejn, Maximiliane Verfurden, Pia Hardelid, Ruth Gilbert, Linda Wijlaars. Phenotyping congenital anomalies in administrative hospital records Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology 2020
2019
- A Yassaee, D. Hale, A. Armitage and Russll Viner. The impact of age of transfer on outcomes in the transition from pediatric to adult health systems: a systematic review of reviews Journal of Adolescent Health 2019
- Sungano Chigogora, Anna Pearce, Russell Viner, Steve Morris, David Taylor-Robinson, Steven Hope. Could increasing income in lone-parent households reduce inequality in child mental health problems? European Journal of Public Health 2019
- Sally Kendall, Avril Nash, A. Braun, G. Bastug, Emeline Rougeaux and Helen Bedford. Acceptability and understanding of the ASQ-3TM as part of the healthy child programme two-year health and development review in England: Parent and professional perspectives Child: Care, Health and Development 2019
- Steven Hope, Emeline Rougeaux, Jessica Deighton, Catherine Law and Anna Pearce. Associations between mental health competence and indicators of physical health and cognitive development in eleven year olds: findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study BMC Public Health 2019
- Matthew Jay, Louise McGrath-Lone and Ruth Gilbert. Data Resource: the National Pupil Database (NPD) International Journal of Population Data Science 2019
- Julian Edbrooke-Childs and Praveetha Patalay. Ethic Differences in Referral Routes to Youth Mental Health Services Journal of American Academy of child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2019
- Veena Mazarello Paes, Terence Stephenson et al. Factors predicting poor glycemic control in the first two years of childhood onset type 1 diabetes in a cohort from East London, UK: Analyses using mixed effects fractional polynomial models Pediatric Diabetes 2019
Erin Walker and Stuart Logan.
NIHR Children and Families Policy Research Unit and NIHR Applied Health Collaboration South West Peninsula 2019
- Child of our time blog. Might population-wide increases in physical activity reduce socio-economic inequalities in the proportion of children who are overweight? 2019
- Amal R. Khanolkar, Rakesh Amin, David Taylor-Robinson, Russell M. Viner, Justin Warner, and Terence Stephenson. Inequalities in glycaemic control in childhood onset type 2 diabetes in England and Wales – A national population-based longitudinal study. Paediatric Diabetes 2019
- Jenny Woodman, Antonia Simon, Hanan Hauari, Ruth Gilbert. A scoping review of ‘think family’ approaches in healthcare settings: helping the child through the parent. Journal of Public Health 2019
- Suzet Tanya Lereya, Meera Patel, Joao Pedro Garcez Aurelio dos Santos and Jessica Deighton. Mental Health Difficulties, Attainment & Attendance: A Cross-sectional Study European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2019
2018
- Francesca Solmi, Mariya Melnychuk, Stephen Morris, The cost of mental and physical health disability in childhood and adolescence to families in the UK: findings from a repeated cross-sectional survey using propensity score matching BMJ Open 2018
- Aswathikutty Gireesh, Shikta Das, Russell Viner. The Impact of Health Behaviours and Deprivation on Wellbeing in a National Sample of English Young People. BMJ Paediatrics Open 2018
- Ania Zylbersztejn, Ruth Gilbert, Anders Hjern, Pia Hardelid. A comparison of child mortality from potentially preventable causes of death in England and Sweden using birth cohorts from linked administrative datasets. International Journal of Population Data Science 2018
- Ruth M. Blackburn, Annie Herbert, Linda Wijlaars. Trends in hospital admissions for nonfatal adversity-related injury among youths in England, 2002-2016. JAMA Pediatrics 2018
- Shabeer Syed, Ruth Gilbert, Miranda Wolpert. Parent Alcohol Misuse and the Impact on Children: a rapid evidence review of service presentations and interventions. Children’s Policy Research Unit 2018
- Linda Wijlaars, Pia Hardelid, Astrid Guttman, Ruth Gilbert. Emergency admissions and long-term conditions during transition from paediatric to adult care: a cross-sectional study using Hospital Episode Statistics data. BMJ Open 2018
- Ania Zylbersztejn, Ruth Gilbert, Anders Hjern, Linda Wijlaars, Pia Hardelid. Child mortality in England compared with Sweden: a birth cohort study The Lancet 2018
- Dimitrios Charalampopoulos et al. Exploring variation in glycaemic control across and within eight high-income countries: A cross-sectional analysis of 64,666 children and adolescents with type 1 diabetes Diabetes Care 2018
- Daniel Hayes, Julian Edbrooke-Childs, R. Town, Miranda Wolpert, N. Midgley.
Barriers and facilitators to shared decision making in child and youth mental health: Exploring young person and parent perspectives using the Theoretical Domains Framework European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2018
2017
- Annie Herbert, Ruth Gilbert, David Cottrell, Leah Li. Causes of death up to 10 years after admissions to hospitals for self-inflicted, drug-related or alcohol-related, or violent injury during adolescence: a retrospective, nationwide, cohort study The Lancet 2017
- Anuja Pandey, Daniel Hale, Shikta Das, Anne-Lise Goddings, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Russell Viner. Effectiveness of universal self-regulation-based interventions to improve self-regulation, and effects on distant health and social outcomes in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. The Lancet 2017
- Mariya Melnychuk, Francesca Solmi and Stephen Morris. Using compensating variation to measure the costs of child disability in the UK 2017
- Amal Khanolkar, Rakesh Amin, David Taylor-Robinson, Russell Viner, Justin Warner, Evelien Gevers, Terence Stephenson. Ethnic differences in early glycemic control in childhood-onset type 1 diabetes. BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care 2017
- Mariya Melnychuk, Francesca Solmi and Steve Morris. Family Finances and Disability: The cost of raising children with disability. CPRU 2017.