Two debates this week in Parliament focused on the crisis in Special Education provision. One particular focus was on the financial strains that  a dysfunctional system is imposing on both local authorities and parents, whilst simultaneously setting them up against each other  via a failing assessment and appeals processes. Another issue considered was the (rising) […]

Warning this is a bit complicated! “The dividing line between the use of the MHA and the MCA DOLS is fiendishly complicated (a senior judge described it as like putting your head inside a washing machine and spin dryer)”.  Lucy Series (legal expert, academic and blogger) has just published a thorough but informative blog article […]

We have previously cited and endorsed journalist Ian Birrell’s scathing articles on the treatment of children and adults with autism and learning disabilities in ‘secure hospital facilities’ i.e. Assessment and Treatment Units (ATUs).  Ian has now reacted angrily to Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s commissioning of an ‘investigation’ by the CQC  (“yet another review”) Please now […]

Having recently attended events organised by Public Health England around the topic of how to improve the health and consequent life expectancy of people with a learning disability, and aware of the findings of previous  research on the issue stretching back beyond the Marmot Report of 2010, (sadly) I was not surprised by the contents […]

The Bill is progressing through Parliament, and reached the report stage this week (21st Nov). Ahead of this milestone, the Government has now published its amendments to the Bill. These amendments are described by Alex Ruck Keene as ‘long-awaited’ in his post on the Mental Capacity Law and Policy website . Thankfully for the lay-person, […]

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR), having initially launched a wider inquiry into the detention of young people, is now conducting two separate, more focused, and inter-related inquiries into the detention of people with learning disabilities and or autism in mental health and NHS inpatient facilities. To quote  the JCHR website: “As a […]

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has just published ‘The State of Care 2017/18‘, its annual assessment of health and social care in England. The report ‘looks at the trends, shares examples of good and outstanding care, and highlights where care needs to improve’. You can find links to the report, plus a summary and an […]

Further to our feature article on Learning Disability, Health and Obesity , and specifically our  reporting on Public Health England events in August and October.  Speakers from Public Health England (PHE) were keen to emphasise that people with learning disabilities and/or autism should be able to access those services from the NHS to which they […]

Received in today, an email from the Petitions team at Parliament: Dear xxxxxx, Parliament debated the petition you signed – “Prevent avoidable deaths by making autism/learning disability training mandatory” Watch the debate: https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/b10b5496-54a6-4262-bb54-5c74ec58eedf Read the transcript: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-10-22/debates/F8EBB4E2-C858-4B5B-B2E0-39D0C25EAA4C/AutismAndLearningDisabilityTrainingHealthcareProfessionals Read the research: https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/petitions-committee/news-parliament-2017/autism-training-22-10/ The petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/221033 Thanks, The Petitions team UK Government and Parliament It is actually […]

The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill is proceeding through Parliament. Following upon the DoLS crisis, about which we  posted and wrote extensively in recent years, the Bill’s primary purpose is to replace the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) with the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) proposed by the Law Commission’s Review. Last week Rescare received email alerts […]