Pam Coughlan
Pam Coughlan passed away on the 8th January 2025. Paralysed as a result of a spinal cord injury in 1971, she took on the Secretary of State for Health and…
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Category: what’s-new
Law Commission’s consultation ~ Disabled Children’s Social Care
The deadline for commenting on the Law Commission’s Disabled Children’s Social Care Consultation Paper has been extended, and is now Friday 31 January 2025 (23:59). A copy of my response…
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Why everyone should be talking about Tash Ashby
Tash Ashby was 21 years old when she died. At the time of her death, she was street homeless, living in the undergrowth around Hereford bus station. Her lifeless body…
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Medically complex children, Children’s Continuing Care, and Children’s Social Care: dispatches from no-man’s land
A guest posting by Lisa Ballesteros. Background My son, T, wasn’t expected to survive the night. Born at 26 weeks gestation with an alphabet soup of medical conditions, he…
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Mental Health Bill ~ urgent amendment
A recent High Court judgment Sammut & Others v Next Steps Mental Healthcare Ltd & The Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust [2024] EWHC 2265 (KB) has identified a…
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High Court damages award for wrongful care proceedings
An important claim concerning wrongful care proceedings has finally been settled by an English Children’s Services council. The claim was brought by the campaigner Elly Chapple – the founder of…
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NHS Children and Young Peoples Continuing care and EHC Plans
An important judgment, R (A) v North Central London Integrated Care Board [2024] EWHC 2682 (Admin) that confirms the mandatory duty on ICBs to provide care plans that spell out…
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Call to withdraw FII guidance
In an Open Letter to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, a number of researchers and NGOs called for the withdrawal of its guidance concerning FII (Fabricated or…
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Systems Generated Trauma ~ survey
Cerebra and the University of Leeds are collaborating on research that seeks to better understand the extent to which parents of disabled children experience trauma as a result of navigating…
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Abolishing home care charges
The Disability Law Service has published a report that makes the case for the abolition of home care charges for Disabled adults in England. The research that underpins the report…
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Herefordshire children’s services – a public inquiry: if not here, then where?
A fascinating hustings took place in Hereford prior to the election concerning the ‘Crisis in Children's Services’. Nationally, as we all know, children's services are in crisis: a ‘scandal’ ……
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Systems Generated Trauma
‘Trauma related practice’ is a phrase increasingly used by public bodies to convey their awareness that many of those with whom they interact have experienced life changing traumas. As a…
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Innovative short breaks scheme for parent carers
We all need quality ‘short breaks’ – but for many parents of disabled children they are a distant dream. Fit for purpose ‘breaks’ from heavy caring commitments depend on several…
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Revised school transport guidance (England)
Cerebra, IPSEA, SOS!SEN and Contact have jointly written and article expressing concern about revised school transport guidance issued by the Department for Education and inviting families to complete a short…
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Decision making quality and the Local Government Ombudsman
Cerebra, the disabled children’s charity has published[1] an important and troubling analysis of data concerning the performance of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGO). Over a decade of…
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Jam tomorrow – maybe: the revised Working Together guidance.
As expected, disabled children and their families will be disappointed by the updated 2023 Working Together guidance. Despite compelling evidence that local authority assessment and care planning protocols discriminate against…
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Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) research report
FII is a term adopted by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health – in essence – to replace what was previously referred to as ‘Munchausen syndrome by proxy’.…
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A care home as the cheaper option.
Can local authorities refuse to fund a home care package if it is cheaper for the person’s needs to be met in a care home? Where there is more than…
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Section 117 Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 and Ordinary Residence: the Supreme Court decides
So, what was that all about? For some strange reason in 2020 the Department of Health and Social Care changed its mind concerning the determination of a person’s ordinary residence…
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Direct payments and disabled children
An earlier posting[1] considered an important local government ombudsman decision. The decision confirmed that: (1) parents of disabled children have a right to opt for a direct payment even if…
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Fit-for-Purpose Guidance for the Assessment of Disabled Children & their Families.
Guidance developed by independent Parent Carer Groups and individual parent carers will be launched at a webinar on the 12 July 2023 10:30am – 12:30pm. The document describes what they…
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Consultation on the revision of the ‘Working Together’ guidance.
The Department for Education (DfE) has opened a consultation on its proposal to update the 2018 ‘Working Together’ guidance. It has summarised the overall aim of the update as a…
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A welcome judgment concerning social care charges
A local authority accepted that a disabled person had eligible needs for support to develop and maintain personal relationships, and provided funding for him to attend a social and life…
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PANS, PANDAS & Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)
PANS and PANDAS are severe childhood impairments with symptoms of obsessive-compulsive behaviours, tics or eating restrictions that develop suddenly: conditions that can be accompanied by changes in normal behaviours, personality…
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School transport as a human right
There is an extensive body of English and Welsh law that requires local authorities to provide school / college transport for disabled young people.[1] What is often forgotten, however, is…
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She was provided with a leaflet.
