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Separation anxiety
Babies and toddlers between the age of 6 and 30 months who do not receive sensory evidence (sight, sound, touch,
smell or taste) that any of their known and trusted attachment figures are present, will have an instinctive feeling that
the situation is becoming dangerous. This will induce some level of fear and raise their cortisol levels.
At this age their
emergency response to fear is flight-towards an attachment figure, and the longer there is no sensory input from a
trusted attachment figure, the greater the level of danger sensed, especially if the surroundings are not very familiar.
When left by their primary attachment figure, most babies and toddlers who have not had the opportunity to
develop a secondary attachment to one carer, will initially protest by crying and searching for their attachment figure.
When this does not result in reunion, the instinctive reaction of some babies and younger toddlers is to become a bit
subdued or withdrawn, (although others appear to manage better).
This compliant behaviour is usually seen as the
toddler settling in and accepting their new surroundings, but their level of cortisol is often elevated which indicates that
they’re stressed, and if they then sense danger some may ‘freeze’ or ‘still’. This situation is more common in group
settings which lack continuity in personalised care-giving.
Sir Richard draws the following conclusions:
Many toddlers’ receive a risk factor at home from insecure attachment, and
another risk factor from any sort of childcare where there is not a ‘good enough’ secondary attachment figure.
These
two risk factors are becoming normalised within society and are hidden contributors to children’s future social and
emotional problems.
A combination of three or more risk factors has a high probability of producing increased levels of
behavioural problems and emotional instability.
By reorganising childcare to provide secondary attachment bonds for babies and toddlers we can remove one
increasingly common risk factor. Several childminders can work co-operatively in professionally supported and
monitored groups or networks; parents could be allowed to use their childcare allowance to pay grandmother or other
relative to care for their child, or a parent could choose to use the allowance to stay home themselves.
In a society which encourages both parents to work outside the home while their children are under three, it is
attachment focused childcare arrangements that have a crucial role to play in facilitating the healthy emotional
development of children.
It is in our power to provide this if we care enough about our children’s wellbeing. It can be done!
Attachment Theory - Links
Attachment Theory
Ethological Attachment Theory
Attachment Theory in Childcare
Attachment Styles
Child protection adviser warns Treasury off cuts
Treasury demands for cuts will seriously affect social workers' ability to protect vulnerable youngsters at a time when greater strains are being put on the
service, the government's chief adviser on the safety of children warned yesterday.
Sir Roger Singleton said that the Treasury had already demanded £300m from the non-schools budget for children. The "increase in demand and higher expectations
of performance is not being matched by the provision of additional resources [and] the capacity of the relevant services to keep children safe will inevitably
be diminished", Singleton said.
Rising numbers of referrals of vulnerable youngsters to social services and an increase in court applications is placing "significant pressure" on child
protection officers.
In his first report to parliament, Singleton said that the turning point for children's social services was the Baby Peter case in Haringey, north London,
where staff had come under pressure for a series of mishaps that led to the death of the toddler. Since then social work had become "more complex and pressured".
The figures for the three months to December 2009 showed court applications jumped by 21%. There have also been increases in referrals to children's social care,
initial assessments and core assessments ...
Guardian 18 Mar 2010
Death of Baby Peter
NHS 'neglects' parents of sick children
Far too few hospitals provide parents with accommodation so they can stay beside their ill son or daughter, Professor Terence Stephenson, president of the Royal
College of Paediatrics and Child Health, told the Observer.
He said it was "not good enough" that some parents have to sleep on a pulldown bed or an unused patient's bed, sometimes for weeks or even months, in order to
keep a vigil by their child. Some end up exhausted and reduced to tears by sleep deprivation and the lack of privacy ...
He accused the NHS of neglecting the needs of people who deserved a better deal for playing a key role in their child's recovery.
"Every week, hundreds of pre-term babies are born and thousands of children end up in hospital with a broken limb, cancer or cystic fibrosis. But there aren't
enough family accommodation facilities across the NHS and the situation is not good enough. In my experience, the majority of parents who are in hospital
overnight are on a Zedbed beside their sick baby or child," he said.
"They will be woken frequently throughout the night when other children are admitted, or the ward buzzer sounds, or the lights go on and off. They will often
become exhausted. Parents can't be expected to sleep on a put-you-up bed for weeks on end," he added ...
