What’s New?
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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 MorePrevious Posts
- Law Commission’s consultation ~ Disabled Children’s Social Care
- Why everyone should be talking about Tash Ashby
- Medically complex children, Children’s Continuing Care, and Children’s Social Care: dispatches from no-man’s land
- Mental Health Bill ~ urgent amendment
- High Court damages award for wrongful care proceedings
- NHS Children and Young Peoples Continuing care and EHC Plans
- Call to withdraw FII guidance
- Systems Generated Trauma ~ survey
- Abolishing home care charges
- Herefordshire children’s services – a public inquiry: if not here, then where?
- Systems Generated Trauma
- Innovative short breaks scheme for parent carers
- Revised school transport guidance (England)
- Decision making quality and the Local Government Ombudsman
- Jam tomorrow – maybe: the revised Working Together guidance.
- Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) research report
- A care home as the cheaper option.
- Section 117 Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 and Ordinary Residence: the Supreme Court decides
- Direct payments and disabled children
- Fit-for-Purpose Guidance for the Assessment of Disabled Children & their Families.
- Consultation on the revision of the ‘Working Together’ guidance.
- A welcome judgment concerning social care charges
- PANS, PANDAS & Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII)
- School transport as a human right
- She was provided with a leaflet.
- Autism and Parental Blame
- 462% increase in children’s ‘deprivation of liberty’ applications
- I love my dog.
- A sufficiency of carers support services
- Impoverished councils
- A Landmark UN carers decision
- Fit for purpose disabled children’s assessment guidance
- NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) ~ Ombudsman report
- Double standards
- Parent Blame in the NHS
- Troubling conclusions
- The duty to meet needs
- What exactly is going on in Bristol?
- FII (Fabricated or Induced Illness) Survey
- New NHS Continuing Healthcare Framework
- At last – something sensible on FII
- No more than ‘reasonably practicable’
- Government concedes carers’ hospital discharge rights
- Direct payments and disabled children with the ‘wrong impairments’.
- Carers victory in the Lords
- Coroner criticises ‘Working Together 2018’
- Holidays and Poor Law Commissioners
- It is time to recognise the unpaid carer as a worker
- What a mess – s117 ordinary residence (again)
- Blamed and criticised for her parenting
- Parent Carer Blame webinar materials
- Webinar: Wednesday December 8th: 10am
- A High Octane Conflict
- ‘Autism Plus’ policies
- Parent carer blame with added stereotyping
- Institutionalising Parent-carer Blame
- An expression of righteous anger might sometimes not be amiss?
- Parent Carer’s Needs Assessments
- An unpaid carer’s life: a cri de cœur
- The Health & Social Care Integration White Paper and Carers
- Carers and the Health and Care Bill
- NHS Ombudsman news and a Fast-track decision
- Housing adaptations and disabled young people
- Section 117 & Ordinary Residence ~ All change yet again
- Charging, strategic litigation and the Norfolk judgment
- NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) judgment
- High Court Social Care Charging judgment
- It’s definitely not autism it’s …
- Disabled children’s assessments
- Revised NHS ‘Who Pays?’ Guidance
- We only met two minutes ago but you already think you know everything about me.
- Public Accounts Committee Report
- Unlawful ‘Autism Plus’ policies
- Charging for social care campaign
- NHS Continuing Healthcare & young people: R (JP) v NHS Croydon (2020)
- Delay and the ombudsman: how depressing.
- Ordinary Residence s117 ~ all change
- Visual impairment rehabilitation timeframes
- Coronavirus and direct payments
- Urgent care
- Home care charges – the injustice continues
- The suspension of care home inspections
- Magic wands, misdirection and shock
- Undermining children’s safeguarding duties
- Social Justice another coronavirus casualty
- Coronavirus: Direct Payments & Personal Health Budgets
- Coronavirus update
- Chinese whispers, NHS Complaints & Covid-19
- Coronavirus Act threatens care for disabled people
- The Coronavirus Act 2020
- Coronavirus Bill Impact assessment.