Flicking though the current (March 2023) batch of Local Government Ombudsman’s Children and Education complaints decisions is like re-watching Groundhog Days. More than half of the complaints were not, for…
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Autism and Parental Blame
Parent Blame is not simply a problem encountered by families when dealing with Children’s Services. It is, therefore, very welcome that West Midlands ADASS (the Association of Directors of Adult…
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462% increase in children’s ‘deprivation of liberty’ applications
A report published by the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory highlights the ‘extreme vulnerability’ of children who are the subject of High Court applications that seek to deprive them of their…
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I love my dog.
A provocative New Year posting from my good colleague Rachel Adam-Smith. . _______________ I love my dog. He’s non-verbal. I love…
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A sufficiency of carers support services
John Bangs OBE[1] reflects on the recent UN carers rights decision and its implications in relation to the duties of local health and social care authorities to provide a sufficiency…
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Impoverished councils
An interesting complaint concerning (among other things[1]) a prolonged and significant loss of respite care for a young person transitioning into adult services. Due to challenges resulting from his impairment,…
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A Landmark UN carers decision
The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has handed down an important decision concerning the rights of unpaid carers in the case of Maria Simona Bellini v.…
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Fit for purpose disabled children’s assessment guidance
What would ‘fit for purpose’ disabled children’s assessment guidance look like? At the School of Law, the University of Leeds, this is what we hope to be researching in the…
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NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) ~ Ombudsman report
The Health Service Ombudsman has published an important CHC report concerning the failure of an NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) - now known as an Integrated Care Board (ICB). The…
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Double standards
The current political farce / tragedy has meant that a shaming report[1] concerning the institutional abuse of disabled young people has failed to attract the attention it deserves. The report…
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Parent Blame in the NHS
The Kirkup Report[1] – published earlier this week – identified the scandalous treatment of mothers in maternity and neonatal services in East Kent. It uses the words ‘blame’ / ‘blaming’…
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Troubling conclusions
A parent refused to sign a council’s safety plan (relating to support for her disabled son) because it implied that she had on one occasion refused to allow workers…
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The duty to meet needs
What can be done when a disabled person’s or a carer’s assessed social care needs are not being met – either because no care and support is available or because…
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What exactly is going on in Bristol?
In ‘Clustered Injustice’ I refer to one of the key insights gained from working on the Cerebra research programme with disabled children and their families. It may be obvious to…
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FII (Fabricated or Induced Illness) Survey
The disabled children’s charity Cerebra is concerned about reports from families with disabled children which suggest that a significant number have been accused by practitioners of creating or exaggerating their…
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New NHS Continuing Healthcare Framework
The Department of Health and Social Care has published a revised NHS Continuing Healthcare Framework – a copy of which can be accessed by clicking here. A handout of a…
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At last – something sensible on FII
Allegations by professionals that families are guilty of FII (Fabricated or Induced Illness) appear to be proliferating as do training programmes that seek to alert social care and health professionals…
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No more than ‘reasonably practicable’
Councils do not have to charge for care and support services under the Care Act 2014, but if they do the Statutory Guidance states (para 8.2) that in determining…
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Government concedes carers’ hospital discharge rights
An earlier posting referred to Baroness Pitkeathley’s amendment to the Health and Care Bill which – although opposed by the Government – was passed in the House of Lords by…
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Direct payments and disabled children with the ‘wrong impairments’.
A parent complained that a local authority commissioned ‘Early Help’ service (for ‘short break’ sessions) was unsuitable for her son. She complained that the Council had offered no alternative and…
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Carers victory in the Lords
The Health and Care Bill currently going through Parliament repeals the Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Act 2003 and with it, the duty on NHS trusts to ensure that…
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Coroner criticises ‘Working Together 2018’
A further report by Richard Travers, the Senior Coroner for Surrey has been published concerning the death of Oskar Miles Nash. The report focuses on action that is necessary to…
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Holidays and Poor Law Commissioners
R (RG) v Suffolk County Council[1]. On one level this case concerns the extent to which a council’s ability to promote an individual’s well-being (under section 1 Care Act 2014)…
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It is time to recognise the unpaid carer as a worker
The guest post you are about to read from a good colleague considers one of the greatest issues confronting the care system in the UK – namely the need for…
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What a mess – s117 ordinary residence (again)
In a nutshell – and congratulations if you understand this: The Court of Appeal has reversed a High Court decision that reversed a decision of the Department of Health and…
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