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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 4d

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

Book review: Beautiful Lives: How We Got Learning Disabilities So Wrong, by Stephen Unwin

This blog post features a review of this book by learning disability campaigner, Simon Cramp. I will give you the publisher’s description of Stephen Unwin’s book first, and then Simon’s review. Wil…

thesmallplaces.wordpress.com

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 9d

Thanks Tom, that means a lot. I met a really cool Singaporean academic yesterday who writes about civil disobedience and also mental capacity law. I told him to look you up!

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 9d

Thank you!

Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 9d

Many thanks to whoever nominated it and the prize committee.. I'm honoured and grateful.

Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 9d

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.

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 9d

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...

The British Academy Peter Townsend Prize

The Peter Townsend Prize, worth £1,000, is awarded biennially for outstanding work with policy relevance on a topic to which Townsend made a major contribution.

www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 27d

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

As you may have heard, in October the UK Supreme Court will her a case that will re-open consideration of what it means to be ‘deprived of your liberty’ if you may lack the mental capacity to conse…

thesmallplaces.wordpress.com

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · 27d

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

As you may have heard, in October the UK Supreme Court will her a case that will re-open consideration of what it means to be ‘deprived of your liberty’ if you may lack the mental capacity to conse…

thesmallplaces.wordpress.com

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Sep 15

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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Reposted by Lucy Series

Alison Harvey @aliromah.bsky.social · Sep 12

Wonderful tributes from colleagues at Matrix chambers for Professor Conor Gearty.

Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · Sep 12

So shocked Conor Gearty has died

He was a fearless lawyer, teacher and writer

He was also one of the wittiest, smartest people you’d ever meet. It was an honour to call him a friend

I will miss him, terribly. Thoughts with his family, in London and Longford

www.matrixlaw.co.uk/news/profess...

Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon) - Matrix Chambers

It is with shock and sadness that we mourn the sudden passing of our valued colleague, and a founding member of Matrix, Professor Conor Gearty KC (Hon). Should you wish to leave a message of condolenc...

www.matrixlaw.co.uk

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Aug 6

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?!

Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Aug 6

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?

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 15

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?

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 15

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...?)

Access denied

www.bailii.org

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 15

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...

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 11

If you highlight sections, and you have the desktop version as well, you can then directly copy/paste into your articles when quoting them... (It certainly beats my books full of ragged yellow post-it notes and marginalia!)

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 11

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...?!

Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 11

I have to get my books on Kindle now for that reason! Also because Kindle's annotation function is brilliant, and becasue I can read it the dark without bothering others! Can't help with the pictures...

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 7

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

Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jul 7

This article by @johnharris1969.bsky.social on the SEND changes is why I signed the letter. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jun 20

Ach. Yes. Good luck.

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jun 20

I'm so sorry Tom you're new department is caught up in this. That's really shitty. Hold strong - friends and former colleagues at Cardiff managed to get many of the cuts mitigated (though sadly not all).

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jun 20

Aha, 16,400 detained in hospital, so roughly 70% of the total inpatient mental health beds

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jun 20

Do you know if there's a way to get the Power BI tool to exclude CTOs and conditional discharge and guardianship? (i.e. just keep hospital patients)?

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Lucy Series @thesmallplaces.bsky.social · Jun 20

It did sound higher than I was expecting

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