Fear over loss of support staff in Moray council

"PARENTS OF CHILDREN with special needs in Moray are gathering themselves for a battle with Moray Council as they fear wholesale redundancies for specialist staff."

"While the local authority is yet to confirm their precise intentions, several parents insist that some classroom support assistants have already been told they will not have a job after the summer holidays."

"Currently, Moray Council is undertaking a review on how it provides support for pupils with additional needs throughout its school estate. This week the chair of the children and young people’s services committee, Councillor Anne Skene, insisted that the plans involved some reorganisation – and confirmed that jobs would be lost `at some schools`."

"However, she insisted that the precise changes in each school would depend on `the individual nature of children who go to them`, adding: `Some schools will get a reduction in hours, some will get an increase in hours. That inevitably means the schools getting a reduction will employ less staff – and those with more hours will get more staff`."

http://www.insidemoray.com/angry-parents-gear-up-for-fight-over-classroom-support/

 The Children and Young People`s Services Committee webcast will be live on Wednesday June 2016 - 9.30 am.

http://www.moray.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/199919

Fighting for SEN services

"A law firm that specialises in contesting claims for children with special educational needs (SEN) has apologised after publishing a series of tweets that appeared to gloat at parents."

"Baker Small, a law firm that acts for local authorities, triggered widespread anger among parents of children with disabilities with the remarks made on social media on Saturday. The firm subsequently deleted them and made a donation to charity."

"One of the tweets said: `Crikey, had a great ‘win’ last week which sent some parents into a storm!`"

"Another referred to a tribunal victory over an attempt by parents to get funding for an intervention that can help autistic children, called Applied Behavioural Analysis (ABA). It said: `Great ABA Trib win this week … interesting to see how parents continue to persist with it. Funny thing is parents think they won.`"

"Several people reprimanded the law firm for its remarks. `Probably not that funny on reflection?` tweeted Daisy Russell in response."

"But the person writing on behalf of Baker Small replied: `Whenever someone thinks they have won and they have conceded 90% of their case, it does make me smile`."

"`A little more gravitas might be in order, you are dealing with vulnerable children’s lives,` a campaigner for ABA wrote."

"Later the Baker Small Twitter account posted another message with a picture of a kitten laughing, beneath the words: `Some great tweets received today from people who just see a one-sided argument … just shared them with my cat`…"

"The law firm’s tweets were later deleted, but were still visible on the Special Needs Minefield blog.  Debs Aspland, the blog’s author wrote: `This company was not just celebrating a win, they were laughing at the parents who had lost. Somehow, the child at the centre of this didn’t appear even to be considered`."

"The anger over the law firm’s flippant postings has roots in a deeper unease at local authorities’ increasing determination to fight parents at tribunal for funding of their children’s special needs provision."

"Baker Small is, or has recently been, contracted to provide legal services in relation to contesting SEN and disability tribunals to a number of local authorities including Buckinghamshire, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Gloucestershire, with total contracts estimated as being worth up to £1m."

http://www.theguardian.com/law/2016/jun/13/baker-small-law-firm-parents-tweets-children-special-educational-needs

The situation is unlikely to be better in Scotland; not when there is a Named Person with the power to decide what is in the best interests of a child`s wellbeing.

Care in crisis

 

 

"A Westminster Hall debate on the Governance of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust has been scheduled for Wednesday 8 June 2016 at 2.30 pm. It will be led by Suella Fernandes."

http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CDP-2016-0111#fullreport

Parents take legal action to get children treated closer to home

"Parents whose children have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act are taking legal action to get them treated closer to home."

"Last year, almost half of under 18-year-olds with learning difficulties were placed in hospitals more than 60 miles from home and families have begun to campaign for change."



Adele Hanlon has launched a petition to get her son released

"Eddie Hanlon, 16, has autism, bipolar and epilepsy. For the last two years he has been in a secure unit in Newcastle, 300 miles from his Bristol home."

"His mother Adele gets to see him just once a month and she has set up an online petition to get him out of hospital which has more than 64,000 signatures."　

