Following the recent debate over the new Health and Social Care Act, the Department of Health set up a Children and Young People’s Forum, to inform the development of a Children and Young People’s Health Outcomes Strategy. The Forum is now asking for parents’ views to make sure the strategy reflects the issues they consider more »

Contact a Family is calling on parents and other family members caring for a disabled child to take part in their important research about the financial situation for families with disabled children in 2012. Counting the Costs 2012 is a repeat of a survey and report carried out in 2008 and 2010. Your collective responses more »

Disability strategy questionnaire; making things better for people with learning disabilities. The government is currently asking people what could make life better for disabled people. They have written down some ideas for a strategy and want disabled people and the people in their lives to tell them whether these are the right things to do, more »

Afasic, Contact A Family and Newcastle University are establishing a Parents Research Forum with parents whose children have SLCN. The aim is to identify and, where possible, undertake research into areas that parents consider to be important. One of the first outcomes is a small study into parent’s experiences of accessing support services for their more »

Writing in the journal Science, the scientists say that many people could have some degree of “voice blindness”. Read the article on the BBC website which includes a contribution from Afasic Vice President, Professor Dorothy Bishop.

On  9 March, the Government published the long-awaited green paper, setting out their future vision for SEN and disability. It should be stressed that this is just a discussion document released for consultation. The government will then go on to publish more specific plans taking account of the responses to the consultation and outcomes of pilots. more »