Families of autistic children are struggling to get food from supermarkets amid the coronavirus pandemic. Parents say their children live on restricted diets and shops are being stripped bare of the foods they eat. Some supermarkets, including Tesco and Sainsbury’s,...

Councils will be free to abandon disabled people under the UK government’s coronavirus response. That’s the warning from disability charities over the new Coronavirus Act. No obligation over social care Disability Rights UK, a pan-disability charity, says councils will no...

Crucial services to families of special needs children and adults could be decimated by coronavirus. Day services could close indefinitely as part of the response to coronavirus. Swansea Council announced on Thursday (19 March) that it was closing all day...

Delays in providing statements to special needs children in Northern Ireland have left families waiting more than a year. An internal audit report has heavily criticised the performance of Northern Ireland’s Education Authority (EA). The average wait in 2018-19 was 40...

Health checks for people with learning disabilities are often little more than box-ticking exercises. That’s the view of campaigner Helen Ashby, who wants a standardised check nationwide. Ashby, 47, from Stourbridge, in the West Midlands, took son David Sheriff, 31,...

Campaigners have attacked the National Autistic Society (NAS) for allowing under-fire mental healthcare group St Andrew’s to promote itself at one of the charity’s conferences. St Andrew’s set up an exhibition stall at the NAS Autism Professionals Conference last Thursday...

A controversial mental health unit remains in special measures after being rated “inadequate” for the second consecutive time. St Andrew’s Healthcare Adolescent Service, in Northampton, was given the rating after a Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in December.  The CQC...

Vulnerable disabled children have suffered broken bones after schools have restrained or secluded them. The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) and Positive and Active Behaviour Support Scotland (PABSS) say young people are being harmed by the treatment. In a report, the...

The family of a two-year old boy with a rare epileptic condition are taking legal action to fight for potentially life-saving medication for him. Charlie Hughes has been denied the medication because of a disagreement between his NHS Trust and the...

Faulty brain cells failing to communicate effectively may be an underlying cause of autism, new research suggests. Researchers found people with autism suffer malfunctions in a cell producing a special coating. The coating is myelin, a fatty substance that protects...