"Last year, the Government announced it would spend £1.bn on children's mental health care over the next five years and the Department of Health says it is delivering on its commitment to young people's mental health."

"NHS England insists more beds are being made available and additional investment will help. However, the Government says change won't happen overnight."

http://news.sky.com/story/1696244/legal-challenge-over-childrens-mental-health

David Healy - Hearts and Minds: Psychotropic Drugs and Violence

Mechanisms of antidepressant-induced violence

"A link between antidepressant use and violence needs a plausible clinical mechanism through which such effects might be realised. There are comparable data on increased rates of suicidal events on active treatment compared to placebo."

"In the case of suicide, several explanations have been offered for the linkage. It is argued that alleviating the motor retardation of depression, the condition being treated, might enable suicides to happen, but this cannot explain the appearance of suicidality in healthy volunteers."

"Mechanisms linking antidepressant treatment, rather than the condition, to adverse behavioural outcomes include akathisia, emotional disinhibition, emotional blunting, and manic or psychotic reactions to treatment. There is good evidence that antidepressant treatment can induce problems such as these and a prima facie case that akathisia, emotional blunting, and manic or psychotic reactions might lead to violence."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1564177/

Treatment for two year old limited to palliative care

"The parents of a 'profoundly neurologically disabled` two-year-old boy say they are `devastated` by a High Court judge's decision to allow medics to provide only palliative care."

"They said Mrs Justice Parker's ruling `effectively condemns their son to death`."

"NHS hospital bosses with responsibility for the boy's care had asked Mrs Justice Parker to rule that limiting treatment to palliative care would be lawful and in the best interests of the boy."

"Specialists said the little boy suffered from an incurable, but unidentified, neurological disorder - and that his condition was deteriorating."

"Nurses said he had stopped smiling and that he grimaced but no longer giggled when tickled."

"Specialists said 'further invasive interventions` would be distressing and burdensome for the little boy and would have little or no therapeutic benefit."

"The youngster's parents disagreed with the idea of providing only palliative care and implementing an '`end-of-life plan`."

"They said all treatment options should continue to be available."

"Mrs Justice Parker had overseen the case at a public hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London and made a ruling on Wednesday."

"She said it was not in the little boy's best interests to `artificially prolong` his life."

"The judge said the little boy could not be identified."

"She said bosses at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust had asked her to make a ruling."

"Solicitor Kavi Mayor, who is based at Jung & Co Solicitors and represented the couple, said his clients were `devastated`."

"`They believe that the declarations made by the court effectively condemn their son to death,` said Mr Mayor after the hearing."

"They believe that their son's life is worth saving."

"He added: `They are particularly concerned that a prognosis has been given by the doctors when no firm diagnosis has been made`."

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/parents-devastated-over-judges-care-ruling/ar-BBtckEe?li=BBoPRmx&ocid=UE07DHP

Vexatious phone call to Sara Ryan

From Justice for LB:

 

"I’ve spent about an hour trying to write a blog post but keep deleting the words. Today Sara shared the audio message below which she picked up from her work answerphone."

"Good morning, hello, hi, this is a message for Dr Sara Ryan, um I’ve been seeing on the media about your son, your poor son who died in the care of Southern Health. I work for Southern Health and I feel awful that you lost him, I’m so sorry that you have done, it’s tragic, and, I hope you find some closure after the report, the issue of the GM… urgh CQC report today, but I do think you are being very vindictive. I think you are a vindictive cow."

"On TV all the time, ummm, slating the NHS Southern Health. With your intelligent background, you know, as much as much as anyone else knows, that Southern Health only took over those units in Oxfordshire recent, you know the recent months before your son died."

"You know, with your background, it takes a while to make changes in anywhere, and I think now you’ve just become a [inaudible] and you want some attention, but you are vindictive and you are unpleasant, and you are a nasty cow." 

