Ombudsman 2025 Report
A troubling report by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales[1] concerning a council’s refusal to escalate a social care complaint to Stage 2 of its complaints process, in line with…
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Category: Recent SWL
Two major reports highlighting parental blame and Systems Generated Trauma
Following last week’s launch of Cerebra’s major research tackling the phenomenon of Systems Generated Trauma, this week has seen two important reports concerning directly relevant issues. Adoption breakdowns On…
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‘Systems Generated Trauma’ Report 2025
A major research report ‘Systems Generated Trauma’ has been published by the disabled children's charity Cerebra at a launch event in Westminster. It draws on over 10 years of research…
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Additional Learning Needs (ALN) judgment
An interesting Judicial Review judgment[1] concerning an ALN assessment of a young adult who attended a specialist school in Cardiff. The assessment (under section 140 of the Learning Skills Act…
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Welsh language judgment
What appears to be a ‘first’ - a Court of Protection decision has been published in Welsh on the official by Court judgment website ‘Bailii’ (British and Irish Legal Information…
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Criticism of the draft Disabled People’s Rights Plan
There is no reason to doubt the noble intentions of the Welsh Government in seeking to improve the rights of Disabled People. There is no reason to question the aspirational…
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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…
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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. …
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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…
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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…
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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…
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FII ~ Welsh Government Failing to End the ‘Cruel Abuse’ of Autistic Parents and Autistic Children
Mark Isherwood North Wales MS and Chair of both the Cross-Party Autism Group and the Cross-Party Group on Disability, has endorsed the comments of one of his Flintshire constituent’s –…
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The Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025
The 2025 Act Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on the 24 March 2025. Its major impact will be to restrict, in Wales, the making of…
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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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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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Accountability: what accountability?
In an earlier posting we referred to a judgment of the Newport Family Court that concerned dreadful behaviour by a Welsh council and a Welsh police force. We expressed concern…
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A lack of rigour and candour
A damning report by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales[1] (PSOW) into ‘a serious service failure’ by the Wrexham Maelor Hospital compounded by the lack of both rigour and candour…
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A Newport Family Court judgment
An important (albeit partially redacted) judgment in the case of Re C (A Child) (Care Proceedings Withdrawal) [2024] EWFC 227 (B) has been published. The Transparency Project has released an…
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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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Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill
The Health and Social Care Committee has launched a consultation to inform its scrutiny of the recently introduced Health and Social Care (Wales) Bill. The consultation closes on the 28th…
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Senedd Member’s concern about the prevalence and impact of allegations of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) in Wales
North Wales Member of the Senedd and Chair its Cross-Party Autism Group, Mark Isherwood, has raised concerns with the Minister for Health and Social Services that parents of neurodiverse children…
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Special Guardianship allowance ~ Ombudsman report
A recent report by the Public Services Ombudsman Wales (PSOW)[1] arose out of a complaint that a local authority had failed to implement the recommendations of a Stage 2 Independent…
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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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Independent living when a care home might be ‘cheaper’
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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The State of Social Care in Wales
A submission to The Senedd Health & Social Care Committee concerning the state of social care in Wales by Ann James and Luke Clements can be accessed by clicking here…
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The Problem with Fast Track in Wales
As previous posting on these pages have sought to highlight,[1] there are in our opinion profound problems with the Welsh Government’s Guidance concerning the process by which eligibility for Continuing…
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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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Social care under-funding and the NHS
Senedd Research has published an interesting analysis of the problems that social care under-funding are causing the NHS.[1] The analysis starts with the Senedd’s Health and Social Care Committee’s finding[2]…
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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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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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The NHS in Wales and the social care workforce crisis
The current edition of ‘Senedd Research’ highlights two important social welfare issues – namely the serious problems with the Welsh NHS and the social care workforce crisis. In relation…
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The end game: Continuing NHS Healthcare (CHC) in Wales
The Welsh Government has finally published its revised Continuing NHS Healthcare Framework Guidance for Adults - giving just over a month for its implementation. Although it published a draft of…
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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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Disabled Children and their Families – a damning ITV Wales news story
Earlier this year, the Cerebra Legal Entitlements and Problem-solving (LEaP) Project at the University of Leeds published a major report concerning English social care policies and practices that had the…
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Is there ‘Parent Carer Blame’ in Wales?
A recent report entitled ‘Institutionalising Parent Carer Blame’ has been published by the Cerebra Legal Entitlements and Problem-solving research team at the University of Leeds. It considers the policies and…
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Carers in Wales: new reports.
Two new reports concerning carers in Wales have been published. The first is a Public Health Wales funded publication by researchers at Cardiff University entitled Voices of Carers during the…
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The enigma of section 16
Dr Alison Tarrant of the School of Law and Politics Cardiff University discusses a unique provision in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014. . When the (then) National…
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NHS Ombudsman news and a Fast-track decision
The reports of the English Parliamentary and Health Services Ombudsman are now being published – click here to access the relevant page. This is good news. The Local Government and…
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NHS Continuing Health Care and Direct Payments in Wales
Disabled People in Wales of all ages who are eligible for NHS Continuing Health Care and who want to remain living in the community – have been left without a…
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Housing adaptations and disabled young people
Foundations – the National Body for Home Improvement Agencies in England has published an excellent Guide to Adaptations for Children and Young People with Behaviours that Challenge. The 45-page guide…
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The impact of the pandemic on disabled people: so much more than COVID-19
Between 30 March and 1 April 2021 Cardiff University Law School hosted the International Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Conference which, for the first time in its history, was delivered as…
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Welsh Government social care announcements
The Welsh Government has published a White Paper ‘Rebalancing care and support’ which makes proposals to introduce new legislation to improve social care arrangements and strengthen partnership working in…
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High Court Social Care Charging judgment
Proceedings taken on behalf of a 24 year old disabled person with Down Syndrome, challenging the way an English council (Norfolk) calculated the charges she had to pay for her…
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NHS Continuing Health Care judgment
This is an interesting and novel case concerning a dispute between an English local authority and an English Health Body - a Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Although the equivalent body…
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We only met two minutes ago but you already think you know everything about me.
The guest post you are about to read from a good colleague details an incredibly troubling account of the health system’s approach to the care of a very distressed and…
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Public Accounts Committee Report
The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has published its report Readying the NHS and social care for the COVID-19 peak Although its focus on the NHS in England –…
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Unlawful ‘Autism Plus’ policies
More than a quarter of English children’s services councils are acting unlawfully by discriminating against children with autism. Research undertaken by the School of Law at the University of Leeds,…
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NHS Continuing Healthcare & young people: R (JP) v NHS Croydon (2020)
Preliminary note This briefing concerns a recent English judgment. The NHS (Wales) Act 2006 and the NHS Act 2006 (which focuses primarily on England) both create almost identical duties to…
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Ordinary Residence s117 ~ all change in England (and Wales?).
The English Department of Health and Social Care has changed its mind concerning the determination of a person’s ordinary residence for the purposes of section 117 Mental Health Act 1983…
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