Council tells NHS to stop writing support letters for disabled children who desperately need rehousing

In this episode, we look at an extraordinary email that a senior health professional just sent to me.

The email says that a Hackney council officer met with health and medical staff, and told them to stop writing supporting letters for families who need to be moved out of terrible housing - that's families with disabled children.

The email was circulated to this senior health professional in their NHS workplace. That person was writing a supporting letter for a family with a disabled child. 

Families want these letters to give to the council, because the letters are evidence that a child's health issues and disabilities are made worse by their awful housing. The letters are evidence that the family should be moved. 

But this email tells NHS staff to stop writing them. 

The email says that families can find a place to rent in the private sector in one month. That is untrue, to say the least.

The email also says that the council has a robust system in place "to identify need and allocate housing."

That's rubbish as well. There are families in this podcast who have letters and reports which say that their disabled children are at risk of DEATH in their current housing - but they still haven't been moved.

In this episode, I share a few theories on why that is - and why a council might want to shut medical staff up on the topic of potential council failures to keep disabled children safe. 

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Episode artwork is by Latoya's son.

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