9.33am Friday April 29th 

 http://justiceforlb.org/a-culture-of-candour-justiceforlb/

Dr Sara Ryan has recently passed on leaked documents to the police showing that Southern Health NHS Trust were already aware of the dangers to patients 10 months before her son died in their care.

See also http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03sl96n?ns_mchannel=social

Southern Health NHS Trust was not safe

"An NHS trust knew of failings at a care unit 10 months before a teenager drowned in a bath there, the BBC has learned."

"A leaked 2012 review found staff did not feel Slade House, Oxford, was safe and that it was dirty and difficult to track the care of patients at the unit."

"Connor Sparrowhawk, 18, died at the site in July 2013."

"Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust said a post-review plan had not been completed before his death."

 

 

"Dr Sara Ryan, his mother, said she would be asking police to open an investigation."

"She said the leaked documents were the `missing piece` for a corporate manslaughter charge, and described seeing the 2012 report as `devastating`."

" `Numerous things were wrong that were clearly important failings. To think that was known about… is awful, shocking, and harrowing,` she said."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-36141808

Day four of seven days

From the land which is going to Get it Right for Every Child until they are eighteen:

"We used to live happily in Fife, Scotland with Tianze, but in May 2014 when Tianze was 16 years old ,he was moved to a hospital in Middlesbrough, England, over 200 miles away from home to have an assessment. It was only supposed to be for maximum 6 week assessment?" [Two years later he is still in the system.]

Read about Tianze https://theatuscandal.wordpress.com/2016/04/21/imagining-home/

What is the explanation ?

 

As reported recently in the Islington Gazette in connection with the mother whose autistic son is now trapped in an assessment and treatment unit (ATU) in Colchester, the NHS England spokesman gave the standard response: `Every case is different and patients` needs are often extremely complex...`

In other words, it is as if to say, do not criticise us because we are well meaning people facing extraordinary challenges.

So it was liberating to read Chris Hatton`s blogpost who is an academic at the Centre for Disability Research, Lancaster University:

"While ‘complexity’ seems to be a term to ward off questioning (it’s too complicated for the likes of you to understand), it seems to me more like an admission from professionals that they don’t really understand what’s happening in terms of professionally-derived frameworks for understanding ‘behaviour’ – these frameworks alone are clearly inadequate for helping people."

"And for all the complexities that may be on show (I think it’s a fair bet that putting anyone, me included, into an inpatient unit would result in some complexity of behaviour), people in inpatient units and families seem to talk about what people want out of life in ways that don’t seem terribly complicated to me - a nice place to live, being with people you love and who love you, having a meaning to your life, and so on."

A clear exposition from an academic and well worth a read.
http://chrishatton.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-complexity-complex.html

Seven days of action

 

"An Islington mother whose severely autistic son is being detained in a mental health facility more than 70 miles away hopes that a week-long campaign will finally bring him home."

"Leo Andrade, of Rixon Street, Holloway, can only afford to travel once a month to visit her 21-year-old son Stephen, who has been held in an assessment and treatment unit (ATU) in Colchester for the past 15 months after being sectioned."

"Stephen was transferred there from a higher security unit in Northampton where he was held for two years alongside alcoholics and drug addicts after Ms Andrade complained."

"But she claims her son’s condition has continued to deteriorate in the unit, where he is prone to self-harm due to anxiety..."

" `He could die if he stays there with the amount of drugs they give him.` "

"`He doesn’t have a mental illness but they pump him with anti-psychotic drugs because it’s easier than finding a way to care for someone with autism.`"

"On Monday Ms Andrade, along with a group of mothers and family members in the same situation, launched `Seven Days of Action`, a campaign to bring their children home. Every day this week, a blog by autism campaigner Mark Neary will feature a story from someone who has experienced life in an ATU."

"An NHS England spokesman said: `Every case is different and patients’ needs are often extremely complex, but we have been clear hospitals should not be seen as homes.`"

http://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/health/holloway_mum_hopes_week_long_campaign_will_bring_autistic_son_home_1_4502334

Read the blog: https://theatuscandal.wordpress.com/