Jenny Hicken
World-class procrastinator. PhD student, Inclusive Education Research Group @northumbriauni.bsky.social. Programme manager @EveryChildNENC.bsky.social. Knowledge Mobilisation Fellow @arcnenc.bsky.social. GMBPsS.
🌍 Newcastle upon Tyne
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- Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s picks for a key autism panel include members who tout dangerous treatments and say vaccine manufacturers are “poisoning children.” One doesn't know why she was chosen. www.wired.com/story/rfk-jr...
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- Reposted by Jenny HickenYesterday, five-year-old Liam and his dad Adrian were released from Dilley detention center. I picked them up last night and escorted them back to Minnesota this morning. Liam is now home. With his hat and his backpack.
- Reposted by Jenny HickenI was struck, seeing this on the tube, by the contemporary resonance of Auden"s Epitaph on a Tyrant in this phase of the global projection of Trump’s sociopathic narcissism
- Reposted by Jenny HickenI have had to remove a few FB comments from people who demanded to know why Aliya Rahman, the autistic woman who was pulled from her car by ICE in Minneapolis, didn’t “just follow instructions.” These comments, unfortunately, reveal lack of understanding about being autistic. Here is why. 1/
- This is the worst example ever of a woman having to appease a fragile egotistical man to her own detriment in order to try and get the minimum she deserves
- Reposted by Jenny HickenUnbelievably, #DuvetKnowItsChristmas generates such good will on social media that over the years we've raised somewhere approaching a quarter of a million quid for homeless charities. If you can spare a bob or two, sling some to Centrepoint, and here's the link: www.gofundme.com/f/duvet-know...
- Reposted by Jenny HickenCasual reminder that the myth of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps” is a cruel hoax designed to convince poor people from all walks of life that the injustices they face are a result of their own actions, rather than an oppressive system rigged against them.
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- This is problematic and upsetting in so many ways.
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- Things have got that bad in NHS organisational change land that an ICB colleague is taking 900 years of leave just to get away from it.
- "Human psychology is complicated. Politics and power, by contrast, tend to be crass, cruel and prone to coming up with completely the wrong questions."
- Every child gets a participation medal at school sports day vibes
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- Actually jaw-dropping stuff
- Perhaps worth acknowledging that there are approx 4.5 MILLION children living in poverty in the UK - around 170,000 in the North East alone. Good that govt is patting itself on the back for helping some of them over the next 4 years. I guess the other 4 million can just wait longer.
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- Reposted by Jenny HickenChildren are being pulled into the youth justice system because their early health, education and care needs are not being addressed, according to a new Child of the North report edited by @vp-centre.bsky.social researchers. Read more 👇 vulnerabilitypolicing.org.uk/news/childre...
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- Reposted by Jenny HickenStreeting to next launch inquiry into “over-diagnosis” of left-handedness. “Never used to be like this,” he insists.
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- This makes me a little nervous, especially if they are coming at it from a standpoint of looking for evidence of over-diagnosis. Hopefully will be a good thing if carried out rigorously with the right organisations and lived experience voices involved. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
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- I find this sort of local "news" website article fascinating, like it's just telling people who live in the North East and already know that Alnwick exists, then Google some facts about the castle and copy a review of the garden off Trip Advisor and hit publish, job done. Who is this for exactly?
- My 50 most-used words on Bluesky this year suggest I have been on my soapbox a lot
- Hello moths, The harvest has arrived: anisota.net/harvest It's like Spotify Wrapped, but for Bluesky and the ATmosphere. 🌾 See your most-used words, discover who you interact with most, explore your posting patterns, and find all sorts of fun insights.
- A timely reminder that any of us are one accident away from needing to navigate the labyrinth of a broken system not fit for purpose - remember this if you ever think disabled people are getting too many benefits.
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- I am here for drama school kids doing politics better than any PPE graduate ever has
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- Reposted by Jenny Hicken🚨 ♾ Our report out yesterday calls on HM Government to deliver an effective new autism strategy. Open this link committees.parliament.uk/committee/77... to view the following: - Full report - Easy Read report - Report summary with conclusions and recommendations - Shorthand
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- Absolutely wild the proposed standards that migrants will have to meet when a sizeable proportion of those protesting against them would not meet the same standards but are all good because they have a flag
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- This is horrifying stuff.
- I'm genuinely embarrassed for every person creating these online "news" stories (because they are not reporters or journalists). Keep feeding the outrage machine, Allison Pearson continues to have columns to spew out, and we all slide a bit further into oblivion. Merry Christmas.
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- A lot of things have made me angry today but this is just laughable. I honestly don't know where to start.
- I mean I know immigration is the issue du jour but this line from Tice on EHCPs is downright unhinged if he thinks this is what is actually happening @spcialndsjungle.bsky.social @peterwalker99.bsky.social
- While the government lose their collective minds about the asylum system, this is the daily reality of countless UK families. Immigrants are not to blame for this. "Securing our borders" will not lift children out of poverty. news.sky.com/story/inside...
- I absolutely hate everything about this. The lack of humanity is just staggering. I know the cruelty was always the point with the Tories but my God it hasn't taken Labour long to catch on. Nobody who wants to stop Reform will be happy voting for the party that does their work for them.
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Every time I hear a politician say that an issue is “dividing” this country they always then come down on the side of the right wing view of it. Just once I’d love to hear someone say “this issue is divisive, which is why I’m making the argument that kindness and compassion is important” - 100% agree with this thread - we cannot continue to shoehorn ever-increasing numbers of square pegs into the round hole of the current education system. Education provision and learning environments at all levels must adapt and evolve to meet the breadth of student need, not the other way round.
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- Big news in NHS organisational change land this evening courtesy of a 5pm all-staff email from our ICB chief exec. Things are suddenly happening pre-Budget, rather unexpectedly. Info here via email from my union.
- And this before they make tens of thousands of NHS England and ICB staff redundant - when they eventually work out how to pay for it 🙄
- Why is she slowly explaining this as if she is only just realising it now when it has always been true and they should have done something about it at the earliest possible opportunity
- Every element of this story is my worst nightmare
- A pitch-black cave in the Balkans is home to what appears to be the world’s largest spider web, which researchers say is a singular work of cooperation by two usually-hostile species of spider. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/s...
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- So much money being funnelled into spurious "research" with the stated aim of finding obviously non-existent links between autism and [insert random unrelated factor], instead of funding literally anything else that would actually benefit autistic people.
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- Great news for @arcnenc.bsky.social 👏
- Today, @nihr.bsky.social announced a £157 million investment over 5 years in 10 ARCs, that will: 🔵support transformation of the health & care system 🔵tackle pressing health & social care challenges through high-quality applied research 🔵bring new treatments & technologies nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-aw...
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