Crisis in Special Needs Education – Teaching Assistants made Redundant as Central and Local Govt argue over Funding
There was a thoroughly depressing piece by Fran Abrams in the Guardian’s Education Section on 11th April 2017, headlined ‘Schools battle to support special needs as teaching assistants lose jobs’ – ‘Pupils are at risk of being turned away from mainstream schools as classroom support falls victim to budget cuts’. To read it, which I […]
SWAN Children -‘I just want to know what’s wrong with my child’
The issues around securing a diagnosis for your child will be familiar to many parents. Most (including the author of this post) will have an anecdote or horror story to tell about the process. I was reminded of the problems around diagnosis by an article by Chris Evans in the i newspaper on 22nd May, also available […]
Manifestos – Part 3
Well another day another manifesto launch, again as with the others I read the Conservative Manifesto from cover to cover looking for references to people with a learning disability but again I didn’t find much
Manifestos – Part 2
Yesterday saw the launch of the Liberal Democrat manifesto and I will try to cover the relevant points as I did with the Labour Party. I have to say that there were not many references to learning disability so I’ll do the best I can with the limited resources offered. The full manifesto can be […]
Manifesto time again!!!
Well I didn’t think we would be doing this again so soon after last time but who am I to expect that 5 year fixed term parliaments should actually mean that! Once again I am going to read all the manifestos for the main political parties for references to learning disability and specific policies that […]
An Expert Guide to Mental Capacity and the Right to Vote
We have just received what appears to be a pretty definitive guide to learning disability, mental capacity, and the capacity and right to vote in the upcoming election. This may be useful to you or someone you care for. Written by Lucy Series, it is a blog posting entitled ‘It’s that time again’. If you read […]
The Care Act and Advocacy: how is Statutory Duty actually being observed?
The Care Act and Advocacy… There is a whole chapter devoted to it in the Care Act Statutory Guidance – just the 66 paragraphs! ” This chapter (7) provides guidance on: Sections 67 and 68 of the Care Act 2014 & the Care and Support (Independent Advocacy) Regulations 2014…. Even in 2015, legal expert Belinda Schwehr was asking […]
Emergency Debate on changes to Personal Independence Payment Regulations
Slightly lost in the news coverage of other events taking place yesterday 30th March (Article 50 Letter, commemoration of the victims of last week’s terrorist attack, George Michael’s funeral ), a significant debate took place in the Commons. The Speaker, John Bercow, acceded to the request of Shadow Minister Debbie Abrahams and allowed an emergency […]
Law Commission Report: implications for human rights and restricting powers of health and care professionals
Expert on disability law and (currently occasional) blogger Lucy Series has just posted her initial thoughts on the law Commission proposals for the replacement of the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). These may be found on here on her Small Places website. As Lucy says, there is a lot to think about… but her […]
Reaction to Channel 4 Dispatches ‘Under Lock and Key’
Last week, I gave you notice of an important documentary, a Channel 4 Dispatches report on people with learning disabilities and autism who become long-stay patients (effectively residents) of hospitals and specialist units administered by NHS England. Under Lock and Key was distressing viewing. Rescare’s office staff have now seen the programme via catch-up, and […]