'Urgent' changes needed for child disability care
The mothers of two teenage boys who died after failures in their care have called on the government to make "urgent improvements" to how children with disabilities are assessed.
Sammy Alban-Stanley, 13, and 14-year-old Oskar Nash both died in 2020. Inquests for both boys recorded they had received inadequate care from local authorities and mental health services.
The calls were made in an open letter to the secretaries of state for health and social care, and education.
Patricia Alban and Natalia Nash asked Sajid Javid and Nadim Zahawi to make fundamental changes to several care areas to prevent future deaths.
The pair said they both experienced problems with support for disabled children and families.
Services lacked understanding of neurological conditions like autism, they said.
The pair also pointed to a lack of access to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), and failure to assess or review the severity of a child's developing needs.
Source: BBC News, 16 June 2022