Observer 14 Mar 2010
Action for Sick Children
Underclass of pre-school children emerging
More than one in 10 children begin primary school unable to learn and unwilling to build relationships with their peers, a "disengaged generation waiting in
the wings", said the thinktank Demos today in a report.
Researchers said that data from the Millennium Cohort Study showed 66,000 children scored "borderline" or "abnormal" in tests designed to reveal behavioural
and emotional problems that are intimately linked to under-achievement at school, risk of truanting, and exclusion.
Poverty stands out among a number of factors, Demos said. Having a parent with a low level of education, a mother who is young or parents with a low income
all raise the chance of "poorer behavioural and cognitive development".
The difference between children from the poorest and the richest families is stark, with a fifth of those identified as "starting school without the behavioural
skills" coming from the poorest section of society, and only 4% coming from the richest.
Stress also plays a part: expectant mothers who experience high anxiety after 32 weeks are twice as likely to have a child with behavioural difficulties by
the age of four, than mothers who did not suffer from tension ...
Guardian 25 Feb 2010
Demos
Oliver James
Yarl's Wood 'must still improve child detention'
Detention at an immigration removal centre is still "distressing and harmful" for children, the Children's Commissioner for England has said.
Yarl's Wood in Bedfordshire remains "no place for a child", Sir Al Aynsley-Green said - even though some conditions have improved since 2008.
He highlighted in particular loud or violent arrests, separation from parents, and a lack of information ...
More than 1,000 children are detained every year, for an average of about two weeks, official figures show.
But in one case a family was held for 70 days, Sir Al's progress report found ...
BBC NEWS 10 Dec 2009
'Never nice for children'
Detention of children 'must stop'
'My child still has nightmares'
Family wins £100,000 for detention ordeal
A refugee has won a settlement of £100,000 from the Home Office after it admitted falsely imprisoning her and her children at an immigration detention centre.
Carmen Quiroga, originally from Bolivia, spent 42 days at Oakington detention centre in Cambridgeshire with her son and three daughters, aged between three
and 11, in what her solicitor describes as "appalling conditions" that were unsuitable for children, and despite the fact that a judicial review into her
asylum plea was continuing for much of that period ...
Quiroga's solicitors had argued that the detention was illegal because it was not used as a last resort, the welfare of the children was not given priority,
the use of force in detaining the family was "entirely disproportionate" and the family were held for almost a month even after the judicial review process
was launched.
They also alleged that the family had suffered inhuman and degrading treatment in contravention of the European convention on human rights.
Quiroga, 36, remains too traumatised to talk publicly about the circumstances of "appalling violence" that forced her to flee Bolivia in 2002 or about the
situation of the children's father, but the family have all since been granted British passports ...
Guardian 29 Jan 2010
Working mothers' children unfit
Children whose mothers work are less likely to lead healthy lives than those with "stay at home" mothers, a study says.
The Institute of Child Health study of more than 12,500 five-year-olds found those with working mothers less active and more likely to eat unhealthy food.
Other experts said more work was needed to see if the results applied to other age groups.
The study is in the Journal of Epidemiology and Child Health.
About 60% of mothers with children aged up to five are estimated to be in work ...
The same children took part in an earlier study by the Institute of Child Health (ICH) which found that those with working mothers were more likely to be
obese or overweight by the age of three.
In the latest study, many of the five-year-olds were engaging in health behaviours likely to promote excess weight gain: 37% were mainly eating crisps and
sweets between meals, 41% were consuming sweetened drinks and 61% used the television or a computer at least two hours daily ...
As a lone mum to one daughter, I work full time because I cannot manage financially any other way. I feel like I'm damned if I do and I'm damned if I don't.
I get encouraged to work over 30 hours a week and get a financial incentive for doing this through tax credits, but I feel like I am also heavily criticised
for not being a 'proper' mum by not spending enough time with my daughter.
I leave the house at 8am every day, get home at 5.30pm every day, my daughter goes to bed at 7pm. I'd love to know where I'm supposed to shoehorn in some
quality time with my girl!
Jane Crabtree, Middlesbrough, UK
BBC NEWS 28 September 2009
How do we deal with damaged children?
