Dr Joanna Garstang MBChB, MRCPCH, PhD

Dr Joanna Garstang

School of Nursing and Midwifery
Clinical Associate Professor of Child Protection

Contact details

Email
j.garstang@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@jogarstang
View my research portal
Address
Institute of Clinical Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Joanna Garstang is a Clinical Associate Professor and Consultant Community Paediatrician. Her specialist areas are in safeguarding children, Child Death Review and Sudden Unexpected Death in Childhood. Joanna's PhD was an evaluation of multi-agency investigation of unexpected infant death from both the parents' and professionals' perspectives, more recently her research has focussed on improving multi-agency working in safeguarding and preventable child mortality.

Qualifications

  • PhD Health Sciences University of Warwick, 2015
  • MSc Child Health, University of Warwick, 2010
  • Membership of Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (MRCPCH) 2000
  • MBChB, University of Bristol 1995

Biography

Dr Garstang also works as a Consultant Community Paediatrician at Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust, and Designated Doctor for Child Death for Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board.  Much of her clinical work involves learning from child deaths, supporting families and working with police and other agencies to determine why children die. Dr Garstang’s research interests are closely aligned with her clinical work, focusing on improving the Child Death Review process, reducing child mortality, and improving multi-agency working in Child Protection.

Dr Garstang is a specialist medical advisor to National Child Mortality Database based at the University of Bristol

Postgraduate supervision

Dr Garstang is happy to supervise doctoral research on:
• Child protection as a public health issue
• Child maltreatment
• Child abuse and neglect
• Child Death Review – process, outcomes and families experiences

Joint Agency Response to unexpected child deaths

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood (SUDC) – investigation and support for families

Research

Current projects

  • Involving parents and staff in learning from child deaths.  Funded by NIHR RfPB, 19 months from 01 August 2022
  • Improving safeguarding outcomes following adoption or special guardianship. Funded by Nuffield Foundation, 18 months from 01 September 2023

Other activities

Dr Garstang is Chair of the Association of Child Death Review Professionals, medical advisor to Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood UK (SUDC-UK) and on the scientific committee of the Lullaby Trust.

Dr Garstang is Chair of the Child Death Review working group of the International Society for the prevention and study of infant and perinatal death (ISPID)

Dr Garstang works as an expert witness for courts in cases relating to Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy or Childhood

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Garstang, JJ, Tosyali, M, Menka, M & Blair, PS 2024, 'Incidence of sudden unexplained death in childhood for children aged 1-14 years in England and Wales during 2001-2020: an observational study', Archives of Disease in Childhood. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327840

Garstang, JJ & Menka, M 2024, 'Infant death from accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed in England and Wales: rare or unrecognised events?', BMJ Paediatrics Open, vol. 8, no. 1, e002419. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2023-002419

Dowell, AC, Lancaster, T, Bruton, R, Ireland, G, Bentley, C, Sylla, P, Zuo, J, Scott, S, Jadir, A, Begum, J, Roberts, T, Stephens, C, Ditta, S, Shepherdson, R, Powell, AA, Brent, AJ, Brent, B, Baawuah, F, Okike, I, Beckmann, J, Ahmad, S, Aiano, F, Garstang, J, Ramsay, ME, Azad, R, Waiblinger, D, Willett, B, Wright, J, Ladhani, SN & Moss, P 2023, 'Immunological imprinting of humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in children', Nature Communications, vol. 14, no. 1, 3845. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-39575-2

Garstang, J, Dickens, J, Menka, M & Taylor, J 2023, 'Improving professional practice in the investigation and management of intrafamilial child sexual abuse: Qualitative analysis of serious child protection reviews', Child Abuse and Neglect, vol. 137, 106053. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106053

Dowell, AC, Tut, G, Begum, J, Bruton, R, Bentley, C, Butler, M, Uwenedi, G, Zuo, J, Powell, AA, Brent, AJ, Brent, B, Baawuah, F, Okike, I, Beckmann, J, Ahmad, S, Aiano, F, Garstang, J, Ramsay, ME, Moss, P & Ladhani, SN 2023, 'Nasal mucosal IgA levels against SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal coronaviruses are low in children but boosted by reinfection', Journal of Infection, vol. 87, no. 5, pp. 403-412. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2023.08.013

