Lovely to chat with your colleague afterwards. Earlier, she saw me taking photos and I wondered if I was going to be told off!
14.02.2026 18:45
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Lovely to chat with your colleague afterwards. Earlier, she saw me taking photos and I wondered if I was going to be told off!
⬇️ This ace exhibition travels to Cornwall next. Huge thanks to @aligunn.bsky.social for telling me about this. Needs to tour everywhere!
Brill afternoon absorbing Our Life Stories exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. Oral history of the lives, loves, injustices & communities of 80+ people with learning disabilities and autistic people. Artwork, peer-led interviews & more. Hat-tip to everyone @unitedresponse.bsky.social involved ✨
“The fridge freezers in two children’s bedrooms contained mouldy food.”
Wonder whether those who led, enabled and supported the demise of day-to-day care for children in care aged 16-17 ever anticipated a company offering such care-less accommodation calling itself ‘Caring Thoughts Ltd’.
Thinking of dear Ian Dickson this evening, a wonderful children’s rights champion and truth-teller. He strove to ensure every child has a ladder to the stars ✨
article39.org.uk/our-story/ch...
Our challenge to the government's decision to authorise PAVA spray in prisons holding children is being heard in the High Court today.
Children and Young People Now coverage: https://www.cypnow.co.uk/content/news/high-court-hears-challenge-to-pava-spray-use-in-children-s-prisons
Illustration in black and white of a hippo like creature, walking upright through stormy weather with eyes shut
After living through the Nazi & atomic bomb eras, Tove Jansson writings would often encompass fearful ideas about loss of a familiar world. However she would balance this with characters who encompassed #kindness & #community, even in the darkest times #WomensArt #WorldKindnessDay
Sky documentary about the death of a very young care leaver, Nonita Grabovskyte, and how we and @inquest-org.bsky.social joined forces to fight for justice for her. Link to documentary here: article39.org.uk/2025/11/11/a...
@shattenstone.bsky.social
@debcoles13.bsky.social
@francescrook.bsky.social
Saw this hugely powerful, anger-making production last night in Derby. Catch it if you can. Thinking of my very dear friend Eric Allison who worked tirelessly with @shattenstone.bsky.social to bring to public view the reign of child abuse at Medomsley detention centre
graeae.org/event/bad-la...
A veteran activist, who has spent her life campaigning for disability rights, has called on the government to fix the “rotten to the core” social care system, after experiencing “terrifying” treatment during a short stay in a care home.
www.disabilitynewsservice.com/safeguarding...
2025: a child in care is sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an ‘annex’. Ofsted visit prompted by a serious incident alert. Private company operating the annex illegally. Child’s place paid for by their LA / corporate parent. They will have a social worker and an independent reviewing officer.
When giving oral evidence to Covid-19 Inquiry, I said whenever I encounter govt plans to remove or weaken safeguards for children in care I think about past inquiries & scandals. The death of Dennis O’Neill & the cruelty also inflicted on his brother, together with both boys’ bravery, often in mind.
Look forward to reading this ✨
Been reminded (through anniversary of a family wedding I missed 😬) that it’s 29 years since the residential weekend laying the ground for the formation of A National Voice organisation run by and for care experienced people.
Anyone on here who attended, I still have group photos!
Spoke at national conference this week about supported accommodation for children in care aged 16 and 17. Asked for a show of hands from those who sent (or plan to send) their teenage children off to a flat, bedsit (‘self contained unit’) or hostel to learn to become independent. Not a single hand.
Vital work of museum of homelessness @ourmoh.bsky.social
bringing to light the shocking reality of deaths of people experiencing homelessness. museumofhomelessness.org/news/new-res...
Ofsted inspecting only a ‘sample’ of properties *every three years* is one of the many ways this form of accommodation was moved from being unregulated to regulated in 2023 without longstanding legal protections for children in care.
UK Covid-19 Inquiry, day 1 hearing: strong and consistent calls for making the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child fully part of UK law
article39.org.uk/uk-covid-19-...
Very grateful to Chambers for supporting me to concentrate on assisting @article39.bsky.social over the next month, during the UK Covid-19 Inquiry's module on children and young people. Hearings start Monday 29 September, going through to 23 October. More here:
article39.org.uk/2025/09/26/i...
You will recall that one of the stated goals of the new regulatory framework for supported accommodation for looked after children and care leavers aged 16 and 17 was not to disrupt the existing market.
The irony is that the adult supported accommodation sector is able, legally, to provide care. What a shameful mess.
It is, frankly, devastating to see councils campaigning for MORE supported accommodation, which is increasingly used to house children in care as young as 16, often sharing premises with vulnerable adults. By law, no ‘care’ can be provided.
www.cypnow.co.uk/content/news...
Oasis Trust (charity) chosen by former government to run this secure 16-19 Academy. By law, it’s a secure children’s home. Peers voted to allow local authorities to be able to run this new type of secure children’s home, since this is where expertise lies. Reversed when Bill returned to Commons.
Why was Prison Officers Association speaking about its members working in Oasis Restore secure school on @channel4news.bsky.social when this is legally meant to be a secure children’s home, not a child prison?
Due to one child’s needs, waking night staff in place for 8 months. Yet this is meant to be accommodation for children able to live with high degree of independence (a fiction in itself).
This was always policy development full of risks for children, designed by last government for LAs in crisis.
A reflection on my care files, three years after sharing “An open letter to the social worker who wrote my case notes”, which ended up going viral at the time.
Here’s how my perspective has shifted:
(Original letter available at basw.co.uk/articles/ope...)
About half of the 100+ Ofsted inspections published so far have identified concerns, some very serious.
