What’s New?
The ‘HOLD’ shared home ownership scheme as a route to independent living for disabled people
This paper describes an independent living / housing support plan for an adult living in England,[1] who has complex and profound impairments (which excludes him from conventional employment) – we…
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A very welcome report
A Report from the Joint Committee on Human Rights[1] has been published concerning the Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System. The report strongly endorses the Law Commission’s…
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‘Optimising’ and NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC)
A recent ombudsman report concerns a shocking (but not untypical) example of how NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are developing local policies that frustrate the principles and practices detailed in…
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Parent Blame and Youth Crime
The youth ‘justice’ system is in urgent need of radical reform and there is a great deal in the Ministry of Justice’s new White Paper on ‘Youth Crime’[1] that is…
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Troubling draft guidance ~ School Medical & Nursing Services
The English Government is currently consulting on draft updated statutory guidance on Supporting Pupils with Medical Conditions in Schools. It is a daunting (122 page) draft; it is troubling and sadly…
Read MorePrevious Posts
- FII and Parental Alienation Syndrome
- ‘My daughter had been kidnapped’
- ARFID: two recent publications
- An ‘Empathy in Public Services Bill’?
- Some dates for the 2026 diary
- It’s not just ‘Hywel Dda’ BUT …: secret court hearings.
- Transport Costs & NHS Continuing Healthcare
- Breath-taking budget driven inhumanity: NHS Continuing Healthcare decision making & profoundly disabled children
- Disabled children 3 times more likely to be the subject of safeguarding
- Two major reports highlighting parental blame and Systems Generated Trauma
- ‘Systems Generated Trauma’ Report 2025
- FII, GOSH & the Royal College
- A ‘sitting duck’ for allegations of fabricated or induced illness (FII)
- s117 MHA 1983 and ‘entrenched indifference’
- Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII): further investigations
- Sunday Times FII investigation
- A disregard for the humanity of those involved
- Harm resulting from geniuine cases of Fabricated or Induced illness (FII)
- Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII): a new critical report
- Special Needs Jungle Petition
- Why is ‘listening’ so difficult?
- Putting the record straight
- Families’ Alliance for Change
- Disabled children’s continence care services: a national scandal
- Pam Coughlan
- 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