The boys are what some are beginning to believe is an "unreachable" underclass.
Despite the Labour government's decade-long concentration on the issue in the UK, where 16% of children grow up in poverty, pockets of deprivation have
stubbornly refused to be fixed.
The chief executive of Barnardo's, Martin Narey, told the Observer that some broken families simply can't be fixed and we should be taking children from
those parents at birth. But as Doncaster's social services department opens a serious case review to look at what went wrong – the eighth such inquiry the
local authority has been forced to hold since 2004 – the case has ignited a deeper debate: is foster care the right place for Britain's most damaged youngsters?
...
More than three-quarters of all children taken into care in England and Wales go into foster families; the current thinking, said Andrea Warman, of the
British Association for Adoption and Fostering, is that a stable family environment is best for children ...
But Martin Narey makes the point that the shortage of foster carers and the problems within many children's services departments mean that hundreds of
children in care find themselves moved around almost constantly.
He talks of one 15-year-old girl he met recently who had had 46 foster family placements. "That is not unusual," he said ...
Observer 06 September 2009
Doncaster council's troubled record
Future to focus on rehabilitation
Doncaster torture boys were well known as violent troublemakers
Repeating the same mistakes
Spend early on children
Governments should invest more money on children in the first six years of their lives to reduce social inequality and help all children, especially the most
vulnerable, have happier lives, according to the OECD’s first-ever report on child well-being in its 30 member countries.
Doing Better for Children shows that average public spending by OECD countries up to age six accounts for only a quarter of all child spending. But a better
balance of spending between the “Dora the Explorer” years of early childhood and the teenage “Facebook” years would help improve the health, education and
well-being of all children in the long term, according to the report.
“The crisis is putting pressure on public budgets across the world. But any short-term savings on spending on children’s education and health would have major
long-term costs for society,” said OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría. “Governments should instead seize this opportunity to get better value from their
investment in children. And spending early, when the foundations for a child’s future are laid, is key especially for disadvantaged children and can help
them break out of a family cycle of poverty and social exclusion.” ...
OECD 01 September 2009
Doing Better for Children
UK teenage girls 'worst drunks'
Why do we condemn children to such terrible care homes?
Seventy five thousand children are in state care in Britain - some placed with foster families, a few adopted and the rest in homes run by local authorities
or charities. Some 53 percent leave school without any qualifications and only 13 per cent as compared with 47 per cent in the general population manage to
achieve GCSE grades A to C.
A quarter of the girls end up as teenage mums. Most get caught up in drugs, crime, violence (often directed at their own children) and a disproportionate
number end up in prison or dead. Channel 4's focus on the nation's failed youngsters comes at a crucial time when we are still grieving for Baby Peter, only
17 months old, who died after suffering unspeakable violence in his home. Like so many others before him no one protected him from harm, not his mother, not
his social workers, not the police, not even the doctors who saw him.
An assumption was made by all those involved that his mother was still the best chance he had. He will not be the last to die in these circumstances but
emerging evidence shows that in every local authority across the land experts are now more proactive, taking children out of destructive homes before they
come to more harm. New figures show that there has been a 38 per cent increase in such interventions.
But where will they go? And how will this rise in state custody be funded? Most importantly can we be sure these homes will save and nurture damaged children?
Or will they just face further dejection and rejection? I fear at present many care institutions are hopeless places, holding warehouses, without the skills or
the capacity to raise their game.
Denmark and Germany have exemplary systems called "social pedagogy". A dedicated social worker ensures each child in care learns risk management, is pushed to
academic excellence, and gets hugs and reassurance. Crucially, the countries take pride in the care homes ...
The Independent 11 May 2009
Lost in Care
Councils have lost track of 400 children
Call to increase child therapists
Children's mental health services need an extra 1,000 therapists to help them cope with demand, an influential government adviser has warned.
Lord Layard, whose advice prompted a recent £173m investment in adult therapists, said training of child specialists should start in 2010.
Over a three-year period, his proposals would cost £35m, his report said.
Around 10% of children have diagnosable mental health problems, said Lord Layard, who is emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics.
But only a quarter of them have seen a mental health professional of any kind in the past year.
This "unsatisfactory" state of affairs has serious long-term consequences, he said in his report.
To address the shortfall, 200 child therapists need to be trained every year for five years, he has calculated.
