The balloon went up in November 1980 when a girl of 15 was caned for absconding, the first girl to be caned in the three years the policy had been operative. I can remember exactly which pub I was in when I saw the headline on a fellow drinker’s newspaper! A huge total of 16 boys aged 11 to 15 had also been caned in the three years. Emotive terms like ‘The Floggers of Nottinghamshire’ were bandied about, and in May 1981 Labour regained control and banned community home caning again.
I think the other county involved was Leicestershire, not Derbyshire, and again only community homes were involved. I don’t know what Leicestershire’s policy on school caning was at that time, but when Nottinghamshire banned community home caning in May 1981 STOPP claimed that:
Girls in care in Leicestershire are subject to more severe caning than would have been allowed in either nineteenth-century workhouses or the old approved schools
Like Notts before the ban, Leicestershire specifically stated that caning must be on the buttocks, and the policy had been reconfirmed the previous month.