Latest editorial
[Alex Pasarelu / Unsplash]
PARENTS with a learning disability are 54 times more likely to have their children taken into care than others, an investigation has found.
Of the 72,154 children who entered care between April 2020 and April 2022, 8.1 per cent of children were removed from their family home after social workers identified their parent’s learning disability as a factor of concern, research by Channel 5 News revealed.
Since only 0.15 per cent of adults with learning disabilities are a parent, this means they are 54 times more likely to have their child removed compared to non-disabled parents, the report said.
Plans to delay access to the universal credit health element until age 22 have triggered fierce opposition from disabled people’s groups, who warn it would deepen poverty and entrench discrimination against young disabled people under the guise of ‘encouraging work.’ DYLAN MURPHY reports
After years of austerity and denial under a new Reform UK council, a failing Send service was pushed into the spotlight by staff, unions and parents — culminating in a £1.3m funding boost and a 50% increase in front-line workers. MARTIN PORTER explains
What’s behind the stubborn gender gap in Stem disciplines ask ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT in their column Science and Society