The additional workforce could be drawn from those who already have experience working with distressed children.
Any additional costs are relatively small compared with the NHS budget for mental health, which was £9.1bn in 2006/07 ...
BBC NEWS 04 May 2009
Child depression drug use soars
The European view of child social care: Less procedure, more affection
"As a social pedagogue, the idea is to try to help someone to live a more successful everyday life. You take the small opportunities in everyday existence
and try to translate them into a learning experience. You can't do that by sitting in an office, you do it by sitting alongside someone watching television,
or by being in the kitchen with them, cooking together.
Residential homes here seem to be much more based on procedures. There's a great emphasis on ensuring that all the tick boxes are ticked, which often
feels as if it is getting in the way of daily decisions that need to be made.
There is more affection between staff and children in German homes - not just because positive encouragement in the form of a hug is thought to be
appropriate at a particular moment, but much more enmeshed in everyday life. If people are watching television, they'll sit closer to each other. There is a
more risk averse attitude here. In Germany, the professionals feel more trusted. In the UK, members of staff are under the impression that any kind of
allegation of inappropriate behaviour - founded or unfounded - will have an impact on their career.
Social pedagogues can do much of what people here would refer to other services and that helps, because the fewer professionals involved with the care of
each child, the better. I once counted up 34 individuals involved in the care of a child here. In Germany you'd have a maximum of five."
Guardian 21 April 2009
'We lost the focus on emotional warmth'
Children in care: Experts fly in to help tackle crisis
A substandard care system only reinforces disadvantage
The report of the Commons select committee on Children, Schools and Families suggests that what passes for a system is almost as random as having no safety
net for such children at all. Is it any wonder, then, that what in the jargon are termed the "outcomes" are so abysmal.
Almost half of juveniles in prison and one in four of the adult prison population have been in care. Less than 10 per cent of children in care attain
five A to C grades at GCSE, compared with 50 per cent across the rest of the population.
Less than half are in any form of education, training or employment at the age of 19, compared with more than 80 per cent of the age group as a whole ...
The Independent 20 April 2009
Care children 'need pushy parent'
Children in care: how Britain is failing its most vulnerable
Care system must be 'radically overhauled'
MPs urge more support for children in care
Social services failing children in care
Majority of children living in poverty have at least one parent in work
A sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one parent in work is revealed today, in a study which calls into question government efforts to lift living standards.
When research was last conducted five years ago, the majority of children in poverty had parents who were unemployed. The new study shows the majority of children living in poverty now have at least one parent in work, but they are earning so little they are unable to drag their family above the poverty line.
The study, published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, runs counter to the government's message that work is the best route out of poverty.
It also predicts that the government will fail to meet its much-trumpeted promise to halve child poverty by next year unless another £4.2bn is spent on the problem.
The report offers the first detailed indication of how far the government is from meeting its target to cut the number of children in poverty from 3.4 million in 1998 to 1.7 million by 2010. It forecasts that there will still be 2.3 million children beneath the poverty line when the deadline expires.
...
The sharp rise in the number of working families in poverty is a reminder that low-paid and casual labour does not usually help in pulling families out of deprivation, said Helen Barnard, policy and research manager at the foundation.
"The idea is that you get a job, and through this job, you will progress upwards and be lifted out of poverty in the long term," she said. "But for a lot of people, the jobs they have been going into have been low-paid, casual and short-term, and often they are back on to benefits very quickly."
...
Poverty in Britain is defined by a relative measure, rather than an absolute one, and any household with children where the parents have an income of less than 60% of British median income is classified as in poverty. The poverty line fluctuates, but for a family with two children, it stands at £283.20 a week, after housing has been paid for. The recession is likely to push those already in poverty into an even more severe position, making it much more expensive for the government to address the problem.
The report, based on research carried out by the Institute of Fiscal Studies and the Institute for Economic and Social Research, concludes that government could still fulfil its 2010 pledge if it pours another £4.2bn into increasing child tax credits, a means-tested form of child benefit available only to those on low incomes. This, equivalent to an increase of £12.50 a week for each child, would be enough to push around 600,000 above the poverty line.
In the longer term, the report says, money needs to be spent not just on increasing benefits, but on ensuring sufficient childcare is in place to allow parents to work, and on training so that parents acquire the right skills to secure stable work, with good long-term prospects.