- The Coronavirus Bill and the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939.
- The Coronavirus Bill, social care & SEN
- Disabled children, their carers and Coronavirus
- Is ‘indignation’ old fashioned?
- No such word as ‘can’t’
- The Queen’s Speech
- NHS Personal Health Budgets: new rights and new guidance
- NHS Continuing Healthcare statistics
- Unacceptable delay:
- Anniversary quotes
- Unfortunately … there is no legal footing to justify us not funding
- Under 5’s school transport
- Education Committee Report on SEND
- Post-16 students and free school / college travel assistance
- So what do you do?
- Direct Payments for Young People
- ‘Omg … will it never end’
- Pre-payment cards and direct payments
- Charges for community care
- DWP and MoJ unlawful inaction
- Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) and social care responsibilities
- Extra care housing: ‘just in time’ systems are for cars not care
- Post-19 education transport costs
- NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC) and transitions into adulthood
- NHS CHC and supine council leaders
- Staying in a care home when savings spent
- Can you cope?
- Elaine McDonald
- Personal Budgets: the tail and the dog
- The charging regulations and injustice
- Is Britain Fairer? No.
- Continuing Health Care Funding and End of Life Care
- Families with severely disabled children should not have to live like this.
- Improving Flexible Working Rights for Carers
- Disabled Facilities Grants and young people in England
- The Misuse by local authorities of their ‘protection’ powers
- Pet care costs and social care charges
- The accessibility of Disabled Facilities Grant application forms
- Another fall in NHS Continuing Care (CHC) numbers
- Difficult questions require a ‘plan’: ‘transitions’ as an example.
- Autistic children and care assessments
- Administering a cap on costs [2]
- FACS and fiction
- 52% of Carers are Refused Flexible Working – the Law Needs to Change
- Carers and their Rights: Guide
- Means testing children’s healthcare ~ by stealth
- Musical beds
- Direct Payments Research
- Social care reform: avoiding the obvious [1]
- N v. Romania (2017)
- The Torbay judgment: from the micro to the macro
- The Barking Ordinary Residence decision
- The Cheese Sketch
- “That’s what your DLA is for”
- School transport costs rising
- Deconstructing the social care ‘meal’
- A dismal judgment
- Another good judgment
- What’s the point of section 5?
- A human catastrophe
- National Audit Office Report on NHS Continuing Healthcare
- School Transport and local authority information failings
- R (JF) v Merton LBC ~ High Court Social Care Law Assessment judgment
- Home adaptations for disabled children and young people
- New Edition of the “Cerebra Accessing Public Services: Problem Solving Toolkit”
- Keynote address to the BASW Cymru Conference ~ text
- Social Services & Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 (updated briefing June 2017).
- The Conservative Manifesto and social care
- Social Care in Wales: A Guide for disabled children and their families
- Community Care & the Law – 6th Edition
- Care Act 2014 updated briefing (January 2017)
- School Transport Guide
- Late Spring 2016 Newsletter
- Challenging reductions in care packages
- New Disability Law Hub
- Cerebra Problem Solving Toolkit 2016
- New Edition ~ Disabled Children: Legal Handbook (2016)
- Carers Movement – YouTube resource materials
- Carers and Their Rights
- Lecture Series: Assessment, Care Planning & NHS Continuing Care
- Does your carer take sugar? Carers and Human Rights
- Putting the Cart before the Horse: Resource Allocation Systems and Community Care
- The European Union Structural Funds and the Right to Community Living
- Disabled Children Parents’ Guide: Social Care, Housing and Health
- Disabled Children Education Guide
- The European Union and the Right to Community Living
- R (McDonald) v Kensington and Chelsea (2011)
- Social Care Portability Bill
- Transitions in Mental Health Care
- A Care Council Wales Guide to Child Care Law
- The Equality Act 2010 and Carers
- Carers Guide To The Law