🔁 All policy & campaign writing has moved to @safe_by_default: ➤ Digital safety ➤ Neurodivergent rights ➤ Safeguarding failures If you followed me for that work, please head there. Red Apples & @UnlockingBirth will now focus on #research #LivedExperience #PublicHealth #memoir

⭐️⭐️⭐️BOOK GIVEAWAY⭐️⭐️⭐️ To celebrate the return of #Shetland detective series I am giving away 2 signed copies of Ponies at the Edge of the World with 2 wish bottles with Shetland shells or seaglass. To enter just like, retweet and comment on this post

“There are a great many ways of holding on to our sanity amidst the vices and follies of the world, though none better than to walk knowledgeably among our native plants.’ Ronald Blythe, born 6 November 1922 #ronaldblythe #nativeplants

Taking part in a great @GroundswellCon writing retreat today and discussing diverse ouput types @NatalieJessic10 @arc_nwc @LivUni

New this week Part 5: Relationships and Environments – The Neglected Safeguarding Factor. Exclusions of autistic pupils ↑ 60%. Alternative provision is becoming a “shadow SEND system.” Real safeguarding starts with relationships, not surveillance https://t.co/YoODLJvQMj #autism

“I should have told police about my son’s machete delivery.” The Southport Inquiry shows what happens when fear, isolation, and unsafe online systems meet vulnerable families. No parent can face this alone- technology must be safe by default. 🔗

Great first meeting this week bringing together researchers, clinicians & lived experience voices to explore neurodivergence, risk & harm outside the home. Powerful discussion on belonging, safeguarding, data, & trauma-informed approaches. Grateful to all who joined @arc_nwc

In this month’s ARC national newsletter. 👩‍⚕️ Katie Merry’s ARC NWC internship explores ways to reduce cervical screening inequalities among South Asian women. 🗣️ ARC NWC Public Advisor Naheed Tahir shares how co-chairing the Seldom Heard Forum is strengthening community voices.

📣Just launched! Varied Voices, an NIHR learning module on research inclusion, has been launched on @BMJLearning. Learn more about research inclusion: https://t.co/QlyWNTDtFz #PPI

Toe-licking demon, circa 1921. One of many demonic entities found lurking in a Persian manuscript on magic and astrology from Isfahan, Iran. See our highlights here: https://t.co/sJmRa1ECsw

Such a sad story and with better care this shouldnt have happened. I was posting about this ten years ago. Ive seen great care planning for high risk homebirth and compassionate transfer or planned CS in partnership

New this week — Part 4: The Escalator – From Vulnerability to Criminalisation. How Prevents pre-crime logic turns autistic vulnerability into risk. #Autism #Safeguarding #Prevent #Policy https://t.co/3YSzIK7PLF

In my latest Safe by Default piece, I look at what Southport reveals about the risks faced by neurodivergent + vulnerable teens—and why digital safety must be built in, not bolted on. 🔗 https://t.co/3WISfCZIu2 📺 Southport Inquiry

To respect survivors and prevent harm, systems must move from oversight to relationship, from consultation to co-authorship. #DutyOfCandour #HillsboroughLaw #TraumaInformed #Safeguarding #InquiryDesign #SurvivorLeadership #Accountability #PolicyLearning

As I wrote in Holding Complexity: Trauma, Research and the Responsibility of Involvement (ARC NWC): These aren’t just clinical principles they’re governance principles. 🔗

The lesson across all inquiries: inclusion without power becomes re-traumatisation. Candour, equality, and independent advocacy must be built into the structure- not added as aftercare.

5️⃣ Preservation of Evidence & Accountability Hillsborough showed how unreliable truth can be when records are lost or rewritten. Evidence, candour, and honesty are the scaffolding of trust. Without them, “inquiry” becomes performance.

4️⃣ Independent Public Advocate Disaster survivors and families need consistent, expert support not PR spinning. An Independent Public Advocate ensures they’re not left to navigate complex systems alone. Accountability must be made relational and not procedural.

3️⃣ Charter for Families Bereaved through Public Tragedy A commitment for public bodies to act with candour, put truth before reputation, and never defend the indefensible. It’s about moral leadership and the humility to admit failure.

2️⃣ Publicly Funded Legal Representation After Hillsborough, families fought for decades without the same legal footing as public bodies. The proposed Hillsborough Law would guarantee state-funded legal support for bereaved families in inquiries and inquests.

1️⃣ Duty of Candour Public bodies and officials must act with honesty and openness, especially when things go wrong. It’s a legal duty to tell the truth- not manage the narrative. In trauma terms: truth becomes repair.