...
Guardian 18 February 2009
Child poverty 'billions needed'
Progress and Poverty
JRF
IFS
Selfish adults 'damage childhood'
The aggressive pursuit of personal success by adults is now the greatest threat to British children, a major
independent report on childhood says.
It calls for a sea-change in social attitudes and policies to counter the damage done to children by society.
Family break-up, unprincipled advertising, too much competition in education and income inequality are mentioned as
big contributing factors.
A panel of independent experts carried out the study over three years.
The report, called The Good Childhood Inquiry and commissioned by the Children's Society, concludes that children's
lives in Britain have become "more difficult than in the past", adding that "more young people are anxious and
troubled".
According to the panel, "excessive individualism" is to blame for many of the problems children face and needs to be
replaced by a value system where people seek satisfaction more from helping others rather than pursuing private
advantage ...
BBC NEWS 02 February 2009
'Make Childhood Better'
Government green guru Sir Jonathon Porritt calls for two-child limit
Broken Britain needs lessons in love
'Ruined by lack of outdoor play and aggressive advertising'
Female empowerment has caused family break-up
Children's lives 'harder today'
One in four teenagers 'unhappy'
Children 'damaged' by materialism
'Toxic cycle' of family breakdown
Ofsted accused of complacency on child protection
The chairman of a Commons committee has said he has "lost confidence" in the inspectorate Ofsted over its handling
of children's services in Haringey, the north London borough where Baby P died.
Barry Sheerman made the statement after questioning Christine Gilbert, the chief inspector of schools, at the
children, schools and families committee yesterday.
He accused her of failing to recognise the strength of public
opinion over Baby P's death and acting with an "air of complacency" after she presented data showing that three
children a week had died from neglect and abuse in the 16 months to August this year, then moments later defended
the inspection of the services designed to protect them.
Sheerman ... questioned Gilbert's claims that Haringey had misled inspectors by providing false data after it
emerged that all the evidence behind the contested 2007 review had been destroyed three months after the report
was published ...
Guardian 11 December 2008
'Millions' of UK young in poverty
Millions of children in the UK are living in, or on the brink of, poverty, a report claims.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty says 5.5 million children are in families that are classed as "struggling" - 98% of children in some areas.
The campaign classes households as being in poverty if they are living on under £10 per person per day.
A government spokeswoman said it had lifted 600,000 children out of poverty and was committed to the cause.
The Campaign to End Child Poverty is a coalition of more than 130 organisations including Barnardo's, Unicef and the NSPCC.
According to its research, there are 4,634,000 children in England living in low income families, 297,000 in Wales, 428,000 in Scotland and 198,000 in Northern Ireland.
It says 174 of the 646 parliamentary constituencies in Britain have 50% or more of their child population in, or close to, the poverty line.
The parliamentary constituency with the highest number of children in or close to poverty is Birmingham Ladywood,
with 81% (28,420 individuals) ...
BBC NEWS 30 September 2008
Spare a thought for children who have odds stacked against them
A child who is born into a poor family will be at an educational disadvantage before they have even learnt to say the word ‘school’.
At just 22 months, a child from a disadvantaged background begins to fall behind children from more comfortable backgrounds. And then everything which
happens in 13 years of education widens rather than bridges that gulf.
So here in the UK, the fifth richest country, we have three million children likely to be locked into a cycle of poverty they can’t escape and will pass
down through the generations.
As youngsters across the country celebrate their GCSE success this week, spare a thought for those children who, regardless of ability, had the odds stacked
against them. Reflect on the reality that children with measurably higher IQs will fall behind less bright children simply because of the poverty of their
upbringing.
By the age of six a less able child from a rich family is likely to have overtaken a more able child born into a poor family. As a teenager the gap between a
poor child’s ability and a more wealthy child’s is even wider. By the time GCSEs come around, some of our poorest children, those receiving free school meals,
are half as likely to obtain the vital five GCSEs as other children. Children in care, those whose only crime has been to be born to parents who cannot or will
not look after them properly, are five times less likely to get those GCSEs.
So, is it any wonder that 44 per cent of young people from the richest fifth of the population go on to university, compared to 10 per cent of those from the
fifth of the population living in the poorest households.
