Lucy Series
Associate Professor of Social Care Law and Policy, University of Bristol, School for Policy Studies. Socio-legal research on: disability, legal capacity, human rights, sovereignty, governmentality and other stuff. Small Places Blog.
- I just discovered that in Harvard citation you *don't* italicise the case names, but you *do* italicise the statutes. This feels as wrong as going to work in your pyjamas! I don't love Oscola, but apparently, bits of it, I do.
- Read Simon Cramp's review of Stephen Unwin's book, Beautiful Lives: How we got learning disability so wrong. Thanks Simon! thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/10/22/b... @sime50.bsky.social @stephenunwin.bsky.social
- I'm somewhat bowled over by this - my book, Deprivation of Liberty in the Shadows of the Institution, won the British Academy Peter Townsend Prize for outstanding work with social policy relevance www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/prizes-medal...
- I'm a huge admirer of Townsend, as a scholar and a person. He pops up lots in my research and teaching. He'd have had a lot of helpful things to say about why we have ended up in a situation where hundreds of thousands of people live in carceral care settings, and what we might *do* about it.
- Many thanks to whoever nominated it and the prize committee.. I'm honoured and grateful.
- Revisiting Cheshire West - my thoughts on the upcoming Supreme Court case about 'valid consent' and deprivation of liberty thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/r...
- Revisiting Cheshire West - my thoughts on the upcoming Supreme Court case about 'valid consent' and deprivation of liberty thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/09/30/r...
- Devastated to hear about Conor Gearty's sudden death. I had the privilege of getting to know him working on statutory amendments to try and ensure the Human Rights Act applies whenever health and social care it outsourced by the state. We'll continue that work in his memory.
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- Mental health twitter - here's a totally invalid straw poll. Roughly what proportion of people discharged from detention under the MHA who are technically *eligible* for s117 aftercare actually get it? And roughly how many of these get short-term v long-term support?
- Also why is nobody higher up the foodchain collecting data on s117 aftercare and exploring how the cost is (often unfairly) split between LA's and the NHS?!
- Folks, can anyone point me to any key cases or guidance on the covert administration of medication under a) MCA and b) MHA? I'm struggling to see how it could be lawful under MCA without COP's powers, as you can't really assess capacity without telling someone what you plan to do...
- I've found this case about covert medication, where EWCA doesn't reject it in principle www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWC... and I've also found the CQC guidance referenced in that case (though can't see where the NICE guidelines endorse covert medication under the MCA...?)
- But in that case, the practitioners had discussed the treatment (HRT) with the woman, and knew she didn't want it. What about situations where treatment never discussed with the person at all? Presumably that wouldn't be lawful under the MCA?
- I published an article recently, and re-reading it have noticed an embarrassing number of typos crept in. The copy-editing process was super-rushed and I found the publisher's interface really hard on the eyes, and I didn't check as well as I should have done. Is it too late to fix this...?!
- This article by @johnharris1969.bsky.social on the SEND changes is why I signed the letter. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
- Scrapping EHCPs in mainstream schools risks leaving a generation of SEND children excluded from education, chaos in classrooms, more pressure on schools, teachers, and all kids and parents. All of this will carry even greater human, financial and social costs in the long run
- I'm trying to calculate how many people (England) are 'informal' (i.e. not detained under the MHA) mental health inpatients. The MHSMS dataset says there are 22,764 people subject to MHA at the moment, and 23,595 in hospital beds. So 96% detained under MHA. Does that sound right to you MH people?
- Here's the dataset I'm using app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrI...
- Just reading the GMC guidance, then the NMC guidance, on consent, and really, the NMC guidance is just so scant and rubbish... That really does need addressing.
- Very interesting upcoming case from Northern Ireland in UK Supreme Court - about whether a person could be taken to consent to what could otherwise be a 'deprivation of liberty' if it aligns with their wishes and feelings www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2...
- This touches on an issue that @markneary1.bsky.social has blogged about several times - that even though Stephen is positively happy with his living arrangements and support, because his PA's accompany him everywhere to keep him safe (and enable him to do the stuff he wants) he's categorised as DoL
- It's an issue I've written about in my book bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/display/book... and book chapters (all open access) pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32662954/
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View full threadIt's also a much better way to address the volume problem under DoLS than the kinds of discriminatory approaches in the lower courts that say that if a person has a certain level of disability and mobility issues then they're deprived of liberty by their condition not their circumstances.
- Reposted by Lucy SeriesIntersections of Sociology with Crip Theory and Critical Disability Studies and Mad Studies Tickets are here!!! 📣 📆 June 11th ⏰️ 9.30 - 4.30 💵 Free 3 amazing sessions, 2 unmissable keynote speakers, 1 amazing creative workshop, 2 BSL interpreters... #MadCrip www.britsoc.co.uk/events/key-b...
- 'Something has gone very wrong' how civil servants at DWP and governments ignored warnings over the carers scandal www.theguardian.com/news/ng-inte...
- Fantastic to see CQC and so many NGOs supporting the Sammut amendment to ensure the Human Rights Act applies directly to private providers if mental health services are outsourced committees.parliament.uk/publications... It would be good to extend this protection for children's social care as well
- The Mental Health Bill 2024-25 is now in the House of Commons. Here's last night's debate at Second Reading hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2025... (Much less emphasis on disability rights than in the House of Lords, I notice)
- And here's the report of the Joint Committee on Human Rights, for it's pre-legislative scrutiny of the Mental Health Bill committees.parliament.uk/publications...
- Rumours on school WhatsApp group that the government is considering changing parts of the Children and Families Act 2014, which supports SEND children with more complex needs in schools. Anyone know anything about this? Here's a petition petition.parliament.uk/petitions/71... @johnpring.bsky.social
- Supported decision-making is back! Thanks to recent proposals by the Law Commission thesmallplaces.wordpress.com/2025/05/16/s...
- This, by @jdportes.bsky.social is so worth reading on the incoherent and mean-spiritedness of the white paper. Excellent point that if they want to increase pay in the care sector they'll need to find the money - at the moment there are no signs of that.
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