What’s New?
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…
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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…
Read MorePrevious Posts
- 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