FII, GOSH & the Royal College
The Sunday Times and its Special Correspondent Emily Dugan, have to their great credit, persevered with the investigation into wrongful allegations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII). The article was…
Read more
Category: what’s-new
A ‘sitting duck’ for allegations of fabricated or induced illness (FII)
The Sunday Times in its investigation into wrongful allegations of FII, carried a further harrowing story on 10 August 2025. It concerns Maeve Boothby O’Neill who died in 2021 (aged…
Read more
s117 MHA 1983 and ‘entrenched indifference’
A good colleague has summarised three ombudsman reports concerning the alarming failures by the key health and social care bodies in Peterborough with responsibility for providing support for a disabled…
Read more
Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII): further investigations
The Sunday Times has published a further article concerning its investigation into the false allegations that are being made against parents that they are fabricating or inducing their child’s illness. …
Read more
Sunday Times FII investigation
A major article appeared in the Sunday Times on 20 July 2025 concerning its investigation into the impact that unsubstantiated Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) allegations are having on countless…
Read more
A disregard for the humanity of those involved
Increasingly I am confronted by cases involving profoundly disabled children where the behaviour of the NHS takes my breath away. Of course, the NHS is generally spectacular when called upon…
Read more
Harm resulting from geniuine cases of Fabricated or Induced illness (FII)
A recent (May 2025) research paper by Professors Andy Bilson and Alessandro Talia involved a comprehensive review of Serious Case Reviews (SCRs) in England from 2010 to 2021. It found…
Read more
Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII): a new critical report
St George's House, based in the grounds of Windsor Castle was founded in 1966 by the (then) Duke of Edinburgh and the (then) Dean of Windsor. It seeks to effect…
Read more
Special Needs Jungle Petition
There are strong rumours that the Government is planning to impose drastic restrictions on the provision of specialist educational support for children and young people – or indeed – scrapping…
Read more
Why is ‘listening’ so difficult?
The Shropshire Parent and Carer Council has just published a powerful report ‘Mad, Sad, Glad’ that reflects on the feedback Parent Carers across their county have provided. Parent Carers were…
Read more
Putting the record straight
The posting that follows, has been published by the disabled children’s charity Cerebra at https://cerebra.org.uk/legal-rights/putting-the-record-straight/. It is a response to the lecture delivered by Baroness Hale of Richmond at The…
Read more
Families’ Alliance for Change
There is no shortage of Children’s Services’ authorities who have lost touch / stopped listening to the families that they are there to serve. As Lord Justice Munby said ‘the…
Read more
Disabled children’s continence care services: a national scandal
A major research report has been published concerning the degrading experiences of many disabled children who are denied adequate continence support services. The report, ‘Inaccessible, unacceptable and unaccountable: the provision…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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’ ……
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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’.…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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,…
Read more
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.…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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…
Read more
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’…
Read more
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…
Read more