Dickens, J, Cook, L, Cossar, J, Okpokiri, C, Taylor, J & Garstang, J 2023, 'Re-envisaging professional curiosity and challenge: Messages for child protection practice from reviews of serious cases in England', Children and Youth Services Review, vol. 152, 107081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107081

Taylor, J, Dickens, J, Garstang, J, Cook, L, Hallett, N & Molloy, E 2023, 'Tackling the ‘normalisation of neglect’: Messages from child protection reviews in England', Child Abuse Review. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2841

Dickens, J, Cook, L, Cossar, J, Okpokiri, C, Taylor, J & Garstang, J 2023, 'The multiple and competing functions of local reviews of serious child abuse cases in England', Critical Social Policy. https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183231218965

Dowell, AC, Butler, MS, Jinks, E, Tut, G, Lancaster, T, Sylla, P, Begum, J, Bruton, R, Pearce, H, Verma, K, Logan, N, Tyson, G, Spalkova, E, Margielewska-Davies, S, Taylor, GS, Syrimi, E, Baawuah, F, Beckmann, J, Okike, IO, Ahmad, S, Garstang, J, Brent, AJ, Brent, B, Ireland, G, Aiano, F, Amin-Chowdhury, Z, Jones, S, Borrow, R, Linley, E, Wright, J, Azad, R, Waiblinger, D, Davis, C, Thomson, EC, Palmarini, M, Willett, BJ, Barclay, WS, Poh, J, Amirthalingam, G, Brown, KE, Ramsay, ME, Zuo, J, Moss, P & Ladhani, S 2022, 'Children develop robust and sustained cross-reactive spike-specific immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection', Nature Immunology, vol. 23, no. 1, pp. 40-49. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-021-01089-8

Quinn, LM, Shukla, D, Greenfield, SM, Barrett, T, Garstang, J, Boardman, F, Litchfield, I, Dayan, C, Gardner, C, Connop, C, Lepley, A & Narendran, P 2022, 'EarLy Surveillance for Autoimmune diabetes: protocol for a qualitative study of general population and stakeholder perspectives on screening for type 1 diabetes in the UK (ELSA 1)', BMJ Open Diabetes Research and Care, vol. 10, no. 2, e002750. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2021-002750

Garstang, J, Hallett, N, Cropp, G, Kenyon-Blair, D, Morgans, C & Taylor, J 2021, 'Child abuse in children living with special guardians, a service evaluation of child protection medical examinations', BMJ Paediatrics Open, vol. 5, no. 1, e001103. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjpo-2021-001103

Garstang, J, Cohen, M, Mitchell, EA & Sidebotham, P 2021, 'Classification of sleep‐related sudden unexpected death in infancy: a national survey', Acta Paediatrica, vol. 110, no. 3, pp. 869-874. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.15472

Garstang, J, Eatwell, D, Sidebotham, P & Taylor, J 2021, 'Common factors in serious case reviews of child maltreatment where there is a medical cause of death: qualitative thematic analysis', BMJ open, vol. 11, no. 8, e048689. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-048689

Preprint

Dowell, A, Butler, MS, Jinks, E, Tut, G, Lancaster, T, Sylla, P, Begum, J, Bruton, R, Pearce, H, Verma, K, Logan, N, Tyson, G, Spalkova, E, Margielewska-Davies, S, Taylor, G, Syrimi, E, Baawuah, F, Beckmann, J, Okike, I, Ahmad, S, Garstang, J, Brent, AJ, Brent, B, Ireland, G, Aiano, F, Amin-Chowdhury, Z, Jones, S, Borrow, R, Linley, E, Wright, J, Azad, R, Waiblinger, D, Davis, C, Thomson, E, Palmarini, M, Willett, BJ, Barclay, WS, Poh, J, Saliba, V, Amirthalingam, G, Brown, KE, Ramsay, ME, Zuo, J, Moss, P & Ladhani, S 2021 'Children develop strong and sustained cross-reactive immune responses against Spike protein following SARS-CoV-2 infection, with enhanced recognition of variants of concern' medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.04.12.21255275

Garstang, J, Eatwell, D, Sidebotham, P & Taylor, J 2021 'Common factors in serious case reviews of child maltreatment where there is a medical cause of death: qualitative thematic analysis' medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.01.05.20248250

View all publications in research portal