For Jen Smith, the autumn term started, as always, with the prospect of managing the delicate process of her children’s school attendance. Both autistic, they were in mainstream classes until two years ago; now in specialist provision, they still faced deep-seated anxiety about school.
“My son’s anxiety began when he needed a disabled toilet key at school, but in the time it took to get one he felt he couldn’t go to the toilet and that is when the anxiety started building,” she says.
There were screaming and meltdowns on the way to school, she says, then more on the way home after he felt ashamed that he had been unable go in.
Read more in The Guardian
Surrogacy reform moves up the agenda
Surrogacy reform has moved a step closer with the news that the government met the Law Commission last month to discuss recommendations which had appeared to
Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel publish Annual Report
On 12 December 2024 the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel published its ‘Independent annual report for serious child safeguarding incidents, 2023 to 2024’. Read the
Plan to register children not in school takes shape
A register to identify children who are not in school in England will be part of a bill introduced to Parliament on Tuesday. Read the
