New guidance to ensure people with hidden disabilities such as autism qualify for a blue badge is being rolled out to councils. People who cannot walk as part of a journey without “considerable psychological distress or the risk of serious...

The mother of a man with autism secretly recorded a care worker abusing him at a home. Caroline Hopton set up the hidden camera after becoming concerned about her son Ollie, 20. Ollie, who also has a severe learning disability,...

The Local Government Ombudsman has upheld much of a mum’s complaint about the way her son was forced to share a lengthy journey to school. Christine Graham, from North Somerset, said her 16-year-old son was traumatised by being put in...

The mother of a man with autism and ADHD is fighting to get her son out of a mental health hospital he shares with murderers and rapists. Tracey Gibbon’s son Kyle, 31, has been held at high-security hospital Carstairs, in...

A GP has raised concerns about the use of “major tranquillizers” for children with learning disabilities. Nicholas Sharvill says the use of antipsychotic drugs is at odds with what medics should do for adults with learning disabilities. He says “non-pharmacological...

Families are waiting to hear if health secretary Matt Hancock will keep to his pledge that every person segregated on mental health wards will have an independent review. Hancock made the pledge after a critical report by watchdog the Care...

Abuse revealed by the BBC’s Panorama at a long-stay hospital for people with autism and learning disabilities is endemic across the care system. That’s the view of Sir Stephen Bubb. He wrote a key report urging an end to hospital care...

Families have launched a legal campaign to end the “national scandal” of people with autism and learning disabilities being detained under the Mental Health Act.  The parents are concerned that the Mental Health Act is being wrongly used. They say...

Nearly 50 people have died in long-stay hospitals caring for people with autism and learning disabilities, it has emerged. Care minister Caroline Dinenage revealed there have been 45 deaths in the hospitals, known as assessment and treatment units (ATUs), since...

Leading figures in autism are gathering for a conference on the latest developments in treating the condition. Thinking Autism’s conference will hear from experts on a wide variety of topics. These will include cannabis, diet, sensory processing, epilepsy, mitochondrial disorders,...