It is because of this immoral social injustice that more than 130 organisations, including children’s charities, trade unions and faith groups, will challenge
the Government to Keep The Promise it made to end child poverty in the UK through the biggest ever rally of its kind. Trafalgar Square, on Saturday, October 4,
will be full of families, young people and children determined to demonstrate that the economic, but most of all the moral case, for reducing this educational
lottery is one to which the Government must respond.
This is a once-in-a-generation chance to make a positive change to the lives of millions of children and we are looking for backing from people across the
nation.
It’s vital that there is a huge show of the strength of feeling for change; an end to child poverty and a more just society.
Martin Narey Campaign To End Child Poverty chairman and Barnardo’s chief executive
End Child Poverty 20 August 2008
Poverty is UK's hidden child killer
'I've got kids who sleep with knives under their pillows'
Since 1996, Iranian-born Batmanghelidjh has been trying to help the children who are the worst of the worst, those who are on the very edges of society the kind of teenagers who murdered Newlove, the kind who will probably have murdered Mizen and Knox. She is not Supernanny there is no naughty step here. The children Batmanghelidjh helps are the sort that other psychologists sedate.
"We're looking at a new syndrome," Batmanghelidjh says when we meet at Kids Company's headquarters near London Bridge. "It needs to be named. Social and emotional deprivation is creating a new kind of brain.
"The fascinating element in all these childrens' lives is the absence of a functioning parental figure. If you really think about it, if you don't have a parent there is no food in the house, no one washes your clothes or organises socialising for you, you don't get taken to the GP, the dentist or the optician. You live in chaos."
The child who knocks on the door of Kids Company's drop-in centre usually has drug-addicted or alcoholic parents. They may have not eaten properly for days, they may be ill and dirty.
It seems unthinkable to most of us that, in Britain in 2008, a child could starve to death. Yet, on the day after Batmanghelidjh and I meet, it is reported that that is just what happened a fortnight ago in Birmingham to seven year-old Khyra Ishaq.
"The assumption is that if you are seven years old, there is an adult who can refer you to social services. But these children do not have that adult in their lives and they have no access to help.
"Back when I started, there were people saying to me that what I was trying to achieve wasn't possible and that it wouldn't work," Batmanghelidjh says. "They just thought that I was an eccentric who loves kids, and they became very preoccupied with the way I look and dress. They didn't understand the intellectual framework behind Kids Company."
...
Independent 27 May 2008
Kids Company
Prison won't halt this epidemic of stabbing
14 teenagers in five months
Girls now carry knives
Simple steps to tackle the knife crime epidemic
Class divide hits learning by age of three
By the age of three, children from disadvantaged families are already lagging a full year behind their middle-class contemporaries
in social and educational development, pioneering research by a London university reveals today.
A "generation Blair" project, tracking the progress of 15,500 boys and girls born between 2000 and 2002, found a divided nation in
which a child's start in life was still determined by the class, education, marital status and ethnic background of the parents.
...
In a series of vocabulary tests, the three-year-old sons and daughters of graduate parents were found to be 10 months ahead of
those from families with few educational qualifications; they were 12 months ahead in their understanding of colours, letters,
numbers, sizes and shapes.
...
The Guardian 11 June 2007
Charity asks new prime minister to honour pledge to end “scandal” of child poverty
Spending less than half of the £9 billion paid in City bonuses last year would halve child poverty in the UK by 2010.
That is the message in a report – It Doesn’t Happen Here – published today (Wednesday, 23 May, 2007) by children’s charity
Barnardo’s, which warns that without an investment of £3.8 billion (about one third of the £10.2billion which Britons spent
last year on champagne) the Government is going to miss its target to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.
The report also reveals that the Government is likely to fall short of the target ... by nearly one million (900,000) children.
Barnardos 23 May 2007
Key Links
bullyonline.org
Child mental health
ContactPoint
CPAG
End Child Poverty
Every Child Matters
Sure Start
TheSite.org
Unicef
Child carers 'left to cope alone'
Class divide hits learning by age of three
Fears for 'invisible' children
Jailing children a 'national scandal'
Let our children play
Poverty is the root of so many of our problems
Report on the Sexualization of Girls
UK 'demonising' children
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